Thank you for your prompt response.
Let me address your concerns.
Epistemologist Dr. Greg L. Bahnsen points out, in a debate with physiologist Dr. Gordon Stein, that the Transcendental Proof of God’s existence (TAG) is that “Without God, you can’t prove anything.” You can find the audio recording of the debate here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anGAazNCfdY
), and can read the transcript of the debate here (http://www.brianauten.com/Apologetics/apol_bahnsen_stein_debate_transcript.pdf
). The TAG argument, although used by Dr. Bahnsen, is actually conceptualized by Immanuel Kant first, and then fine-tuned by Dr. Cornelius Van Til, a Princeton presuppositionist theologian. Contextually, the TAG implies that moral relativism cannot provide grounds for, as Christianity can, support for Christians who decry what they construe is the unethical treatment of women by ISIS men (e.g., forcible rape). True ethical contingency believe that, depending on which culture one belongs to, they can either rail against how ISIS men treat women or accept it, both of which are contingent upon in which culture a person is raised.
From a Christian perspective, I also believe that atheists cannot verify their metaphysical position. Along with other Christians, I believe that, since atheists are limited in their knowledge of the universe, and can neither affirm nor deny a Supreme Being, the only valid point such individuals can arrive at, based on their worldview, is agnosticism.
I, however, am ready to present an argument that proves God exists, and I will include a formal proof to illustrate that my premises and conclusion are valid.
Premise one: If not all forms of knowledge exist, then not all forms of presence exist.
Premise two: If not all forms of autonomy exist, then not all forms of knowledge exist.
Premise three: If not all forms of intelligence exist, then not all forms of autonomy exist.
Premise four: If not all sources of autonomy exist, then not all forms of intelligence exist.
Premise five: If not all proof confirms God exists, then not all sources of autonomy exist.
Premise six: If it is not wholly true that God exists, then not all proof confirms God exists.
Premise seven: All forms of presence exist.
Conclusion: It is wholly true that God exists.
In the following proofs, L = Line.
L1: -(X)(Kx)>-(X)(Px) (1, Given)
L2: -(X)(Ax)>-(X)(Kx) (2, Given)
L3: -(X)(Ix)>-(X)(Ax) (3, Given)
L4: -(X)(Sx)>-(X)(Ix) (4, Given)
L5: -(X)(Cx)>-(X)(Sx) (5, Given)
L6: -(X)(Gx)>-(X)(Cx) (6, Given)
L7: (X)(Px) (Given)
L8: (3x)(-Kx)>-(X)(Px) (1, Change of Quantifier Rule)
L9: (3x)(-Kx)>(3x)(-Px) (8, Change of Quantifier Rule)
L10: (3x)(-Ax)>-(X)(Kx) (2, Change of Quantifier Rule)
L11: (3x)(-Ax).(3x)(-Kx) (10, Change of Quantifier Rule)
L12: (3x)(-Ix)>-(X)(Ax) (3, Change of Quantifier Rule)
L13: (3x)(-Ix)>(3x)(-Ax) (12, Change of Quantifier Rule)
L14: (3x)(-Sx)>-(X)(Ix) (4, Change of Quantifier Rule)
L15: (3x)(-Sx)>(3x)(-Ix) (14, Change of Quantifier Rule)
L16: (3x)(-Cx)>-(X)(Sx) (5, Change of Quantifier Rule)
L17: (3x)(-Cx)>(3x)(-Sx) (16, Change of Quantifier Rule)
L18: (3x)(-Gx)>-(X)(Cx) (6, Change of Quantifier Rule)
L19: (3x)(-Gx)>(3x)(-Cx) (18, Change of Quantifier Rule)
L20: -(3x)(-Px) (7, Change of Quantifier Rule)
L21: -(3x)(-Kx) (9, 20 Modus Tollens)
L22: -(3x)(-Ax) (11, 21 Modus Tollens)
L23: -(3x)(-Ix) (13, 22 Modus Tollens)
L24: -(3x)(-Sx) (15, 23 Modus Tollens)
L25: -(3x)(-Cx) (17, 24 Modus Tollens)
L26: -(3x)(-Gx) (19, 25 Modus Tollens)
L27: (X)(Gx) (26, Change of Quantifier Rule)
Conclusion: (X)(Gx) (Conclusion, given)
If you want to read my refutation of neurology that allegedly disproves God, see my commentary to Bo Bennett’s The Psychology of Woo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EejmSr9UAH4
Recently, I have drafted a lengthy essay concerning how Adam and Eve can decide rightly in the Edenic trial despite living in a world where they had no formal conception (or at least a very limited one) of morality.
The Edenic Test, and the Epistemic Solution to God’s Trial
The Biblical account of Adam and Eve seems, prima facie, as a straightforward demand of the Edenic duo’s obedience to their Creator. While this claim proves enormously significant, it is tested through five mediums: the ability to recognize categories in logic, the capacity to draw inferences from stated hypotheses, the knack of comprehending what a transposed form of an argument implies, the adeptness to fathom the truth-value of assertions, and the care to check any declaration for soundness. Whether Adam and Eve, in their Prelapsarian state, possess cognition of the first-order logic stated above is debatable, although Adam and Eve might have exhibited an understanding of any or all of the rational analytical instruments named above. In this analysis, I will argue that God and Satan both present valid arguments about the nature of truth; nevertheless, in trusting Satan, Adam and Eve perhaps neglect to weigh Satan’s existential status against God’s omniscient ontology. This, in turn, leads Adam and Eve to treat Satan’s statements as equivalent to God’s, despite the fact that he lacks God’s everlasting knowledge to construct such propositions.
God issues the following command to Adam in Gen. 2.16-7: “Of every fruit thou mayest freely eat; But of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it, for in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die.” Eve comprehends, too, that “we may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, But of the fruit which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, lest you die,” which is chronicled in Gen. 3.2-3. It is worth noting that the “we” references Adam, who God forms from earth and “breathes” bodily and spiritual life into, in Gen. 2.7, and Eve, who God sculpts from a rib of Adam while he is in a state of sleep which God induces. The order, though, is not given to the birds and sea animals, which are created in Gen. 1.21, and land creatures, which God makes in Gen. 1.24. God’s order strictly applies to some creatures, which formulates the touching or consuming outlawed sustenance functions as a sufficient cause for death. The raison d’ etre touching forbidden fruit results in death is that an added consequence of the action entails partaking of outlawed sustenance. Simply put, handling forbidden fruit signposts an intention to eat it in much the same way that planning to blow up buildings signals a desire to fulfill that act. God is very clear in using the term “not,” and Adam, too, the first “male,” and Eve, the first “female,” as Gen. 1.27 notes, understands the prohibitive conjunction, and, too, the concept of exclusion: that is, the idea that they can sample fruit from all trees except one. Whether or not Adam and Eve comprehend the term “die,” in their unfallen state, is immaterial—what is significant entails they recognize that a certain type behavior brings about a specific consequence. The Edenic pair know, categorically, that God’s demand is directed at some creatures (i.e., humans), and that performing at least one action which God prohibits (i.e., touching forbidden fruit) will bring about a particular outcome. If Adam and Eve, the certain creatures who receive God’s directive, transpose God’s Law, they understand that living involves not touching or eating forbidden fruit. Yet, perchance Adam and Eve doubt the truth of God’s argument, they can ensconce upon a premise where handling and tasted outlawed sustenance fails to effectuate in death.
The self-doubt characterized in the last sentence of the previous paragraph will be exacerbated by Satan, who, in Gen. 3.1, is labeled as a “serpent,” and belongs to the categorization of land creatures spoken about in Gen. 1.24. When introducing himself to Eve, Satan asks Eve if God forbids her, as well as Adam, to refrain from tasting the fruit of all trees, in Gen. 3.1. In Gen. 3.2-3, Eve corrects this statement which contradicts what God says, specifically, that God permits the Edenic duo to eat the fruit of all trees except one in the center of the garden, the fruit of which they are not to handle or taste on penalty of death. Satan replies in the following manner, in Gen. 3.4-5: “Ye shall not surely die. For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be gods, knowing good and evil.” The serpentine notion that God disallows sampling the produce from all “trees” is contradicted by the fact that He permits eating the fruit from some “trees.”
Like God, Satan limits his rules to some creatures, namely humans; however, whereas God’s premise contains one’s statement, Satan’s proposition contains two premises, and a conclusion. Unlike God’s declaration, Satan’s issuance fails to mentions touching forbidden fruit at all, and does not list sampling outlawed substance as a capital offense. In his second argument, Satan maintains that Adam and Eve not dying are prerequisites for them becoming gods. Nowhere in God’s Law does a reference to deification surface. Actually, the first condition of Satan’s involves eating forbidden fruit as a sufficient cause for living. From the two causes, it can be deduced that, according to Satan’s reasoning, the effect of deification arises from disobeying God. Although Satan’s demands address the same creatures as God’s issuances do, Satan produces conditions which prove simultaneously less straightforward and more attractive than God. Adam and Eve might harbor worry over why they must eat outlawed sustenance to continue living. The Edenic duo could even find the allure of being deities inviting. The two results named above are designed to manifest themselves by obeying Satan, while, at the same time, disobeying God. Whereas both God’s and Satan’s propositions constitute demands required of a certain “kind,” God’s argument ends in one implication, whereas Satan’s suggests three different truths.
Yet, when transposed, Satan’s propositions pressure Adam and Eve to eat forbidden sustenance. For example, if Adam and Eve perish, that will be a consequence of failing to sample outlawed fruit. Both humans will also fact the effect of forfeiting self-deification if they die. In its totality, the Edenic pairs’ inability to become gods effectuates from their unwillingness to taste illegal produce.
Perchance Satan is wrong, though, Adam and Eve can expect that 1) all eat forbidden fruit (i.e., potentially), and all in the Garden of Eden die; 2) all in the Garden do not die, and do not become gods; 3) all in the Garden eat (see 1 for clarification), and do not become gods. “All” here suggests that, if any creature tastes forbidden fruit, that will spell certain consequences for Eden’s inhabitants. This, too, can be misleading: perhaps a bird can taste illegal sustenance, and bring about the same effect that Adam and Eve might bring to fruition if they participate in a similar action. The only question now entails whether Adam and Eve should trust God or Satan.
Adam and Eve might have won their test if they realized that God’s mindset can be commented on by Satan insofar as Satan understands his Creator’s perfect attributes to be, but Satan’s commentary, whether true or false, reflects only a small part of God’s omniscient mind. Satan, who is not omniscient, cannot possibly fathom, from a limited perspective, every conceivable fact about his Creator, as some of these so-called “truths” might be fallacious. By contrast, since God sculpts every item in the universe, including Satan, He knows everything about Satan down to the smallest detail. Therefore, the Edenic duo fails to recognize that Satan’s propositions, which are subject to fallibility, are never on par with God’s Laws, which are always accurate.
In the end, God holds humans responsible for illogical reasoning, and Satan, too, for tempting humanity with statements which are the composition of either deliberate or haphazard arguments that prove existentially invalid. In Gen. 2.5, it notes that Adam and Eve “were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed,” in contradistinction to Gen. 3.6, where “And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat,” the result of which, one verse later, Adam and Eve recognize their nudity, and weave “leaves together” to clothe their bare bodies. Contextually speaking, a priori to disobeying God, the Edenic pair are not embarrassed by their nakedness; nevertheless, after they defy God’s orders, Adam’s and Eve’s bareness becomes a source of embarrassment for them. I want to call attention to a possible reason why. Thoughts of impropriety and eying the bodies of women or men lustfully only transpire after Adam and Eve sin against God. In humanity’s unfallen state, they are sinless beings, and, hence, do not conceive of such ideas.
Before proceeding, care should be taken to highlight the limitations and parameters of God’s test. Even Satan admits, in Gen. 3.5, the sampling of forbidden fruit will effectuate in the ability to discern right from wrong. It might seem a difficult task to obey God if one cannot fully comprehend the subtleties and nuances of morality. This objection is answerable by the fact that God told Adam what he is “not” allowed to do, in Gen. 2.17, and even Eve comprehends that a specific prohibition is placed on her behavior, in Gen. 3.3, when she speaks to Satan. The term “not” is a logical command, and good and evil need not be understood to comprehend a command of exclusion. The knowledge, too, that Adam and Eve are restrained from knowing about entails a certain branch of epistemology, namely ethics, and not epistemology in general, which encompasses fields such as literature, math, art, history (in Prelapsarian Eden, what happened in the past), ad infinitum. The fact that the Edenic duo comprehend logical operators, an indication of their familiarity with logic, makes them rational individuals, and, hence, candidates for consequences if they break God’s Law.
Propositionally, Adam and Eve handle forbidden fruit, which, by reasoning of inchoate crimes (i.e., those which are intended but not completed) necessitates punishment. Truthfully speaking, both Adam and Eve handle and eat outlawed fruit in Gen. 3.6. In Gen. 3.24, God informs both Adam and Eve that they will die—that is to say, both will live until an age when they become inorganic matter, which will then decompose into the elements from which their bodies are formed for their disobedience, declaring that, “for thou art dust, and unto dust shalt thou return.” Although God’s listener in the instance above is Adam, the declaration applies equally to Eve. The above logical deduction is modus ponens, a valid logical deduction, which states that 1) if Adam and Eve perform a certain action, then it will effectuate in death, and 2) the Edenic duo exhibit a specific type of behavior, so 3) they will perish. God’s orders are thus confirmed as true.
God demonstrates the proper use of inference to illustrate how He knows about Adam’s and Eve’s rebellion as well. From earlier commentary, it is noted that, if Adam and Eve do not sample forbidden fruit, then they will not be cognizant of their nudity. However, Adam and Eve are aware of their bareness, showing that they have eaten forbidden fruit. The name of the valid logical procedure explained above is modus tollens. In the Bible, after Adam and Eve sensed God’s “presence” and “hid” from their Maker, in Gen. 3.8, they heard His “voice,” in Gen. 3.9, and then God demanded that the Edenic pair disclose their location. Adam admits a fear of God and an embarrassment over his nudity, in Gen. 3.10, and, from that response, God asks, in Gen. 3.10, how Adam understands the shame of nudeness if no one has disclosed that information to him, and if he has not sampled forbidden fruit. In Gen. 3.12, Adam confesses to his crime, but not without putting some of the blame on Eve’s shoulders for urging him to consume outlawed fruit. The Edenic duo’s attempt to conceal truth fails, as an Infinite Being can always deduce verity from establishing valid propositions, and checking the components of His statements afterward. God, indeed, investigates the evidence in Eden to ensure the soundness of His claims—though he does not need to, since He is omniscient—thereby establishing Himself as rational.
Satan’s arguments are negated by observable truth. In Gen. 3.6, both Adam and Eve eat forbidden fruit, and are sentenced to death by God in Gen. 3.19. The death, though, is not immediate; instead, it constitutes a process of daily rigors which will lead Adam’s and Eve’s bodies in the direction of decay over time, of which pain and suffering are a part. Even Satan, in Gen. 3.13-5, is part of the decay mentioned above, for he must endure God’s curse, in the words of Gen. 3.14, “all the days of thy life.” It might seem objectionable to impugn Satan for conditions which did not involve him. However, by punishing Satan, God illustrates why it is not necessary to mention the consequences for a specific type of act for there to be one. People might argue that acts are just what one does, and are not implicative of a consequence; yet one can always add a judgment, so the individuals must choose between the disjunction of either not behaving in a certain manner or facing justice for their digressions. By material implication, the disjunct can be expressed in its logically equivalent form of implication: acts imply consequences. Hence, if people participate in certain acts, they can expect to be judged for their behavior. But, suppose no judgment falls upon them. This means that they refrain from various forms of conduct. After all, “the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which God had made,” which is cited in Gen. 3.1. We can draw the conclusion that, if Satan can guile Adam and Eve into disobeying God, then it is possible that he had an adequate amount of reasoning to formulate opinions as to what type of conduct he should or should not engage in.
Adam and Eve, unlike what the transposition of Satan’s second proposition implies, are not slated to die immediately, as God notes, when he suggests that Adam’s punishment, and, by inference, Eve’s as well, will continue “till thou return unto the ground,” as described in Gen. 3.19. However, Adam and Eve, in Gen. 3.5, do not “become gods,” but, instead, are prevented from reaching a state of deification in Gen. 3.22. In Gen. 3.22, God admits that the Edenic duo now can discern between good and evil, and will need merely a sampling “from the tree of life” to self-deify. In the following verse, God prevents them from gaining this opportunity by expelling them from Eden. God also, in Gen. 3.24, orders Cherubims with fiery rapiers to guard the “tree of life,” perhaps just in case the Edenic duo attempts to disobey God again, and tries to eat fruit from “the tree of life,” which will make them deities who, like God, know right from wrong. Contrary to what Satan suggests, the Edenic duo’s consumption of forbidden fruit, in Gen. 3.5, does not lead to deification, which is explained above when speaking of the passage germane to it, specifically Gen. 3.22-4.
In its logical context, God does not punish Satan, in Gen. 3.14-24, with diseases other than death—they are simply manifestations of it. Rationally speaking, in order for Adam and Eve, as well as Eden, to be free from death, sin must be wholly absent. One the Edenic pair transgress, death, or decay, becomes an absolute fact of the universe, and the conception that inhabitants on Earth will stay immortal simply becomes a nonentity. In other words, unhygienic conditions and physical stress caused by deformities, mental, and physical wear created by adversity, complications related to birthing and the mental grind of oppression via subordination to a hierarchal position, and work-related stress all are candidates which can contribute to one’s death. It should be duly noted that, in Gen. 3.22-4, God, realizing that the fruit of life can cure death, bars them from Eden, and protects the plant from which it originates from humans, so it can no longer serve as an antidote to cure their ailing conditions. In logical terms, death becomes a universal quantifier which can be instantiated in such a way that certain details, or constants, remark on it.
As discussed previously, just because people do not view acts as conduct-related, this conviction is errant, as consequences can always be annexed disjunctively to behavior, which, by the rule of implication, necessitates that an action demands a judgment; transposed, it suggests that behavior which is not impugned did not arise from certain acts. Satan, Adam, and Eve are all subject to the laws of causality. This, though, does not imply that God should impugn the threesome equally. Analyzing God’s penology demands context. In Gen. 3.4, the serpent is the first creature to tell a human, specifically Eve, that she will not die if she eats forbidden fruit, and, in Gen. 3.5, he further assures Eve that she will metamorphose into a deity who can distinguish righteousness from unrighteousness. Also, Eve comes to the conclusion that sampling outlawed sustenance, in Gen. 3.6, is acceptable and constitutes a pathway to wisdom, and, consequently, eats forbidden fruit a priori to handing Adam forbidden sustenance, who also consumes it. Yet, as Gen. 3.13 notes, the serpent influences Eve to rebel against God first; Eve encourages Adam, in Gen. 3.12, to disobey God afterward; Adam follows Eve’s encouragement to dishonor his Creator’s Law as well. The domino effect causing the Fall of humanity is orchestrated by Satan first, so we should expect God to punish him the harshest, followed by Eve, who told Adam to disregard God’s commandment not to eat illicit fruit, and emulate her by consuming it. Adam’s punishment should be the lightest, given the fact that his disobedience results from listening to the poor advice of another human. All sentences, though, should be death-related, regardless of the severity of the punishment.
When God asks why Adam consumes forbidden fruit, in Gen. 3.12, Adam replies that Eve “gave me of the tree, and I did eat.” In Gen. 3.13, when God questions why Eve tastes outlawed sustenance, Eve blames Satan for her actions: “The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.” In Gen. 3.12, Adam argues that he should bear the least burden for his crime, since Eve provoked him to disobey God. However, Adam’s choice is not the source of confusion, as it is illogical to rely on anyone whose behavior is guided by irrationality. In other words, Eve is wrong to believe that Satan, an existential creature, can know more than an eternal God, and it is, therefore, fallacious to believe that she will die if she fails to obey Satan, and neglects to taste forbidden fruit. Eve is doubly guilty for encouraging Adam to accept invalid form of reasoning (i.e., the universal generalization of a constant) as valid, and Adam bears single guilt for basing his conduct on information deduced in the aforementioned manner. Satan is triply guilty for committing the fallacy stated above initially, and then transmitting this faulty form of argumentation to Adam and Eve in hopes they will accept it as true. In the guilt line, Adam can name a fellow tempter, meaning that his actions are not purely of his own volition. Eve cannot refute Adam’s claims; however, she can name a party of guilty encouragement. But, Satan can neither dismiss Adam’s claims nor name a predecessor which instructed him to beguile Adam and Eve. God’s punishments will soon affirm degrees of guilt in Gen. 3.14-19, which is part and parcel of the penalty pertaining to forfeiture of life, which will come upon Satan, in Gen. 3.14, and Adam and Eve, in Gen. 3.19. No one will be able to remedy God’s penalty of physical death, as God drives the Edenic duo, in Gen. 3.23, from Eden, then appoints Cherubims to guard against the only plant in Eden, which is alluded to in Gen. 3.24, which cures death, and is referenced by God in Gen. 3.22.
God tells the Serpent, in Gen. 3.14-5, that, because he tricked Eve into consuming outlawed fruit, “thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life: And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed: it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise thy heel.” In the passage above, God reprimands Satan the most severely. Whereas God permits snakes to defend themselves by inflicting flesh wounds on human feet via biting that particular species, humans are equipped by God with the capacity to injure serpents by striking blows to their head. While humans face harsh penalties for their iniquities, they will not, like Satan, be punished severely enough to be God’s most despised kind, as the laws of non-contradictions prevents this: Satan cannot be the most hated and not the most despised creature, which would occur if God also pronounced the same punishment on humans.
Before proceeding to Eve, it is important to recognize why God places tension between Eve and her offspring, in Gen. 3.15, and why the strife between serpents and humans do not necessarily presuppose an exclusively female human adversary, or, for that matter, a rival female snake. God creates rivalry between humans and snakes by negating the proposition that snakes are friendly, a truth-value which the snake actually formulates by his actions. In Gen. 3.1, when the snake asks Eve what fruit she is permitted to consume, and what fruit she is not, the tone of his approach is “subtle” at first, and, at a cursory glance, the serpent’s disposition seems as an inquirer eager to learn about the world, rather than one who is wary of his surroundings. It is only after Gen. 3.2-3, when Eve identifies the forbidden tree as the sole tree which she is allowed to sample from, that Satan lies to her, promising that 1) if Eve eats forbidden fruit, she will not perish, and 2) she will become a deity, as is chronicled in Gen. 3.4-5. On the basis of thinking the “food” as “good,” one verse later, Eve offers Adam the tainted fruit, and he eats it too. Because Adam’s temptation results as an indirect consequence from serpent prodding Eve to eat forbidden fruit in Gen. 3.4-5, and leads to humans viewing each other’s nudity shamefully, the serpent is just as much responsible for the outcome his prevarications trigger in much the same way an arsonist is accountable for unintended fatalities that effectuate from that crime. Hence, that is why, in Gen. 3.15, all humans possess a natural dislike of snakes, which originates in Prelapsarian Eden. The enmity stems from the snake beguiling the woman to consume forbidden fruit, as noted in Gen. 3.13; Eve, as Adam points out one verse earlier, trusts the snake’s word in giving him illegal produce. God sentences Adam and Eve to a future time when they will both die, in Gen. 3.19, and forbids the Edenic duo from becoming gods by refusing them the right to eat from “the tree of life,” as Gen. 3.22 indicates. Inferentially, the passage above seems to suggest that the sum of knowledge of morality and infinite lifespan leads to one becoming a deity. By denying these conditions, God’s punishment, in Gen. 3.15, portrays the snake as an animal willing to betray the human race by forging a pseudo-companionship with them. Secondly, God places the hatred of each other squarely on the shoulders of the ancestors of each kind (e.g., humans and snakes) in Gen. 3.15 as punishment for their precursors’ actions, explaining how female snakes can loathe humans with the same degree as venom as the male serpents do. The reason females snakes are cursed when their gender did not guile the Edenic duo stems from the fact that the serpent initiated the downfall of humans, and, therefore, will be given more austere penalties as a consequence.
On a side note, Adam and Eve can never attain the omniscience, omnipresence, and omnipotence that God is embodied with based on a serpentine promissory note, which resonates the loudest in Gen. 3.4-5. The snake, Adam, and Eve are all created by God, and, if the threesome become deities, their knowledge, presence, and power will be unlimited from a certain time forward—however, the threesome will remain unaware of items in the past which God alters. Thus, God, universal in every sense of the term, can use factors of which He is cognizant—and his creatures are not—to strip them of their godhood. Here, another lie of the serpent is revealed: created gods are not the equivalent of God since they lack the universality of His qualities.
However, Eve tempts Adam to eat forbidden fruit in Gen. 3.6, which is verified later by Adam, in Gen. 3.12, when God who urged him to consume outlawed sustenance in Gen. 3.11; therefore, Eve must be punished proportionately for the crime she commits. In Gen. 3.16, God pronounces the following sentence upon Eve: “Unto the woman, he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and they conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thou desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.” Eve’s first penalty entails physical pain effectuating from birthing children. Turning the topic of wife subordination, one might accuse God of being a sexist; nevertheless, when Eve honors the serpent’s word over God’s, in Gen. 3.4-5, she, ironically, not only submits to the wisdom of a male, but an animal who is lower in rank than humans. I would argue that Eve’s inability to make the correct logical choice leads to her subordinate role in a marital context. The above illustration denies the potential argument that Eve is self-reliant, and bases her information on a non-male data source. Furthermore, God never mandates that Adam treat Eve in an inferior manner, as that constitutes an argument from silence, an informal logical fallacy.
That, though, does not mean Adam answers to no one for his actions. Although Gen. 3.6 informs that, when Eve offers Adam banned sustenance, “he did eat,” and, in Gen. 3.12, Adam tries to deflect the blame for his crime by fingering Eve as the guilty culprit, God, in Gen. 3.17-9, outlines the details of Adam’s punishment: “And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all thy days of they life; Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; In the sweat of thy face shall thou eat bread, till they return to the ground, for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust thou art shall return.”
Logically, in trusting Eve’s wisdom, in Gen. 3.6, Adam directly trusts a creature with a limited knowledge over God, who declares, in Gen. 2.17, death as a penalty for eating forbidden sustenance. When Eve tells the serpent that God instructs the Edenic duo not to “eat” or “touch” outlawed produce, in Gen. 3.3, she also displays moral awareness of God’s orders, and, in actuality, when Adam accepts the fruit from Eve, in Gen. 3.6, he is falsely confident that information indirectly sourced by the snake, an existential creature—as seen in Gen. 3.4-5—is equal with God’s declaration. But, rationally speaking, God created land animals in Gen. 1.24-5, a category to which the serpent belongs, and humans in Gen. 2.7-8, 21-2, the species of which Adam and Eve are a part. Since all creatures are made by a Creator, they are not privy to events that transpired prior to when they are sculpted as the God who “created the heaven and the earth,” as spoken of in Gen. 1.1, is. Consequently, the snake’s and Eve’s existential minds will never parallel the mind of God, which is universal. When God sentences Adam to hard labor just to feed Eve, and his future family, it is a result of him thinking irrationally and impulsively, rather than having the audacity to delineate at all. Also, although Adam is given authority over Eve, in Gen. 3.16, that autonomy includes stress over worrying about his wife or his eventual family. Hence, in his original state, humans are given a Paradisiacal Garden to maintain, as Gen. 2.15, 20 suggests, in a stress-free setting. It is only after God curses Adam, in Gen. 3.19, that the pleasurable aspect of tending a garden becomes burdensome.
God defines death in Gen. 3.19 as the regression from being an animate, organic individual to an inanimate, inorganic creature which will decompose over a number of years. As pointed out earlier, the serpent, Eve, and Adam are given different degrees of punishment which will end in their deaths, which are, respectively, ordered from greatest to least. However, all former immortal creatures will now confront mortality and death.
The final four verses of Gen. 3 show how God activates his sentence intended for Adam and Eve, which unfolds in verses 21-4: “Unto Adam and also to his wife did the Lord make coats of skin, and clothed them. And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil, and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and live forever. Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. So he drove out man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every which way, to keep the way of the tree of life.” Just as God permits the snake to “bruise thy heel,” in Gen. 3.24, or to bite the heels of humans in order to prevent them from attacking serpents, such as stepping on snakes’ heads—which will allow a snake, as an animal, to survive encounters with humans—God, understanding that Adam and Eve are naked, in Gen. 3.10, and that they “sewed fig leaves together to make themselves aprons,” or to conceal their private parts, weaves “coats” together from “skin,” in Gen. 3.21, and provides them with adequate dress which will allow them to function in their new respective environment. In this sense, God remains loving to both the serpent and humans, even after the Fall.
However, while the basic needs of both species are fulfilled, God still has the right, as noted earlier, to impose conditions on each kind which will effectuate in death. Beginning with Adam and Eve, both members of the Edenic duo are aware that they must not taste forbidden fruit, according to Gen. 2.17, or touch it, as chronicled in Gen. 3.3. The problem with God allowing the Edenic duo to eat from “the tree of life” in Gen. 3.22 is simply that Postlapsarian Adam and Eve will become immortal. Since Adam and Eve, again, are created by God, as Gen. 2.7-8, 21-2 indicates, they are not omniscient like their Creator, who has always existed, as seen in Gen. 1.1. This will lead to the Edenic pair’s deification from a certain point forward, meaning the time that they metamorphose into gods exhibits a fixed point, and so does their understanding of right and wrong. Philosophically speaking, this means that it might be possible for Adam and Eve not to know all things which are just or unjust, or to confuse the two as a result of ignorance. Thus, the laws they proclaim as deities can harm God’s creation. It is likely for this reason that God bans Adam and Eve from the Garden, in Gen. 3.23; also, one can additionally reason that eating from “the tree of life,” mentioned one verse earlier, will nullify Adam’s and Eve’s sentence, and negate God’s belief, presented throughout this essay, that actions have consequences. The term “man,” as mentioned in Gen. 3.22-3, is not just a reference to Adam; rather, it is, by means of synecdoche, a way of using the existential being Adam to stand for both Adam and Eve, and the human race as well, as both humans, and their ancestors afterward, will face the eventual death penalty for the Edenic duo’s actions. While it may seem severe to impugn the Edenic duo’s ancestors with death also, their punishment stems from being imperfect, as a result of the Fall, and making sinful choices in the process.
When God banishes the Edenic duo from the Paradisiacal Garden, in Gen. 3.23, and forces them to “till the ground” outside of Eden, this reinforces a point made earlier in this analysis: whereas sustaining oneself in the Garden of Eden, as Gen. 2.15, 20 implies, is free of angst and takes no time off one’s life, working the soil, which is spoken of in Gen. 3.23—a consequence for humanity’s Fall, as referred to in Gen. 3.19—will cause gardening duties to become stressful, and subtract from one’s life span as a consequence. Moreover, God, in the concluding verse of Gen. 3, commissions angels with fiery rapiers to guard against the prospect of Adam and Eve returning to steal fruit from “the tree of life,” as Gen. 3.22 indicates. The reason behind God’s logic is that imperfection begins the moment Adam and Eve rebel against God, in Gen. 3.6, and consume forbidden fruit. If it is possible for the Edenic pair to defy one order of God, then it is plausible for Adam and Eve to return, via stealth, to Eden, and to eat, as illustrated in Gen. 3.22, from “the tree of life.” Sadly, God can no longer trust the word of a Fallen race of humans. Unlike Adam and Eve, though, God is always true to His word. In the last three verses, God honors his commitment that eating forbidden fruit, as comprehended by Adam in Gen. 2.17, or touching outlawed sustenance, as understood by Eve in Gen. 3.3, will bring about death. The final three verses of Genesis ensure that there are no loopholes in God’s punishment so as to allow the Edenic duo to escape from perishing.
One must wonder, then, why God does not ban the serpent from the Garden, in Gen. 3.22, and, in Gen. 3.23, protects the tree from him as well. In Gen. 2.17 and in Gen. 3.3, the order not to eat or touch forbidden fruit is given to Adam and Eve, rather than the serpent. It should be duly noted that, while God determines that, if Adam and Eve consume fruit from “the tree of life,” and combine it with the knowledge of morality they stole in Gen. 3.6, they will become deities, nowhere does God express concern for the serpent eating from “the tree of life” in Gen. 3.22-3. While God does not provide an opinion, the most likely explanation is that what serves as an antidote for Adam and Eve might be a placebo, or even a slow poison, for the snake. When such a proposition is promulgated, it is done from the standpoint of an argument from silence.
This entire analysis considers whether or not Adam and Eve, or the serpent, can, from an existential standpoint, challenge God’s arguments. The answer is no, as neither animals nor humans know how the cosmos has always existed, and, as a result, it is erroneous to believe that limited knowledge can unlock infinite understanding, a quality which only God possesses. God, as this essay suggests, is not keeping Adam and Eve ignorant of all kinds of knowledge, as His orders to Adam and Eve are meant to prevent them from probing into the realm of ethics, while leaving them free to explore the terrains of art, history, literature, science, ad infinitum. In other words, moral knowledge constitutes merely a leaf on the epistemic tree. As discussed earlier, when God forbids Adam and Eve to possess a comprehension of scruples, this constitutes an act of social paternalism, as knowledge of sin leads to envying another’s gifts, which might effectuate in a raging jealousy harbored by one human towards another, prompting the former individual to kill the latter person. Although Satan is not directly given orders by God to refrain from tempting Adam and Eve, he is created before the Edenic duo, and, not only possesses more knowledge, as a result, about his environment, but also feigns a friendship with humanity just to betray them, and bring about their downfall. For this reason, Satan is penalized the harshest, as not being issued commands to abstain from a certain type of behavior does not mean that one cannot use logic to calculate God’s stance on a particular act. Neither Adam nor Eve escape punishment either, even when the Edenic pair faults the serpent with tempting them, as they could both think for themselves, and reject the snake’s propositions, as alluring as these premises seemed. In the end, God punishes each guilty member proportionately for their wrongdoing. One can always resort to the argument that, if Adam and Eve, or Satan, had no grasp of morality, then they could not appreciate the consequences for their actions. This assertion, though, is misguided, as knowing what God forbids (e.g., the structure of the argument) makes it either valid or invalid, while the cognition of morality establishes an argument (e.g., the truth-value of the position) as either sound or unsound. Logically speaking, it is impermissible for any argument to be considered rational if they are either invalid or unsound, and Satan’s, and Adam’s and Eve’s conviction, that existential creatures can know infinitudes, as God does, is invalid. Hence, all three creatures are punished for accepting faulty arguments. In its finality, an argument can be adjudicated apart from its moral components. Hopefully, the practice of evaluating Adam’s and Eve’s trial as a test of reasoning, rather than a moral test, will be given increasing attention in theological studies.
I hope my comments are helpful. Feel free to ask follow up questions.
Happy New Year!


Penny Kruse, Susan Beem, and Christie Pegoda came together to start a non profit company to finance the ministry projects that they wanted to do in their neighborhood and community. Penny is the voice and face of the company. Christie likes to work behind the scenes and Susan is the glue that keeps them grounded. They each have talents that the others don't and that helps them work well together to help others in need.
Christie has worked as a church secretary for 12 years and is now retired. Shw was blessed to work with people who came in off the street needing help. She was able to help them through the church's outreach group.
Penny has about 45 years of Al Anon background. She has spent the last 12 years working with a cancer program, helping women and their families. She also helped with support groups for women and men who had had cancer in their families.
We want to help those who are in need of a Christian 12 Step Program. We hope to be able to also have classes on budgeting and on whatever else the community needs. We live in an area of poverty and drug and alcohol addiction. Two of us have come out of alcohol and drug addiction and one has come out of enabling an alcoholic. God has blessed us with tough times so that we may help others who might be going through those same struggles today. We want to bring some calmness and peace into peoples lives through Jesus Christ.


A prominent Chicago bishop is suggesting legal changes that would shield Roman Catholic institutions from paying excessive damages in sex abuse lawsuits. The bishop claims that the civil lawsuits are jeopardizing the church.
Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Paprocki, a civil and canon lawyer and one of Cardinal Francis George’s six active deputies, recently suggested in a homily to Catholic lawyers and judges that decisions to award large sums to victims of clergy abuse place an excessive burden on the free exercise of religion for American Catholics.
“This burden needs to be lifted,” Paprocki said and to accomplish this he seeks the protection of charitable immunity. All states have removed charitable immunity as a shield for chruches in the wake of widespread sex abuse cases involving priests.
What this Bishop seems to have forgotten is that many of these lawsuits would not have been filed if the Church did its job and policed their own. To read more about the Bishop’s thoughts, click here.
If you or a family member have been victimized by a priest or other church official, contact our Connecticut trial lawyers practicing trial law through out Connecticut including Waterbury, New Haven, Bridgeport and Hartford.


North America Revival Report
Pursuing Revival is the focus of our Monroe, Oregon Training Center recently refocused their RBDNA efforts by relaunching Course 1 training with a team of about 20 adults. In addition, they are taking the entire church through the Discipleship curriculum in preparation for moving additional students into the process.
Several new promising contacts, as well as potential Bible Studies, are the result of Evangelism efforts at 2.42 Church in Montgomery, AL. The church reports seeing many notable miracles and the working of the Gifts in their services.
Pastor Wilbourn, in Lindsay, OK, is developing a plan to launch a new group of students into Course 1 training, They are also planning to develop a house church to disciple several new converts that have come into the Church recently.
Our Wenatchee, WA Training Center started prayer walks in mid September. They have encountered many new contacts and six Bible Studies have been started. Two have been baptized and two received the Gift of the Holy Ghost last month.
Pastor Michael McKinnies shares that in Shawano, WI they are wrapping up Course 1B training with a class of 12. House Church launches will take place during this month!
The Training Center in Reading, PA is completing Course 1A Training and looking to move into Evangelism soon. This church has seen 27 receive the Holy Ghost so far this year with about half that number having been baptized! God is pouring out REVIVAL in Reading and they are prepping to stabilize their harvest.
In Orillia, Ontario, they have seen a steady stream of first-time guests over the past several weeks in their Sunday worship services. This has resulted in their best attendance numbers since the inception of the Church. This leadership team is excited about what lies ahead!
Pastor James Gregory in DeSoto, MO reports that their team is about half way through their initial Course 1A class. They have set a goal to launch their first wave of House Churches in January, 2016!
Our DeKalb, IL Training Center reports that they are well into their second House Church Cycle with four groups currently up and running and a fifth group on the horizon. They have recently had eight baptized and the same number received the infilling of the Holy Spirit!
Pastor Hedrick, in Mooresville, NC, shares that they are preparing to launch four House Churches this month with the new converts that God has already given them. In addition they are gearing up for a Holy Ghost rally in the next few weeks! They currently have six active Bible Studies.
Our Conway, AR Training Center checks in to share that they have baptized two this past month in addition to one receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost. Their groups are continuing to expand as they have two preparing for evangelism.
Pastor Ron Hawkins reports that they have recently begun a push within the Church and have launched a brand new group of 18 into Course 1A training. This group will help solidify the efforts that are already taking place in this REVIVAL-minded church. Their current House Church is progressing well. The Church has caught afresh the vision of reaching 20% of their territory!
Yours for the cause of pursuing HIS will! REVIVAL will not happen by accident…it WILL come by DESIGN…


St. Andrew's Lutheran Church
St. Andrew's Lutheran Church is a Reconciling in Christ congregation. We joyfully welcome all of God's people to worship with us regardless of age, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, ability or socioeconomic circumstances
30 Brooksite Dr.
Smithtown, New York 11787
Bay Harbour Insurance Agency, Inc.
We are a full service insurance agency. We are a firm of professionals and caring, conscientious people; the type of people you can depend on. We joyfully affirm the lives and loves of all regardless of sexual orientation or gender expression.
88 Waverly Avenue
Patchogue, New York 11772


45+ Why Do We Give Gifts On Christmas Pictures. While the reasons for giving presents vary, this custom has made the christmas season full of surprises and joy. December 25 wasn't always a day devoted to gift giving.
When we give gifts at christmas, we also follow their example in giving to the christ child. Images used under license from shutterstock.com. Today, we all give gifts at christmas for our own reasons.
Giving gifts on christmas day has only been common practice in canada for about a century.
That percentage multiplied by the amount americans spend on gifts each year represents how much money we're basically lighting on fire. Gifts jesus gives to us. Giving presents to loved ones on christmas is an ancient tradition. Why we traditionally give and receive presents at christmas.


John Anthony Tancredi
To send flowers in memory of John Anthony Tancredi, please visit our Heartfelt Sympathies Store.
A Mass of Christian Burial for John Anthony Tancredi, Sr., 89 of Ormond Beach, who went to be with Our Lord, Dec. 20, 2018, will be celebrated Thursday, Dec. 27, 2018 at 1:00pm at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church with Rev. Father Phil Egitto as celebrant. Friends wishing to call and pay their respects may do so Wed. Dec. 26, 2018 from 4 pm until 7 pm at the church. A native of Brooklyn, NY, he moved here from that area 25 years ago. John was a proud U.S. Army veteran who served during the Korean War. He was a retired printer who belonged to the Local 6, International Typographical Union. After moving to the area, John became an active member of Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church, volunteering with St. Vincent DePaul, leading prayer groups and joining the disabled veterans. John was a member of the Knights of Columbus 4th Degree, Past Faithful Navigator of the 4th Degree, Past Grand Knight, Past District Deputy and a member of the Holy Names Society. His other memberships included the D.A.V. and V.F.W. John enjoyed surf fishing, gardening, watching tennis, cards, dominoes and being creative. Those who truly knew John would say, “He was a gentle, humble leader and a devoted family man.” Survivors include his beloved wife of 67 years, Nancy; 2 daughters, Deborah Gaspar (John), Ormond Beach and Lori Martino (Giovanni), Holly Hill; 2 sons, John Anthony Tancredi, Jr. (Maria), Chatham, NJ and James Tancredi (Diane), Manalapan, NJ; 10 grandchildren and 5 great grandchildren and niece Dawn Bridgeman (Michael). In lieu of other remembrances the family suggests donations be made to Our Lady of Lourdes Academy, Daytona Beach FL. Condolences for the family may be shared at www.dalewoodwardfuneralhomes.com.


Rutland Adventist Church Highlights
Welcome to the Rutland Adventist Church Website:"Rutland Adventist Church"
Welcome to the Rutland Seventh Day Adventist Church, where our doors are open to people from all backgrounds, regardless of where they are on their spiritual journey.
We're glad that you found our web page. We would love to have you as a regular visitor, whether in person or online.
All are welcome to the House of Prayer experience! The Rutland Seventh-day Adventist Church invites you to a weekly prayer time every Friday at 7 pm. You may also submit your prayer requests via email by clicking HERE.


in New Heritage Community…
- To be trained in God’s ways
- To be equipped for doing God’s works
- To be sent out to serve God’s people.
The New Heritage Youth Group hosts Bible Studies and prayer meetings for High School and College aged youth. It also holds Bible Studies for Middle School youth, some of which are taught by High Schoolers and College-aged young adults. Retreats and Prayer Watches (evenings of worship and ministry) are also held periodically.
We also offer an annual youth retreat weekend. This is a powerful time of teaching, ministry and just plain FUN! We also encourage and coordinate participation at the Acquire The Fire rally. This is an annual event sponsored by Teen Mania, an organization dedicated to help teens live for Christ and reach out to the world.
Contact Pam Cavanaugh for more info: 443/465-8194 or email@example.com


St. Patrick's Cathedral
Special | 56m 53s | Video has closed captioning.
As the world awaits Pope Francis’s visit to New York, Treasures of New York, St. Patrick’s Cathedral delves into the cathedral’s history as the center of Catholic life in New York City, showcases the recent $175 million restoration, and examines the breathtaking architectural features that have made it a celebrated building and National Historic Landmark.
Problems Playing Video? | Closed Captioning


Gospel Singer, Sammie Okposo Dies at 51
Renowned Nigerian gospel artiste and music producer, Sammie Okposo has died at the age of 51.
Currently, details surrounding his demise remain unknown but reports claim that the singer had slumped in his home in Lagos on the 25th of November.
Sammie Okposo was popularly known for Gospel records like “Oluwa E Tobi”, “Omeriwo”, “Gratitude” and more. He is survived by his wife, Ozioma Okposo and kid.


6 But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitanes, which I also hate.
7 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.
8 And unto the angel of the church in Smyrna write; These things saith the first and the last, which was dead, and is alive;
9 I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but thou art rich) and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan.
10 Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.


The Eucharist (Greek for “thanksgiving”) is a sacramental celebration of the Paschal Mystery (i.e., Christ’s dying and rising for humankind) in a context of praise and thanks for all that God has done and continues to do.
During the Eucharist, the Holy Spirit is called down on the assembly that it might become the Body of Christ, the People of God.
Following Jesus’ example, the first Christians continued to imitate Jesus actions at the Last Supper in their gatherings by celebrating the Eucharist at the end of a meal shared together.
In the fourth century after Christ, ancient teachings about the Eucharist began to be written down by St. Augustine and St. Cyril, among others. They emphasize Christ’s death for humankind and its practical moral applications to our lives as well as repeating Paul’s teaching that the one bread of the Eucharist makes Christians the one Body of Christ.
When Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274 AD) writes about our coming to the Table, he brilliantly employs the insights of Aristotle to discuss how bread and wine can be changed substantially into the Real Presence of Christ while the ‘accidents’ (e.g., color, taste, shape) of bread and wine remain, otherwise known as transubstantiation. Ultimately, Thomas insisted, the Eucharist is a mystery that no theological explanation can hope to master.
[The HarperCollins Encyclopedia of Catholicism]
+ The Eucharist is celebrated at 7:45am and 9am, Monday through Saturdays, in our parish.
Our Sunday celebration begins on its eve, Saturday at 5pm, and continue on Sunday at 9am, 10:30am, 12noon and 5pm in the evening.
+ Our parish second graders will be receiving First Eucharist in the spring.


Turkish Airlines- The hospitality of the airline attendants gave me hope for the rest of Europe. It was a true preconception, I was encountered by friendly and hospitable Europeans for the remainder of the trip.
Budapest, Hungary- These are shoes of Jews who were killed in the Holocaust. We are all people, we all have a story, and we all have a purpose on this Earth.
Bucharest, Romania- Safely in our hotel room after the longest flight of my life! Although we were so far from home, we felt secure.
Sibiu, Romania- Living in the Parish apartments where several people reside who are poor, elderly, or have special needs. We had a freezing shower, but this place was a reminder to count my blessings, not my inconveniences.
Heltau, Romania- Fortified church banner reading “He is Risen! Alleluia!” At each cathedral, church service, or other religious events and places, I was reminded that we celebrate the same risen Lord!
Medias, Romania- After sitting on a bench for an hour, I was reminded of the wonderful moments that can be captured if you just stop, look, and listen. The world has so many beautiful parts to it and it all deserves to be appreciated.
Budapest, Hungary- Mighty to Save! We sang in English, we sang in Hungarian. We sang songs of praise to God and we had tears running down our faces as we shared this connection so many miles away from our home.
Budapest, Hungary- The universal “I love you” sign in Sign Language. A signal for friendship, love, and a way we could communicate with others who spoke no English.
Vienna, Austria- St. Stephen’s Cathedral. One of many pieces of infrastructure that reminds me of the hard work, effort, money, and detail that goes into building a cathedral like this. In the U.S., we often neglect to spend money on artistic and religious institutions.
The hills in Austria- Only the beginning of the beautiful views I saw in Austria and Switzerland. God made such wonderful things and he placed everything on this Earth in the most perfect way.
Venice, Italy- Our walking tour was dropped off an hour away from the buses. But there was a solution and we sought it out. This trip back to the bus was a reminder that there are always bigger problems occurring in the lives of those around you. It is crucial that we be mindful of others at all times, even when we are upset ourselves.
Venice, Italy- The intricate art work, bridges, buildings, and the reasons for the canals are all so unique to Venice.
Ravenna, Italy- Taboo, anyone? We enjoy similar forms of entertainment, we just can’t understand the language they play in…
Florence, Italy- U.S., Italy, Britain…we are all one people; we are all united nations.
Reggello Firenze, Italy- This mural painting of God calling down through the dove is a reminder that God answers prayers, he just may appear in a different form. Maybe he answers prayers through advice from a parent. Maybe he answers prayers through the appearance of something beautiful. Maybe he’ll give you the answer without an appearance!
Pisa, Italy- The famous tower of Pisa. But why so famous? A reminder to find reasons to appreciate the things I see before outwardly expressing that I have been there. It’s always important to ask “why am I here and what can I learn”?
Milan, Italy- At the International School at Milan, I was a participant in the 3rd/4th grade classroom. This boy sang me his love song in Italian and he wouldn’t leave my side after this. He was a reminder of the effect we have on our audiences. Although he had already composed the song, he was encouraged to share it with me.
Stuttgart, Germany- Monument of a crying woman at the foot of the cross. She asked for Christ’s healing for her daughter who was sick. She is a monumental example for us to outwardly express our faith and trust in Christ.
Flossholz/Ohringen, Germany- My first home stay in Europe! I was the only Wartburg student who stayed with them. The town had 33 residents and hundreds of cows and chickens. They took me in as an older sister, daughter, and friend. We shared laughs, we shared culture. We are now family.
Neuendettelsau, Germany- The church steeples are identical to those at the top of the Wartburg chapel. The good shepherd statue states the Psalm “no one can take them from my hand”. This statue is in memorial of the 1200 people with special needs who were experimented on or killed in the camps during the Holocaust. No matter what awful things happen to us on Earth, our Heavenly father will always hold us in his hands.
Leipheim, Germany- My homestay family who spent a year in Texas many years ago! Their humor was similar and their kindness was remarkable.
Wurha-Farnroda, Germany- Ashley and I had to travel up this 135-step hill everytime we went up and down to our homestay’s house. It took a lot of energy, but we had a very nice place to stay.
Eisenach, Germany- I’ve met these wonderful friends because of the founders of Wartburg and the existence of this castle. The Wartburg reminded me to be persistent, do good, and follow my calling.
Tower in Germany near Eisenach- These bluebonnets, the state flower of Texas, are another connection I have with Germany! We share similar landscaping, and I was reminded of the beauty of the United States.
Eisenach, Germany- Saying goodbye to our host mom, Sylvia. She shared her challenges and struggles with us, but through them all, she was so generous and hospitable. We love you, Sylvia.
Istanbul, Turkey- These washing centers are surrounding the outskirts of the Blue Mosque. The tradition of washing oneself before entering the place of God is a tradition of respect and honor that I appreciate very much. We should all show this kind of respect when we attend services.
Istanbul, Turkey- “One Global University”. Fatih University has over 1,000 international students and finds ways to include and learn from them all. This University, much like Wartburg, does a fine job of unifying the campus into one school of a diverse group of people.
Istanbul, Turkey- Saying “so long” to Europe for now. Our relationships have grown stronger and our voices are tired, but our hearts have grown.


|Posted by apostolicleona on January 30, 2014 at 6:00 PM||comments (0)|
Good, healthy, goldy friendships are very important to have. The Bible speaks quite a bit about friendships, how to be in a friendship, the rewards of good friends ships and the curses of bad ones. Having good Christian friendships is something we all need. Many times throughout our lives we need the strength, comfort and Godly councel of a good Christian friend. Then other times you become that source of strength, comfort and Godly councel for them. If you don't have good Christian friends, PRAY for some! God will answer your prayer and bring good people into your life. If you already have good Christian friends, PRAY for them! We all need prayer and along side with God, we are each others support! God Bless and enjoy the scriptures below!
*I went through a trial in my life and during this trial everyone turned their back on me. People in my family, my friends and even Church family. I remember weeping and telling God how lonely I was for a friend, "just one friend to talk to Lord! that's all i need!" Then God reminded me of this:
Proverbs 18:24 A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. (*how great is this!? God himself tells us that he's our friend, and better than that!!! He's a friend who will be closer to us than a brother! He is always there for us! ALWAYS!!! What a comfort it is to know that we are never truly alone)
John 15:13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. (*Jesus said this to the deciples before he was crusified. This tell us that Jesus loves us greatly! Witht he GREATEST love! This is something we need to inject into our own lives, to be more like Jesus and have this great love for our friends! This is something we see often in our militaries, soldiers become brothers and love each other with the greatest love, a love that makes them willing to lay down their life for their friends, their brothers, their country! How beautiful to have that kind of love, loyalty and dedication!)
John 15:14-15 You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. (*If we obey God's commandments we are his friends, I can't think of any better commandments to follow or a better friend to have.)
James 2:23 And the Scripture was fulfilled that says, "Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness"—and he was called a friend of God. (*God's word is true and absolute so if it says that He is no respector of persons, meaning that he doesn't favor one of us more than another, if Abraham can become known as "Friend of God" then so can we! If we believe God and live righteously then then we too can be known as "Friend of God".)
*These Scriptures below represent how we need to conduct ourselfs in order to be a good Christian friend and they also tell us the benefits of good friends! The people closest to us can hurt us the most, let these scriptures help you find peace and mend your broken hearts. Gods word is powerful, read it, love it, absorb it into every fiber of your being. Surround yourself with people of like faith and love one another and FORGIVE!
Proverbs 13:20 Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm. (*My grandpa used to say "if ur gonna roll with the pigs ur gonna smell like the pigs.", so make sure you choose your friends wisely. Choose friends that will build you up and be good influences.)
Proverbs 27:17 Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another. (*this scripture is plain and simple, friends are a necessity)
Proverbs 17:17 A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity. (*despite arguments, disagreements or any disputes at all, remain LOVING to your friend, don't hate! hate is from the devil and not an attribute of God. I know sometimes it can be tough, but to be able to call yourself a Godly Christian friend you have to obey the scriptures, Loving is good for our own souls as much as it is for others.)
1 Samuel 18:1 As soon as he had finished speaking to Saul, the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul. (*an example of loving a friend as yourself, how beautiful.)
1 Samuel 18:3 Then Jonathan made a covenant with David, because he loved him as his own soul. (*BFF's! I wanna be this kind of friend.)
Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! (*when you're up you can also help your friends up, encourage them, guide them, and when you're down a good christian friend can do the same for you. If you don't have godly friends in your life it can make things a little more difficult than they have to be.)
Ecclesiastes 4:12 And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him—a threefold cord is not quickly broken. (*there is strength in numbers!)
Psalm 1:1 Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; (*choose good friends and be blessed!)
Psalm 55:12-14 For it is not an enemy who taunts me— then I could bear it; it is not an adversary who deals insolently with me— then I could hide from him. But it is you, a man, my equal, my companion, my familiar friend. We used to take sweet counsel together; within God's house we walked in the throng. (*almost nothing hurts worse than a friend coming against you, don't hold grudges and don't do evil or speak evil of your brothers/sisters in Christ or your natural ones either, have the heart of Christ which forgives and loves always.)
Psalm 133:1 A Song of Ascents. Of David. Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity! (*isn't it great when everyone gets along? God can work in the midst of unity but he cannot work in the midst of turmoil.)
1 Timothy 5:8 But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. (*if you see a need, MEET IT! does someone need milk or a warm coat? according to the Word of God if you don't provide the need you are worse than an unbeliever! Be generous, ask God for a spirit of giving to be applied to your heart.)
1 Timothy 2:8 I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling; (*God doesn't like discord, we aren't supposed to be angry and argue ... we are supposed to pray & worship together.)
Colossians 3:12-14 Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. (*This is a scripture we should pray out loud for ourselves, that we can be the kind of person/friend/brother/sister/parent that this scripture describes.)
Romans 12:15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. (*when a brother's in sorrow we should all feel his need and when he passes thru the valley we should all feel relief. Pray for a sensitive heart.)
Romans 12:1-2 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. (*be holy and accepable to God, be lovers of him, read his word, pray his word, worship him so we can be good, acceptable and perfect in his eyes!)
1 Peter 1:22 Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, (*obedience is better than sacrifice! Love with a pure heart! if you have a hard time loving .. which many do because of past hurts and betrayals ... pray for God to give you a pure and loving heart that is sensitive to him and those around you.)
Hebrews 13:1 Let brotherly love continue. (*Loving one another is a GOOD thing! this scripture is short, sweet and to the point!)
Matthew 18:15-20 If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. (*sad but true .. it happens ... people make mistakes, we are human .. whether its on purpose or by an ignorant mistake, if your brother/sister/friend has sinned against you, confront them WITH LOVE not with anger. Many times people don't even know what they said or did hurt you and any issues can be resolved right then and there if you have the right temperement when presenting. If that doesn't work then it's time for a loving intervention.)
Matthew 18:35 So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart." (*forgiving others is VITAL!! if you can't forgive people its a sin. Anything that isn't according to God and his charachter is a sin. God forgives, therefore we must also be forgiving. How many times have we sinned, whether it be in secret or in the open, against God and how many times has he forgiven us? More times than we can count that's for sure! if you are having a hard time forgiving its simple, just pray and ask God to help you remove any resentment, hurt or hate that is in your heart towards that person and He will do it.)
Matthew 25:40 And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’ (*whether it's that bum on the street begging, your lousy waitress or someone you know personally ... treat them with kindness always! Love always! God says what we do to them we do to him. We know what storm others are going thru and what causes their "attitudes" or puts them in the lowly position they are in. only God knows and only He can judge.)
1 John 3:15 Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. (*yep! hate is as bad as murder to God! you can't make it into the kingdom of God if you hate ANYONE. ask God to remove known hates and even unknown hates that may be buried deep down inside.)
1John 4:20 If anyone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. (*scary but true! Hatred is a deep rooted seed and needs to be completely removed from our hearts and even our vocabulary! The only things we should hate are the things that God hates and the Bible plainly tells us what those things are.)
John 13:34-35 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." (*what a straightforward scripture. Love others as Jesus loves us. Jesus loves us with "Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends." . a love that's so great that is shines and radiates thru us letting others know just by looking at us that we are His disciples. It's the Love of Christ and we all need to have it!)
|Posted by apostolicleona on January 6, 2013 at 11:55 PM||comments (0)|
Praying for our children is a MUST .. Kids today face challenges and temptations that we were never exposed to .. God is comming back SOON and we not only need to prepare ourselves, but we also need to pray that our children are prepared also. We need our children protected by the hand of God because there is so much evil in this world today and ONLY He can protect them like they need to be. Salvation for them is first and most important, but we also need to pray about their honesty and integrity, their love for Gods word and so on. Hide the word of God in your heart and also teach your children to do the same, be the example they need Mom & Dad. Your children are a precious gift from God and they need nurturing, guidance and prayer.
1. Salvation—"Lord, let salvation spring up within my children, that they may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory." (Isa. 45:8; 2 Tim. 2:10)
2. Growth in Grace—"I pray that my children may grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." (2 Pet. 3:18)
3. Love—"Grant, Lord, that my children may learn to live a life of love, through the Spirit who dwells in them." (Gal. 5:25; Eph. 5:2)
4. Honesty and Integrity—"May integrity and honesty be their virtue
and their protection." (Ps. 25:21)
5. Self-Control—"Father, help my children not to be like many others around them, but let them be alert and self-controlled in all they do."
(1 Thess. 5:6)
6. Love for God's Word—"May my children grow to find Your Word more precious than much pure gold and sweeter than honey from the comb." (Ps. 19:10)
7. Justice—"God, help my children to love justice as You do and act justly in all they do." (Ps. 11:7; Mic. 6:8)
8. Mercy—"May my children always be merciful, just as their Father is merciful." (Luke 6:36)
9. Respect (for self, others, and authority)—"Father, grant that my children may show proper respect to everyone, as Your Word commands." (1 Pet. 2:17)
10. Biblical Self-Esteem—"Help my children develop a strong self-esteem that is rooted in the realization that they are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus." (Eph. 2:10)
11. Faithfulness—"Let love and faithfulness never leave my children, but bind these twin virtues around their necks and write them on the tablet of their hearts." (Prov. 3:3)
12. Courage—"May my children always be strong and courageous in their character and in their actions." (Deut. 31:6)
13. Purity—"Create in them a pure heart, O God, and let that purity of heart be shown in their actions." (Ps. 51:10)
14. Kindness—"Lord, may my children always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else." (1 Thes. 5:15)
15. Generosity—"Grant that my children may be generous and willing to share, and so lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age." (1 Tim. 6:18-19)
16. Peace-Loving—"Father, let my children make every effort to do what leads to peace." (Rom. 14:19)
17. Joy—"May my children be filled with the joy given by the Holy Spirit." (1 Thes. 1:6)
18. Perseverance—"Lord, teach my children perseverance in all they do, and help them especially to run with perseverance the race marked out for them." (Heb. 12:1)
19. Humility—"God, please cultivate in my children the ability to show true humility toward all." (Titus 3:2)
20. Compassion—"Lord, please clothe my children with the virtue of compassion." (Col. 3:12)
21. Responsibility—"Grant that my children may learn responsibility, for each one should carry his own load." (Gal. 6:5)
22. Contentment—"Father, teach my children the secret of being content in any and every situation, through Him who gives them strength." (Phil. 4:12-13)
23. Faith—"I pray that faith will find root and grow in my children's hearts, that by faith they may gain what has been promised to them." (Luke 17:5-6; Heb. 11:1-40)
24. A Servant's Heart—"God, please help my children develop servant's hearts, that they may serve wholeheartedly, as if they were serving the Lord, not men." (Eph. 6:7)
25. Hope—"May the God of hope grant that my children may overflow with hope and hopefulness by the power of the Holy Spirit." (Rom. 15:13)
26. Willingness and Ability to Work—"Teach my children, Lord, to value work and to work at it with all their heart, as working for the Lord and not for men." (Col. 3:23)
27. Passion for God—"Lord, please instill in my children a soul that 'followeth hard after thee,' one that clings passionately to You." (Ps. 63:8)
28. Self-Discipline—"Father, I pray that my children may acquire a disciplined and prudent life, doing what is right and just and fair." (Prov. 1:3)
29. Prayerfulness—"Grant, Lord, that my children's lives may be marked by prayerfulness, that they may learn to pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers." (1 Thess. 5:17)
30. Gratitude—"Help my children to live lives that are always overflowing with thankfulness and always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." (Eph. 5:20; Col. 2:7)
31. A Heart for Missions—"Lord, please help my children to develop a desire to see Your glory declared among the nations, Your marvelous deeds among the peoples." (Ps. 96:3)
|Posted by apostolicleona on October 23, 2012 at 6:40 PM||comments (0)|
Lets face it .... one of the hardest most perplexing jobs we are given is to be a parent. Luckily God gives us instructions! The bible tells us in Proverbs 22:6 "Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it." ... while parenting can have it's difficult times, applying the Word of God to our child rearing and teaching our children to love God can send forth blessings and give us relationships with our children that will be rewarding from generation to generation. While I don't believe in "child abuse" I do believe in correction, as our loving Father above also corrects us. Children need instruction, love, nurturing and above all to be taught God's ways and God's word. Be a good example Parent!!
Ephesians 6:4 Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord
Colossians 3:21 Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged.
Psalm 127:3-5 Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one's youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them! He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.
Deuteronomy 6:5-7 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.
Proverbs 23:26 "My son, give me thine heart, and let thine eyes observe my ways."
Proverbs 6:20 "My son, keep thy father's commandment, and forsake not the law of thy mother:"
2Tim 3:15 "And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus."
Proverbs 19:18 "Chasten thy son while there is hope, and let not thy soul spare for his crying."
Proverbs 22:15 "Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him."
Proverbs 29:17 "Correct thy son, and he shall give thee rest; yea, he shall give delight unto thy soul."
|Posted by apostolicleona on October 23, 2012 at 6:20 PM||comments (0)|
In this day and age, staying married is not only hard but it's also a rarity. Divorce rates are at an all time high. I say marriage is hard because the society we live in tell us "if it doesn't work out .. just move on". But this contradicts God's word, God hates divorce. The bible clearly states that in Malachi 2:16 "For I hate divorce!" says the LORD, the God of Israel. "To divorce your wife is to overwhelm her with cruelty," says the LORD of Heaven's Armies. "So guard your heart; do not be unfaithful to your wife." ..... If we hide the Word of God in our hearts and obey his commandments, living with our spouses can not only be easy but it will also give us a lifetime of rewards in God, love and peace... so I again to you, hide the Word of God in your hearts, model yourself after the way the Word of God says we should be and pray these scriptures over your marriage.
Genesis 2:21-25 So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.
Hebrews 13:4 Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.
Ephesians 5:23,24,32 For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.
Proverbs 12:4 A wife of noble character is her husband's crown, but a disgraceful wife is like decay in his bones.
Proverbs 18:22 He who finds a wife finds what is good and receives favor from the LORD.
Matthew 19:4-6 "Haven't you read," he replied, "that at the beginning the Creator 'made them male and female,' and said, 'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh' ? So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate."
Colossians 3:18-19 Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them.
Hebrews 13:4-7 Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral. Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you." So we say with confidence, "The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?" Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.


Andy Andrews, Rector of The Church of the Holy Trinity
The Church of the Holy Trinity
A congregation of the episcopal diocese of Mississippi:
INVITING, TRANSFORMING, RECONCILING
December 6, 2018
RE: Selection of Holy Trinity’s next rector!
Hello new friends,
My name is Andy Andrews. I am delighted and humbled to be called, by
your vestry and with the blessing of Bishop Seage, to be your next rector.
I live upstream in Memphis and have served as Dean of St. Mary’s
Episcopal Cathedral for the last 11 years. It has been a great joy since the
Cathedral is a historic faith community that is strong in membership,
resources, spiritual offerings and diversity.
I was born and raised in Greenville and still have beloved family there. For
22 years, I’ve served the church in ordained leadership. Anne and I have
been married for 18 years. We have three children – Ferris, Sam and Will
- who we are so proud of. I feel my best era of ministry and being alive is
yet to come.
There are many reasons I feel drawn to serve with you all. First and
foremost, I am responding to what appears to be God’s invitation. I am
trying to be most faithful to the One who has not let me down yet. Also,
the search team was fabulous and filled with wonderful individuals. They
shared your dream for a true partnership of priest and faithful people
making God’s love known in a fresh way. They explained your hope to
deepen your relationship with Christ and expand your sacred bond with
others. I sensed their love for the church and even more for each other.
They conveyed Holy Trinity’s rich tradition of serving Warren County in a
caring way for close to 150 years. I love this kind of ministry. This inspires
me to want to join in your good work.
I want to thank your leadership for this honor and privilege of selecting me
as the church’s 15th rector. The warm hospitality already experienced and
received from many of you is overwhelming. I am reminded of
Lamentations 3:22-23, “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, the
mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning…”
Please know that in mid-February 2019, I am at your service to help inspire
you be the best God made you to be in Christ. I pledge to totally open
myself to cherish, nurture and love each and every one of you in sure and
certain hope that you will do the same for my family and me.
Until then, there are many sacred duties to fulfill like enjoying a holy
Advent and celebrating mightily a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
I bid your prayer for me, Anne, our children and Anne’s parents as we say
goodbye to an abundance of good friends and begin our transition to you.
Yours in Christ,
The Church of the Holy Trinity
900 South St
Vicksburg, MS 39180
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We're here to welcome you. Please stop by during office hours: Monday-Friday, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
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10:15 a.m. - Sanctuary
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Our Mission is to proclaim the gospel and the love of Jesus Christ by sharing His spirit in worship and in the ministry to the needs of our congregation and our community.


Online shop remains open for orders. Delivery times will be slightly longer than normal.
The Knights Templar by Paul Ivison,2005,SB,112pp.'In 1118, nineteen years after the fall of Jerusalem to Christian hands, nine Knights arrived at the court of King Baudolin II, ruler of the new kingdom. The Knights stated that their mission was to protect the Pilgrims en route to the Holy Places of Jesus and they had taken vows of Poverty, Chastity and Obedience to the teaching of Christ'.
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Dominion Faith Seminar (Session 12)
Faith, one of the most taught and yet most misunderstood topics of the Bible. To most, faith is a mysterious force likened unto magic. With faith, all things are possible, and nothing is impossible! Without faith, you can’t please God regardless of what you do. Faith is one of the BIG THREE; Faith, Hope and Love. Most every Christian talks about their faith in God (or their lack of it). Most Christians can tell you how to get faith, but their lives show they don’t walk in faith on a consistent basis. Faith is vital if we are to have any real hope of a life that pleases God.


Poverty in the Roman World
If poor individuals have always been with us, societies have not always seen the poor as a distinct social group. But within the Roman world, from at least the Late Republic onwards, the poor were an important force in social and political life and how to treat the poor was a topic of philosophical as well as political discussion. This book explains what poverty meant in antiquity, and why the poor came to be an important group in the Roman world, and it explores the issues which poverty and the poor raised for Roman society and for Roman writers. In essays which range widely in space and time across the whole Roman Empire, the contributors address both the reality and the representation of poverty, and examine the impact which Christianity had upon attitudes towards and treatment of the poor.
Remember the Poor
Combining historical, exegetical, and theological interests, Bruce Longenecker here dispels the widespread notion that Paul had little or no concern for the poor. Longnecker s analysis of Greco-Roman poverty provides the backdrop for a compelling presentation of the importance of care for the poor within Paul s theology and the Jesus-groups he had established. Along the way, Longenecker calls into question a variety of interpretive paradigms such as Steven J. Friesen s 2004 poverty scale and offers a fresh vision in which Paul s theological resources are shown to be both historically significant and theologically challenging.
Preaching Poverty in Late Antiquity
In 2002 the influential scholar of Late Antiquity, Peter Brown, published a series of lectures as a monograph titled Poverty and Leadership in the Later Roman Empire. Brown set out to explain a trend in the late Roman world observed in the 1970s by French social and economic historians, especially Paul Veyne and Evelyn Patlagean, namely that prior to the fourth century and the rise in dominance of Christianity, the poor in society went unrecognized as an economic category. This corresponded with the Greco-Roman understanding of patronage, whereby the state and private donors concentrated their largesse upon the citizen body. Non-citizens, for instance, were excluded from the dole system, in which grain was distributed to citizens of a city regardless of their economic status. By the end of the sixth century, rich and poor were not only recognized economic categories, but the largesse of private citizens was now focused on the poor. Brown proposed that the Christian bishop lay at the heart of this change. The authors set out to test Brown's thesis amid growing interest in the poor and their role in early Christianity and in Late Antique society. They find that the development and its causes were more subtle and complex than Brown proposed and that his account is inadequate on a number of crucial points including rhetorical distortion of the realities of poverty in episcopal letters, homilies and hagiography, the episcopal emphasis on discriminate giving and self-interested giving, and the degree to which existing civic patronage structures adhered in the Later Roman Empire of the fourth and fifth centuries.
Why Nations Fail
Brilliant and engagingly written, Why Nations Fail answers the question that has stumped the experts for centuries: Why are some nations rich and others poor, divided by wealth and poverty, health and sickness, food and famine? Is it culture, the weather, geography? Perhaps ignorance of what the right policies are? Simply, no. None of these factors is either definitive or destiny. Otherwise, how to explain why Botswana has become one of the fastest growing countries in the world, while other African nations, such as Zimbabwe, the Congo, and Sierra Leone, are mired in poverty and violence? Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson conclusively show that it is man-made political and economic institutions that underlie economic success (or lack of it). Korea, to take just one of their fascinating examples, is a remarkably homogeneous nation, yet the people of North Korea are among the poorest on earth while their brothers and sisters in South Korea are among the richest. The south forged a society that created incentives, rewarded innovation, and allowed everyone to participate in economic opportunities. The economic success thus spurred was sustained because the government became accountable and responsive to citizens and the great mass of people. Sadly, the people of the north have endured decades of famine, political repression, and very different economic institutions—with no end in sight. The differences between the Koreas is due to the politics that created these completely different institutional trajectories. Based on fifteen years of original research Acemoglu and Robinson marshall extraordinary historical evidence from the Roman Empire, the Mayan city-states, medieval Venice, the Soviet Union, Latin America, England, Europe, the United States, and Africa to build a new theory of political economy with great relevance for the big questions of today, including: - China has built an authoritarian growth machine. Will it continue to grow at such high speed and overwhelm the West? - Are America’s best days behind it? Are we moving from a virtuous circle in which efforts by elites to aggrandize power are resisted to a vicious one that enriches and empowers a small minority? - What is the most effective way to help move billions of people from the rut of poverty to prosperity? More philanthropy from the wealthy nations of the West? Or learning the hard-won lessons of Acemoglu and Robinson’s breakthrough ideas on the interplay between inclusive political and economic institutions? Why Nations Fail will change the way you look at—and understand—the world.
Through the Eye of a Needle
Jesus taught his followers that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter heaven. Yet by the fall of Rome, the church was becoming rich beyond measure. Through the Eye of a Needle is a sweeping intellectual and social history of the vexing problem of wealth in Christianity in the waning days of the Roman Empire, written by the world's foremost scholar of late antiquity. Peter Brown examines the rise of the church through the lens of money and the challenges it posed to an institution that espoused the virtue of poverty and called avarice the root of all evil. Drawing on the writings of major Christian thinkers such as Augustine, Ambrose, and Jerome, Brown examines the controversies and changing attitudes toward money caused by the influx of new wealth into church coffers, and describes the spectacular acts of divestment by rich donors and their growing influence in an empire beset with crisis. He shows how the use of wealth for the care of the poor competed with older forms of philanthropy deeply rooted in the Roman world, and sheds light on the ordinary people who gave away their money in hopes of treasure in heaven. Through the Eye of a Needle challenges the widely held notion that Christianity's growing wealth sapped Rome of its ability to resist the barbarian invasions, and offers a fresh perspective on the social history of the church in late antiquity.
Paul and Economics
The social context of Paul’s mission and congregations has been the study of intense investigation for decades, but only in recent years have questions of economic realities and the relationship between rich and poor come to the forefront. In Paul and Economics, leading scholars address a variety of topics in contemporary discussion, including an overview of the Roman economy; the economic profile of Paul and of his communities, and stratification within them; architectural considerations regarding where they met; food and drink; idol meat and the Lord’s Supper; material conditions of urban poverty; patronage; slavery; travel; gender and status; the collection for Jerusalem; and the role of Marxist theory and the question of political economy in Paul scholarship.
Work Labour and Professions in the Roman World
Work, Labour, and Professions in the Roman World offers new insights, ideas and interpretations on the role of labour and human resources in the Roman economy. The book approaches labour not only as an economic phenomenon, but gives attention also to work as social and cultural phenomenon.
Christianity in the Greco Roman World
Background becomes foreground in Moyer Hubbard's creative introduction to the social and historical setting for the letters of the Apostle Paul to churches in Asia Minor and Europe. Hubbard begins each major section with a brief narrative featuring a fictional character in one of the great cities of that era. Then he elaborates on various aspects of the cultural setting related to each particular vignette, discussing the implications of those venues for understanding Paul's letters and applying their message to our lives today. Addressing a wide array of cultural and traditional issues, Hubbard discusses: • religion and superstition • education, philosophy, and oratory • urban society • households and family life in the Greco-Roman world This work is based on the premise that the better one understands the historical and social context in which the New Testament (and Paul's letters) was written, the better one will understand the writings of the New Testament themselves. Passages become clearer, metaphors deciphered, and images sharpened. Teachers, students, and laypeople alike will appreciate Hubbard's unique, illuminating, and well-researched approach to the world of the early church.