Pink Smoke Gets in Your Eyes

Insight Scoop ^ | July 29, 2011 | Gail Deibler Finke

[TASMANIANRED]

Well said.

[Ransomed]

If it was even possible, women clergy in the Church would be called priestesses. “Woman priests” is like saying “man priestesses”, it is just stupid.

The wiccans have no problem using the word “priestess”, unlike these fem loons who can’t even bring themselves to use the correct term for what they imagine themselves to be.

Freegards, thanks for all the pings

[NYer]

the “begat” part is very important here in Asia, where people trace their linage for generations. It shows the Hebrews and Jesus were not isolated individuals but part of a family whose lineage goes back generations.

What an astute observation! And most valid, even in this day and age. Though raised in the Roman Catholic Church, I now practice my faith in a Maronite Catholic (Eastern) Church. This is the Church of Antioch where Peter went following our Lord's Ascension, and served as bishop before proceeding to Rome. I recall our bishop's first visit. As he shook hands with a parishioner, he would specifically ask their family name. At the time I did not understand the significance. Later, someone explained the heritage of each family's roots, dating back many generations.

The Maronite Catholic Church follows a fixed liturgical calendar. On the last sunday of "advent", the Maronite Church celebrates:

Genealogy Sunday

In this icon, the genealogy of Our Lord is represented as the tree of Jesse, out of which grows the Messianic branch (Is 11:1). At the lower part of the tree, at the top of the trunk, is depicted Adam, the first man created in the image of God; at the top of the tree is Christ, the Perfect second Adam, born to redeem and save lost mankind. Between Adam and Christ are portrayed the most significant in the human line of genealogy. The entwining branches and leaves represent the fourteen generations from Abraham to Christ. We also see, in the top of the icon, portray of the Holy Trinity. God the Father is depicted by a Divine Hand reaching down into human history. In the center, at the top of the tree, is Christ the incarnate Son of God. At the top right is represented the Holy Spirit, in the form of a dove. As for the shades of blue, they stand for the divine presence of God and for eternal light. The blues also stand for heaven and the greens for earth, as heaven and earth meet in genealogy of the Son of God.

It may be interesting to note that in the Middle East, it is rare for families to adopt children from orphanages. Family heritage is intrinsic to that reasoning. Here in the western world, as an adoptee and adoptive parent, I often ponder the ramifications of growing up as the product of IVF and/or donor insemination. Consider that 2000 years ago, people were not aware of DNA but intrinsically understood the need to maintain gene pools.

Last night, I happened to catch a program on NBC entitled: "Who do you think you are?" Working with celebrities and the Ancestry.com database, the producers assist these celebs trace their family's heritage back to the time when the family immigrated to the US. Learning about the travails of their ancestors makes a significant impact on them.

But what about the heritage and inherited gene pool of IVF/sperm donor children? Don't they also have a right to know about their ancestors?

Thank you for sharing your insights on this thread!

[smvoice]

"Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister questions, rather than godly edifying which is in faith: so do." 1 Tim. 1:4.

"But avoid foolish questions, and genealogies, and contentions, and strivings about the law; for they are unprofitable and vain." Titus 3:9.

[LadyDoc]

very interesting.

[LadyDoc]

I think you are ignoring the context.

3 As I urged you when I went into Macedonia, stay there in Ephesus so that you may command certain people not to teach false doctrines any longer 4 or to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies. Such things promote controversial speculations rather than advancing God’s work—which is by faith. 5 The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. 6 Some have departed from these and have turned to meaningless talk. 7 They want to be teachers of the law, but they do not know what they are talking about or what they so confidently affirm.

Threads that insist on one’s (Jewish) heritage or one’s (noble family) line for salvation is distorting the gospel.

But when the Bible’s authors bring up Jesus as part of a family, it has many lessons for us.

Americans tend to live as isolated lonely individuals so only see themselves as important. (the “me” generation is how Tom Wolfe describes this culture).

Most other cultures see a person as part of a large loving family, and when Paul writes that Christians are part of the “household of God” he was talking about the large families of those days, where different people had different ways of belonging to the family (mother, father, kids, grandparents, spinster aunt, disabled uncle, the cook and the maid) and as part of this family we love and care for each other...

If you read the Bible, and not just take verses out of context, you will see that it is not a book dictated by God with simple answers, but often different books present the dilemmas of man from different points of view: the bible is not a magic book with pat answers, but the living word of God.

[Cronos]

well said.

[Cronos]

In fact most cultures view the family as integral. It’s only the culture of death that does not. The Church is one big family, across the World, throughout time, led by Jesus Christ.