The Image of the Beast that Will Come to Life (Revelation 13)

And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed. (Rev 13:15) One advantage of prophecy is that it can be verified in history. While the Genesis account of creation is disputed by many in the scientific community (with some theologians attempting to demythologize it), prophecy resists such attempts. Thus,...

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The Divine Basis of the Great Commandment

One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” The essential Christian ethic is love. The commands...

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Ruth's Choice

But Ruth said: "Entreat me not to leave you, Or to turn back from following after you; For wherever you go, I will go; And wherever you lodge, I will lodge; Your people shall be my people, And your God, my God.Where you die, I will die, And there will I be buried. The LORD do so to me, and more also, If anything but death parts you and me." (Ruth 1:16-17) WHAT HER CHOICE WAS NOT 1. Her choice was not utilitarian. (Ruth 1:11-13. Noami makes it...

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The Danites and their Inheritance

Revelation 7 curiously omits the name of Dan from the list of the tribes of the 144,000 witnesses. One wonders why this is so. Many hold that Dan was probably omitted because he represented full-fledged idolatry in Israel (Judges 18:30). Judges 17 and 18 tell the story of how the priesthood is commercialized and treated in a pagan utilitarian way by a family of Ephraim and a clan of Dan. Revelation 7 does not also mention Ephraim, though it mentions...

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Round-about Ethics for Benjamin

Judges 21 recounts the story of how the children of Israel provided wives for the surviving Benjamite males. An important episode is the gathering of the entire assembly before the Lord at Mizpeh for worship, prayer, and communion. Since, by an act of vengeance, the whole tribe of Benjamin was destroyed except a few remaining, the Israelites felt it morally obligatory to ensure that the Benjamite tribe survived through posterity. However, they...

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Plato’s Butterfly or Man (quote) - Theaetetus

SOCRATES: Let us not leave the argument unfinished, then; for there still remains to be considered an objection which may be raised about dreams and diseases, in particular about madness, and the various illusions of hearing and sight, or of other senses. For you know that in all these cases the esse-percipi theory appears to be unmistakably refuted, since in dreams and illusions we certainly have false perceptions; and far from saying that everything is which appears, we should rather say that nothing is which appears. THEAETETUS: Very true,...

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Freedom from Addiction

Do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit. (Eph 5:18) What is Addiction? “Loss of control over drug use or the compulsive seeking and taking of drug despite adverse consequences.” “An inability to stop doing or using something, especially something harmful” Types of Addiction Substance Addiction (drugs, tobacco, alcohol, medicines, etc) Behavioral Addiction (gambling, food and eating, shopping, surfing...

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Udayana’s Arguments for the Existence of God (Nyaya Kusumanjali. 5)

The Nyaya Sutras was composed by Aksapada Gautama, probably in the 6th c. BC. Nyaya Sutra 1.6.32 states the parts (avyava) of a deduction (nigmana) in the aphorism: PratijnaHetUdaharanOpanayNigmanAanyavyavaha which unfolds as: 1. Pratijna - Claim or proposition (conjecture) that needs to be established (1.6.33) 2. Hetu - Reason (1.6.34) 3. Udaharana (Drstanta)- Empirical support (negative or positive case examples) (1.6.35,36) 4. Upanaya - Application (1.6.37) 5. Nigmana - Conclusion or deduction (restatement of claim) (1.6.38) Example: 1. Pratijna...

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