Podcasts about divine image

Universal Salvation, part 4 Welcome back to Gnostic Insights. I'm going to do my best to wrap up this review of David Bentley Hart's book, That All Shall Be Saved, Heaven, Hell, and Universal Salvation. And I hope you understand, particularly those of you who are Christians that are listening to this, that I do all of this in the name of the Father. It's not to tear down Christianity. It's to uphold the mission of the Messiah, which has been lost over the past several hundred years of Christianity. And so this talk of universal salvation is a necessary component of believing in the glory of God. Because universal salvation of all souls, not only all humans, but the dogs, the cats, the birds, the grasses, all living things, have to return to the Father, or else the Anointed loses power. The Father loses parts of himself. Okay, let's get back to David Bentley Hart. So we're going to run through these four meditations that are the body of his book. The first meditation is, Who is God? He says, The New Testament, to a great degree, consists in the eschatological interpretation of Hebrew Scripture's story of creation, finding in Christ as eternal Logos and risen Lord, the unifying term of beginning and end. There's no more magnificent meditation on this vision than Gregory of Nyssa's description of the progress of all persons towards union with God in the one pleroma, the one fullness of the whole Christ. All spiritual wills moving, to use this loving image, from outside the temple walls to the temple precincts, and finally beyond the ages into the very sanctuary of the glory as one. Okay, let me jump in here to say, do you notice that the New Testament words, when you use the correct translations, are the same as the translations in our Tripartite Tractate of the Nag Hammadi? Logos is the eternal spirit of humanity and the risen Lord. The Fullness is the one pleroma, the whole Christ. And in this statement, it's saying that all that is spiritual, which includes the spirits that reside within each of us, will all move as one into the pleroma of the Christ. That's who Christ is to us. He's the head of our pleroma. And when I speak of pleromas, I always picture that pyramidal shape, that hierarchical shape, and the capstone is the head. We 2nd order powers are children of the 1st order powers. The 3rd order powers are the Army of Christ that have come to redeem us. When Paul spoke of this, he was applying it literally to the temple in Jerusalem, where there were the walls of the temple, and most of the people were outside of the walls, and some of the people were in the temple precincts. And finally, the very sanctuary of the glory, where only the priests were allowed. These are the three parts that were mentioned, and these are archetypal of the movement of humanity, Hart is saying, from the outside of the pleroma of the Christ, into the pleroma of the Christ, and then into the very glory of God through the Christ. On page 90, Hart says, If one truly believes that traditional Christian language about God's goodness and the theological grammar to which it belongs are not empty, then the God of eternal retribution and pure sovereignty proclaimed by so much of Christian tradition is not and cannot possibly be the God of self-outpouring love revealed in Christ. If God is the good creator of all, he must also be the savior of all without fail, who brings to himself all he has made, including all rational wills, and only thus returns to himself in all that goes forth from him. And that's the end of the chapter, Who is God? And that pretty much states my basic belief on why everyone is going to heaven, because we all come from the Father, and therefore we all must return to the Father because the Father cannot be diminished in any way. And if he lost us, he'd be diminished. Do you see? The second meditation is, What is Judgment? And the subtitle is A Reflection on Biblical Eschatology. And eschatology, that's one of those big theological words that just means the end times, the end of time. On page 93, Hart says, There's a general sense among most Christians that the notion of an eternal hell is explicitly and unremittingly advanced in the New Testament. And yet, when we go looking for it in the actual pages of the text, it proves remarkably elusive. The whole idea is, for instance, entirely absent from the Pauline corpus as even the thinnest shadow of a hint, nor is it anywhere patently present in any of the other epistolary texts. There is one verse in the Gospels, Matthew 25-46 that, traditionally understood, offers what seems the strongest evidence for the idea, but then now Hart's going to explain how that can't be true. And then he says there are also perhaps a couple of verses from Revelation, and he says nothing's clear in Revelation, so he's not going to go there. But, What in fact the New Testament provides us with are a number of fragmentary and fantastic images that can be taken in any number of ways, arranged according to our prejudices and expectations, and declared literal or figural or hyperbolic as our desires dictate. It's why people can make the case for eternal damnation, but you can also make the case for not eternal damnation, because it's so metaphorical. On page 94, Hart says, Nowhere is there any description of a kingdom of perpetual cruelty presided over by Satan, as though he were some kind of Chthonian god. On the other hand, however, there are a remarkable number of passages in the New Testament, several of them from Paul's writings, that appear instead to promise a final salvation of all persons and all things, and in the most unqualified terms. How did some images become mere images in the general Christian imagination, while others became exact documentary portraits of some final reality? If one can be swayed simply by the brute force of arithmetic, it seems worth noting that, among the apparently most explicit statements on the last things, the universalist statements are by far the more numerous. And then he lists a number of verses from the New Testament that speak of universal salvation, over 20 of them at least, and I'll give you just a couple. Romans 5.18 says, So then, just as through one transgression came condemnation for all human beings, so also through one act of righteousness came a rectification of life for all human beings. And jumping in from the Gnostic sense, he doesn't say the fall of one human, he doesn't say through Adam, he says one transgression—and we would call that one transgression the Fall of Logos, the fall of the Aeon, which is a higher order being than we are. Or Corinthians 15.22 says, For just as in Adam all die, so also in the anointed Christ all will be given life. I would say where it says for just as in Adam all die, it's not because Adam ate the apple, it's that we humans who are outside of the Christ, we're outside of the walls of the temple, we are in the pleroma of Adam—we are in the pleroma of human beings. When you accept the anointed, then you move into the pleroma, or you nest up higher into the pleroma of the Christ. That would be the Gnostic way of saying that. Second Corinthians 5.14 says, For the love of the anointed constrains us, having reached this judgment, that one died on behalf of all, all then have died. And of course that one is the Anointed, and He died on behalf of everyone. Or even Romans 11:32, For God shut up everyone in obstinacy, so that he might show mercy to everyone. And there's a long discussion in the chapter about how God's chosen—the original elect, that being the Hebrew nation—has been obstinate about accepting Jesus of Nazareth as the Anointed. And so he's saying that everyone is shut up in obstinacy, that's the Hebrews, so that he might show mercy to everyone. And that is, they're temporarily set up in obstinacy so that the message of the Anointed can be preached far and wide, before death and after death, we Gnostics would say, and not be just constrained to only the Hebrews. That's why the Hebrews are set aside for the moment, so that those outside the temple walls can also come to Christ. And then there are 19 more verses after this, and he lists them all between pages 96 and page 102. And if you are a theological scholar or a concerned Christian that wants to know if this is heresy or not, I really suggest you buy the book, That All Shall Be Saved, by David Bentley Hart, and read it carefully from cover to cover. Jumping to page 116, Hart says, There are those metaphors used by Jesus that seem to imply that the punishment of the world to come will be of only limited duration. For example, “if remanded to prison, you shall most certainly not emerge until you pay the very last pittance.” Or, “the unmerciful slave is delivered to the torturers until he should repay everything he owes.” And Hart says it seems as if this until should be taken with some seriousness. Some wicked slaves, moreover, “will be beaten with many blows, while others will be beaten with few blows.” Hart says, of course, everyone will be “salted with fire.” This fire is explicitly that of the Gehenna. But salting here is an image of purification and preservation, for salt is good. Gehenna is the Valley of Hinnom from the Old Testament, and that is where, outside of the city of Jerusalem, the refuse was burned, and even carrion and bodies were burned. And that is why it is considered to be a hellish place. And it has become a metaphor in the time of Jesus for the purging fire, the Aeonian chastening for the good. Hart says we might even find some support for the purgatorial view of the Gehenna from the Greek of Matthew 25:46, which is the supposedly conclusive verse on the side of the Infernalist Orthodoxy, where the word used for the punishment of the last day is kolasis, which most properly refers to remedial chastisement, rather than timoria, which more properly refers to retributive justice. So, the fire of the judgment. What is judgment? The fire is the chastening fire, the fire of personal guilt and remorse over the sins one has done, that causes one to repent and turn to redemption. Hart says, It is not clear in any event that the fourth gospel, [and the fourth gospel, that's the gospel of John, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John], it is not clear in any event that the fourth gospel foretells any “last judgment,” in the sense of a real additional judgment that accomplishes more than has already happened in Christ. To see His words as pointing toward and fulfilled within his own crucifixion and resurrection, wherein all things were judged and all things redeemed. The kingdom has indeed drawn very near, and even now is being revealed. The hour indeed has come. The judge who is judged in our place is also the resurrection and the life that has always already succeeded and exceeded the time of condemnation. All of heaven and of hell meet in those three days. . . Hell appears in the shadow of the cross as what has always already been conquered, as what Easter leaves in ruins, to which we may flee from the transfiguring light of God if we so wish, but where we can never finally come to rest, for being only a shadow, it provides nothing to cling to. And he attributes that concept of hell being only a shadow to Gregory of Nyssa, although we would attribute it to the Tripartite Tractate of the Nag Hammadi which came before Gregory of Nyssa. Hell exists so long as it exists only as the last terrible residue of a fallen creation's enmity to God, the lingering effects of a condition of slavery that God has conquered universally in Christ and will ultimately conquer individually in every soul. This age has passed away already, however long it lingers on its own aftermath, and thus in the Age to Come, [and that's capital A, Age, which we would interpret as the Aeons to Come, the Aeonian Pleroma to Come], and beyond all ages, all shall come to the kingdom prepared for them from before the foundation of the world. And that's the chapter, What is Judgment? The third meditation or chapter of Hart is called What is a Person? A Reflection on the Divine Image. It says over and over in the Bible that we are made in the image of God. Man is made in the image of God. That is the divine image. On page 131, Hart says, Christians down the centuries have excelled at converting the good tidings of God's love in Christ into something dreadful, irrational, and morally horrid. [And we covered that in depth in the previous three episodes, if you want to go back there.] On page 132, Hart says, I suspect that no figure in Christian history has suffered a greater injustice as a result of the desperate inventiveness of the Christian moral imagination than the Apostle Paul, since it was the violent misprision of his theology of grace, starting with the great Augustine, it grieves me to say, that gave rise to almost all of these grim distortions of the Gospel. Aboriginal guilt, predestination, (ante praevisa merita), the eternal damnation of unbaptized infants, the real existence of vessels of wrath, and so on. All of these odious and incoherent dogmatic motifs, so to speak, and others equally nasty, have been ascribed to Paul. And yet, each and every one of them, not only is incompatible with the guiding themes of Paul's proclamation of Christ's triumph and of God's purpose in election, but is something like their perfect inversion. Well, isn't that interesting? Because we already know that the archons represent the inversions of the Aeons of the Pleroma. And so, although Hart doesn't realize he's implying this, to say that what has come down to us in Christian tradition through Augustine is the perfect inversion of what Paul was actually saying about universal salvation, which means, by definition, that it's the demiurgic or the archonic version of salvation. Isn't that interesting? I mean, that is what I have been implying, that what has been taken to be Christian tradition for the last couple of thousand years is actually a diminishment of the power of Christ and the power and love of the Father. By saying that people can be lost and condemned to eternal torture, that is sacrilegious to me. That is the heresy. And that is what Hart is saying here. He goes on to say on page 133, This is all fairly odd, really. Paul's argument in those chapters is not difficult to follow. What preoccupies him from beginning to end is the agonizing mystery that the Messiah of Israel has come, and yet so few of the children of the house of Israel have accepted the fact, even while so many from outside the covenant have. And Paul wonders, how is the promised Messiah rejected by so many, yet so many outside the temple walls have accepted the Messiah? There are far more Christians than there are Jews at the moment. Why is that? Paul was wondering. Hart says, Paul's is not an abstract question regarding which individual human beings are the saved and which are the damned. In fact, by the end of the argument, the former category, [that is the saved], proves to be vastly larger than that of the elect or the called, while the latter category, [that is the damned], makes no appearance at all. Jumping down the page, he says, “so then what if,” so now he's going to go ahead and quote Paul here, Romans 9:19, Paul says, So then what if God should show his power by preserving vessels suitable only for wrath, keeping them solely for destruction, in order to provide an instructive counterpoint to the riches of the glory he lavishes on vessels prepared for mercy, whom he has called from among the Jews and the Gentiles alike. For as it happens, rather than offering a solution to the quandary in which he finds himself, Paul is simply restating that quandary in its bleakest possible form, at the very brink of despair. He does not stop there, however, because he knows that this cannot be the correct answer. It is so obviously preposterous, in fact, that a wholly different solution must be sought, one that makes sense and that will not require the surrender either of Paul's reason or of his confidence in God's righteousness. Hence, contrary to his own warnings, Paul does indeed continue to question God's justice, and he spends the next two chapters unambiguously rejecting the provisional answer, the vessels of wrath hypothesis, altogether, so as to reach a completely different and far more glorious conclusion—God blesses everyone. Romans 10: 11, 12. And by the way, in Gnostic gospel, we would say the law is actually the Demiurge's rules for human behavior, because our self-will makes us otherwise uncontrollable. Because to the Father above, the only law is love. When we act out of love, all else follows. Going on, Hart says, As for the believing remnant of Israel, [Romans 11:5], it turns out that they have been elected not as the limited number of the saved within Israel, but as the earnest through which all of Israel will be saved. They are waiting for the Anointed to come and take the place of the King of Israel, King of the Jews. King of the Jews is one of the titles of the Messiah. That means the capstone of their pleroma. You see? It's all of these pyramidal shapes that are first designed up there in the Fullness of God, the pleroma. What Paul is saying is that the Jews that are in the pleroma of Israel, it's their remnant that makes them holy. It's their remnant that is the spiritual part, the higher part, the called part, the elect part of the pleroma of the nation of the Hebrews. And it is through those elect that all of the Jews will be saved, ultimately. Hart says, For the time being, true, a part of Israel is hardened, but this will remain the case only until the ”full entirety” [that is the pleroma] of the Gentiles enter in. The unbelievers among the children of Israel may have been allowed to stumble, but God will never allow them to fall. Hart's just saying that Israel's reluctance or slowness to believing that Jesus is the Messiah is just slowing down the progress of history to give everyone else a chance to catch up to it. Quoting Hart again, We're in Romans now, 11:11. This then is the radiant answer dispelling the shadows of Paul's grim what if in the ninth chapter of Romans. It's clarion negative. It turns out that there is no final illustrative division between the vessels of wrath and vessels of mercy. That was a grotesque, all too human thought that can now be chased away for good. God's wisdom far surpasses ours, and his love can accomplish all that it intends. “He has bound everyone in disobedience so as to show mercy to everyone.” [That's Romans 11:32.] All are vessels of wrath precisely so that all may be made vessels of mercy. . . That Paul's great attempt to demonstrate that God's election is not some arbitrary act of predilective exclusion, but instead a providential means for bringing about the unrestricted inclusion of all persons, has been employed for centuries to advance what is quite literally the very teaching that he went to such great lengths explicitly to reject. . . Yet this is still not my principal point. I want to say something far more radical. I want to say that there is no way in which persons can be saved as persons except in and with all other persons. This may seem an exorbitant claim, but I regard it as no more than an acknowledgment of certain obvious truths about the fragility, dependency, and exigency of all that make us who and what we are. Oh, this is a very interesting portion. Okay, listen to this. Jumping to page 149. No soul is who or what it is in isolation, and no soul's sufferings can be ignored without the sufferings of a potentially limitless number of other souls being ignored as well. And so it seems if we allow the possibility that even so much as a single soul might slip away unmourned into everlasting misery, the ethos of heaven turns out to be “every soul for itself”—which is also, curiously enough, precisely the ethos of hell. But Christians are obliged, it seems clear, to take seriously the eschatological imagery of scripture. And there all talk of salvation involves the promise of a corporate beatitude, a kingdom of love and knowledge, a wedding feast, a city of the redeemed, the body of Christ, which means that the hope Christians cherish must in some way involve the preservation of whatever is deepest in and most essential to personality rather than a perfect escape from personality. But finite persons are not self-enclosed individual substances. They are dynamic events of relation to what is other than themselves. And then Hart summons up the idea of a single recurrent image, he says, That of a parent whose beloved child has grown into quite an evil person, but who remains a parent nevertheless, and therefore keeps and cherishes countless tender memories of the innocent and delightful being that has now become lost in the labyrinth of that damaged soul. Is all of that, those memories, those anxieties and delights, those feelings of desperate love, really to be consigned to the fire as just so much combustible chaff? Must it all be forgotten or willfully ignored for heaven to enter into that parent's soul? And if so, is this not the darkest tragedy ever composed? And is God not then a tragedian utterly merciless in his poetic omnipotence? Who or what is that being whose identity is no longer determined by its relation to that child? [Skipping to page 153] Personhood as such is not a condition possible for an isolated substance. It is an act, not a thing. And it is achieved only in and through a history of relations with others. We are finite beings in a state of becoming, and in us there is nothing that is not an action, dynamism, an emergence into a fuller or a retreat into a more impoverished existence. And so, as I said in my first meditation, we are those others who make us. Spiritual personality is not mere individuality, nor is personal love one of its merely accidental conditions or extrinsic circumstances. A person is first and foremost a limitless capacity, a place where the all shows itself with a special inflection. We exist as the place of the other, to borrow a phrase from Michel de Certeau. Certainly, this is the profoundest truth in the doctrine of resurrection. That we must rise from the dead to be saved is a claim not simply about resumed corporeality, whatever that might turn out to be, but more crucially, about the fully restored existence of the person as socially, communally, corporately constituted. Each person is a body within the body of humanity, which exists in its proper nature only as the body of Christ. Well, that's pretty neat. See, we are nested fractal hierarchies of the pleroma of the Fullness of God. And if you've been with me a while, you know what that long and complicated sentence means. Picture a pyramidal shape, picture every living part of your body as building up the pyramid, and your conscious self is the capstone of that pleroma that makes up your body. Now, you are then nested along with all other humans into the pleroma of humanity, the body of humanity, also called the body of Adam. Just the way our cells nest up into building us, we nest up into building the great body of humanity. And then, Hart is saying this body of humanity exists in its proper nature only as the body of Christ, because when we then nest up and make Christ the king of our pleroma, we are nested into the Fullness of Christ. And that is what the final salvation resting point is. When we all finally pass through the final judgment and nest up into Christ, then we're all nested up into the pleroma, we're all nested up into the Son. And there we are. And we will still have our lives the way the Fullness has their lives. They dream together as one of paradise. And that's where we're headed. Hart says, Our personhood must truly consist not only in the immediate love of those close at hand, but also in our disposition toward those whom we, by analogy, care for from afar. Or even in the abstract, for the most essential law of charity, of love, when it is truly active, is that it must inexorably grow beyond all immediately discernible boundaries in order to be fulfilled and to continue to be active. And all of those in whom each of us is implicated, and who are implicated in each of us, are themselves in turn implicated and intertwined in countless others, and on and on without limit. We belong of necessity to an indissoluble co-inherence of souls. And I think that down here on the physical level, on the material plane, the demiurgic version of that shared coherence of all souls together is quantum entanglement. That's the Demiurge's material version of how we are implicated and intertwined with every other soul. And now he goes on to say something that's very Gnostic. On the next page, Hart says, There may be within each of us—indeed there surely is—that divine spark, that divine light or spark of nous or spirit or atman that is the abiding presence of God in us, the place of radical sustaining divine imminence, nearer to me than my inmost parts. But that light is the one undifferentiated ground of our existence, not the particularity of our personal existence, in and with one another. Oh, hey, there it is. That's what I'm always saying. This one spark, that's what we call the big S Self. And the particularity of our personal existence is what we here at Gnostic Insights label as our Ego. So we are made up of the Self that we share with all others and that we share with the Son, but we are also our own individual existence. That's why we can't just blink out into nothingness and not be missed, because we have our particularity, and it has its own place in the hierarchy. Then Hart says, But then this is to say that either all persons must be saved or that none can be. [He says,] God could, of course, erase each of the elect as whoever they once were by shattering their memories and attachments like the gates of hell and then raise up some other being in each of their places, thus converting the will of each into an idiot bliss stripped of the loves that made him or her this person, associations and attachments and pity and tenderness and all the rest. If that were the case, only in hell could any of us possess something like a personal destiny, tormented perhaps by the memories of the loves we squandered or betrayed, but not deprived of them altogether. [Jumping to 157, he says], I am not I in myself alone, but only in all others. If then anyone is in hell, I too am partly in hell. . . For the whole substance of Christian faith is the conviction that another has already and decisively gone down into that abyss for us to set all the prisoners free, even from the chains of their own hatred and despair, and hence the love that has made all of us who we are and that will continue throughout eternity to do so, cannot ultimately be rejected by anyone. Amen. And that's the end of the third meditation. Now the fourth meditation, we just don't even have time to get to. It's called, What is Freedom? And if you want to hear the fourth meditation in depth, please text me in the comments and ask for more David Bentley Hart That All Shall Be Saved. But as for now, this treatise on what is freedom? I'll actually just jump to the last page and skip all of the explanations. The fourth meditation, What is Freedom? is all about free will. I guess I'll include it in some future episode about free will and just quote Hart extensively in that episode. But to close it out, Hart says, It would make no sense to suggest that God, who is by nature not only the source of being, but also the good and the true and the beautiful and everything else that makes spirits exist as rational beings, would truly be all in all if the consummation of all things were to eventuate merely in a kind of extrinsic divine supremacy over creation. But God is not a god, [or as we would say, the God Above All Gods is not the Demiurge, is how we would put it in Gnostic terms]. And his final victory, as described in scripture, will consist not merely in his assumption of perfect supremacy over all, but also in his ultimately being all in all. Could there then be a final state of things in which God is all in all, while yet there existed rational creatures whose inward worlds consisted in an eternal rejection of and rebellion against God as the sole and consuming and fulfilling end of the rational will's most essential nature? If this fictive and perverse interiority were to persist into eternity, would God's victory over every sphere of being really be complete? Or would that small miserable residual flicker of Promethean defiance remain forever as the one space in creation from which God has been successfully expelled? Surely it would, so it too must pass away. All right, that ends this long episode, because I was trying to wrap up the entire book, which I almost did. Write to me, tell me what you think of this sort of thing. I'd especially like to hear from people who used to be Christians, or who were raised in the church, and who fell away from the church because of some of these very problems and conundrums that we've been talking about for the last four episodes. God bless us all, and onward and upward! If you find these gnostic insights meaningful, please donate to the cause. Cyd pays for these podcasts out of her retirement money, and the well is running dry. If I am to keep this up, I need your financial assistance as well as your good company. I thank my (very few) paid subscibers from the bottom of my heart to the top of my pleroma. Please help. Please enable JavaScript in your browser to complete this form.Name *FirstLastEmail *Stripe Credit Card *Choose your item *Item A - $10.00Item B - $25.00Item C - $50.00Total$0.00Submit

Universal Salvation, part 4 Welcome back to Gnostic Insights. I'm going to do my best to wrap up this review of David Bentley Hart's book, That All Shall Be Saved, Heaven, Hell, and Universal Salvation. And I hope you understand, particularly those of you who are Christians that are listening to this, that I do all of this in the name of the Father. It's not to tear down Christianity. It's to uphold the mission of the Messiah, which has been lost over the past several hundred years of Christianity. And so this talk of universal salvation is a necessary component of believing in the glory of God. Because universal salvation of all souls, not only all humans, but the dogs, the cats, the birds, the grasses, all living things, have to return to the Father, or else the Anointed loses power. The Father loses parts of himself. Okay, let's get back to David Bentley Hart. So we're going to run through these four meditations that are the body of his book. The first meditation is, Who is God? He says, The New Testament, to a great degree, consists in the eschatological interpretation of Hebrew Scripture's story of creation, finding in Christ as eternal Logos and risen Lord, the unifying term of beginning and end. There's no more magnificent meditation on this vision than Gregory of Nyssa's description of the progress of all persons towards union with God in the one pleroma, the one fullness of the whole Christ. All spiritual wills moving, to use this loving image, from outside the temple walls to the temple precincts, and finally beyond the ages into the very sanctuary of the glory as one. Okay, let me jump in here to say, do you notice that the New Testament words, when you use the correct translations, are the same as the translations in our Tripartite Tractate of the Nag Hammadi? Logos is the eternal spirit of humanity and the risen Lord. The Fullness is the one pleroma, the whole Christ. And in this statement, it's saying that all that is spiritual, which includes the spirits that reside within each of us, will all move as one into the pleroma of the Christ. That's who Christ is to us. He's the head of our pleroma. And when I speak of pleromas, I always picture that pyramidal shape, that hierarchical shape, and the capstone is the head. We 2nd order powers are children of the 1st order powers. The 3rd order powers are the Army of Christ that have come to redeem us. When Paul spoke of this, he was applying it literally to the temple in Jerusalem, where there were the walls of the temple, and most of the people were outside of the walls, and some of the people were in the temple precincts. And finally, the very sanctuary of the glory, where only the priests were allowed. These are the three parts that were mentioned, and these are archetypal of the movement of humanity, Hart is saying, from the outside of the pleroma of the Christ, into the pleroma of the Christ, and then into the very glory of God through the Christ. On page 90, Hart says, If one truly believes that traditional Christian language about God's goodness and the theological grammar to which it belongs are not empty, then the God of eternal retribution and pure sovereignty proclaimed by so much of Christian tradition is not and cannot possibly be the God of self-outpouring love revealed in Christ. If God is the good creator of all, he must also be the savior of all without fail, who brings to himself all he has made, including all rational wills, and only thus returns to himself in all that goes forth from him. And that's the end of the chapter, Who is God? And that pretty much states my basic belief on why everyone is going to heaven, because we all come from the Father, and therefore we all must return to the Father because the Father cannot be diminished in any way. And if he lost us, he'd be diminished. Do you see? The second meditation is, What is Judgment? And the subtitle is A Reflection on Biblical Eschatology. And eschatology, that's one of those big theological words that just means the end times, the end of time. On page 93, Hart says, There's a general sense among most Christians that the notion of an eternal hell is explicitly and unremittingly advanced in the New Testament. And yet, when we go looking for it in the actual pages of the text, it proves remarkably elusive. The whole idea is, for instance, entirely absent from the Pauline corpus as even the thinnest shadow of a hint, nor is it anywhere patently present in any of the other epistolary texts. There is one verse in the Gospels, Matthew 25-46 that, traditionally understood, offers what seems the strongest evidence for the idea, but then now Hart's going to explain how that can't be true. And then he says there are also perhaps a couple of verses from Revelation, and he says nothing's clear in Revelation, so he's not going to go there. But, What in fact the New Testament provides us with are a number of fragmentary and fantastic images that can be taken in any number of ways, arranged according to our prejudices and expectations, and declared literal or figural or hyperbolic as our desires dictate. It's why people can make the case for eternal damnation, but you can also make the case for not eternal damnation, because it's so metaphorical. On page 94, Hart says, Nowhere is there any description of a kingdom of perpetual cruelty presided over by Satan, as though he were some kind of Chthonian god. On the other hand, however, there are a remarkable number of passages in the New Testament, several of them from Paul's writings, that appear instead to promise a final salvation of all persons and all things, and in the most unqualified terms. How did some images become mere images in the general Christian imagination, while others became exact documentary portraits of some final reality? If one can be swayed simply by the brute force of arithmetic, it seems worth noting that, among the apparently most explicit statements on the last things, the universalist statements are by far the more numerous. And then he lists a number of verses from the New Testament that speak of universal salvation, over 20 of them at least, and I'll give you just a couple. Romans 5.18 says, So then, just as through one transgression came condemnation for all human beings, so also through one act of righteousness came a rectification of life for all human beings. And jumping in from the Gnostic sense, he doesn't say the fall of one human, he doesn't say through Adam, he says one transgression—and we would call that one transgression the Fall of Logos, the fall of the Aeon, which is a higher order being than we are. Or Corinthians 15.22 says, For just as in Adam all die, so also in the anointed Christ all will be given life. I would say where it says for just as in Adam all die, it's not because Adam ate the apple, it's that we humans who are outside of the Christ, we're outside of the walls of the temple, we are in the pleroma of Adam—we are in the pleroma of human beings. When you accept the anointed, then you move into the pleroma, or you nest up higher into the pleroma of the Christ. That would be the Gnostic way of saying that. Second Corinthians 5.14 says, For the love of the anointed constrains us, having reached this judgment, that one died on behalf of all, all then have died. And of course that one is the Anointed, and He died on behalf of everyone. Or even Romans 11:32, For God shut up everyone in obstinacy, so that he might show mercy to everyone. And there's a long discussion in the chapter about how God's chosen—the original elect, that being the Hebrew nation—has been obstinate about accepting Jesus of Nazareth as the Anointed. And so he's saying that everyone is shut up in obstinacy, that's the Hebrews, so that he might show mercy to everyone. And that is, they're temporarily set up in obstinacy so that the message of the Anointed can be preached far and wide, before death and after death, we Gnostics would say, and not be just constrained to only the Hebrews. That's why the Hebrews are set aside for the moment, so that those outside the temple walls can also come to Christ. And then there are 19 more verses after this, and he lists them all between pages 96 and page 102. And if you are a theological scholar or a concerned Christian that wants to know if this is heresy or not, I really suggest you buy the book, That All Shall Be Saved, by David Bentley Hart, and read it carefully from cover to cover. Jumping to page 116, Hart says, There are those metaphors used by Jesus that seem to imply that the punishment of the world to come will be of only limited duration. For example, “if remanded to prison, you shall most certainly not emerge until you pay the very last pittance.” Or, “the unmerciful slave is delivered to the torturers until he should repay everything he owes.” And Hart says it seems as if this until should be taken with some seriousness. Some wicked slaves, moreover, “will be beaten with many blows, while others will be beaten with few blows.” Hart says, of course, everyone will be “salted with fire.” This fire is explicitly that of the Gehenna. But salting here is an image of purification and preservation, for salt is good. Gehenna is the Valley of Hinnom from the Old Testament, and that is where, outside of the city of Jerusalem, the refuse was burned, and even carrion and bodies were burned. And that is why it is considered to be a hellish place. And it has become a metaphor in the time of Jesus for the purging fire, the Aeonian chastening for the good. Hart says we might even find some support for the purgatorial view of the Gehenna from the Greek of Matthew 25:46, which is the supposedly conclusive verse on the side of the Infernalist Orthodoxy, where the word used for the punishment of the last day is kolasis, which most properly refers to remedial chastisement, rather than timoria, which more properly refers to retributive justice. So, the fire of the judgment. What is judgment? The fire is the chastening fire, the fire of personal guilt and remorse over the sins one has done, that causes one to repent and turn to redemption. Hart says, It is not clear in any event that the fourth gospel, [and the fourth gospel, that's the gospel of John, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John], it is not clear in any event that the fourth gospel foretells any “last judgment,” in the sense of a real additional judgment that accomplishes more than has already happened in Christ. To see His words as pointing toward and fulfilled within his own crucifixion and resurrection, wherein all things were judged and all things redeemed. The kingdom has indeed drawn very near, and even now is being revealed. The hour indeed has come. The judge who is judged in our place is also the resurrection and the life that has always already succeeded and exceeded the time of condemnation. All of heaven and of hell meet in those three days. . . Hell appears in the shadow of the cross as what has always already been conquered, as what Easter leaves in ruins, to which we may flee from the transfiguring light of God if we so wish, but where we can never finally come to rest, for being only a shadow, it provides nothing to cling to. And he attributes that concept of hell being only a shadow to Gregory of Nyssa, although we would attribute it to the Tripartite Tractate of the Nag Hammadi which came before Gregory of Nyssa. Hell exists so long as it exists only as the last terrible residue of a fallen creation's enmity to God, the lingering effects of a condition of slavery that God has conquered universally in Christ and will ultimately conquer individually in every soul. This age has passed away already, however long it lingers on its own aftermath, and thus in the Age to Come, [and that's capital A, Age, which we would interpret as the Aeons to Come, the Aeonian Pleroma to Come], and beyond all ages, all shall come to the kingdom prepared for them from before the foundation of the world. And that's the chapter, What is Judgment? The third meditation or chapter of Hart is called What is a Person? A Reflection on the Divine Image. It says over and over in the Bible that we are made in the image of God. Man is made in the image of God. That is the divine image. On page 131, Hart says, Christians down the centuries have excelled at converting the good tidings of God's love in Christ into something dreadful, irrational, and morally horrid. [And we covered that in depth in the previous three episodes, if you want to go back there.] On page 132, Hart says, I suspect that no figure in Christian history has suffered a greater injustice as a result of the desperate inventiveness of the Christian moral imagination than the Apostle Paul, since it was the violent misprision of his theology of grace, starting with the great Augustine, it grieves me to say, that gave rise to almost all of these grim distortions of the Gospel. Aboriginal guilt, predestination, (ante praevisa merita), the eternal damnation of unbaptized infants, the real existence of vessels of wrath, and so on. All of these odious and incoherent dogmatic motifs, so to speak, and others equally nasty, have been ascribed to Paul. And yet, each and every one of them, not only is incompatible with the guiding themes of Paul's proclamation of Christ's triumph and of God's purpose in election, but is something like their perfect inversion. Well, isn't that interesting? Because we already know that the archons represent the inversions of the Aeons of the Pleroma. And so, although Hart doesn't realize he's implying this, to say that what has come down to us in Christian tradition through Augustine is the perfect inversion of what Paul was actually saying about universal salvation, which means, by definition, that it's the demiurgic or the archonic version of salvation. Isn't that interesting? I mean, that is what I have been implying, that what has been taken to be Christian tradition for the last couple of thousand years is actually a diminishment of the power of Christ and the power and love of the Father. By saying that people can be lost and condemned to eternal torture, that is sacrilegious to me. That is the heresy. And that is what Hart is saying here. He goes on to say on page 133, This is all fairly odd, really. Paul's argument in those chapters is not difficult to follow. What preoccupies him from beginning to end is the agonizing mystery that the Messiah of Israel has come, and yet so few of the children of the house of Israel have accepted the fact, even while so many from outside the covenant have. And Paul wonders, how is the promised Messiah rejected by so many, yet so many outside the temple walls have accepted the Messiah? There are far more Christians than there are Jews at the moment. Why is that? Paul was wondering. Hart says, Paul's is not an abstract question regarding which individual human beings are the saved and which are the damned. In fact, by the end of the argument, the former category, [that is the saved], proves to be vastly larger than that of the elect or the called, while the latter category, [that is the damned], makes no appearance at all. Jumping down the page, he says, “so then what if,” so now he's going to go ahead and quote Paul here, Romans 9:19, Paul says, So then what if God should show his power by preserving vessels suitable only for wrath, keeping them solely for destruction, in order to provide an instructive counterpoint to the riches of the glory he lavishes on vessels prepared for mercy, whom he has called from among the Jews and the Gentiles alike. For as it happens, rather than offering a solution to the quandary in which he finds himself, Paul is simply restating that quandary in its bleakest possible form, at the very brink of despair. He does not stop there, however, because he knows that this cannot be the correct answer. It is so obviously preposterous, in fact, that a wholly different solution must be sought, one that makes sense and that will not require the surrender either of Paul's reason or of his confidence in God's righteousness. Hence, contrary to his own warnings, Paul does indeed continue to question God's justice, and he spends the next two chapters unambiguously rejecting the provisional answer, the vessels of wrath hypothesis, altogether, so as to reach a completely different and far more glorious conclusion—God blesses everyone. Romans 10: 11, 12. And by the way, in Gnostic gospel, we would say the law is actually the Demiurge's rules for human behavior, because our self-will makes us otherwise uncontrollable. Because to the Father above, the only law is love. When we act out of love, all else follows. Going on, Hart says, As for the believing remnant of Israel, [Romans 11:5], it turns out that they have been elected not as the limited number of the saved within Israel, but as the earnest through which all of Israel will be saved. They are waiting for the Anointed to come and take the place of the King of Israel, King of the Jews. King of the Jews is one of the titles of the Messiah. That means the capstone of their pleroma. You see? It's all of these pyramidal shapes that are first designed up there in the Fullness of God, the pleroma. What Paul is saying is that the Jews that are in the pleroma of Israel, it's their remnant that makes them holy. It's their remnant that is the spiritual part, the higher part, the called part, the elect part of the pleroma of the nation of the Hebrews. And it is through those elect that all of the Jews will be saved, ultimately. Hart says, For the time being, true, a part of Israel is hardened, but this will remain the case only until the ”full entirety” [that is the pleroma] of the Gentiles enter in. The unbelievers among the children of Israel may have been allowed to stumble, but God will never allow them to fall. Hart's just saying that Israel's reluctance or slowness to believing that Jesus is the Messiah is just slowing down the progress of history to give everyone else a chance to catch up to it. Quoting Hart again, We're in Romans now, 11:11. This then is the radiant answer dispelling the shadows of Paul's grim what if in the ninth chapter of Romans. It's clarion negative. It turns out that there is no final illustrative division between the vessels of wrath and vessels of mercy. That was a grotesque, all too human thought that can now be chased away for good. God's wisdom far surpasses ours, and his love can accomplish all that it intends. “He has bound everyone in disobedience so as to show mercy to everyone.” [That's Romans 11:32.] All are vessels of wrath precisely so that all may be made vessels of mercy. . . That Paul's great attempt to demonstrate that God's election is not some arbitrary act of predilective exclusion, but instead a providential means for bringing about the unrestricted inclusion of all persons, has been employed for centuries to advance what is quite literally the very teaching that he went to such great lengths explicitly to reject. . . Yet this is still not my principal point. I want to say something far more radical. I want to say that there is no way in which persons can be saved as persons except in and with all other persons. This may seem an exorbitant claim, but I regard it as no more than an acknowledgment of certain obvious truths about the fragility, dependency, and exigency of all that make us who and what we are. Oh, this is a very interesting portion. Okay, listen to this. Jumping to page 149. No soul is who or what it is in isolation, and no soul's sufferings can be ignored without the sufferings of a potentially limitless number of other souls being ignored as well. And so it seems if we allow the possibility that even so much as a single soul might slip away unmourned into everlasting misery, the ethos of heaven turns out to be “every soul for itself”—which is also, curiously enough, precisely the ethos of hell. But Christians are obliged, it seems clear, to take seriously the eschatological imagery of scripture. And there all talk of salvation involves the promise of a corporate beatitude, a kingdom of love and knowledge, a wedding feast, a city of the redeemed, the body of Christ, which means that the hope Christians cherish must in some way involve the preservation of whatever is deepest in and most essential to personality rather than a perfect escape from personality. But finite persons are not self-enclosed individual substances. They are dynamic events of relation to what is other than themselves. And then Hart summons up the idea of a single recurrent image, he says, That of a parent whose beloved child has grown into quite an evil person, but who remains a parent nevertheless, and therefore keeps and cherishes countless tender memories of the innocent and delightful being that has now become lost in the labyrinth of that damaged soul. Is all of that, those memories, those anxieties and delights, those feelings of desperate love, really to be consigned to the fire as just so much combustible chaff? Must it all be forgotten or willfully ignored for heaven to enter into that parent's soul? And if so, is this not the darkest tragedy ever composed? And is God not then a tragedian utterly merciless in his poetic omnipotence? Who or what is that being whose identity is no longer determined by its relation to that child? [Skipping to page 153] Personhood as such is not a condition possible for an isolated substance. It is an act, not a thing. And it is achieved only in and through a history of relations with others. We are finite beings in a state of becoming, and in us there is nothing that is not an action, dynamism, an emergence into a fuller or a retreat into a more impoverished existence. And so, as I said in my first meditation, we are those others who make us. Spiritual personality is not mere individuality, nor is personal love one of its merely accidental conditions or extrinsic circumstances. A person is first and foremost a limitless capacity, a place where the all shows itself with a special inflection. We exist as the place of the other, to borrow a phrase from Michel de Certeau. Certainly, this is the profoundest truth in the doctrine of resurrection. That we must rise from the dead to be saved is a claim not simply about resumed corporeality, whatever that might turn out to be, but more crucially, about the fully restored existence of the person as socially, communally, corporately constituted. Each person is a body within the body of humanity, which exists in its proper nature only as the body of Christ. Well, that's pretty neat. See, we are nested fractal hierarchies of the pleroma of the Fullness of God. And if you've been with me a while, you know what that long and complicated sentence means. Picture a pyramidal shape, picture every living part of your body as building up the pyramid, and your conscious self is the capstone of that pleroma that makes up your body. Now, you are then nested along with all other humans into the pleroma of humanity, the body of humanity, also called the body of Adam. Just the way our cells nest up into building us, we nest up into building the great body of humanity. And then, Hart is saying this body of humanity exists in its proper nature only as the body of Christ, because when we then nest up and make Christ the king of our pleroma, we are nested into the Fullness of Christ. And that is what the final salvation resting point is. When we all finally pass through the final judgment and nest up into Christ, then we're all nested up into the pleroma, we're all nested up into the Son. And there we are. And we will still have our lives the way the Fullness has their lives. They dream together as one of paradise. And that's where we're headed. Hart says, Our personhood must truly consist not only in the immediate love of those close at hand, but also in our disposition toward those whom we, by analogy, care for from afar. Or even in the abstract, for the most essential law of charity, of love, when it is truly active, is that it must inexorably grow beyond all immediately discernible boundaries in order to be fulfilled and to continue to be active. And all of those in whom each of us is implicated, and who are implicated in each of us, are themselves in turn implicated and intertwined in countless others, and on and on without limit. We belong of necessity to an indissoluble co-inherence of souls. And I think that down here on the physical level, on the material plane, the demiurgic version of that shared coherence of all souls together is quantum entanglement. That's the Demiurge's material version of how we are implicated and intertwined with every other soul. And now he goes on to say something that's very Gnostic. On the next page, Hart says, There may be within each of us—indeed there surely is—that divine spark, that divine light or spark of nous or spirit or atman that is the abiding presence of God in us, the place of radical sustaining divine imminence, nearer to me than my inmost parts. But that light is the one undifferentiated ground of our existence, not the particularity of our personal existence, in and with one another. Oh, hey, there it is. That's what I'm always saying. This one spark, that's what we call the big S Self. And the particularity of our personal existence is what we here at Gnostic Insights label as our Ego. So we are made up of the Self that we share with all others and that we share with the Son, but we are also our own individual existence. That's why we can't just blink out into nothingness and not be missed, because we have our particularity, and it has its own place in the hierarchy. Then Hart says, But then this is to say that either all persons must be saved or that none can be. [He says,] God could, of course, erase each of the elect as whoever they once were by shattering their memories and attachments like the gates of hell and then raise up some other being in each of their places, thus converting the will of each into an idiot bliss stripped of the loves that made him or her this person, associations and attachments and pity and tenderness and all the rest. If that were the case, only in hell could any of us possess something like a personal destiny, tormented perhaps by the memories of the loves we squandered or betrayed, but not deprived of them altogether. [Jumping to 157, he says], I am not I in myself alone, but only in all others. If then anyone is in hell, I too am partly in hell. . . For the whole substance of Christian faith is the conviction that another has already and decisively gone down into that abyss for us to set all the prisoners free, even from the chains of their own hatred and despair, and hence the love that has made all of us who we are and that will continue throughout eternity to do so, cannot ultimately be rejected by anyone. Amen. And that's the end of the third meditation. Now the fourth meditation, we just don't even have time to get to. It's called, What is Freedom? And if you want to hear the fourth meditation in depth, please text me in the comments and ask for more David Bentley Hart That All Shall Be Saved. But as for now, this treatise on what is freedom? I'll actually just jump to the last page and skip all of the explanations. The fourth meditation, What is Freedom? is all about free will. I guess I'll include it in some future episode about free will and just quote Hart extensively in that episode. But to close it out, Hart says, It would make no sense to suggest that God, who is by nature not only the source of being, but also the good and the true and the beautiful and everything else that makes spirits exist as rational beings, would truly be all in all if the consummation of all things were to eventuate merely in a kind of extrinsic divine supremacy over creation. But God is not a god, [or as we would say, the God Above All Gods is not the Demiurge, is how we would put it in Gnostic terms]. And his final victory, as described in scripture, will consist not merely in his assumption of perfect supremacy over all, but also in his ultimately being all in all. Could there then be a final state of things in which God is all in all, while yet there existed rational creatures whose inward worlds consisted in an eternal rejection of and rebellion against God as the sole and consuming and fulfilling end of the rational will's most essential nature? If this fictive and perverse interiority were to persist into eternity, would God's victory over every sphere of being really be complete? Or would that small miserable residual flicker of Promethean defiance remain forever as the one space in creation from which God has been successfully expelled? Surely it would, so it too must pass away. All right, that ends this long episode, because I was trying to wrap up the entire book, which I almost did. Write to me, tell me what you think of this sort of thing. I'd especially like to hear from people who used to be Christians, or who were raised in the church, and who fell away from the church because of some of these very problems and conundrums that we've been talking about for the last four episodes. God bless us all, and onward and upward! If you find these gnostic insights meaningful, please donate to the cause. Cyd pays for these podcasts out of her retirement money, and the well is running dry. If I am to keep this up, I need your financial assistance as well as your good company. I thank my (very few) paid subscibers from the bottom of my heart to the top of my pleroma. Please help. Please enable JavaScript in your browser to complete this form.Name *FirstLastEmail *Stripe Credit Card *Choose your item *Item A - $10.00Item B - $25.00Item C - $50.00Total$0.00Submit

WAIT CONFERENCE'26 | Day 7 | CHIMDI OHAHUNA Worship is The Affirmative Response to Divine Identity Main Bible Text: Genesis 1:1–3 | Job 13:15 | Deuteronomy 6:4 | 2 Corinthians 3:18 | Romans 8:35–39 | Jeremiah 31:3 | 2 Thessalonians 2:16 | Romans 5:8 In this revelatory session of WAIT CONFERENCE'26, we journey into the heart of worship; not as a song or a moment, but as a bold declaration of agreement with the eternal truth: God is One, yet reveals Himself as Father, Son (the Word), and Holy Spirit. Just as the atom, composed of electron, proton, and neutron; forms the basic unit of life, and mankind is made of spirit, soul, and body, so too is the divine nature expressed in perfect unity. Key Revelation: Worship is not merely emotional expression; it is spiritual alignment. It is the believer's “yes” to the truth that we are made in the image and likeness of the triune God (Genesis 1:27–28). To reject who God is, is to reject who we are. But to behold Him is to be transformed into His likeness (2 Corinthians 3:18). Highlights from this episode include: - The divine pattern of creation: Father, Spirit, and Word in perfect harmony - The science of the atom as a mirror of divine unity - Why worship is impossible without identity; seeing God in you - The liberating power of truth and the bondage of denial - How worry wars against worship, and why surrender is the highest form of trust - The unshakable love of God: the same love He has for Himself, He has for you "God will take care of me the same way He takes care of Himself." This is not just a comforting thought, it's a revelation that fuels fearless worship. When we understand that God's love for us is everlasting and equal to the love within the Godhead, we are empowered to worship with our whole being, even in the face of adversity (Job 13:15; Romans 8:35–39). Beloved, tune in to be awakened, aligned, and anchored in the truth that sets you free. Let this session ignite a deeper, more intimate worship—one that flows from identity, not insecurity; from revelation, not religion. Jesus is Lord.

Humanity adds a new face to creation, reflective of the Divine. But it's not without controversy.

Jesus Carrying the Fallen Home: Recovering the Divine Image Within Today's Homily examines Luke's parables of the Lost Sheep and the Lost Coin, . . . . . . traditionally understood as images of God's mercy toward individual sinners. However, the Homily recalls the early Church Fathers' broader view: that these parables describe God's saving action toward all humanity . . . the whole human race as the “lost sheep” and “lost coin.” Christ, the Good Shepherd, leaves heaven to rescue fallen humanity, lifting it upon His shoulders through the Cross and carrying it home in the Resurrection. Yet salvation is not passive . . . grace strengthens sinners to repent and cooperate with redemption. Those who respond actively to grace and strive to restore the divine image within themselves bring great joy to heaven. Humanity made in God's Image but Disfigured by Sin The parable of the woman and the lost coin deepens this image: the coin bears the image of the King, symbolizing humanity made in God's image but disfigured by sin. The woman's lamp represents Christ, the light of the Incarnation, illuminating and searching the “house” of the human soul. True repentance, then, is an interior cleansing—overturning what hides God's image until it shines again. Finally, as November continues . . . the Church's month of prayer for the departed . . . the Homily connects this teaching to the work of mercy in praying for souls in purgatory. Just as Christ carries fallen humanity, we carry our departed loved ones by prayer, helping them journey toward full union with God. This act renews the divine image in us as well, joining us to Christ's redemptive mission and the joy of heaven. Listen to this Meditation Media. Listen to: Jesus Carrying the Fallen Home: Recovering the Divine Image Within The Parable of the Lost Sheep: William George Rich: late 1800s Return to Meditation Media Gospel Reading: Luke 15:1-10 First Reading: Romans 14:7-12

Homily Title: Reconstructing Prayer: From a Contest to a  Doorway While many of the ideas and practices handed down to us about God and the church may have shifted, there is something about Jesus we still find compellingly beautiful. Often, after letting go of what wasn't working, we struggle to find a way forward that shapes our lives to mirror the Beloved Community of God.    Brandon Kinder continues our Fall Vision series, Reconstructing Rhythms, by offering several practices for allowing prayer to be a doorway bringing us closer to both our authentic self and the One whose Divine Image we bear. [John 21:1-14]   Reflection  How might the purpose of prayer seem different now than when we were younger? When do you feel the most connected to the divine? Try not to look at your phone right now. Resource PDF: Vox Doorways to Prayer

In this episode of our podcast, Tzvi Sinensky,  co-editor of TRADITION's special issue on the intellectual legacy of Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, speaks with author Alex Israel about his essay in the volume, “Not by Might: Aversion to Power in Rabbi Sacks' Writings.” They begin with Rabbi Sacks' 2016 debate with Rabbi Shlomo Riskin on the pages of The Jewish Review of Books about Judaism's complicated relationship with power. From there, the conversation turns to Rabbi Sacks' reading of Genesis as a rejection of myth and his vision of “Divine Image” as a moral counterweight to power. They discuss how Rabbi Sacks imagined a covenantal society bound by a shared narrative, and how he might have responded in the wake of October 7th. Watch a video recording of this conversation. See details of the special double-issue of TRADITION and order your copy. Rabbi Alex Israel, author, podcaster and international lecturer, teaches at Midreshet Lindenbaum, Yeshivat Eretz Hatzvi, and the Rabbi Sacks Legacy. Rabbi Dr. Tzvi Sinensky is Director of the Lamm Legacy Project, and Director of Judaic Studies at Main Line Classical Academy.The post Not By Might first appeared on Tradition Online.

Jewish Pro-Life Show: How to be an Advocate for Unborn Life With honorable guests, Rabbi Alan Betsalel Friedlander and Rabbi Ze'ev Smason, and special appearance by Rabbi Yakov David Cohen. Rabbi Alan Betsalel Friedlander is a lecturer for Congregation Yeshiva Yaakov Ovenu, and founder of the pro life discussion group, People for Public Morality. Rabbi Friedlander answers many questions about Torah and Judaism on Quora and on his blogs. His pro life blog can be found at https://publicmorality.blogspot.com. Contact Rabbi Friedlander at rabbifriedlander@gmail.com Rabbi Ze'ev Smason, located in St. Louis, Missouri, is the Midwestern Regional VP of the ) and Chairman of CJV Missouri. https://coalitionforjewishvalues.org/missouri/ A former congregational rabbi and associate director of a Jewish adult outreach organization, Rabbi Smason currently advocates for traditional Jewish values in matters of public policy, teaches classes and writes op-eds. Contact Rabbi Smason at zsmason@cjvalues.org Rabbi Yakov Dovid Cohen is the founder and director of Institute of Noahide Code, https://noahide.org Rabbi Cohen received his Bachelor's Degree at the Rabbinical College of America in 1982 and was ordained in 1985 at the United Lubavitcher Yeshiva New York, and a degree from Monash University Australia 1992. Renowned Talmudic scholar and Dayan, a writer on various Jewish subjects, most recently worked on a compilation of the Rebbe's works for Noahide practice and a book titled Divine Image, https://www.amazon.com/Divine-Image-Yakov-David-Cohen/dp/1505782430 Contact Rabbi Cohen at (646) 833-9448 and email rabbicohen@noahide.org How to Give a Torah Class on Abortion https://publicmorality.blogspot.com/ Rabbi Alan Betsalel Friedlander, People for Public Morality, Brooklyn, NY  Rabbi Ze'ev Smason, Coalition for Jewish Values, St. Louis, MO  Click here to download a PDF version https://rabbifriedlander.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/howtogiveatorahclassonabortion_friedlander_smason28229-2.pdf AAPLOG https://aaplog.org The Pro-Life Reply to: "Is Abortion Ever Medically https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TmomK2RB2A Human Life International https://www.hli.org What Percentage of Abortions Are Medically Necessary? https://www.hli.org/resources/what-percentage-of-abortions-are-medically-necessary/ Identifying High Risk abortion patients http://www.theunchoice.com/pdf/OnePageFactSheets/PsychologicalRisksSheet1.pdf Suicide risks associated with pregnancy outcomes: a national cross-sectional survey of American females 41-45 years of age https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39838528/ Half of Abortion Patients' Suicide Attempts Self-Attributed to Their Abortions, New Study of Random Sample https://afterabortion.org/suicidestudy/ Suicides After Abortion Remain High Despite Better Screening Guidelines https://afterabortion.org/suicides-after-abortion-remain-high-despite-better-screening-guidelines/ At the Jewish Pro-Life Foundation, we're making the original pro-life religion pro-life again! News, education, enlightenment and spiritual renewal. Saving Jewish Lives & Healing Jewish Hearts by providing the Jewish community with Pro-Life Education, Pregnancy Care and Adoption Referrals, and Healing After Abortion. https://jewishprolifefoundation.org www.jewishprolifefoundation.co.il FaceBook https://www.facebook.com/JewishProLifeFoundation/ LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/jewishprolife/ YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCk8B3l4KxJX4T9l8F5l-wkQ MeWe https://mewe.com/i/cecilyroutman TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@jewishprolife X https://twitter.com/JewishProLife Gab https://gab.com/JewishProLife Telegram https://t.me/JewishProLIfeFoundation Instagram https://www.instagram.com/cecilyroutman/ GETTR https://gettr.com/user/prolifececily Rumble https://rumble.com/c/JewishProLifeFoundation TruthSocial https://truthsocial.com/@prolifececily Brighteon Social https://brighteon.social/@ProLifeCecily Podcasts https://jewishprolife.libsyn.com/ The Jewish Pro-Life Foundation is an IRS approved 501(c)3 non-profit educational  public charity. We are committed to Torah and Jewish Tradition. We are not affiliated with any particular Jewish denomination, political organization or any other religious organization or movement.  

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Christa Pfeiffer, soprano, Jo Giessler, piano, Stephen Main, bass, Piedmont Community Church, Piedmont, California

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Current Sermon Series At the End of the Day: 7 Questions for Mindful Living May 4 – June 22 The Apostle Paul once wrote, “Test yourselves to make sure you are solid in the faith. Don't drift along taking everything for granted. Give yourselves regular checkups. You need firsthand evidence… that Christ is in you. Test it out” (2 Corinthians 13:5, The Message). With those words, Paul urges us to take inventory of our lives daily—to “review the tapes” to see where we might have lived up to our faith, and where we might have fallen short. In this series, we'll put a new twist on an old form of prayer called “The Examen” which gives us a formula for intentional self-examination at the end of each day. How can we yield our own will to God's purposes if we are not conscious of our own shortcomings? How can we see where God has shown up in our lives if we do not reflect on the experiences and encounters of our day?  Join us as we explore 7 questions for honest self-examination at the end of our day.

“Do You Look Like Your Father?” by Pastor MarkJoin us as we reflect on the implications of the divine image within us and its significance in our daily lives. Discover how understanding God's spirit shapes our existence and perspective. #firstbaptistwelcome #DivineImage #GodInUs #SpiritualReflection #FaithJourney #BiblicalInsights #UnderstandingGod #SpiritualGrowth #ImageOfGod #FaithAndLife #InspirationalTalksOur service times are every Sunday morning service at 11am.We also do a Live Service on Youtube, Facebook, and our website.Online giving: https://firstbaptistwelcome.com/giving/#firstbaptistwelcome #salvation Our service times are Sunday school - 9:45 am all agesSunday service - 11am (LIVE) as wellYouth service(Jesus Mafia) - 6:30pmTuesday night - Ladies Online Bible Study - More info https://firstbaptistwelcome.com/online-bible-study/Wednesday night 6:30 Men's bible studyFeel free to learn more about this church and our ministries and activities. Web - https://firstbaptistwelcome.comFB - https://www.facebook.com/FBCWelcomeOnlineInstagram - firstbaptistwelcomeYouTube - -First Baptist Church WelcomeOur LIVE services are on Website www.firstbaptistwelcome.com YouTube( First Baptist Church Welcome) and FaceBook (about 11:30, just after the praise music) FBCWelcomeOnline

Love to hear from you; “Send us a Text Message”There a spiritual battle raging in our culture! Join us as we unpack the profound insights of JD Vance and Sister Lucia of Fatima, examining how marriage and family stand as pillars against modern cultural upheaval. An encounter with Jesus Christ is vital in this ongoing battle against forces undermining life and love.God's grace, especially as Sister Faustina had painted in the Divine Image, is a powerful antidote to the spiritual void in society today, revitalizing both body and soul. As we address the challenges posed by radical ideologies and cultural shifts, we propose a compassionate approach that recognizes every individual as a "beloved child of God." This perspective not only affirms inherent dignity but also fosters unity, inviting us to journey towards the truth of our humanity.Our bodies are sacred vessels of divine love, designed to reflect the eternal exchange of God's own nature. This episode reveals how embodying grace allows us to manifest divine love, offering a counter-narrative to cultural views that diminish the sacred. We delve into the sacramental nature of marriage and the human body! Join Claymore and Gen Z as they set out on the path to find a life of love, selflessness, and moral courage, embracing their universal call to holiness.(The Video-Podcast of this Episode will be made available on Rumble. For past episodes on Video visit our Rumble Channel and don't forget to subscribe!)Follow us and watch on X: John Paul II Renewal @JP2Renewal Link to JD Vance on X! On Rumble: JohnPaulIIRCCatch up with the latest on our website: jp2renew.org and Sign up for our Newsletter!!  Contact Jack: info@jp2renew.orgRead Jack's Blog: https://jp2renew.org/Support the show

Godward The Wilderness Steps: Spiritual Wisdom and Understanding by Larry D. McClureIn the beginning, God in mind moved with energy and intelligence and idealized the perfect form that would embody His very essence and Divine Image - the Perfect-Son idea. As the thought-form of the Perfect-Son takes on consciousness it becomes "Spirit-man" with its own feelings, emotions and free-will. As Spirit-man's thoughts became selfish it sought to express itself away from the Creator and entered the earth plane where it became entangled in materialism. Its consciousness now more "earthy" than "heavenly," and its thoughts dualistic, believing in both good and evil (The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil).Spirit-man is now the "Natural-man," a living being (Adam) and subject to all the physical laws. Living in the earth plane away from his Maker, Natural-man's mind becomes depraved, his actions perverted and unnatural. If Natural-man is not spiritually reborn he will forever be lost in a world of wandering and uncertainty (darkness).Godward The Prodigal Steps recounts the fall of Spirit-man and his struggle to understand his physical experience. The Prodigal Steps have returned him to the "Birth-Line" and now he must complete The Wilderness Steps; be spiritually reborn and continue his journey Godward.Larry D. McClure's profound exploration of Spirituality continues to captivate readers with his timeless wisdom and transformative insights. His works offer a deep dive into biblical narratives, metaphysical principles, and the human journey, providing readers with a roadmap for personal growth and spiritual enlightenment. Drawing upon 40 years of dedicated research and study, Mr. McClure embarks on a journey through the mysteries of existence. From genesis of the universe to the depths of the human soul his books offer a comprehensive exploration of timeless truths that transcend religious boundaries and cultural divides."We are all Prodigals; Everyone goes to the pigpen," remarks Mr. McClure, encapsulating the universal journey of human existence. His words resonate deeply with readers, offering hope and guidance in a world filled with suffering and despair.https://www.amazon.com/Godward-Wilderness-Steps-Spiritual-Understanding/dp/B0D9556RB2/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&dib_tag=se&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.eEXlBHPteQT-hXce7qxju6at3sNgIBMu6AHyR7rB3IWnlFpsu6Js8GtPz4hcro5VFAeXemglo96hln-rInLLnuRj8YN3hZeg2KUhterrUm3nODXiUSAL3zzINlJHzFe7VlC-k4nQ_JkgVADrW8RC09ozpPhB0iRVK_qZI_I791E2o6rPXBxhcfcZ3nSMluZPdkaowhlR2eyzF2HOikuED7l7UQYSzC8XSdB5Bt86TR_VPxSQpk-bG-OvQ2Y8nqF3KCyGh6SoEuE25Pu-RxYtRRXi_8ZakKZ50QMAj2jhl7s.j1GGg5yiQ3tnZgUjCSwP4svXpthkYpJ5PxNKLcMu6tk&qid=1733313482&sr=8-1http://www.godwardtheprodigalsteps.com  http://www.KingPagesPress.comhttp://www.bluefunkbroadcasting.com/root/twia/121224ldmkpp.mp3  

Translator           In this episode, Bryan's story is one of resilience, faith, and profound healing. He candidly recounts the highs and lows of his life—from the challenges of childhood, through the grip of addiction, to the heartbreaking loss of his son, Wesley. His journey highlights how faith, supported by a loving community, can lead to recovery and transformation. Inspired by Dr. Heiser's teachings, Bryan advocates for a church that embodies love over condemnation, emphasizing the unshakable truth that the divine image within us is never lost. This episode is an inspiring reminder that no matter your past, there is always a path toward healing and hope when faith and recovery unite.

Cross Defense returns with a look at Scripture's answer to the controversial question, what is a woman? Francis Pieper provides our theological road map. Grab your Bible, pop in your headphones, and check out your church's copy of Christian Dogmatics, Vol. I. Woman is a curious topic that the world doesn't grasp. But God does! This program originally aired on July 2, 2022. 

Imago Dei Conference (2024) The Mosaic Ceremonial Law's Perpetual Instruction For Divine Image Bearers - Dr. Glenn Dire

Imago Dei Conference (2024) MORAL LAW - The Perpetual Rule Of Obedience For Every Divine Image Bearer - Dr. Glenn Dire

We enter a new chapter examining the dignity of the human person, and Article 1 shows us that we have dignity because we are made in the image and likeness of God. We preserve that dignity when we exercise virtue and charity, and we do violence to it when we commit sin and evil acts. Fr. Mike hones in on the bold statement that we as humans are “the only creature on earth that God has willed for its own sake.” Today's readings are Catechism paragraphs 1699-1715. This episode has been found to be in conformity with the Catechism by the Institute on the Catechism, under the Subcommittee on the Catechism, USCCB. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/ciy Please note: The Catechism of the Catholic Church contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.

Cross Defense returns with a look at Scripture's answer to the controversial question, what is a woman? Francis Pieper provides our theological road map. Grab your Bible, pop in your headphones, and check out your church's copy of Christian Dogmatics, Vol. I. Woman is a curious topic that the world doesn't grasp. But God does! This program originally aired on July 2, 2022. 

In today's poem, from Songs of Innocence, we meet William Blake struggling to sort out his theological analogies. Get full access to The Daily Poem Podcast at dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribe

Pastor Dale Benson Matthew 5:5-6 (NLT) This is a message for everyone... Anyone wanting to understand what God seems to say we are to be like if we are going to be a part of His Kingdom. Matthew 5:5 (NLT) Humble = Meek = praus = The “Golden Mean" Far Left - The Golden Mean - Far Right Cowardice - Courage - Rashness Stinginess - Generosity - Extravagance Sloth - Ambition - Greed Secrecy - Honesty - Talking Too Much Depression - Good Humor - Buffoonery We live in a day and age where people have run to extremes, and we are beginning to gather around those extremes. We blame all the world's problems on our enemies while rarely looking to see if we have ventured too far the other way. We twist words to win. We contort to make our way of life seem normal. The way of the kingdom of God seems so contrary to us because we have contorted ourselves to the way of the world. Matthew 5:6 (NLT) In his book "Reflecting the Divine Image," H. Ray Dunning directs us toward a very relational understanding of Creation, The Fall, and its effects on how we view the world relationally. And as a result, how we should live ethical lives considering a relational understanding. Dikaosune - Justice/Righteousness = Right Related: - To God - To Others - To The World - To Self This is a message that is not just meant for fathers. It is meant for all of us who are a part of raising our children, which is all of us. When we dedicate our children, we all agree to pray for these families. We agree to be a community of right-relatedness. We vow to be a place where children are led to Christ; A place where Christ is reflected in our lives. I am going to demonstrate this through an illustration that may be new to some of you but is at the heart of how we see the lives of our families around here. The Jars of Marbles: This particular jar was used when my daughter was in 7" grade. I am now down to the last two marbles for my youngest son, and I have joked that I am losing my marbles, but that isn't true. You see the intentional discipleship of my children was not a job I did all by myself. - Teachers at The Childcare and Grove City Christian School - Small group leaders and volunteers in every area of NextGen - Upward coaches and coaches at Grove City Christian School - Family friends, pastors' staff, faculty, prayer ministry volunteers Being able to live in the right relatedness is a blessing. As I put this together, I could almost visualize the faces of people in the congregation and online beginning to have a slight epiphany or maybe even be inspired to attempt to do better to work on their relationships. But that is not what the passage is saying. It says, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after these rightly ordered relationships, for they will be filled." It is not enough to have a nice nostalgic feeling about working for these relationships. It takes a deep hunger. It takes work. Finding the Golden Mean is a difficult task. To find that middle way, what the early Anglican Church used to call "The Via Media" is no simple task. - We are told in scripture to STRIVE to maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. - We are told to FLEE temptation. - We are told to THROW off the sin that so easily entangles us. - We are told to submit our bodies as living sacrifices. - We are told that we will be blessed if we hunger and thirst for righteousness. We will be filled. Matthew 5:5-6 (NLT)

In this episode Caleb is joined by guest, Peter Gentry (PhD, University of Toronto) Distinguished Visiting Professor of Old Testament and Senior Research Fellow of the Text & Canon Institute at Phoenix Seminary and former Old Testament Professor at Southern Seminary (1999–2021) and Toronto Baptist Seminary (1984–1999). Together they discuss the crucial doctrine of the Imago Dei: what does it mean for humanity to be created in the the image and likeness of God? Resources: Kingdom through Covenant: A Biblical-Theological Understanding of the Covenants by Peter Gentry and Steve Wellum Biblical Studies: Volume 1 by Peter Gentry Humanity as the Divine Image in Genesis 1:26–28 by Peter Gentry (CBMW Article)

www.iservalan.com

You are not the same one that started this episode. Your life will never be the same-- the Love will be, God Is,  but your world is new. It's healed.  It's prosperous.  It's joyous.  It has begun.    I love you  I am you Nik  ************** Support the show: ▶▶https://www.patreon.com/goodmornings "She has found her rising. She has come to rest in the one who is at rest. She has reclined in the bridal chamber. She has eaten of the banquet for which she has hungered. She has partaken of immortal food. She has found what she has sought. She has received rest from her labors, and the light shining on her does not set. To the light belongs the glory and the power and the revelation, forever and ever. Amen." - Authoritative Discourse, Nag Hammadi scripture  "If you are truly watchful, each thought will dissolve at the moment that it appears." - Sri Annamalai Swami  The scriptures of the world say that we are made in God's image. If this is so, why don't we know that we are taintless and immortal, as He is? Why aren't we conscious of ourselves as embodiments of His spirit? Again, what does scripture say? "Be still, and know that I am God." "Pray without ceasing." By regular practice of yoga meditation with steady attention, the time will come when you suddenly say to yourself, "Oh! I am not this body, though I use it to communicate with this world; I am not this mind, with its emotions of anger, jealousy, hatred, greed, restlessness. I am that wonderful state of consciousness within. I am made in the divine image of God's bliss and love." - Sri Daya Mata

Upside Down Glory Where have you seen systems of oppression benefiting from the glorification of suffering? On this fifth Sunday of Lent, Christopher Mack glimpses an Upside Down Glory of God that does not require the renouncing of our Divine Image; sets us in solidarity on a path of downward mobility, and reveals the violence of othering and casting out. [John 12:23-32]   Reflection Are there deforming religious ideas of denying your humanity you are invited to name & renounce?  What might it look like to embody a self-giving love that honors your personhood as well as others? How might we become more aware of where our own impulse to cast ‘others' out drives us? Resources Book: The Wisdom Way of Knowing by Cynthia Bourgeault Exhibit: The Archaeology of Silence  by Kehinde Wiley at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston Film: X-Men: The Last Stand  Directed by Brett Ratner Written by Simon Kinberg & Zak Penn Book: Pleasure Activism by adrienne maree brown

Cecily compares recent videos of Dennis Prager, whose Americafest TPUSA speech connecting leftist policies with Hamas support lacked even a mention of the intentional killing of pre-born babies, with the recent Rabbi Dovid Smith video about the crimes of euthanasia and the intentional killing of pre-born babies. Also, Rabbi Alan Betsalel Friedlander's insightful blog post explaining the semantical inaccuracies made by Jewish abortion debaters that lead to widespread misunderstanding of Torah's prohibition of shedding innocent blood. Dennis Prager Speech at Americafest TPUSA https://www.amfest.com/dennis-prager-full-speech?s=09 The War Against the Divine Image with Rabbi Smith and Rabbi Dr. Glassman https://www.rabbismith.org/post/the-war-against-the-divine-image-rabbi-smith-and-rabbi-dr-glassman-speak-out-against-euthanasia Pre-Term Delivery and the Jewish Legal Debate on Abortion http://publicmorality.blogspot.com Premature Delivery is Not Induced Abortion https://aaplog.org/premature-delivery-is-not-induced-abortion/ Support After Abortion https://supportafterabortion.com Planned Parenthood Collected $1,780 in Tax Dollars for Every Baby It Killed in Abortion https://www.lifenews.com/2023/12/20/planned-parenthood-collected-1780-in-tax-dollars-for-every-baby-it-killed-in-abortion/ Handbook of Maternal Mortality: Addressing the U.S. Maternal Mortality Crisis, Looking Beyond Ideology https://lozierinstitute.org/handbook-of-maternal-mortality-addressing-the-u-s-maternal-mortality-crisis-looking-beyond-ideology/   At the Jewish Pro-Life Foundation, we're making the original pro-life religion pro-life again! News, education, enlightenment and spiritual renewal. Saving Jewish Lives & Healing Jewish Hearts by providing the Jewish community with Pro-Life Education, Pregnancy Care and Adoption Referrals, and Healing After Abortion. To learn more visit https://jewishprolifefoundation.org/ Follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JewishProLifeFoundation/ Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/JewishProLife Follow us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCk8B3l4KxJX4T9l8F5l-wkQ Follow us on MeWe: https://mewe.com/i/cecilyroutman Follow us on Gab: https://gab.com/JewishProLife Clouthub: https://app.clouthub.com/forum#/users/u/ProLifeCecily Follow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cecily-routman-3085ab140/ Follow us on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/cecilyroutman/ Follow us on Gettr: https://gettr.com/user/prolifececily Follow us on Brighteon Social: https://brighteon.social/@ProLifeCecily Follow us on Rumble: https://rumble.com/c/JewishProLifeFoundation Follow us on TruthSocial:https://truthsocial.com/@prolifececily Follow us on The Prepared Homestead: https://www.tphnetwork.com/members/14768026/feed Follow us on Telegram: https://t.me/JewishProLife Follow us on Podcasts: https://jewishprolife.libsyn.com/ Donate: https://jewishprolifefoundation.org/donate    The Jewish Pro-Life Foundation is an IRS approved 501(c)3 non-profit educational  public charity. We are committed to Torah and Jewish Tradition. We are not affiliated with any political organization or any other religious organization or movement.

We enter a new chapter examining the dignity of the human person, and Article 1 shows us that we have dignity because we are made in the image and likeness of God. We preserve that dignity when we exercise virtue and charity, and we do violence to it when we commit sin and evil acts. Fr. Mike hones in on the bold statement that we as humans are “the only creature on earth that God has willed for its own sake.” Today's readings are Catechism paragraphs 1699-1715. This episode has been found to be in conformity with the Catechism by the Institute on the Catechism, under the Subcommittee on the Catechism, USCCB. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/ciy Please note: The Catechism of the Catholic Church contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.

In this powerfully enlightening episode, James is diving deep into the heart of manhood and uncovering the essence of personhood from a Catholic perspective! Get ready, gentlemen, because we're about to embark on a profound journey through "The Apocalypse of the Sovereign Self" with none other than Gil Bailie.Imagine a mix of deep spiritual insights and unwavering masculine strength as Gil, a founding member of The Colloquium on Violence and Religion, and a proud member of the esteemed Fellowship of Catholic Scholars, guides us through the rugged terrain of understanding our human identity.Like what you heard? Maybe you just enjoy reading James's show notes? Please prayerfully consider supporting the podcast on our Patreon page. to help grow the show to reach as many men as possible! Thank you for your prayers and support. As always, please pray for us! We are men who are striving every day to be holy, to become saints and we cannot do that without the help of the Holy Ghost! Get social with us:Follow us on Instagram. Join our listener-only Facebook groupSubscribe to our YouTube page to see our manly and holy facesResources mentioned in the episode:Purchase the book hereFind out more about Gil here"The Only Poem" by Leonard Cohen  Drink more Coffee! Get your caffeine fix at CatholicCoffee! Use code Manly at checkout to get 15% off your order! Support the showContact us directly at themanlycatholic@gmail.com. Support the show on PatreonPartners: Big thank you to TAN Books for sponsoring the podcast. Use the code "manlycatholic" at checkout to get 15% off your order and support the podcast in the process! Grab an amazing cup of coffee at CatholicCoffee.com! Use code Manly at check-out to get 15% off your order! Rugged Rosaries started on a holy mission and continues to this day. They produce manly Rosaries that will withstand children's snot, getting caught on the door handle, and so much more! James finally found a Rosary that won't break on him. Use the special code: MANLY12 to get 12% off your order! As always, please pray for us! We are men who are striving every day to be holy, to become saints and we cannot do that without the help of the Holy Ghost!

Brent Billings, Josh Bossé, and Elle Grover Fricks gather once again around the fire and wrestle with the radical implications of putting the Divine Image into practice.Presentation for Sanctuary — Traversing the Mishkan (PDF)“Man as the Image of God in Genesis in the Light of Ancient Near Eastern Parallels” by Edward Mason Curtis — University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommonsImage of God — WikipediaBEMA 248: Joy and Lot's Untitled Wife w/ Elle Grover Fricks

TDAgiantslayer@gmail.com    Brought to you by wellbuiltbody.com    97X     PODBEAN   Apple Podcast    10 years ago a lot of up and coming companies -many in the tech field- were firing people over 50 and hiring 35 and under… they could pay them less and work them harder… or so they thought. Now those same companies are firing 35 and under and are hiring 55 and older… why? well thats where we are going today.     Why hire over 55? They actually work… No surfing the internet, no whining, no excuses They don't want 16 weeks off when their girlfriend is pregnant… They don't expect a raise with for no other reason than they think they deserve one They will work weekends, They will work late, they will work early…     2 These. 3: 9 It wasn't that we didn't have the right to ask you to feed us, but we wanted to show you firsthand how you should work for your living. 10 Even while we were still there with you, we gave you this rule: “He who does not work shall not eat.” 11 Yet we hear that some of you are living in laziness, refusing to work, and wasting your time in gossiping. 12 In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ we appeal to such people—we command them—to quiet down, get to work, and earn their own living. 13 And to the rest of you I say, dear brothers, never be tired of doing right. 14 If anyone refuses to obey what we say in this letter, notice who he is and stay away from him, that he may be ashamed of himself. 15 Don't think of him as an enemy, but speak to him as you would to a brother who needs to be warned.   God created man on the sixth day with two basic purposes by which he would fulfill his primary purpose to glorify God as a bearer of the Divine Image(that is i.e. our way to make God look good): working and multiplying.  Paul says I will give you a command: It means more than just a command (and it does mean a command) but the underlying meaning is “Hey News flash… you don't work, you don't eat - figure it out… what are you stupid!)   Now this verse isn't just for those who won't work… but the principle is broader than that… you might have a job, but you are still lazy. You still expect things to get handed to you. You want a raise, a promotion, a longer vacation… even without putting in the work. Things seem unfair, you seem ok living with your parents or your 3 friends… You think someday it will just figure itself out…   WAKE UP CALL: Paul says… do not associate with those people. Why? So they might be ashamed… Does God shame people - well yes, Luke 13:16,17 but more specifically this word means it will cause people to take a solemn serious look at what their actions are causing… So I recommended a guy for a job a few years ago… he got the job and then sucked at it… so now here are the solemn consequences…  - If a young woman was watching- she now knows don't date this guy he can't even keep a job and he is not tough enough to make it work… marriage will eat him up  - He has now cemented his habit again… making it even harder to stick with a job or a hard situation. When you quit, you are a quitter and its easier to quit anything hard  - he will now again think life is unfair… which will lead to his low self esteem, he becomes a victim  - he has not built a good resume for a future job  - he has made sure that i will never recommend him again for a job  - His parents now wrestle with guilt, frustration, anger and more seeing their son as a quitter  - he now has most likely kept a very hard working man who legitimately has a family with needs and who would be a great worker… he is keeping that guy from getting a job… how so? well now if I send that guy to my friend, my friend will say “the last guy you sent me sucked… so I am not taking my chances on this other guy”.  - You are looked down upon by your peers. My best friends are workaholics. they sweat, bleed, push, work more harder and are providers… and we all look poorly on those who don't work  - and because of that You now hang with quitters… Hard workers don't want to hang out with quitters  - You are losing time. If you had stuck with that sucky job from 3 years ago, you would probably be making more, with a promotion or two…  - you have kept yourself from tasting the victory of perseverance through adversity. I have pictures on my phone from the last 10 years where I was painting houses, picking up trash, mowing lawns, moving furniture… They all sucked, they were all hard work and I was gifted in none of them… but now I have the taste of perseverance in my life. and you become addicted to working hard and persevering.    Have you ever heard someone say “I wish I had your job… travel around and just talk and get paid”. I had a kid say this to me at a school… my response was this.. You couldn't handle the world I live in. You can't even keep your saggy ass pants up… hanging down. You think when I negotiated the contract with the state of florida I walked in with my pants hanging down. I had to read 20 pages of a contract and understand it… I asked the kid how many books he thought I had read to write, memorize and speak and get paid, over a 500. I asked him what my tax liabilities are working in Florida but living in Minnesota, I asked him if there is a dispute over non-payment do we argue that point in my state or the other persons state…  I asked him what job he currently has in order to use that as seed money to put into flyers, postage, airfare and conventions in order to build relationships to get gigs to speak. I asked him how much schooling he has… I have my Masters in management…  Hard work trumps everything… and God does not bless laziness, excuses, tardiness, apathy, lethargy, whining, victimhood or your lack of responsibility.     

Fr. Roger J. Landry Columbia Catholic Ministry, Notre Dame Parish, Manhattan Tuesday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time, Year I Votive Mass for the Family February 7, 2023 Gen 1:20-2:4, Ps 8, Mk 7:1-13   To listen to an audio recording of today's homily, please click below:  https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/2.7.23_Homily_1.mp3   The following points were attempted […] The post Growing in the Divine Image and Honoring God with Our Heart, Fifth Tuesday (I), February 7, 2023 appeared first on Catholic Preaching.

Rabbi Perl discusses the divine image af Chanukah.

"In the Divine Image"- our spiritual responsibility to the nations.

Fr. Tom discusses St. Paul's exhortation to have nothing to do with idols. Idols bring a communion of death, while the Divine Image of God destroys death and brings life.

Fr. Tom discusses St. Paul's exhortation to have nothing to do with idols. Idols bring a communion of death, while the Divine Image of God destroys death and brings life.

  Topics: Pastor Shortages Do you have to love your job? Jesus and the terrifying “narrow door” (Luke 13:22-30) Rapture crazy-talk Mental illness in the ministry   COMING UP: Ringside Podcast Symposium: September 19-22 at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis Community College: Friday, November 4 at Grace Lutheran in Ventura, CA   Thank you:  1517.org  and Concordia Seminary, St. Louis and thejaggedword.com Grace Lutheran Ventura St. James Lutheran, Chicago   Monthly Sponsors: Eddie Switek, Blayne Watts, ITO Radio America   YOU CAN BE A RINGSIDE SPONSOR:  https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=TZBU7UQQAWEVN   Music: Joel Allen Hess  "Man"- More on bandcamp Dead Horse One - I love my man     Other stuff: The Divine Image, William Blake craftofpreaching.com Younger Pastors More Likely to Say They Struggle With Mental Illness, Christianity Today

This year, the familiar back-to-school windup includes a growing sense of trepidation for many parents. A host of faddish ideologies, and the ham-fisted ways of imposing them, adds to their worries (or at least should). Revised historicism, sex and gender ideologies, even the seemingly harmless Social and Emotional Learning are all expressions of Critical Theory in some form or fashion.  Of course, many ideas out of accord with Christian teaching have been taught by schools, but these reject core realities of what it means to be human. Critical Theory in any form, whether established academic theory or mere cultural mood, categorizes people as members of particular groups and either awards or reduces social and moral merit based on those groups. This is something Christians must never do. As philosopher Douglas Groothuis writes in his analysis of the influence of Critical Theory in the U.S., “One's fundamental identity is being made in the Divine Image; it is not found in race or gender or social class.” Many parents have begun to see that whenever that primary identity is dismissed, all manner of confusion sets in.  Even so, this sort of thinking plays an outsized role in the rules and guidelines of our kids' schools. Recently, a colleague of mine, while enrolling her daughters at a new school, was assured by the principal that the curriculum and policies were “ideologically neutral” with respect to transgenderism. Wisely, my colleague pressed further, and asked a clarifying question. “What would happen if one of my daughter's classmates identified as trans? Would she be compelled to use their preferred pronoun?”   The principal replied, “We'd want to make sure we respect the viewpoints of everybody, and so, yes, we'd ask your daughter to use the correct pronouns.”   “What if she didn't?” my colleague clarified.   “In that case,” the principal conceded, “it would probably be grounds for a disciplinary conversation.” In other words, gender ideology wasn't taught, it was enforced, and in such a way as to assume that the matter was already settled.  That's only one of a half dozen or more stories I have heard so far this year. Parents must research schools, both policies and personnel. Unfortunately, some administrators simply don't have a grasp of how they will handle these issues. Even more find their hands tied by laws like Colorado's Gender Identity Expression Anti-Discrimination Act. By asking specific, sometimes uncomfortable questions, parents not only protect their own kids, they provide an opportunity for transparency, maybe even change. That protects everybody's kids from bad ideas that threaten to overtake every element of their lives.  A tremendous tool for parents is the Promise to America's Parents, a project of the Alliance Defending Freedom, in partnership with other organizations such as the Family Policy Alliance and the Heritage Foundation. In addition to legal assistance for those facing discrimination based on their religious convictions, this project gives a roadmap and a toolkit for parents when it comes to education and healthcare.   For example, did you know that “parents can regularly and proactively request in writing to… review the entirety of their child's education records, including any files involving counseling on gender identity issues”? Also, according to a guide on transgender ideology in schools from the Minnesota Family Council, parents have the right to request the policies for locker and restrooms to know if students identifying as transgender are allowed to use the opposite sex's changing rooms and toilet stalls. In addition, parents can review curriculum before it is delivered by teachers to their students.   Explicit rights afforded to parents differ state by state. For example, only 25 states and D.C. require schools to inform parents whenever sexuality is being taught. And, 36 states and D.C. openly allow opt-out options for sexual education. ADF has a sample opt-out letter for parents and other letters to request notification for any issue or ideology with which they are concerned.   And, of course, all of these concerns point back to a key premise too often forgotten. Parents are in charge of educating and protecting their children, not the state. More than ever, it is vital that parents take this right seriously. The Promise to America's Parents is one way to do that. In fact, on Friday August 19, I will join ADF, the Heritage Foundation, and others for a Celebration of the Promise to America's Parents. It will be livestreamed and absolutely free. Just visit adflegal.org/celebratethepromise to register.  Truth doesn't become falsehood because it's unpopular. The hard thing to do is also the loving thing to do, and both kids and educators need to know the difference. 

Cross Defense returns with a look at Scripture's answer to the controversial question, what is a woman? Francis Pieper provides our theological road map. Grab your Bible, pop in your headphones, and check out your church's copy of Christian Dogmatics, Vol. I. Woman is a curious topic that the world doesn't grasp. But God does! Host Rev. Tyrel Bramwell, pastor of St. Mark Lutheran Church in Ferndale, California, and author of the book Come in, We are Closed, talks about curious topics to excite the imagination, equip the mind, and comfort the soul with God's ordering of the world in the Law and Gospel. Send him your questions at stmarksferndale.com. You can find his videos at youtube.com/c/tyrelbramwell.

We are made in the divine image of God. Therefore, we are divine and we are godlike. When God looks at us, His hope is to see Himself through us. Genesis Chapter one starts off with the creative works of God. We too have the expression of God's creativity. No one should seek to be like anyone else, because what God has put inside of each one of us was done strategically and for a divine and unique purpose to glorify the Kingdom of God.

Girls of all ages and stages of life will gain a greater understanding of who we are in Christ and the love that He has for His daughters in this episode of the Pink Mug. Our very own Pastor Debbie Lindell shares a very powerful and grace-filled message on how each and every girl is intricately designed by God. It is our desire that you know how valuable you are to your heavenly Father and that through this episode He shows you that you were intentionally created – inside and out! We are so excited to share this very special episode with you – recorded LIVE at our 2021 Designed for Life Conference in Springfield, MO!

This week's podcast is a treat for me especially. I'm chatting with my good sis, Adiva- fashion blogger, modesty influencer, & beauty entrepreneur. Adiva gives her personal take on being a newly married wife while walking in the spirit of God modestly. This is a down to earth, homegirl conversation, so if you're ready for that- take a listen. Adiva is the brand owner of a fashion blog, a couples blog, a poppin youtube page & a budding lipstick line , The Shades Cosmetics. CONNECT WITH ADIVA: Fashion Blog: https://www.instagram.com/aydeeknowsmodesty/ Couples Blog: https://www.instagram.com/meettheisraels/ Cosmetics Company: https://www.instagram.com/meettheisraels/ https://www.theshadescosmetics.com/ Youtube Lifestyle Page: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVFLjm25EOYyV09wVfKiV-w WHAT TO LOOK FORWARD TO IN THIS PODCAST: How she has the courage to display modesty to mainstream social media How she developed her “passion for fashion” & how you can develop your style too What it truly means to restore the Divine Image of the woman How she manages her 3 brands & still has enough energy & time for wifely duties The difference she's seen between dating and courting Where to start if you want to become more modest in your daily life How she took the opportunity during the pandemic to start The Shades Cosmetics Ready to work on your mindset, heal yourself of the past & elevate to the feminine asset that the world needs you to be? Drop your email at www.iamgentlebeauty.com to be the first to find out when the Elevated Beauty Course will be out! Don't let 2021 pass you by and you're still doing the same thing, looking the same, & feeling the same way. It's time to Level UP!

Some people thrive and others collapse fought by the same temptations, in the same context, surrounded by the same people. St Paisius the Agiorite (St Paisius of the Holy Mountain) and St John of the Ladder teach us that a joyful disposition of the heart and the determination to see goodness in everyone can make the difference between spiritual life and death. We need to train our thoughts to always 'translate' the situations we face into good examples, into sources of strength, virtue and beauty. Depending on whether we decode this world through a lens of love or one of condemnation, the same temptations can feed the Divine Image in us or the nothingness in us.