Easter, the Reason for the Other Season
Contrary to some modern perceptions, Easter really has nothing to do with bunnies, eggs, jellybeans, chocolate, or politically-correct “spring spheres.”
Coinciding with early spring, Easter can symbolically be associated with rebirth, renewal, and new beginnings but for Christians it is much more than that. It represents the central doctrine of the Christian faith without which little else makes sense. Easter commemorates the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead which Christians believe will also be their spiritual reward for a life lived well.
”On Easter Sunday, Christians celebrate the resurrection of the Lord, Jesus Christ. It is typically the most well-attended Sunday service of the year for Christian churches. Christians believe, according to Scripture, that Jesus came back to life, or was raised from the dead, three days after his death on the cross. As part of the Easter season, the death of Jesus Christ by crucifixion is commemorated on Good Friday, always the Friday just before Easter. Through his death, burial, and resurrection, Jesus paid the penalty for sin, thus purchasing for all who believe in him, eternal life in Christ Jesus.” (Christianity.about.com)
Easter week, from Palm Sunday through Easter Sunday, also represents an enigma to Christians and to non-Christians alike, namely, If Jesus is God, why did He have to die at all and why did he have to die so ignominiously, nailed to a cross?
The short answer is that He had to die because it was the Father’s will for a human being to suffer and die in order to atone for the sins of humanity from Adam onward. Both His death and resurrection also fulfilled scriptural prophecy and furnished meaning for His prophetic words to His disciples.
The long-contentious question of “Who killed Jesus?” is of far less consequence than the truth that He died and rose again. The Jews condemned Him, the Romans crucified Him, and we all shared the fruits of His ultimate sacrifice.
Few people will dwell on Easter’s deeper meanings and philosophical nuances this weekend as they celebrate what has become, like Christmas, more a holiday than a holy day. So, enjoy your finery, your bunnies, eggs, jellybeans, chocolate, or even those PC spring spheres. However, as with Christmas, it would be good to remember that there’s a reason for the season.
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=20960.)
Showing posts with label jesus christ. Show all posts
Showing posts with label jesus christ. Show all posts
Saturday, April 7, 2012
Saturday, January 7, 2012
Suffer Little Children
Suffer Little Children
The oft-misinterpreted phrase from Matthew 19:14 in the King James version of the Bible, “Suffer little children,” has taken on meanings in the world today far beyond excluding kids from hearing Christ’s words.
The precise quotation, “But Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven,” has been adapted to everything from a short story by Stephen King to pop songs with entirely different connotations which are far more bothersome.
Kids are probably suffering more in 2011 than ever before for various reasons.
In addition to abortion statistics and the act of abortion itself which involves the ultimate suffering, death in the womb for babies before they get the opportunity to grow into children, there is other appalling evidence that fewer people really care about kids.
The disturbing values of some Muslim immigrants have compounded the already-distubed prevailing culture of devaluing human life in America and throughout the so-called civilized world. Both have contributed exponentially to childhood suffering.
Two stories out of England, one relating to atrocities in Liverpool, the other to one in Harlem, graphically illustrate the problem.
The Liverpool matter actually involves a combination of atrocious events–vicious and “endemic” gang rapes by Muslim men of young non-Muslim girls and a concerted effort by journalists to cover them up in the interests of discouraging “racists” and “fascists” and promoting “the development of social harmony and well-being.” (http://bit.ly/wU2QRx)
As Brits would say, What poppycock!
On January 3rd, eleven Muslim men–Abdul Aziz, Abdul Qayyum, Abdul Rauf, Adil Khan, Hamid Safi, Kabeer Hasan, Liaqat Hussain Shah, Mohammad Amin, Mohammad Sajid, Qamar Shahzad, and Shabir Ahmed–went on trial in Liverpool for the organized gang rapes.
According to an authoritative source and in accordance with the guidelines of Britain’s National Union of Journalists, NUJ, “You’ll not find a single reference to their crimes or their upcoming trial anywhere in the British media. Anywhere.”
The Koran condones Muslim men engaging in sexual intercourse with chattel, that is, with captive women and slave girls. With all the rights and privileges that have been accorded Muslims throughout Europe, they apparently feel nubile infidels are fair game, tantamount to captive slaves.
Almost worse, the British media obviously concurs since they won’t report to the public on the trial of the rapists. They apparently feel publicity would exacerbate native Britons’ justified fury over Muslim interlopers destroying their country, and their children.
Maybe when the daughter of a NUJ member is gangraped, NUJ rules will change. And maybe not.
Meanwhile, as young Liverpudlian girls and their European sisters in pain suffer at the hands of Muslims so, too, do Harlem youngsters suffer–with the qualification that the latter don’t seem to mind their suffering. . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=12037.)
The oft-misinterpreted phrase from Matthew 19:14 in the King James version of the Bible, “Suffer little children,” has taken on meanings in the world today far beyond excluding kids from hearing Christ’s words.
The precise quotation, “But Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven,” has been adapted to everything from a short story by Stephen King to pop songs with entirely different connotations which are far more bothersome.
Kids are probably suffering more in 2011 than ever before for various reasons.
In addition to abortion statistics and the act of abortion itself which involves the ultimate suffering, death in the womb for babies before they get the opportunity to grow into children, there is other appalling evidence that fewer people really care about kids.
The disturbing values of some Muslim immigrants have compounded the already-distubed prevailing culture of devaluing human life in America and throughout the so-called civilized world. Both have contributed exponentially to childhood suffering.
Two stories out of England, one relating to atrocities in Liverpool, the other to one in Harlem, graphically illustrate the problem.
The Liverpool matter actually involves a combination of atrocious events–vicious and “endemic” gang rapes by Muslim men of young non-Muslim girls and a concerted effort by journalists to cover them up in the interests of discouraging “racists” and “fascists” and promoting “the development of social harmony and well-being.” (http://bit.ly/wU2QRx)
As Brits would say, What poppycock!
On January 3rd, eleven Muslim men–Abdul Aziz, Abdul Qayyum, Abdul Rauf, Adil Khan, Hamid Safi, Kabeer Hasan, Liaqat Hussain Shah, Mohammad Amin, Mohammad Sajid, Qamar Shahzad, and Shabir Ahmed–went on trial in Liverpool for the organized gang rapes.
According to an authoritative source and in accordance with the guidelines of Britain’s National Union of Journalists, NUJ, “You’ll not find a single reference to their crimes or their upcoming trial anywhere in the British media. Anywhere.”
The Koran condones Muslim men engaging in sexual intercourse with chattel, that is, with captive women and slave girls. With all the rights and privileges that have been accorded Muslims throughout Europe, they apparently feel nubile infidels are fair game, tantamount to captive slaves.
Almost worse, the British media obviously concurs since they won’t report to the public on the trial of the rapists. They apparently feel publicity would exacerbate native Britons’ justified fury over Muslim interlopers destroying their country, and their children.
Maybe when the daughter of a NUJ member is gangraped, NUJ rules will change. And maybe not.
Meanwhile, as young Liverpudlian girls and their European sisters in pain suffer at the hands of Muslims so, too, do Harlem youngsters suffer–with the qualification that the latter don’t seem to mind their suffering. . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=12037.)
Saturday, April 23, 2011
Easter: The Reason for the Season
Easter: The Reason for the Season
. . . Few people will dwell on Easter’s deeper meanings and philosophical nuances this weekend as they celebrate what has become, like Christmas, more a holiday than a holy day. So, enjoy your finery, your bunnies, eggs, jellybeans, chocolate, or even those PC spring spheres. However, as with Christmas, it would be good to remember that there’s a reason for the season.
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=4217)
. . . Few people will dwell on Easter’s deeper meanings and philosophical nuances this weekend as they celebrate what has become, like Christmas, more a holiday than a holy day. So, enjoy your finery, your bunnies, eggs, jellybeans, chocolate, or even those PC spring spheres. However, as with Christmas, it would be good to remember that there’s a reason for the season.
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=4217)
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Christmas Twelve: The Gospel of St. John
Christmas Twelve: The Gospel of St. John
“The Greatest Book Ever Written,” by Larrey Anderson
As we ponder, each in our own way, this most special of holidays, I have a suggestion: read (or reread) the greatest book ever written — the Gospel of John.Christianity has given the world many things. Its detractors say Christianity has provided the world holy wars and religious persecution. Its adherents proclaim that it has brought salvation to mankind. As a philosopher I find some truth, and much exaggeration, in each of those positions. Christianity has a checkered past and a challenging future. It also has the most important manuscript ever penned by a human being.
Scholars still dispute the date when the Gospel of John was written and they argue about who wrote it. I have always found these debates not only tedious — but also pointless. If ever a book transcended time and authorship, it is the Gospel of John. Perfection mocks lowly time. Inspiration requires no byline.
As prose the Gospel of John has no peers. (The Dialogues of Plato and some of the works of Shakespeare are as close as any get.) The Gospel is an unsurpassed literary masterpiece. It is history, philosophy, poetry, and religion seamlessly woven. The composition is so close to flawless that the words translate easily into almost any language.
Appropriately enough the greatest book ever written begins with a reflection on writing. The language soars in the original Greek:
Ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος, καὶ ὁ λόγος ἦν πρὸς τὸν θεόν, καὶ θεὸς ἦν ὁ λόγος.
It pounds like the jackhammer of truth in Latin:
In principio erat Verbum et Verbum erat apud Deum et Deus erat Verbum.
And it mesmerizes in English (especially the KJV):
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=3163)
“The Greatest Book Ever Written,” by Larrey Anderson
As we ponder, each in our own way, this most special of holidays, I have a suggestion: read (or reread) the greatest book ever written — the Gospel of John.Christianity has given the world many things. Its detractors say Christianity has provided the world holy wars and religious persecution. Its adherents proclaim that it has brought salvation to mankind. As a philosopher I find some truth, and much exaggeration, in each of those positions. Christianity has a checkered past and a challenging future. It also has the most important manuscript ever penned by a human being.
Scholars still dispute the date when the Gospel of John was written and they argue about who wrote it. I have always found these debates not only tedious — but also pointless. If ever a book transcended time and authorship, it is the Gospel of John. Perfection mocks lowly time. Inspiration requires no byline.
As prose the Gospel of John has no peers. (The Dialogues of Plato and some of the works of Shakespeare are as close as any get.) The Gospel is an unsurpassed literary masterpiece. It is history, philosophy, poetry, and religion seamlessly woven. The composition is so close to flawless that the words translate easily into almost any language.
Appropriately enough the greatest book ever written begins with a reflection on writing. The language soars in the original Greek:
Ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος, καὶ ὁ λόγος ἦν πρὸς τὸν θεόν, καὶ θεὸς ἦν ὁ λόγος.
It pounds like the jackhammer of truth in Latin:
In principio erat Verbum et Verbum erat apud Deum et Deus erat Verbum.
And it mesmerizes in English (especially the KJV):
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=3163)
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Gimme That Ol' Time Religion at the White House
Gimme That Ol' Time Religion at the White House
Ya think President Barack Hussein Obama smells an election coming and knows his Dems just may suffer a historic defeat on November 2? I do.
I concluded an earlier article on Barack Obama’s new-found religiosity–and it’s NOT the Islamic religion, I’ll have you know!–with the following: ”The mainstream, the center, is the source of all good things for politicians and in that center are 225,000,000 American Christians. Obama is tracking in that direction and thinks he can go ‘a hundred miles an hour’ as long as he has his plastic Jesus on board.”
That was a reference to Obama’s semi-retreat on his earlier pronouncement to the Muslim world that America was not a Christian nation, his statement last month that the U.S. is “still predominantly Christian,” his packing up the family to attend services at St. John’s Episcopal on September 14th, and telling a New Mexico audience (71% Christian) how deeply influenced he was ”by the precepts of Jesus Christ.”
See “Barack and His Amazing Technicolor Conversion,” http://tiny.cc/auv0q
Someone should remind the president that Christ didn’t much care for lying hypocrites. . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=2193)
Ya think President Barack Hussein Obama smells an election coming and knows his Dems just may suffer a historic defeat on November 2? I do.
I concluded an earlier article on Barack Obama’s new-found religiosity–and it’s NOT the Islamic religion, I’ll have you know!–with the following: ”The mainstream, the center, is the source of all good things for politicians and in that center are 225,000,000 American Christians. Obama is tracking in that direction and thinks he can go ‘a hundred miles an hour’ as long as he has his plastic Jesus on board.”
That was a reference to Obama’s semi-retreat on his earlier pronouncement to the Muslim world that America was not a Christian nation, his statement last month that the U.S. is “still predominantly Christian,” his packing up the family to attend services at St. John’s Episcopal on September 14th, and telling a New Mexico audience (71% Christian) how deeply influenced he was ”by the precepts of Jesus Christ.”
See “Barack and His Amazing Technicolor Conversion,” http://tiny.cc/auv0q
Someone should remind the president that Christ didn’t much care for lying hypocrites. . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=2193)
Friday, May 7, 2010
What's Wrong with These Pictures?
What's Wrong with These Pictures?
Racial segregation committed against white children: The black principal of Dicken Elementary School in Ann Arbor, Michigan had a wonderful idea for his school’s AA Lunch Bunch, a segregated, all-black group of students: He took them on a field trip to meet an African-American rocket scientist.
Upon returning to Dicken, Principal Mike Madison heard boos coming from the fifth graders who had been left behind. According to those students and their parents, Madison tore into the boo-ers, lecturing them on race issues and belittling a Muslim girl who complained about discrimination.
A district spokesman characterized the interplay with the other students as a “discussion” but admitted that Madison was “passionate about it.” In a letter to the community, the passionate principal admitted that “In hindsight, this field trip could have been approached and arranged in a better way:” http://tiny.cc/i2hbb . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=1668)
Racial segregation committed against white children: The black principal of Dicken Elementary School in Ann Arbor, Michigan had a wonderful idea for his school’s AA Lunch Bunch, a segregated, all-black group of students: He took them on a field trip to meet an African-American rocket scientist.
Upon returning to Dicken, Principal Mike Madison heard boos coming from the fifth graders who had been left behind. According to those students and their parents, Madison tore into the boo-ers, lecturing them on race issues and belittling a Muslim girl who complained about discrimination.
A district spokesman characterized the interplay with the other students as a “discussion” but admitted that Madison was “passionate about it.” In a letter to the community, the passionate principal admitted that “In hindsight, this field trip could have been approached and arranged in a better way:” http://tiny.cc/i2hbb . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=1668)
Saturday, May 1, 2010
Religious Teapot Tempest
Religious Teapot Tempest
Oh, great someone or something way up there high in the sky we ask your blessings. Amen.
That wasn’t precisely the prayer dictated by the Commonwealth of Virginia in 2008. In fact, no prayer was dictated but the tradition of permitting Virginia State Police chaplains to invoke the name of Jesus Christ was ended in favor of a non-denominational “prayer,” if it could be called a prayer, to be offered at all official police functions.
Favored by then-governor Tim Kaine (D), the new rule effectively ended a policy in place since the founding of the volunteer police chaplains organization in 1979. The old rule was just re-instituted by Republican Governor Bob McDonnell.
The new governor said through a spokesman that, “The Governor does not believe the state should tell chaplains of any faith how to pray,” adding, “The Governor believes that longstanding bipartisan policy is the appropriate one. This policy puts the State Police chaplains in the same position as those in the United States Military, Virginia National Guard and other law enforcement agencies:” http://bit.ly/aS4Rsc
Case closed? Hardly. . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=1654)
Oh, great someone or something way up there high in the sky we ask your blessings. Amen.
That wasn’t precisely the prayer dictated by the Commonwealth of Virginia in 2008. In fact, no prayer was dictated but the tradition of permitting Virginia State Police chaplains to invoke the name of Jesus Christ was ended in favor of a non-denominational “prayer,” if it could be called a prayer, to be offered at all official police functions.
Favored by then-governor Tim Kaine (D), the new rule effectively ended a policy in place since the founding of the volunteer police chaplains organization in 1979. The old rule was just re-instituted by Republican Governor Bob McDonnell.
The new governor said through a spokesman that, “The Governor does not believe the state should tell chaplains of any faith how to pray,” adding, “The Governor believes that longstanding bipartisan policy is the appropriate one. This policy puts the State Police chaplains in the same position as those in the United States Military, Virginia National Guard and other law enforcement agencies:” http://bit.ly/aS4Rsc
Case closed? Hardly. . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=1654)
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