Maybe it's the cold medicines but...

Does it seem to anyone else that everyone is 

Working harder than they want to

At jobs they hate

To pay for stuff they don't need

In houses most of which they don't use

In hopes they will live long enough to do what they want?

How To Explain What You Do, When You're A Pastor

Suetonius' biography of Augustus.

From reader David:

"Below, I've given you selected excerpts from Suetonius' biography of Augustus. A Christian audience will note the many, MANY parallels to Matthew 2. So here's my question for you: what do you think these parallels mean?

I considered the possibility that Suetonius cribbed from Matthew, but rejected it in part because Suetonius famously refers to Jesus as "Chrestus." This implies that he's heard of Jesus' name but hasn't seen the name written down.

So instead I think this reveals that Matthew and Suetonius are part of the same Mediterranean culture -- really we might say the same Greco-Roman culture -- and so each biographer, when he wanted to establish that his subject was a Very Big Deal, reached into the standard bag o' tricks that was common to their culture, and pulled out similar stories.

Is that your take on it too, or what would you say? (My, Betty's, notes below. #1)

Quotes follow, with my notes in brackets.

“Having reached this point, it will not be out of place to add an account of the omens which occurred before he was born, on the very day of his birth, and afterwards, from which it was possible to anticipate and perceive his future greatness and uninterrupted good fortune...

According to Julius Marathus, a few months before Augustus was born a portent was generally observed at Rome, which gave warning that nature was pregnant with a king for the Roman people; thereupon the senate in consternation decreed that no male child born that year should be reared; but those whose wives were with child saw to it that the decree was not filed in the treasury, since each one appropriated the prediction to his own family. [Emphasis mine. Also: Massacre of the Innocents averted! But notice how similar this story is.]

The day he was born the conspiracy of Catiline was before the House, and Octavius [Augustus' father] came late because of his wife's confinement; then Publius Nigidius, as everyone knows, learning the reason for his tardiness and being informed also of the hour of the birth, declared that the ruler of the world had been born. [Emphasis added, but wow!]


Later, when Octavius was leading an army through remote parts of Thrace, and in the grove of Father Liber consulted the priests about his son with barbarian rites, they made the same prediction... [and] the very next night he dreamt that his son appeared to him in a guise more majestic than that of mortal man, with the thunderbolt, scepter, and insignia of Jupiter Optimus Maximus, wearing a crown begirt with rays and mounted upon a laurel-wreathed chariot drawn by twelve horses of surpassing whiteness. [If the idea of Augustus as a god-who-is-also-a-man sounds suspiciously Christian, remember that Augustus was deified after he died. Quite a few emperors received that honor posthumously, which led to some grade-A gallows humor: Vespasian, on his deathbed, is reported to have said, “Dammit. I think I'm becoming a god.”] #2



As soon as he began to talk, it chanced that the frogs were making a great noise at his grandfather's country place; he bade them be silent, and they say that since then no frog has ever croaked there. [Augustus can command nature!]



While in retirement at Apollonia, Augustus mounted with Agrippa to the studio of the astrologer Theogenes. Agrippa was the first to try his fortune, and when a great and almost incredible career was predicted for him, Augustus persisted in concealing the time of his birth and in refusing to disclose it, through diffidence and fear that he might be found to be less eminent. When he at last gave it unwillingly and hesitatingly, and only after many requests, Theogenes sprang up and threw himself at his feet.”"

As, always, thank you for writing David. 

Until the Age of Unenlightenment it was accepted that Matthew was written by the disciple of Christ about AD 50. One fact I learned recently was that Roman tax collectors (Matthew's job before becoming a disciple) were required to learn a type of shorthand so they could take word-for-word transcripts of long tax meetings.  This would mean that the sermons and events in Matthew may very well be written from his own notes taken at the time they happened. 

Anyway, to your questions:

#1 Suetonius wrote his biographies a good 70 years after Matthew wrote his Book (AD 121), about 90 years after Jesus walked the earth. Even if Suetonius never read the word "Christ," he obviously had heard of Him. By this time in history the Christians have already suffered Nero's persecution (due at least in part to growing so fast the Emporer felt threatened), so Christ's story was likely enough a part of the culture (transmitted orally) to be the source Suetonius unconsciously drew from. Like a game of Telephone, the details (including the names of the major players) had simply become skewed over time. 

So, yes Suetonius drew from his culture to create his story, but that culture had already been shaped by Matthew's and Luke's rendition of the Christmas Story.

#2 Actually, it was quite normal for kings throughout history to claim deity for themselves or their ancestors. It made the people easier to rule. So the deification of Augustus was only unusual, in historical context, by it happening after his death. Christ's own claim is in the same vein, of course, except He was not the ruler of any physical kingdom. It is unusual for a commoner to claim deity. Jesus backed up His claim with a multitude of miracles recorded by eyewitnesses (i.e. Matthew who had the skills necessary to make transcripts of the events as they happened) and prophecies that came true to the letter (Matthew 24).

  

BUILD ON THE FOUNDATION, part three

Biblical Literalism

From a reader: "What rules do you use to interpret the Bible? I have an idea in my HEAD of how Biblical literalists approach the text, but why rely on that when I can just ask an actual literalist? :) (Semi-related: is "Biblical literalist" a good label for you? What term, if any, would you prefer?) "

Biblical lieralist is probably good:-) Anyway, I can't think of a better one.

I believe the Bible is absolutely correct in its original texts, taking into account correct understanding of context, colloquialisms, metaphors, history, etc.

For example, there are places in the Bible the speak of the sunrise. We still use this term, though we know that the sun doesn't actually orbit the earth. It just appears to rise every morning due to the rotation of the planet. So accepting the term "sunrise" in the Bible as simply a phrase meaning the same thing we mean when we use it is logical. It doesn't mean I believe the sun circles the earth since the Bible uses "sunrise" as some have accused literalists of believing.

Another example: Song of Solomon 4:16 reads "Awake, north wind! Rise up, south wind! Blow on my garden and spread its fragrance all around. Come into your garden, my love; taste its finest fruits." This is actually a metaphor. It was common in poetry of the time and region to use the word "garden" to represent "genitalia." So to properly understand this verse we need to understand the history, context and poetry of the time (and there is a good reason Jews wouldn't let anyone under 12 read this book!).

Parables taught by Jesus may or may not have been actual biographical stories. It doesn't really matter as the point of those was not to give a history but to teach a lesson. 

Each scripture must be taken in context with the whole Bible, the particular book it is contained in, and history. There are scriptures in Job for example that say that anyone who serves God will be blessed financially and in their health. So if you are broke and sick you have obviously sinned. However, if you look at the context you find the whole book is a discussion on the nature of God and affects of serving Him. Compared with the rest of the Bible we find that these are ideas presented by people without understanding and are soundly refuted by both Job and the rest of the Bible.

And the Word has been handled by fallible humans and so occasional mistakes just happen. In 1631, for example, the typesetters left out the word "not" from Exodus 20:14 so that it read "Thou shalt commit adultery." This edition of the Bible is known as "The Wicked Bible." Most of them were collected an burned :-D

There were a few instances where the interpreters notes were accidentally printed as scripture or where the interpreter changed the text to make it more understandable (to them anyway.). You can find these by comparing KJV with NIV. The NIV and most newer translations left out the comments and just kept the Word, (making some weird numbering problems).

Some interpreters when faced with a choice of definitions chose the wrong one (such as the more modern translations choosing to interpret the Hebrew word tannin as Jackal because its true meaning- dragon- can't be right because dragons were fictional. However, older translations such as KJV have no problem using the word dragon since they had not gone extinct and passed into mythology yet. See dinosaurs and Dragons and What You Haven't been Told About Dinosaurs) 

And some of the newer translator's personal opinions and biases really caused them to just get it wrong (for example, though I LOVE reading Proverbs in the Message Bible, the author's belief in futurist prophecy interpretation caused him to make some serious mistakes in the minor prophets. He is just flat wrong.)

For these reasons, I believe in comparing different translations to get an overall idea of what the original text meant. I also look up words in the Strong's Concordance to get the original meanings (tannin means dragon, serpent, or sea monster in Hebrew, not Jackal).

I have read the comments of several people who learned biblical Greek and Hebrew so they could better understand the Word. Universally the ones I am familiar with say that the KJV or English Standard are the closest to the original languages, but the overall message is not corrupted in even the newest ones ("Everyone has rebelled against God and deserves to go to Hell. God loved every human being so much He sent His Son to die to pay the price for our sins. If we accept this gift by making God our Boss and quit living in rebellion we will go to Heaven"). 

I grew up with KJV and am most familiar with it, but do recognize that the language is a bit outdated. It is easier sometimes to get the right meaning by reading several different translations, especially the newer ones. If they disagree I go to Strong's and figure out the best I can what the original really meant.

So, I approach the Word as absolute truth, seeking to understand what the original meant and how it applies to my world and my understanding of the universe.  It is the foundation for all my other studies in every subject.

Slavery in the Bible: Does God Approve of It?

Slavery in the Bible: Does God Approve of It?

Holiday and such business

first and most importantly...

Congratulations to my Dad and his new wife Linda!

I wish you a long and happy life together:-)

Nice, quiet Christmas, Hubby took the next week off work and kept us busy ("The Force Awakens" with 11 people :-) Even my 4yo loved it.)

We had the memorial service for our founding member that passed away just before Thanksgiving. On the way there, we received a phone call telling us one of my husband's nephews had been killed in a climbing accident. 

Then the prep to send dad off to get married (she lived out of state). An emergency came up and he needed to leave early to help her back east. 

Leading Bible study while Dad's gone, since Hubby works such long hours. That was fun:-) 

Spent some time with my nephew who help move stuff here from Aunt....uhhh.... Ma....uhhh....sigh....Linda's house. (My dad's new wife is my mom's brother's widow.)

And then yesterday an episode that I'm still not sure about. Bad palpitations. Even called an ambulance and spent some time in the ER. They sent me home with instructions to call a specialist Monday. We'll see what happens there :-(

And we start school back after Christmas break tomorrow.

So busy stuff going on around here :-)

Be Ye Perfect

A New Begging- Laying on Of Hands-A

The first part of today's sermon

The New American Dream | The Minimalists

The New American Dream | The Minimalists



This is the first time in 2 weeks I've had to time to read the blogs I'm following, so I'm doing some catching up.

Simply Living...For Him: Life is Complicated. Thankfully, Jesus is Not

Simply Living...For Him: Life is Complicated. Thankfully, Jesus is Not

Simply Living...For Him: One Year Ago This Week...The Beginning of a Dream

Simply Living...For Him: One Year Ago This Week...The Beginning of a Dream

My Month of October

This month (so far) has contained:

• A bad cold going through nearly the whole family. Sore throats. Headaches. Fevers. Etc.
• Dental surgery for my four year old. His teeth were so bad they simply couldn't wait until he was older, but at his age he couldn't sit still. So they put him under. He handled it fine and was up playing by that evening, but I was wiped out :-P
• A tummy flu very slowing hitting one person at a time. I prefer everyone getting sick at once. 
• My dad deciding he needed my mom's desk cleaned out so he could use it. 
• My dad deciding to move Mom's toolbox to his garage. This meant working in her craft room, which I have been avoiding. 
• My dad coming home from his vacation with the decision he wanted the kids to resume spending the night once a week. (This means my total weekly schedule changed again just as we got in the rhythm of the old/new one). 
• My dad preformed his first wedding since Mom's death. Guess who the church's wedding coordinator used to be? Guess who her assistant was? Guess who gets the whole job now? Guess who has done the whole job before EXCEPT filling out the official paperwork? Guess who didn't know how to do it? Guess who is waiting for Dad to file the paperwork so she can find out what all she did wrong? (It was a very beautiful little wedding by the way. It was almost rained out, but the the rain quit just in time and the sun came out just as Dad pronounced them "man and wife." The best man cried at the timing :-) And the people were very nice, no fighting or anything that is normal with weddings.)
• My birthday:-) Took the day off, except for taking care of Hubby who had the tummy bug.

So I've been pretty quiet here in blog land.

Anyway, Christmas is coming up. So is a family reunion. (Any ideas on how to make some Christmas money quickly but while still teaching school and keeping house full time?)

And the first holidays without my Mom.

Sigh. I see a couple of long months ahead of me.

All the pro-life facts about hormonal contraception (that you probably don’t want to hear) - Part I | Blogs | LifeSite

All the pro-life facts about hormonal contraception (that you probably don’t want to hear) - Part I | Blogs | LifeSite:



"I’m just going to go ahead and let you know that this article is going to probably anger a lot of people. But I am a truth teller, and sometimes truth hurts. And as pro-lifers, this is information that we simply can’t ignore…no matter how much it affects our current lifestyle...



...

Well, then here’s the kicker. If you believe that life begins at
conception, then you MUST unequivocally oppose hormonal contraception.
Here’s why. Hormonal contraception does not always prevent ovulation. In
fact, many studies done by the birth control manufacturers themselves
state that only about half of women using their methods actually cease
ovulating.





Hmm. So how do these methods work if you are still ovulating at least
half the time? Simple. These methods have a backup plan. Hormonal
methods also work to thin the lining of the endometrium (uterine wall)
so that a newly conceived human being (life begins at conception,
right?) cannot implant on the uterine wall. Because the baby has nowhere
to implant, they are spontaneously aborted."





I was not told this in my high school health class, nor the "life skills" class I took. I was not told this by any of the doctors that prescribed birth control to me 30 years ago. Nor was I told by ANY of these sources the true numbers of side affects (i.e. cancer risk increases by 30%)



This is the REAL war against all things "woman."



(part 2) Ladies: we deserve better than hormonal birth control

"This is what women have done to our bodies. By “fixing” something that
isn’t broken, we have created even more problems for ourselves. We take
birth control to “fix” our fully functioning fertility, and by doing
that have seen a dramatic increase in breast and reproductive cancers.
That doesn’t even make sense when you think about it...



...She also talks about the well-known fact that the World Health
Organization classified hormonal birth control as a Class One
Carcinogen. What else is a Class One Carcinogen? Here are a few:
arsenic, asbestos, ionizing radiation, formaldehyde, and tobacco. So,
all of these things are admittedly as dangerous as hormonal birth
control, yet birth control is widely accepted. Look at all of the “quit
smoking” campaigns that are out there. Yet, birth control is just
as dangerous as tobacco and the only thing you see about birth control
on television are the ads encouraging women to take it. Why the
discrepancy?"



(part 3) How my life changed forever after I got the Depo Provera birth control injection 



And a different article:



"But according to RPHR, none of these catastrophic risk factors has
deterred groups like the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the United
States Agency for International Development (USAID), Columbia
University and others from aggressively pushing this horrific jab on
unsuspecting women both domestically and abroad. The group's report
draws attention to the fact that these organizations have committed
medical violence against women, particularly in third-world countries,
by administering the shot time and time again without informed consent."

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/042526_black_women_eugenics_carcinogenic_contraceptive.html#ixzz3lpePfGLG

This stinks to high Heaven of racism! "Women in third world countries (all 3rd world countries have dark skin) do not deserve full information, can't understand it, can't make the best decisions for themselves, ...." What excuse could their be for not giving full information other than that you think you know better than they do. How condescending! How hypocritical! 

"The story of Rebecca Project for Human Right's struggle to unmask Depo
Provera as a deadly contraceptive for women is important, because it
demonstrates the deeply rooted cultural hegemony of population control
and corporate profits put before humanity at any cost," explains the
report, entitled Depo-Provera: Deadly Reproductive Violence Against Women.
It goes on to highlight numerous Depo-Provera experiments that have
taken place against women in the U.S., Ghana and elsewhere.

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/042526_black_women_eugenics_carcinogenic_contraceptive.html#ixzz3lpfphfgb "

http://ppgi.blogspot.com/2013/10/gates-foundation-and-planned-parenthood.html 

"Dr. Short said further: 

In the USA, 84% of the Depo Provera is used by Black women. Wherever
there are high rates of HIV/AIDS in Africa, the use of Depo Provera is
universal. As recently as 2010, human experimentation on African women
was done illegally with Depo Provera in Ghana. The USAID sends more Depo
Provera to Africa than any other drug, and the Bill and Melinda Gates
foundation recently raised $2.6 billion dollars to buy Depo Provera to
be able to "give" it to 100 million African women. "

 Oh, I know! When "The War on Poverty" was introduced, we all thought they meant "bring everyone up to a descent standard of living" when what they really meant was "Kill all the poor."



Do you know what women in third world countries really want (according to midwives from the US that go there to work as well as native midwives)?

• Clean water
• Reliable, nutritious food
• Antibiotics
• Flush toilets

They DON'T want, for the most part, birth control. They certainly DON'T want cancer and the other health problems associated with all hormonal methods of "birth control."

Smoking is bad for your Health.

You know, I'm tired of being California's smoking section.

All those fires you all have, the wind from the ocean blows that smoke here. So every year our valley turns into Southern California Air Quality. Goodness, we left there for a reason! At the moment, we can't even see across our valley and it's a small one.

I also have an e-friend who has friends who have had to evacuate because of this fire. They are staying with the e-friend, but weren't able to get all their animals out. Please keep them in your prayers.

So, plans for this first official day of vacation, the day we were going to leave for our annual week long camping trip: Hubby and the older boys (20, 17, 16 and all 5'10" or taller) are going over to my dad's to work on Brownie (our brown, 12 passenger that broke down a couple of weeks ago.) The girls (and 3yo boy) and I will stay home and try not to breath in too much smoke. We can't go with the guys and work on Dad's house because his 8 passenger mini van we were borrowing broke down on the way to church yesterday. It won't go faster than 40 mph. This is a problem since we have to go on a highway where the speed limit is 60 in order to just get out of our neighborhood.

So,

• 2 years ago the tranny blew in Whitey, our 15 passenger, and we simply haven't had the money to fix it since. 
• 2 weeks ago the tranny blew in Brownie, our 12 passenger, and the guys will work on it today.
• Yesterday the tranny blew in Mini, Dad's 8 passenger. Don't have a clue what will happen to it. 
• The tranny in Bluey, our old 12 passenger we parked when we were given Whitey, was beginning to show signs of problems.

What is it with us and trannies?!

Oh, and Hubby's radiator went out last week and had to be replaced.

And our water storage tank in the house began to leak in three places and had to be replaced (Yeah Hubby! He did the whole thing himself:-)

Been a long couple of weeks and we won't be going anywhere for vacation, but maybe we'll get our Brownie back. I do feel sorry for the guys. This isn't how they wanted to spend their time off.

But, to get all religious on you all now, God does have a plan. He knows what we need. I see some things going on....

Maybe the biggest need right now is for my boys to have this time with the two men in their lives. Maybe that's more important than family time.

Maybe there are things going on I can't quite see.

God knows what we really need and I trust Him to provide.

Even to provide broken cars when we need them.

I'm not upset. A bit amused, maybe, even.

It's all good.

To Laugh or To Cry

I will pick laughing, of course.

As I posted last time, we have had two cars break down in the last week-ish. One is fixed, the other waiting until the guys have the time to go over to work on it.

Hubby had sceduled his big annual vacation for next week.

Guess what.

We are supposed to meet my dad for lunch today, but I'm not sure how we'll work that out since his mini van we are borrowing only holds 8 and there are 10 of us (since Hubby's at work). Dad really needs this and I really enjoy it, so we'll do something. Just not sure yet what.

Anyway, this morning when I went to get supper out of the freezer I heard a loud hissing noise, and the floor in the storeroom (which we call "the well house" since our water tanks- one to store water from our well, the other a hot water heater- are in there) is covered in water. I checked the freezer and it is functioning fine. The water is nowhere near the hot water heater. No one has been using water on the outside wall (which has never leaked to the inside anyway).

So by process of elimination, our water tank is bad and needs replacing. That's the only other place the water could be coming from. I will look into it after breakfast.

So, I either sit down and cry out of frustration...

or I laugh at Satan's attempt to get us down.

Well, I choose to be amused.

Not quite sure how we are going to pay for the new tank, nor how we will deal with the water until we can replace it (the sinks all seem to still have normal water pressure. That's good. But all that water on that plywood floor isn't good.)

But God always supplies. He will work something out.

Labor Day Weekend

 We began this weekend by planning a trip to a local swim center (not enough water in the river to swim anymore:-(

Hubby took off alone in his sedan to do some chores, and the kids an I left in our 12 passenger to do some other chores ($5 a basket day at the local thrift store! for one:-)

We got about 1 1/2 miles from our house when it felt like the entire back end fell off. I man-handled the van to the side of the highway, turned the engine off, and chuckled a bit. You see, we have known for a while our tranny was going out. So I assumed that is what happened...

...In the best place short of our or my Dad's driveway (close enough the kids could walk home, big shoulder to pull off on)

And it couldn't have been a better day:

• mid 70's
• no rain
• light breeze

It just couldn't have been more beautiful!

So I sent the kids walking home, texted Hubby, and called AAA. Have talked about AAA? We've been their customer for more than 2 decades and couldn't be happier. They always do their best to take care of us.

Had the van towed to Dad's house and borrowed his Mini van. He was out of town at a conference, but called me after I texted him.

He and my boys will be working on fixing the thing soon.

And what was wrong? Well, I'm pretty sure the back end of the drive-line isn't supposed to be laying on the ground. This means the U pin broke. Unfortunately, what broke it was probably the Tranny freezing up. So new tranny it is.

This, of course, limited our activities for the weekend. The biggest fun of going anywhere together is the drive...TOGETHER. Mini only holds 8 people. There are 11 of us. Sigh. So it takes two vehicles now to go anywhere, spoiling a lot of the fun.

I don't supposed I mentioned that this is the second vehical in a week to break. Hubby's commuter has had a bad radiator for some time. Teh day he had to stop 3 times to put a gallon of water in it he decided to take it to the mechanic. Thankfully that is now taken care of and working fine.

And with all this breaking down, there is a good thing. After some research I have begun to take Magnesium supplements. I have been sleeping in every morning since! I am feeling more rested, so Maybe that is what I have been looking for:-)


Oh, and I'm typing this while on hold due to my daughter receiving the Blue Screen of Death on her 6 month old computer last week :-(