Critical analysis makes it difficult to accept the idea that the gospel as it now stands was written by one person.... To solve these problems, scholars have proposed various rearrangements that would produce a smoother order. However, most have come to the conclusion that the inconsistencies were probably produced by subsequent editing in which homogeneous materials were added to a shorter original....Whatever the truth about the authorship, John was a man of courage, said to have sought out a robber among mountain fastnesses even when very old in order to redeem the young man. Had he done nothing else, that would have been worthy of honor. He did many other things.
The polemic between synagogue and church produced bitter and harsh invective, especially regarding the hostility toward Jesus of the authorities—Pharisees and Sadducees—who are combined and referred to frequently as “the Jews” (see note on Jn 1:19). These opponents are even described in Jn 8:44 as springing from their father the devil, whose conduct they imitate in opposing God by rejecting Jesus, whom God has sent. On the other hand, the author of this gospel seems to take pains to show that women are not inferior to men in the Christian community: the woman at the well in Samaria (Jn 4) is presented as a prototype of a missionary (Jn 4:4–42), and the first witness of the resurrection is a woman (Jn 20:11–18).
The Feast of St. John the Divine
The Gospel According to John is thought to have been composed late, and incorporates an understanding of Greek philosophy not found in the other Gospels. There are also echoes of later history reflected in the text, or so scholars think.
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The reading for the day from the venerable "Drinking with the Saints" offers the following:
St. John's Wine
1 quart red wine
1/2 cup sugar
3 whole cloves
2 two-inch cinnamon sticks
1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/16 tsp. ground cardamom
Pour everything into a saucepan and boil for 5 minutes. Serve hot.
Also, St. John was one of the "Sons of Thunder," so a good cocktail would be the Thunderclap:
3/4 oz. gin
3/4 oz. rye or bourbon
1 oz brandy
Fill your shaker with ice, stir until very cold, and strain it into a cocktail glass.
Or, have a James & John on the Rocks
1 oz. Jameson Irish whiskey
1 oz. Johnny Walker scotch
Pour it on the rocks, of course.
The Jews were much like universities replacing God with the learned knowledge of professors and Leftists.
It is this constant tug of war between divine inspiration/knowledge/faith, and human knowledge/worldly knowledge.
To know the world is to drift away from the divine. The point of fasting and various other commandments, pre or post Christ, was to purify the human body of external influences so that the connection to the soul, through the brain as a radio and thus to the spiritual conduit to the godhead, remained strong. Instead of sacrificing animals, the promotion and progress of humanity led more and more to mental, emotional, and spiritual cleansing as the sacrifice.
Pharisees and Sadducees had lost sight of the godhead, and preferred worldly knowledge and priest craft talk instead. Paul before he left for Rome, visited Jerusalem against the wishes of his allies. Paul was accused before the Roman judges and officers, of violating a Jewish law, or The Law, specifically bringing non Jews into a temple. Even the Romans didn't understand what the Jews were talking about, and when that trial by accusation didn't work, they tried to kill Paul too.
The Jews considered these things humans added to the laws of Moses, as the Law. Even though more than half of it in the Torah and other works were written by rabbis, not inspired by prophets or through Jehovah. The Jewish civilization back then was also a theocracy, in the purest sense of the religious council being judge, jury, and executioner of secular as well as ecclesiastical law. It was a State religion, you were not only guilty of going against the secular Law but also the religious morality.
The concept of two powers in Heaven was recognized by Jewish religious leaders before the New Testament was written. They removed the Hebrew context afterwards though, to erase it because they could not accept Jesus' claim that he was the man riding in the cloud, with Jahweh, that he was the God of Israel. The Jewish councils could easily accept John the Baptist's claims as a prophet, but Jesus of Nazareth was too much for them.
It's like someone saying Washington and Lincoln was reincarnated as Clinton and Hussein O. To an America, there's a kind of religious and patriotic problem with believing in that stuff, besides the whole issue of whether that's even possible.
The Roman Catholic church became quite an abominable mish mash of Lucifer inspired operations, around the time of the Albigensian Holy War, where the Catholics decided to get rid of other Christians. Only one kind of Christian could exist after that, the one that obeyed the Throne of Peter and believed the Pope was the Vicar of Christ.
That's convenient for Lucifer or any other evil spirit, since they didn't need to control 51% of the European population. Just a few nobles and clerics, or just one, the Pope himself, and they could control the power scales.
Lucifer's stock of direct subordinates, the Firstborn or Watchers, is relatively few. I doubt God is mass manufacturing more angels he can't trust at this time. Lucifer probably needs all these human souls, either to convert them into allies or he is using them as fuel for his own strategic operations. A soul, if such a thing actually exists on another dimension, makes a heaven or hell of its own destiny and actions, without the interference of Jesus or Lucifer. But a soul that is disassembled down to its basic energy component and siphoned into the forges of Lucifer, could become an interesting experience equal to eternal hell fire. Much of this is attributed to God, but then again much of those doctrines came from the Dominicans and the Catholics. They had a desire to spell out eternal damnation in order to intimidate people into obedience. Burning people alive wasn't enough an inducement, since there were many leaders and factions who resisted, such as the Grandmaster of the Knights Templar or Jean De Arc.
"Sons of Thunder" is a good name for a biker gang.
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