ENTJ

How does it feel being a "Pompous Know-it-all Jerk"? Just great; Glad you asked; any questions?

So, when do you become a god? I hope not anytime soon. I enjoy games of chance too much.

Isn't betting considered a No-No by your Church? Absolutely, With me it's always an investment.

You have a reputation of going for the throat. What is it that sets you off? I am sadly misunderstood here at blogstream, I have the heart of a child . . . . . . . . in a jar on my desk. Other than that: CSI Miami

Many have speculated about your moniker. What is behind StealthArachnid? My brothers and extended family participated in the Smiling Moose Fantasy Football League. My team was the Screaming Arachnid Horde. My identity evolved from there.

The Ante-Nicene Fathers

(All Dates are A.D.)



The Apostolic Fathers

Clement of Rome, Born: 30, Died 100 Wrote: Epistle to the Corinthians

Polycarp, Born: 69, Died 155 Wrote: Epistle to the Philippians

Ignatius, Born: 30, Died 107 Wrote: Epistle to Polycarp, the Ephsians, and the Romans

Anonymous (150) Second Letter of Clement to the Corinthians

Papias, Born: 70, Died 155 Wrote: Exposition of the Oricles of the Lord (fragments)

Hermas, Died 170 Wrote: The Shepherd

The Apologists, includeing the Anti-Gnostic and Alexandrian Fathers

Aristides, (125) Wrote: Apology

Quadratus (126) fragments

Mathetes (130) Epistle to Diogetus

Justin Martyr, Born: 110, Died 165 Wrote: First Apology, Second Apology, Dialogue with Trypho (Scholarship agrees on these writings).

Tatian, Born: 110, Died 172 Wrote: Address to the Greeks

Melito of Sardis, Born: 160, Died 177 Wrote: Apology

Athenaforas, (177) Wrote: A Plea for the Christians

Irenaeus, Born: 120, Died 202 Wrote: Against Heresies

Theophilus of Antiaoch, Born: 115, Died 181 Wrote: To Autolycus

Minucius Felix (180 or 210) Wrote: The Octavius

Clement of Alexandrai, Born: 153, Died 217 Wrote: Exhortation to the Heathen, Miscellanies (Stromata)

Tertullian, Born: 145, Died 220 Wrote: The Apology, To Scapula, an answer to the Jews, A Treatise on the Soul, The Prescription against Heretics, Against Marcion, Against Hermogenes, Against the Valentinians, On the Reserrection of the Flesh, Against Praxeas, De Fuga in Persecutione

Origen, Born: 185, Died 254 Wrote: De Principiis, Against Celsus, plus other works too numerous to mention

Hippolytus, Born: 170, Died 236 Wrote: The Philosophic Refutation of all Heretics

Then there are many minor writers.

Fathers of the Third Century

Commodianius (240) Instructions on Christian Discipline

Cyprian, Born: 200, Died 258 Wrote: Epistles, Treatises, Seventh Council of Carthage (minutes)

Novatian, Born: 210, Died 280 Wrote: Treatise Concerning the Trinity

Gregory Thaumaturgus, Born: 205, Died 265 Wrote: The Oration and Panegyric, Four Homilies

Dionysius of Alexandria, Born: 200 (265), Wrote: Against Sebellius (fragments), Epistle to Dionysius of Rome (fragment)

Dionysius of Rome, (269) Wrote: Against the Sabellians

Juliaus Africanus, Born: 200, Died 245 Wrote: Epistle to Aristides, Chronography (fragments)

Archelaus (277) Acts of the Disputation with the Heresiarch Manes

Alexander of Lycopolis (301) Wrote: Of the Manichaeans

Peter of Alexandria, Born: 260, Died 310 Wrote: The Genuine Acts of Peter, The Canonical Epistle

Alexander of Alexandria, Born: 273, Died 326 Wrote: The Deposition of Arius

Of late we have heard the cry for "Sola Scriptura" from the Protestant Christian Quarter of Blogstream. It has been an unheeded battle cry for the past 460 years. Sola Scriptura is the belief that Man (always presumed here to include woman) is able to ascertain the will of God by reading and interpreting the Bible for himself, without the official pronouncement of Catholic leaders who they previously relied upon. In doing so Sola Scriptura firmly rejects tradition and a singular office as a factor in determining doctrine.

The reformers believed that the Bible interprets itself and that no outside source is authorized by God to interpret it or to introduce other doctrines as coming from God (2 Pet 1:20). All teaching under this belief concerning faith and morals has been based on the truth and inerrancy of the Bible.

Miserably, however this objective has never been realized by any Protestant group, not any that claim to be "orthodox."

We have seen in our Protestant churches and in the depiction of orthodoxy here the formulation of doctrines that go far beyond the teachings of the Bible - especially, of late, in definitions of the nature and attributes of God. Where it pretends not to do so, tradition has become its very cornerstone. It is the tradition of theology established during the 2nd century A.D., long after the close of the New Testament canon.

While the Fathers of Christ's Church were combating gross heresy, The apologists of the third century slipped gently into apostasy. Ignoring the warning of Paul, ensuing generations opened themselves up to error all to the "classical theists" of today.

Chapter Three will begin the detailed encroachment of the overwhelming influence of Greek philosophy on Christ's Church.

"Indeed philosophy has been given to the Greeks as their own kind of Covenant, their foundation for the philosophy of Christ." Clement of Alexandria (a Church Father) in Miscellanies, 6:8.

THE LOSSES HAVE HAD SERIOUS CONSEQUENCES

What effect would a damaged and watered down Bible have on future readers? That also was explained by the angel:

"And after it goeth forth unto all the nations of the Gentiles, yea, even across the many waters which thou hast seen with the Gentiles which have gone forth out of captivity, thou seest—because of the many plain and precious things which have been taken out of the book, which were plain unto the understanding of the children of men, according to the plainness which is in the Lamb of God—because of these things which are taken away out of the gospel of the Lamb, an exceedingly great many do stumble, yea, insomuch that Satan hath great power over them. . . .

"Neither will the Lord God suffer that the Gentiles shall forever remain in that awful state of blindness, which thou beholdest they are in, because of the plain and most precious parts of the gospel of the Lamb which have been kept back by that abominable church, whose formation thou hast seen. . . .

"And after the Gentiles do stumble exceedingly, because of the most plain and precious parts of the gospel of the Lamb which have been kept back by that abominable church, which is the mother of harlots, saith the Lamb—I will be merciful unto the Gentiles in that day, insomuch that I will bring forth unto them, in mine own power, much of my gospel, which shall be plain and precious, saith the Lamb" (1 Ne. 13:29, 32, 34).

The Angelic interpretation of Nephi’s vision stressed the grave consequences of the incomplete Bible. Explanation was that many would stagger in an awful state of blindness, where even sincere believers would be led off track because of the lack of clarity of the biblical record (1 Ne. 13:29, 32, 34; 2 Ne. 26:20; 28:14). The misery of the condition is is made more powerful because those having only the scriptures are generally not aware of the extent to which the collection has been diluted or its once great strength. In spite of recent archaeological discoveries, they do not realize that the gospel of Jesus Christ is more than is contained in the Bible alone. Without proper authority or standard and an authorized explanation for interpretation, Bible readers do not have the essential information to evaluate the accuracy or inaccuracy of differing texts. When something is taken out of a record, which remains is often rendered less clear. If members of the Church do not use the Book of Mormon to understand the Bible, they will be as uninformed as the rest of the world.

Bad Grammar: Like, what's going on here?

It's showing up everywhere. Convoluted sentences that obscure meaning might be the product of tight deadlines. However, the carelessness creates confusion for me.

I pick a run of the mill column published this morning in the online version of the New York Times, Entitled: "Bettis left a broken neighborhood behind" (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/02/sports/football/02bettis.html?_r=1&oref=slogin). Take a look at that title. The last word "behind" just seems to hang alone out there...I don't know...Right it just doesn't look. The article is about the deteriorating neighborhood that looked a whole lot better when Jerome lived there. But the Title gives the distinct impression we are going to read about a neighborhood of Jerome's childhood.

The first paragraph describes Jerome's childhood home with a gaping hole in the roof and the upstairs windows blown out in this abandoned brick house, complete with a bed frame in the front yard..

"Johnnie and Gladys Bettis nimbly kept their three children from the encroaching trouble, before moving to a house on a golf course that Jerome, their youngest son, bought for them when he became a professional football player in 1993." So, I ask you, did Jerome buy the golf course for his mom and dad or was it the house they were already living in? And why does he seriously complicate the sentence just to tell us Jerome was the youngest. As in: This writer, with the spike in his forehead, has the touch of a genius.

Then we see a paragraph with a single sentence. And it has the same obnoxious structure as the Title, reading - "They left Aurora Street behind." Oh give a break to freakin' me!! Yes, me give the freakin' break to.

The author moves on to tell us, "Detroit's population has shrunk to 900,000, more than 50 percent less than 50 years ago, when there were two million residents." Well, thank you very much "more than 50% less"! If Detroit has shrunk to a population of 900,000 which is about half it's previous size, does the author, John Branch, really need to be telling us that it had 2 million? where does he think we got our education? Detroit? Look, if you were walking down the sidewalk in your home town and saw the author of this article with half of his face ripped off, would it be helpful for his little brother to tell you that his whole face was there before Stealth ripped half of it off?

He continues, "While a star at Notre Dame, Bettis talked about the problems in his neighborhood: the crack dealers, the violence, the young people standing aimlessly on street corners. Number one, what is this business of putting a comma after violence without an "and". So darned awkward, so darned uneducated, so freakin' illiterate. And what the heck, Jerome did see crack dealer standing aimlessly. They were selling the crack if they were dealers....not gonna sell crack if you is aimless. But then I might be mistaken, it was the young who stood aimlessly. So it musta been the old folks selling crack. Certainly someone else other than young people. Oh, my heart!!

Aimlessly moving on now, the author quotes a local police officer. "The difference between then and now is that the neighborhood was a neighborhood," Richards said. "Neighbors stuck together, families stuck together, everyone knew everyone else. Now it's every man for himself." Hey Mr. Branch, do you think you could edit that statement, like blow away the first half of it??

That's the end of page one of two. I gotta get an aspirin.