How to Study Scripture with the Help of Scripture and the Desert Fathers

Glastonbury Review (British Orthodox Church) ^

[wafflehouse]

God has nothing whatever to do with the “sacred violence” of the sacrificial system – breaks through into our history in person, in the flesh, as God incarnate.[17] Jesus is the “final sacrifice”, the “ultimate victim”, because with his own self-sacrifice all sacrifice (of others) ends precisely because he is God: he dis-illusions the world, he “takes away” our sinful delusions that God requires our sacrificial “sacred violence” in order to be appeased. Even the idea that we have to give an expiatory victim to God in atonement for our sins (or indeed that we have anything at all that we can give to God) is radically subverted:

what does this mean in plain english? Sin sacrifice was set forth by God in Mosaic Law. Are you saying the 5 books of Moses arent scripture?

what about sacrifices that ARENT sin sacrifices? there are also fellowship sacrifices and 'burnt offering' sacrifices (see 'nazirite vow') or 'thanksgiving sacrifices'

this sounds like someone is 'adding to scripture' things that arent there. That is breaking a big rule.

The biblical revelation is that God certainly does not want our neighbour’s bloody corpse “in atonement for our sins” – or the deluded play-acting of religious substitutionary ritual sacrifice the Bible bluntly calls “scapegoating”. On the contrary: such “atonement”, far from “appeasing God”, is the very “sin of the world” by which the world bestows its own peace upon itself. Such “sacred violence” is the hidden foundation of the world as we make it, not as God would have it be.

then explain to me why God specifically put this in Mosaic Law? Either this author IS COMPLETELY WRONG and teaching false and dangerous ideas with no basis in scripture, or he is saying to tear out the first 5 books of the bible because 'God didnt say that'

im pretty sure that the author of this piece took his advice too literally. he has no idea what he is reading.

[imardmd1]

“Do you understand what you are reading?”…
“How can I, unless someone guides me?”
(Acts 8:30, 31)

An excellent article.

***

The generative seed is The Logos from The God.
The seed of The Logos is a spiritually regenerated
believer-disciple-babe.
The fruit of the Spirit is the character of The Christ
formed in the regenerated believer-disciple.
The fruit of a good tree is good fruit brought
to perfect maturity.
The fruit of a regenerated believer-disciple is more
regenerated believer-disciples.

[yldstrk]

It’s the difference between sacrificing other for God or sacrificing self for God, that’s all. Sacrificing self is what is needed.

[wafflehouse]

It’s the difference between sacrificing other for God or sacrificing self for God, that’s all. Sacrificing self is what is needed.

im not understanding here, neither what you are saying , nor what the author of this piece is saying (that is, if i give him the benefit of the doubt that he is not trying to rewrite scripture)

this is not complicated. it is not rocket science. you dont have to be a Greek philosopher to understand the bible. it was written for a primitive society (by today's standards) and they were NOT Greek philosophers.

[RnMomof7]

This is an eastern practice drawn from mysticism by the Roman church..lke so much Rc teaching it is pagan .. it is an ungodly practice being revived in this age of apostasy

No where in scripture are we told to be still and listen to God talk to us

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength." Mark 12:30

"But you, dear friends, must build each other up in your most holy faith, pray in the power of the Holy Spirit." Jude 1:20

"Pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints." Ephesians 6:18

We all want to hear from God.

Now you can share the secret closely guarded by our forebears in the faith.

This simple yet ancient formula will enable you to experience the voice of God speaking directly into your life:

1. Get hold of a reliable translation of the Bible, such as the NKJV or the ESV. (Sorry, no, The Messagedoesn’t work for this spiritual discipline.) 2. Open it.

3. Read.

http://apprising.org/2012/01/13/how-to-hear-the-voice-of-god/

[metmom]

“Do you understand what you are reading?”… “How can I, unless someone guides me?” (Acts 8:30, 31)

1 Corinthians 2:11- 13 11 For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. 13 And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.

14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. 15 The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. 16 “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.

The Ethipoian eunuch didn't understand the Scripture because he was a natural man yet; he had not been born of God and become spiritual so spiritual truths were meaningless to him.

Without the work of the Holy Spirit to enlighten a man, he can never understand Scripture as he will always be reading it in the flesh and it will always appear as foolishness to him.

[rzman21]

The trouble is this is NOT from the Roman Church. Why is it that you have to turn a thread that is about spirituality into a polemic?

[imardmd1]

im not understanding here, neither what you are saying , nor what the author of this piece is saying (that is, if i give him the benefit of the doubt that he is not trying to rewrite scripture)

(1) Correct. You do not understand. Is the reason due to not understanding the theme or the purpose of the Bible? If you want to know what the author's focus is, read the title. He is showing us "How To Study The Bible." But one cannot, and will not understand it without somebody who does understand to explain it. In a nutshell, that's the point of this note.

this is not complicated. it is not rocket science. you dont have to be a Greek philosopher to understand the bible. it was written for a primitive society (by today's standards) and they were NOT Greek philosophers.

(2) Wrong. You just said above you did not understand. Now you're saying you do understand when you do not. I read that what the author is saying is that God is not happy with the way religionists have misinterpreted and misapplied God's idea of what a sacrifice is and ought to be. Essentially, the author hints that humans have reinvented and incorporated paganistic ritual sacrifices they think will improve their worship to God, but in fact God is rejecting their wrong approach. That's all.

[RnMomof7]

This is the practice of the monks.. it most certainly is Catholic

http://apprising.org/2009/12/19/dangers-of-contemplative-spiritualitymysticism-lectio-divina/

This is demonic spirituality ..

[yldstrk]

well, the way I read it, you can’t sacrifice an animal or your neighbor, you have to sacrifice yourself. die to self as opposed to designating “the wife” for example as the religious person in your family.

It is a little bit of a stretch, because you can’t really say “well, I offer my slave in sacrifice”, so perhaps his argument about sacrificing “other” is not so persuasive these days, when we don’t own each other.

But my take on his comments is that you have to sacrifice yourself to please God.

[yldstrk]

I completely agree with this.

Theese days, a lot of times one is advised to write your question to God and then write what you hear as the answer....this is bogus because it is difficult to tell if the voice you hear is God’s Satan’s or your own.

God speaks through the Bible. Sometimes the Holy Spirit will nudge one to do something here on earth and if you check it against the Bible, and pray, you can act on it.

Obviously, Son of Sam was hearing Satan, not God.

[FormerLib]

Because their YOPIS god is a jealous god!

[johngrace]

It's like human love! It is in the eyes of the beholder!! LOL!

[rzman21]

This is demonic spirituality ..
>>The site is Oriental Orthodox, not Catholic.

So a total surrender of self to God is demonic?

I could say the same about the rationalist spirituality a lot of Fundamentalists who I have come across.

Perhaps, you think God is a demon.

[rzman21]

Theese days, a lot of times one is advised to write your question to God and then write what you hear as the answer....this is bogus because it is difficult to tell if the voice you hear is God’s Satan’s or your own.

God speaks through the Bible. Sometimes the Holy Spirit will nudge one to do something here on earth and if you check it against the Bible, and pray, you can act on it

>> If you bothered to read the Philokalia, you would see that it warns against fantasizing and visualizations as being from demons, as do the Desert Fathers.

It’s obvious that you don’t understand Orthodox monasticism.

[rzman21]

I pray that the Holy Spirit will lead more young Evangelicals to authentic Christianity and away from the nominalist pseudo-Christian rationalism of Fundamentalism.

[yldstrk]

What are you saying? I have not heard of the Desert Fathers and yes, I was saying the advice was false advice or did you not understand what I was saying.

[narses]

RnMomof7 bashes Catholic teaching as PAGAN!

... lke (sic) so much Rc teaching it is pagan ...

rzman21 points out:

The trouble is this is NOT from the Roman Church. Why is it that you have to turn a thread that is about spirituality into a polemic?

RnMomof7 responds:

This is demonic spirituality ..

[rzman21]

I have not heard of the Desert Fathers and yes, I was saying the advice was false advice or did you not understand what I was saying.

>>What I’m saying is that Evangelicals miss the point of the Sacred Scriptures and takes on a superficial reading.

I stand with the Desert Fathers against the pharisaical rationalists who know about God based on a wooden reading of the Bible, but who do not know God.

Your Pastor DeWaay is one of those types.