(01/08/2018) Mythology Opposes Christian Belief

From the Spiderwick Chronicles, a series of 5 children’s books for ages 9-12 by Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black, published 2003-2004.  I first mistakenly took this plate that describes the Phoenix as being from Audubon.

Today, personal testimony is shared on the value to Christian believers of idolatry, mythology, and alternative belief systems (e.g., Buddhism, Hindu, Islam).  The mature Christian asserts that what he speaks and thinks are products from the operation of GOD within man, yet, accepts personal accountability for his use of the gifts and endowments from GOD.  All are challenged to apply and be fruitful through autonomy, balance, boldness, focus, restraint, and self-government.  Readers who have followed the development of my written works from the 1970’s have seen that, for me, mysteries of the phoenix come into view that include the Incarnation of divinity, rebirth through fire and judgment, immortality, and the apprehension of sacred wisdom.  The truest forms of divine wisdom instruct against such elements as anger, fear, hate, love of death, exaggerated pride, prejudice, and presumption.  A fighter in the “Yahoo! Answers” forum using the ID “Yaw Jian fong” (I have “jian fong” translated as “see that Bhudda” — Level 5 with 7,423 points, a member since November 16, 2010) posted the following:

How should Christians deal with mythology-related things?

What I mean is anything related to the myths of any culture or religion, from gryphons (Greek) to medieval European legends and the Ramayana (Indian). They are "myths" because they are usually about subjects that are not true, but were so treasured by their cultures for making their histories somewhat more interesting.

However, mythology also contains certain elements that are unacceptable to Christian laws, such as other gods and spirits, idolatry, and mysticism. How should Christians deal with such things, including Christians who enjoy mythology-related matters?

Should they use them with caution, or completely avoid them for compromising their beliefs?
Update: I prefer that the Christians should answer this question. Many atheists already consider Christianity itself to be "mythology", so they do not need to answer.
Update 2: In short, are mythology-related things acceptable to Christians (as long as they do not trap themselves into believing them), or not?

THE GOLDEN ARROW:  For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh:  (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds;)  Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;  (2nd Corinthians 10:  3-5, King James Version, KJV)

THE  DOUBLE DAGGER:  The Fullness of GOD? (05/21/2017); Tools For Knowing Divinity (05/12/2017); Abstractions, Atheism and I.Q. (08/18/2016); The Accounts of Giants (05/24/2016); The Cross and Critical Thinking? (04/13/2016); Convicted By His Humility (09/10/2015); To Study the Book of Judges (09/09/2015); The Baptist and The Tishbite? (02/18/2015); Escape from Racism (10/24/2012); Christians Who Ignore GOD’s Laws (10/25/2012)

“Yaw Jian fong”, here is something I will share that has not come from the Adversary.  Christians are to be “in the world,” yet, not “of the world.”  As developing believers who are not ripe (mature) for harvest by Jesus at his Second Coming (we also say, Advent, his appearing, the Rapture), Christians focus on the acquisition of sacred knowledge and spirit content conveyed through doctrine and the holy writings, and imparted through discovery, fellowship with other believers, gradual growth, learning, and ongoing sacred practice (e.g., praise, prayer, sacrifice, unselfish service, and worship).  Given that the consciousness and self-will (we also say, willpower) of Christians is transformed by operations of divinity, Christians are a “new creation” that exists on a higher plane as well as that of the world.

Following my graduation from the University of Chicago (U of C), whose registered heraldic coat of arms displays a legendary figure, (the red phoenix) as a symbol of learning and wisdom, I was privileged to teach at Federal City College, here, in Washington, DC (that is now respected as the University of the District of Columbia).  This school also uses a form of the phoenix (the firebird).  During late 1970, I decided to build a book publishing house to preserve a personal testimony as a Christian believer that would further nourish and prepare others as the body of Christ world-wide.  Being an African American, who was not able to garner necessary support after designing a system for public education of Black children when I attended school at Harvard and U of C—and understanding that for Black lives to matter, we might have to accomplish our goals and secure respect by dint of arms.  To admonish and caution those at our much touted schools of divinity and theology, oriental institutes, and seminaries who would leave me “marooned”, I chose a coat of arms bearing a black phoenix.  When appealing to educated men, such as myself, symbols in and from the world operate as a bridge to dialogue and exchange.

In addition to dramatic and legendary accounts, complete and properly configured belief systems should address the nature of knowledge and knowing; the origins of existence and life; time, space, and other frameworks that connect discrete and disparate meanings, standards, and values as well as descriptions for the otherwise invisible, unknowable and unknown actors, agents, and causes who have brought about the possibilities and things that are actual (i.e., things carnal, material, secular, and social that have measurable dimensions).

Christian belief does use parables (object lessons), verbal descriptions, and illustrations from oral traditions.  Even so, Christianity is clearly far from being founded on a platform of fables (accounts that use animals acting and speaking to provide moral instruction), superstitions, and accounts of the occult.  Every Christian begins as a sinner who must undergo a transformation that is so comprehensive and profound, believers are instructed to say, You must be born again.  Existing as a full and mature Christian requires inseparable aspects of spirit content from the makeup of divinity.  Included are faith, forbearance, forgiveness, holiness, longsuffering, lovingkindness, respect, wisdom, and wrath against sin.

Of course, there is far more that could be said.  (For example, according to world history (that is secular), by relying on the finite and temporal tools of mankind (e.g., emotion, idolatry, intellect, logic, carnal reason, philosophy, and science) there will never be more available in racist nations than apartheid, “Bantu education,” and the teachings that Blacks despair and hold to self-destruction nor can Black lives in America, and all lives through out the globe, be lived with freedom to explore, grow, share, and realize human potential that includes a capacity to demonstrate and display divine substance.)  Even so, I trust this fragment will be useful.  Be it unto you according to your faith.

Washington, DC

(05/24/2016) The Accounts of Giants

Today, points are shared on giants upon the earth appearing in the Bible along with the longevity of the patriarchs.   Accounts of giants are shared in Scripture as admonition regarding divine judgment against sin, secular history or “matter-of-fact” reports, and are not intended as stories for amusement, entertainment, and hilarity.  Where we correctly approach the holy writings for authentic statements from GOD to establish and reinforce spirit content in the living, there is no error concerning “make believe,” monsters, and mythology.  The writer at “Yahoo! Answers (Australia)” using the ID “Love Unites” (Level 7 with 38,553 points, a member since May 08, 2013) posted the following:


R&S, do you believe giants once existed? Such as the giants in the Bible?


THE GOLDEN ARROW:  I was at ease, but he hath broken me asunder:  he hath also taken me by my neck, and shaken me to pieces, and set me up for his mark.  His archers compass me round about, he cleaveth my reins asunder, and doth not spare; he poureth out my gall upon the ground.  He breaketh me with breach upon breach, he runneth upon me like a giant.  I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin, and defiled my horn in the dust.  My face is foul with weeping, and on my eyelids is the shadow of death;  Not for any injustice in mine hands:  also my prayer is pure.  O earth, cover not thou my blood, and let my cry have no place.  Also now, behold, my witness is in heaven, and my record is on high.  My friends scorn me:  but mine eye poureth out tears unto God.  O that one might plead for a man with God, as a man pleadeth for his neighbour!  When a few years are come, then I shall go the way whence I shall not return.  (Job 16:  12-22, KJV)


THE DOUBLE DAGGER:  The Cross and Today (03/22/2016); Our Beginnings Were Perfect? (12/14/2015); Asked To Teach On Adam? (10/30/2015); Stories Repeated in the Bible? (08/30/2014); Why Similar Accounts (08/31/2014); Bible Authors and Truth? (06/19/2013); On Testing GOD (06/20/2013); Why Clothing? (10/15/2010); Known by GOD? (10/16/2010)


“Love Unites”, Christian believers are to accept the accounts of “giants” that appear within the holy writings in the same way they are to acknowledge the longevity for Patriarchs (nearly 1,000 years for Adam), and the Son of GOD dying upon the cross.  His height measured in cubits (generally, 18 inches, a foot and a half), Goliath of Gath, the Philistine champion defeated by David, is not described merely to provide an exciting “bedtime story.”  Faith and the unseen must come into view.  Just as the Patriarchs lived as vessels of oral history, the Scriptures are for “revelation” (divinity being made knowable and known), and the imparting of sacred knowledge.  The Bible shares a divine point of view whereby readers who have received spirit content imparted from GOD (e.g., faith, holiness, longsuffering, wisdom, wrath against sin) are able to discern and recognize the operations of GOD displayed through thousands of events in thousands of lives, over the course of thousands of years.  Many forget the earth was once “brand new,” and the present pollution from automobiles, machines, over population, and human waste did not always exist.  Many understand that the original pair (Adam) was as much as 10 feet tall.  It was a long time before the operations of sin corrupted and debilitated the divine plan of healthy food for healthy bodies to where is today.  The Watusi tribe of North Central Africa have long been celebrated in the modern world as a race of giants.  Also, those of us who have seen the many athletes over 7 feet tall in the National Basketball Association (NBA), and big men such as Shaquille O’Neal repeatedly lift a 300 pound body off the floor and up to the net, have no doubt that it is possible for GOD, who clothed Adam and Eve with the Spirit, to have scaled Adam and Eve as what we might call “giants”.  Consider how some of this appears stated in the language of the Bible:

(1.)  Genesis 6:  3-5, King James Version (KJV):  3 And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh:  yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.  4 There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.  5 And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

(2.)  Numbers 13:  32-33, KJV:  32 And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature.  33 And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants:  and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.

(3.)  Deuteronomy 3:  10-12, KJV:  10 All the cities of the plain, and all Gilead, and all Bashan, unto Salchah and Edrei, cities of the kingdom of Og in Bashan.  11 For only Og king of Bashan remained of the remnant of giants; behold his bedstead was a bedstead of iron; is it not in Rabbath of the children of Ammon? nine cubits was the length thereof, and four cubits the breadth of it, after the cubit of a man.  12 And this land, which we possessed at that time, from Aroer, which is by the river Arnon, and half mount Gilead, and the cities thereof, gave I unto the Reubenites and to the Gadites.

There is far more that could be said, must be carefully examined, and spiritually understood.  (For example, (4.)  1st Samuel 17:  4-7, KJV:  4 And there went out a champion out of the camp of the Philistines, named Goliath, of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span.  5 And he had an helmet of brass upon his head, and he was armed with a coat of mail; and the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of brass.  6 And he had greaves of brass upon his legs, and a target of brass between his shoulders.  7 And the staff of his spear was like a weaver’s beam; and his spear’s head weighed six hundred shekels of iron:  and one bearing a shield went before him.)  Even so, I trust this fragment will be useful.  Be it unto you according to your faith.


THE BLACK PHOENIX
Washington, DC

(02/18/2015) The Baptist and The Tishbite?

Old and New Testament prophecies concerning the coming of Christ are in view, today, such as Malachi 4: 5-6 and Luke 1:  16-18, KJV.  The fighter at “Yahoo! Answers” using “cosmo” as their ID (Level 7 with 114,460 points, a member since September 05, 2006) attacked with the following:


In Christian mythology, what does it mean that John the Baptist (a real, historical person) is Elijah (legendary prophet) who is to come?

Does this mean that Christian mythology includes reincarnation?
Didn't Elijah already exist centuries before?


THE GOLDEN ARROW:  And this is the record of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, Who art thou?  And he confessed, and denied not; but confessed, I am not the Christ.  And they asked him, What then? Art thou Elias? And he saith, I am not. Art thou that prophet? And he answered, No.  Then said they unto him, Who art thou? that we may give an answer to them that sent us. What sayest thou of thyself?  He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Esaias.  And they which were sent were of the Pharisees.  And they asked him, and said unto him, Why baptizest thou then, if thou be not that Christ, nor Elias, neither that prophet?  John answered them, saying, I baptize with water:  but there standeth one among you, whom ye know not;  He it is, who coming after me is preferred before me, whose shoe’s latchet I am not worthy to unloose.  These things were done in Bethabara beyond Jordan, where John was baptizing.  The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.  (John 1:  19-29, KJV)


THE DOUBLE DAGGER:  Why Prophets Were Sent to Israel (11/23/2014); The Need for Prophecy Then and Now (11/24/2014); The Body of Moses (05/11/2014); GOD Permits Evil? (05/12/2014); Prophetic Demonstrations (09/06/2013); Why GOD Prayed to GOD (09/07/2013); Jesus and the Pharisees (07/14/2013); How Could Angels Fall? (07/15/2013); Both Born Holy? (04/29/2013); Scripture at Funerals? (04/30/2013)


“cosmo”, here are a few points to consider that have helped many Christian believers avoid error, foolishness and spiritual confusion:

(1.)  Christian belief appears as the product of exchanges, interactions, and operations among, upon and within multiple aspects of a person’s spirit content.  Conviction that results through the active presence and person of divinity can not be correctly and completely understood using finite, material or mechanical academic disciplines and tools such as history, intellect, logic, philosophy, and science.  There must be sacred (not secular) knowledge that is not derived from abstract analysis, labeling, and experimental manipulation.

(2.)  Using language from literary criticism and scholarly study, both Elijah and John the Baptist are types (i.e., figures and symbols that identify a peculiar class or concept appearing throughout the holy writings).  The idea of “reincarnation” with a changing, eternal continuation of ones existence does not appear at all in the Scriptures.  Yet, there are resurrection from the dead for judgment; rebirth through baptism, repentance and sanctification; as well as translation from life to eternal life without the occurrence of death.

(3.)  Among the many things you may not know, Elijah performed several miracles (we say, sacred events), and was taken up to GOD by a chariot of fire, yet, also appeared with Moses to Jesus before the Lord’s crucifixion.  The destruction of Jerusalem with captivity and exile saw a break in the line of priests and prophets that had gone forth from those who left Egypt.  John the Baptist, who received the Holy Spirit before he actually was born, was the first to appear among the Jews in more than 400 years that met the criteria for both priests and prophets recorded in the holy writings—an abiding spirit from GOD.   Similarly, in addition to prophet, Jesus demonstrated the anointing as High Priest, judge, king, redeemer, and savior.

There is far more to be said, correctly understood, and spiritually apprehended.  (For example, (4.)  The stream of prophecy is essential for the sacred operation of revelation whereby created beings and living creatures are given an experience of continuing consciousness from GOD, who is immutable, invisible, unchanging spirit and can not be apprehended using only sensation (e.g., hearing, seeing, tasting, touching), emotion, and mental functions.  Jesus Christ appeared as an incarnation of GOD in the earth to fulfill and validate the revelation documented among those in covenant with divinity, and provide further assurance that all the many proclamations from GOD definitely will be carried out and completed.)  Even so, I trust this fragment will be useful.  Be it unto you according to your faith and spiritual maturity.

THE BLACK PHOENIX
Washington, DC