Posted on 07/15/2014 4:13:15 PM PDT by Faith Presses On
Recently, an ambassador for the United States was sworn in on a Kindle version of the Holy Bible, prompting some to question if that was an acceptable decision.
Suzi Levine, U.S. ambassador to Switzerland, was sworn in last month on a Kindle due to there not being a paper Bible immediately available.
G. Brooke Lester, assistant professor in Hebrew Bible and director for Emerging Pedagogies at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, told The Christian Post that a swearing-in ceremony may prompt a question of symbolism.
"We're used to seeing the Bible as a single, bound book, and that appearance achieves a lot of symbolic value for many people," said Lester.
"At a swearing-in, that kind of symbolism might matter, even to people who don't really object to Kindle Bibles."
. . .
Regarding the swearing-in of Levine and others who have used iPads or Kindles, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary Professor Donald Whitney told Fox News Latino that it was a question of "respect."
"There is an inherent respect given to the print version of the Bible that doesn't attach itself to a Kindle or the iPad," said Whitney.
"Because the Bible is nothing else. It is a holy book to Christians and it is the Word of God. If you have a digital device it may contain the Bible but it also contains other things."
Pieces of the "True Cross", finger of St. Catherine...Idolatry, and I say this as a Roman Catholic.
Your Bible is not dusty. Many around here seem to be.
HA! Guilty as charged and true...
“This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”
My husband and I were in the Cairo Airport waiting for a flight home.
Some Arab woman had her Koran on the LAST seat available in the lounge. I was beat but she wouldn't move her Koran so I could sit down.
I told her that if she didn't move the book I would SIT ON IT. She was SOOOOO PISSED but she moved the book. Who the hell was she to keep a seat just for a book? If she loved it so much she should have HELD it to her fat body.
Amazing how she didn't understand English when I asked her to move the Koran but...all her English came back to her when I told her to move it or I'd SIT ON IT.
Harharhar, that was a sweet victory over a stubborn, stupid, selfish BOOB.
I could put a bullet through a bible and still read it. That can’t be said with an iPad. Future bibles will need to be battle tested.
If we burned a pile of Bibles does it matter? No.
“If the King’s English was good enough for Jesus, it’s good enough for me! Governor of Texas (circa 1920)”-—Governor Ma Ferguson
The issues centers around the definition of Holiness and those things that are Sacred.
Holiness is the combination of God’s Perfect Righteousness and His Perfect Justice.
His Dwelling Place is Holy. Where is His dwelling place today?
In the human spirit of the believer, provided by God the Holy Spirit. When the Word is brought into this dwelling place, He makes it good for the further sanctification of our minds.
The Bible, be it in print or on Kindle is merely a mechanism to be read in the communication of His Word to the believer/unbeliever.
The Holy Place is inside our human spirit.
There was a time that it got a work out all the time - I have sadly slipped a fair bit and need to get back to it. I might remember a lot of it but there is no substitute for a daily read!
It's been a real blessing to be the lector. I have asked several people if THEY want to do it as I don't want to appear to be a hog-it-all. NO ONE else wants to do the readings. I wonder why not. It's the WORD OF GOD!
Anyway, today's first reading was a toughie.
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Reading 1, Isaiah 7:1-9
In the reign of Ahaz son of Jotham, son of Uzziah king of Judah, Razon king of Aram advanced on Jerusalem with Pekah son of Remaliah king of Israel, to attack it; but he was unable to attack it. The House of David was informed: 'Aram has halted in Ephraimite territory.' At this, his heart and his people's hearts shook like forest trees shaking in the wind. Yahweh then said to Isaiah, 'Go out with your son Shear-Jashub, and meet Ahaz at the end of the conduit of the upper pool, on the road to the Fuller's Field, and say to him, "Pay attention and keep calm. Do not be frightened or demoralised by these two smouldering sticks of firewood, by the fierce anger of Razon, Aram and the son of Remaliah, or because Aram, Ephraim and the son of Remaliah have been plotting against you and saying: Let us mount an attack on Judah, destroy it, force it onto our side and install the son of Tabeel there as king. "Lord Yahweh says this: This will not happen, it will never occur,for the head of Aram is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Razon; another sixty-five years, and Ephraim will cease to be a people. The head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah. If you will not take your stand on me you will not stand firm." '
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The Gospel was Gospel, Matthew 11:20-24
Then he began to reproach the towns in which most of his miracles had been worked, because they refused to repent. 'Alas for you, Chorazin! Alas for you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. Still, I tell you that it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon on Judgement Day than for you. And as for you, Capernaum, did you want to be raised as high as heaven? You shall be flung down to hell. For if the miracles done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have been standing yet. Still, I tell you that it will be more bearable for Sodom on Judgement Day than for you.'
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All the readings used go on for three years, then are repeated. So we hear the same readings only every three years. I'm old enough now to see the cycles.
Their lies are so contemptuous because they are so casual and so obviously lies.
For these creatures the lie is not an opportunity to waste. They want to lie, and have you know they are lying, and have you know that they know you know they are lying, and that under the circumstances you can't do anything about it, and that they know you can't do anything about it, and that they want you to know that they know you can't do anything about it.
All in order to offend you as much as possible.
That is psychotic. It's depraved. It's obsessive-compulsive hatred. It's madness. Sure it's done casually, with a laugh. That's just the WAY it's done, though - it's not WHY it's done. Why it's done is to express seething rage and the desire to harm as many people as possible, in any way possible.
That's why I call them creatures, because that's what they are, or that's what they've become, or that's what they are imitating or obeying, in order to do such things - and they do them continuously, every day, over and over. Because they are not human beings.
Only if its read!
Holy simply means set aside for a particular purpose. It could be argued that a tablet can never be holy like a book.
The Bible is the Word of God. If there is a fire or a flood, and a Bible happens to become ruined, the Word of God still stands. If we have hidden the Word in our hearts, by internalizing the message of the Bible, then it will still be there if our paper Book is taken from us. We hold the Word in Esteem and respect, and treasure our paper and leather Bibles, but only because they are a tangible collection that we can touch, and read at our own pace. I love the smell of the leather, the silky texture of the ribbon, the weight of in my hands, and the rustle of the thin pages. But the OBJECT is not the Word of God. The Words INSIDE are the Word of God.
There are even different Greek words for “Word”. The “Logos” is the Eternal Word of God, The Christ, and God Himself. He was in the beginning with God and IS God. The “Rhema” on the other hand, is a word that we speak, or the words of God that He speaks to us.
If all the paper bibles were gathered up and destroyed, we, who have hidden it in our hearts, would share it again and a again.
Meanwhile, muzzies freak out if you hold a koran upside down. Obviously, the koran has no power to save, otherwise, it could put up with all kinds of abuse and emerge triumphant.
I recall as a child being taught “Thy Word have I hid in my heart” encouraged us to memorize verses in case we were ever without the actual book due to fire, calamity or Communism.
I like those big Torah scrolls. Now THAT’s a holy Bible.
Word.
Why consider a paper Bible to be Holy? The words contained therein, and the meaning of the words, the message itself; that’s the Holiness. The physical book/file has nothing to do with holiness.
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