#how to read scripture

[cowboy-robooty]

im not going to lie i have an illuminati type theory that fanfiction has gotten so fucking bad recently as yet another consequence of the pandemic

[thrassisfras]

Ended up talking to my medieval professor about theology on Tuesday, and when it inevitably came up that I'm ex-Mormon, he almost immediately said "you get to ask questions now" in the most reassuring tone of voice and I've been carrying that with me since

[unwavering-devotion]

You are willing to serve Him and be turned by Him, but what do you think about all the people He turns that don't want it? Will you turn people too, tear them away from their families and loved ones, even when they don't want it?

If He wills it, I would gladly act as He has done.

[theragamuffininitiative]

I think we, collectively, need to stop responding to atheist arguments by being indignant and upset and instead start responding from a place rooted in our joy and hope. Not only is this the response Jesus asks us to have (to lovingly give up our right to offense), but showing how positive and excited one is about a particular thing is proven to be far more effective in encouraging others to experience the thing than a condescending/outraged approach can. Also it will be funny.

[gogodollie]

WHERE DID YOU FIND THE SISTER COMIC PLEASEEEEEE

anon based off of your live reactions in my asks i’m going to assume that you found it yourself in the time it took me to drive home😭 however for anyone else curious and wanting to read them!

here is the very legal tumblr post version everyone please say thank you radley

and you can purchase the digital version on kindle here

or the physical version on the ghost website here

or check your local comic stores! personally i ordered a copy from midtown comics here

[roeswater]

:)

[moredifferentthanusual]

from chapter 12 of Chained: To Wield the Blade we have Forged by Tinerian aka @redhoodinternaldialectical

[gay-little-axolotl]

lord forgive me for I have uh- I have- I might have- uhhhh

[queenlucythevaliant]

Usually, even a non-Christian knows something about the earth, the heavens, and the other elements of this world, about the motion and orbit of the stars and even their size and relative positions, about the predictable eclipses of the sun and moon, the cycles of the years and the seasons, about the kinds of animals, shrubs, stones, and so forth, and this knowledge he holds to as being certain from reason and experience. Now, it is a disgraceful and dangerous thing for an infidel to hear a Christian, presumably giving the meaning of Holy Scripture, talking non-sense on these topics; and we should take all means to prevent such an embarrassing situation, in which people show up vast ignorance in a Christian and laugh it to scorn. The shame is not so much that an ignorant individual is derided, but that people outside the household of the faith think our sacred writers held such opinions, and, to the great loss of those for whose salvation we toil, the writers of our Scripture are criticized and rejected as unlearned men. If they find a Christian mistaken in a field which they themselves know well and hear him maintaining his foolish opinions about our books, how are they going to believe those books in matters concerning the resurrection of the dead, the hope of eternal life, and the kingdom of heaven, when they think their pages are full of falsehoods on facts which they themselves have learnt from experience and the light of reason? Reckless and incompetent expounders of holy Scripture bring untold trouble and sorrow on their wiser brethren when they are caught in one of their mischievous false opinions and are taken to task by those who are not bound by the authority of our sacred books. For then, to defend their utterly foolish and obviously untrue statements, they will try to call upon Holy Scripture for proof and even recite from memory many passages which they think support their position, although "they understand neither what they say nor the things about which they make assertion."

St. Augustine, De Genesi ad Litteram, emphasis mine

[musingongoodness]

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Amen! How to fight against Satan!

[hidefdoritos]

You know how, when someone thanks you for doing extra work, often rather than saying "You're welcome!" (which feels like agreeing that they're an inconvenience) you say "No problem!" (because you don't want them to feel like they're a burden)?

Just found a spot in the book of Philippians 3:1 where Paul repeats an earlier exhortation to rejoice in the Lord. Then he says that writing the same thing again "grieueth mee not" (1599 Geneva Bible), or "to me indeed is not grievous" (KJV), or as the ESV puts it in 2016, "is no trouble to me."

So if you see someone whining about the death of the phrase "You're welcome," well, precursors to the phrase "No problem" have been around in English for at least 400 years.

[two-sheep-in-one-wolfs-clothing]

in case you were wondering, joseph’s brothers sell him to the egyptians for ~300 us dollars

[ominouspositivity-or-else]

this just in: no one reads the bible. send post

[lizardho]

Before I knew I was bisexual I was just insanely dramatic and weird around guys I liked. I had a crush on this guy in my ward - he was older than me, he played bagpipes and had a cheerful dog and an old Volkswagen bus that he worked on all the time. He also had nice scruff and unnaturally attractive hands and a good sense of humor, so I was like FULLY smitten.

I talked about him a lot and about how he was just so dang COOL, dang it, because he was so frickin’ cool. And I really liked him. I thought he was funny and smart and interesting and cool and fascinating and a bunch of other weird feelings I barely had the attention span to think about (I think my ADHD may have prevented me from coming out for a while tbh).

One day, I’m like 14-15, his dad is called to be my Sunday School teacher. His dad is this ex-military hardass with a chip on his shoulder for absolutely no reason and unattainable standards for his children. He spent most of Sunday School talking shit about his eldest boy and how he was rebellious and didn’t listen to him and how that was going to make him a bad adult and a bad son forever. How his son was too lazy and unmotivated to be successful because he didn’t listen to his advice on how to read the scriptures. He complained about how our generation was too weak to do things right and that our generation would surely be the one that brought the world’s downfall because of our laziness and sin.

And like, first of all, that guy can already go fuck himself for that. To clarify, that’s already stupid. BUT. He was talking about the man I had uncomfortable dreams about at least once a month. I couldn’t stand it. I’d get so mad I’d go home shaking sometimes because how fucking DARE he insult his hardworking stunning son by calling him lazy? For not reading the Bible the way his dad wants? When he’s already spending his time learning bagpipes? And fixing cars? And being cool? And cute? Who the fuck even cares if he uses the footnotes in the Book of Mormon? Who gives a rotten rat’s ass if he doesn’t use the scripture study manual his dad uses? He’s so cool he doesn’t even need it? So fuck off?

And eventually I got fucking Sick Of It and decided to mutiny. And by mutiny, I mean skip class. I’d just not go. And after a bit, adults started noticing and bugging me about it. At first, this was put off by small talk and excuses, but as my absence from Sunday School became more well-known, my excuses began to be rejected.

“Oh, Lizard, why aren’t you in class?” Uhm idk because my Sunday School teacher is mean to his kid and that makes me so mad wtf do you want from me? 🫠🤔

“Where’s your class, I’ll go with you!” Oh no ty I’d rather peel my own eyes than have my taste in men critiqued tyty 🩷

“Lizard, you should go to class, I’m sure they miss you!” And I miss the innocent days where my stomach didn’t hurt when a cool boy I knew was being belittled but unfortunately for us both those days are LONG gone and all that’s left is a budding psychosexual clusterfuck that will render me almost fully incapable of functioning for the better part of a decade so Bye Bye, sister Smith 🙂‍↕️

It had gotten to the point that ward leadership was involved. I was being approached by members of the Young Men’s presidency and the Bishopric to try and make me to back to class. They were telling me God had told them to find me and instruct me on my rebelliousness. This is where I implemented my secret weapon - women. Mormons are weird as hell about a lot of things, but especially about women. And I was GREAT with women. So to combat the leadership’s attention, I started helping women.

Our ward had a lot of new moms with babies who were, as babies tend to be, fussy. But for Mormon women the church is often their only social outlet, so they try to power through as long as they can even if it means enduring the exhausting ordeal of taking care of a fussy baby at church.

For what it’s worth, I have a lot of sway with babies. I got baby street cred. Me and babies have a rapport. I have always known this. I have always loved this. And in this crucial gay time in my faggot life my baby mind powers came in clutch - Every time I saw a member of the bishopric getting close, or a young men’s leader giving me side-eye, I’d start walking slowly towards class, passing by relief society. I’d wait until a mom’s baby had gotten too fussy and needed to leave the room, and I’d swoop in like a knight. “Oh, don’t you worry sister, I’ll bounce him a bit. You go back and hang out with your friends in class. You deserve a break.”

If it was a diaper change or something they’d tell me no. But if it was just some good old-fashioned baby fusses, I mean, they’d be moved almost to tears. They just got their social time back AND a free babysitter who is renowned as the Baby Whisperer. And because I was holding a baby as a favor for someone else, I of course could not reasonably be bothered to return to class.

So just like that, I was out of everyone’s sights. This went on for about a month before the straw that broke the camel’s back, which was that without my class participation the classes were quiet and awkward. I’d often take the brunt of Sunday school lectures by answering questions impulsively and over explaining myself enough that the clock could run out without anyone needing to do or say much. My absence meant everyone else was getting hit with the full unpleasantness of this guy’s bullshit. And so slowly, one-by-one, I had a group of about 8 kids on baby-holding duty. These new moms were so overjoyed, they and their husbands were both so actively in our corner that now chastising us was untenable. Now we had bargaining power. So the Bishopric approached us, confused beyond confused and uncomfortable beyond uncomfortable, and said,

“What’s it gonna take to get you back to class?”

The POWER I possessed in that moment was addictive. By being kind to the women of the ward and ignoring the Mormon de facto Rule of Law of following rules en-masse so the rule breakers feel left out, there were now so many people breaking ranks that we had effectively enacted a church boy labor strike. And they crumbled so fast it was almost like we had swayed God himself to our cause.

“I want brother assholedad gone. He sucks at teaching.”

I didn’t even have to say it. One of my rebels said it for me. I just nodded sagely and said “Yes, his class is not edifying. It’s better to not go and hold babies.”

And just like that, with a snap of my limp-wristed, Christ-wounding, bottom-brained fingers my faggot will was enacted. God’s revelation that brother shitdad was his chosen Sunday school teacher flipped on a dime. Suddenly brother shitdad was asked to be an usher and the fun dad of another one of my crushes was called in to teach us. I still stayed to hold babies a lot, but the rest of the class returned and all was well again.

Although I didn’t recognize it then, I think that was a formative moment for me in a lot of ways. I learned that being really persistently annoying will get me what I want from authority eventually. I learned that God’s will can be swayed by going in strike. I learned that ignoring men’s made up authority forces them to level with you as a person. I learned that caring for women, especially vulnerable women, can make a whole world happier. I learned that letting women rest can help them feel more love for the things that matter in their life. I learned that social bonds make everyone stronger and happier. And I learned that loving others in a gay way can change the world.

Be gayer. Read Terry Pratchett. I love y’all 💕

[fivebookteachings]

Definition list to bible

1. Poor,poverty - not understanding the bible.

2.Earth,altar,field,city - bible

3.heart,sing,blow,song,city,peace,fruit,milk,water,tabel,mouth,lips,honey,sow,wheat,bread,manna,rain,river,flood,grape,oil,wine,cake,song,moutian,sea,water,flood,dew,up high,on top,air,roar,howl,cry, these all mean teachings.

4. Arm - God's plan

5. Justify - love

6.trees,king,princes,servants,donkey,angel,branch - teacher's

7. Wall,bulwark,tower,rest,cup-salvation

8. wilderness,Egypt- world

9. measure,30-hidden teachings

10. Palm tree,Joy - Father

11. Apple tree,Vine,Wisdom,Love,Truth,Galdnes ,Grove,- Mother Asherah

12. Pomegranate tree - Bride

13. Olive tree - Jesus

15. Fig tree - Last teacher

16.cedar tree,Azazel,Ephraim- Satan

17.seed self

18. Vintage,darkness,melodious noise,whistling wind,- corrupted teachings

19.foxes,dogs,bulls,goats,asps,serpent,thorns,thistles,giants-bible corrupters.

20. horn - child

21. Hungry, thirsty, blind,deaf, wounded,lost - no teachings or understanding

22. Finest- riddle teachings

23. House- church

24. Vessel,birds,sheep,flock,- people

25. Daughter,bird,husband,husbandman,woman,laborer,kng,prince=teacher