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History and Religion

2024-03-07T08:51:33-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Dangerous Theologies: Preaching The Path to Perdition

Last updated on: March 7, 2024 at 8:51 am By William T. Orr, Jr.

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Throughout history and continuing today, humanity has invented uncounted theologies that have caused great harm to people. Religion has frequently been used as a weapon to force other people to do what those in power decide is appropriate. For centuries, religious men have blamed their own greed, fear and selfishness on vast pantheons of deities in order to buttress their own authority. It is much more forceful to claim that your own will is the will of God if you... Read more

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2024-02-03T17:58:37-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

What is Going on With Numbers 25:6-12?

Last updated on: February 3, 2024 at 5:58 pm By William T. Orr, Jr.

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What is the big deal about Numbers 25:6-12? What is the big deal about Numbers 25:6-12? What is the Torah talking about? What kind of god do we see here? If this is the same deity Yeshua talks about, something is very wrong here! Let’s explore the text (KJV). 6 And, behold, one of the children of Israel came and brought unto his brethren a Midianitish woman in the sight of Moses, and in the sight of all the congregation of... Read more

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2024-01-28T14:22:30-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Thou Shalt Not: The Ten (Two, 613?) Commandments

Last updated on: January 28, 2024 at 2:22 pm By William T. Orr, Jr.

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Everybody knows the Ten Commandments, right? Well, maybe. Some people will tell you that there are only two. Some will say there are not two, not ten, but 613 Commandments given by YHWH to his people, the Children of Israel. If the Bible is to be the guide to faith and practice for the world’s Jews and Christians, why can’t we agree on what God’s word actually is? Many people read the Bible for instructions on how to live. That’s... Read more

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2024-01-22T16:38:22-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

On Which Day Did God Say Let There Be a Bible?

Last updated on: January 22, 2024 at 4:38 pm By William T. Orr, Jr.

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…and God said “Let there be a Bible and let it be perfect and let no one challenge anything in it.” I’m not sure on which day out of six, YHWH made this decree but surely it was originally a part of the Genesis story. Surely. Otherwise, why would some Christians believe that a book, written BY MEN and copied over and over BY MEN and translated over and over BY MEN could possibly be perfect and without challenge as... Read more

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2024-01-18T12:44:39-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Is America Sinking in Its Own Slough of Despond?

Last updated on: January 18, 2024 at 12:44 pm By William T. Orr, Jr.

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In John Bunyan’s allegory, The Pilgrim’s Progress, the Slough of Despond is the metaphor used to portray the difficulties experienced by the protagonist, Christian, as his sins and his guilt weigh him down, sinking him deeper and deeper into the allegorical bog. It is a vitally important thing for America and the world to make an effort to understand how deeply our national ignorance and arrogance have carried us into the modern version of the Slough of Despond so that... Read more

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2024-01-09T17:04:43-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

War: What Do God and the Bible Have to Say?

Last updated on: January 9, 2024 at 5:04 pm By William T. Orr, Jr.

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January 6, 2024 War accompanies practically every effort of mankind either as either a cause or a result. One cannot pick up a newspaper, turn on the television or connect to the internet without seeing some report of war in some corner of the world. Whether in the Middle East or in Eastern Europe or in Africa or in India or even in Ireland, it seems that, as a species, we are constantly at war with someone somewhere. What makes... Read more

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2023-12-31T15:02:47-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Do People Care About the Bible?

Last updated on: December 31, 2023 at 3:02 pm By William T. Orr, Jr.

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12/30/2023 About two years ago, I started to study and write about Biblical history and the many interpretations people have made of the Bible. I had no clear idea at the time where this was leading. Originally, I had thought I would write a book outlining what I believe to be important from say…creation on down. As I began to study and learn, I quickly realized that that was unlikely to happen, given that I have a limited number of... Read more

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2023-12-22T00:48:01-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

What Do the Two Christmas Stories in the Bible Tell Us?

Last updated on: December 22, 2023 at 12:48 am By William T. Orr, Jr.

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We all know the Christmas story: Mary, Joseph, the shepherds, the wise men, the king, infanticide, assorted animals, lots of angels. Do the two versions found in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke tell the same story? Are there other versions of the story not in the Bible? Only the Gospels of Matthew and Luke in the Bible relate the story of Jesus’s (more correctly Yeshua’s) birth. We are not concerned here with why the other two canonical gospels, the... Read more

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seasonal holidays

2023-12-12T17:24:06-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Who Says Jesus Was Born of a Virgin?

Last updated on: December 12, 2023 at 5:24 pm By William T. Orr, Jr.

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Everyone knows Jesus was born of a virgin. The Bible says so. Right? Well…it might not be quite that simple. Let us see what the Bible actually says about that. Two of the four canonical gospels assert that Jesus Christ, the Christian Messiah, was born of a virgin mother. There is no further mention of the subject in the text of the Bible that has come down to us. What does the Gospel of Matthew say? In the Gospel of... Read more

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2023-12-09T13:54:43-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Are Christians Required to Believe in the Bible?

Last updated on: December 9, 2023 at 1:54 pm By William T. Orr, Jr.

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Are Christians required to believe in the “Truth” of the Bible? In the Apostles’ Creed or the Nicene Creed, do Christians profess a belief in the inerrancy of the Holy Bible? Let us take a look and see. What does the Apostles’ Creed actually say? The Apostles’ Creed most likely originated in the fifth century CE as a version of the earlier Roman Creed. It is shorter than the Nicene Creed adopted in 381 and is, like the Nicene Creed, Trinitarian... Read more

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