A statement signed by 500 house church leaders in November says authorities have removed crosses from buildings, forced churches to hang the Chinese flag and sing patriotic songs, and barred minors from attending.
One of the goals of a government work plan for “promoting Chinese Christianity” between 2018 and 2022 is “thought reform”. The plan calls for “retranslating and annotating” the Bible, to find commonalities with socialism and establish a “correct understanding” of the text.
But something like this COULDN'T POSSIBLY HAVE OCCURRED IN ANTIQUITY WHEN THE FOURFOLD GOSPEL WAS CANONIZED. No of course not. Because things like this never happen.
“Finally, from so little sleeping and so much reading, his brain dried up and he went completely out of his mind.”
― Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote
Secret Alias wrote: ↑Mon Jan 28, 2019 6:40 amBut something like this COULDN'T POSSIBLY HAVE OCCURRED IN ANTIQUITY WHEN THE FOURFOLD GOSPEL WAS CANONIZED. No of course not. Because things like this never happen.
Is that really a modern mainstream argument in biblical studies?
It is really important, in life, to concentrate our minds on our enthusiasms, not on our dislikes. -- Roger Pearse
AFAIK most scholars don’t assign a relatively large role to the interpolation of New Testament texts (and less to deletion/‘non-interpolation’), especially when there is no manuscript that provides evidence of it, implicitly validating something like the OP’s complaint. However, this does not usually take place as an argument on the ontological or cause-and-effect dimension, where people argue that it didn’t happen. Usually it takes the form of an epistemological meta-argument that, if you are open to such possibilities, you should be cut off from being considered serious scholarship, since you’re supposedly led to an extreme skepticism and that’s unacceptable.
Darrell Doughty and Robert Price have written on this theme, when it comes to the Pauline epistles.
And let's face it - it is believers who find the idea 'ridiculous.' But what do they put in its place? The 'reasonable' idea that the Holy Spirit protected the Church and preserved the original documents unaltered even though the texts where hidden from view effectively for a century and a half. The idea that the Roman Empire just early Christianity decide for itself what doctrines to preach is utterly ridiculous. I am still old enough to remember when George W Bush argued on behalf of only a certain interpretation of Islam - one that embraced the West - as 'legitimate' Islam. No one even batted an eye.
“Finally, from so little sleeping and so much reading, his brain dried up and he went completely out of his mind.”
― Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote
Peter Kirby wrote: ↑Mon Jan 28, 2019 7:58 pm
AFAIK most scholars don’t assign a relatively large role to the interpolation of New Testament texts (and less to deletion/‘non-interpolation’), especially when there is no manuscript that provides evidence of it, implicitly validating something like the OP’s complaint. However, this does not usually take place as an argument on the ontological or cause-and-effect dimension, where people argue that it didn’t happen. Usually it takes the form of an epistemological meta-argument that, if you are open to such possibilities, you should be cut off from being considered serious scholarship, since you’re supposedly led to an extreme skepticism and that’s unacceptable.
Darrell Doughty and Robert Price have written on this theme, when it comes to the Pauline epistles.
But you know this study of religion thing is very strange. I am not sure there is the proper objectivity. For instance I think there are very few scholars of Judaism who are themselves Jewish who approach the study of the religion of the ancestors with the appropriate disinterest. So too with Christians studying Christianity. Here is an example - would any of us act surprised or upset if we heard that the Parthian or Persian rulers had a hand in shaping Zoroastrianism? What about a particular early representative of a certain caliphate on Sunni or Shiite Islam? Of course not. But Christianity is somehow different. For some absolutely absurd logic that I can't quite figure out it is ridiculous to argue that the Roman government tried to influence early Christianity and succeeded. Could that be because we are still emotionally connected with this religion in particular?
“Finally, from so little sleeping and so much reading, his brain dried up and he went completely out of his mind.”
― Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote
And how do people explain that ALL CHRISTIANS got on board with various innovations in the third century. For instance, why did everyone agree on the date of Easter? Surely there must have been dozens of dates, a half dozen different calendars. How on earth did everyone agree to one man's innovation? It's absolutely absurd. Why did all Christians accept the canonical four gospels except for Christians outside of the control of Rome - i.e. in the East where they used the Diatessaron? Again this is 'coincidence' I guess. Why does baptism mean the same thing everywhere. Why did everyone adopt the trinity even though it isn't really in any canonical text as an explicit 'fundamental doctrine' of the Church? Surely someone somewhere wouldn't have thought it mattered much. But yet there is this strange uniformity without any threat of the sword or whip - allegedly. Stupid. They're always having synods. Synods, synods, synods. Why did people bother to go given that someone else was dominating the discussion and forcing doctrine and dogma down their throats? I had to get my son go to a meeting for his soccer club - a voluntary at night 'leadership' session. I had to verbally antagonize him to get in the car. It was a relentless argument all the way to the parking lot - and then he just sat there with arms folded. Without threats (feigned) and intimidation (pretended) he wouldn't have arrived 10 minutes late for the meeting. But in antiquity churches from all over the globe were voluntarily acting like slaves in the face of mostly Roman authority. Right.
“Finally, from so little sleeping and so much reading, his brain dried up and he went completely out of his mind.”
― Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote
And what about this - https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-back ... n-schools/? I think most of us just happened to live through a period of RARE enlightened calm which is entirely ATYPICAL of most of the history of human civilization. Things are about to get much more 'normal' from here on in.
“Finally, from so little sleeping and so much reading, his brain dried up and he went completely out of his mind.”
― Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote
“Finally, from so little sleeping and so much reading, his brain dried up and he went completely out of his mind.”
― Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote
