#christian stories

[citrussunrises]

Ok folks raised or in the church, reblog this with your most insane church lore, drama, or scandal.

I'll go first. My church started out as a New England commune. They all shared one lawnmower.

[amelianeek]

LUCIFER'S MISTAKEN IDENTITY Amelia the Neek | Prose/Art: Informative Article

Let me start with a simple fact. Many stories told in Christian mythology are based on major elements of the ancient Greeks, consisting of stories written over 700 years before the birth of Christ, consisting of people and events that were said to have originated many thousands of years prior. As someone who has studied stories from both sources, I have been able to connect the incredibly fascinating similarities.

“Helel” is a Hebrew word that means “the shining one” or “the bright one”. This was translated to Latin as “lucem” (light) and “ferre” (to carry), before being merged into “lucefer” and changed to “lucifer”, which corresponds with the Greek name for the planet Venus, personified by the mythological figure known as both, Eosphoros (dawn-bringer) and Phosphoros (light-bringer), the avatars of the planet Venus as it appears in the morning sky, which is the true origin of “Morningstar”.

The word “Lucifer” was only ever mentioned once in the Bible and it was referring to the planet Venus at dawn, not any particular being. This singular mention was part of a verse in Isaiah 14:12, which was a taunt aimed at a reigning King of Babylon, an enemy nation of Israel and other nations they were in violent conflict with. Calling him “Lucifer” was an insult meant to point out the king’s fall from the light:

“Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming: it stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth; it hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations. All they shall speak and say unto thee, Art thou also become weak as we? art thou become like unto us? Thy pomp is brought down to the grave, and the noise of thy viols: the worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee. How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit”.

Confusing, yes? Flowery? Very much. And who is to say this has been translated properly with so many words with double meanings and others borrowed from far older cultures?

Furthermore, “satan” was also never suggested to be another name for any particular being; Certainly not a fallen angel. It is a Latin word meaning “adversary”, which was used to describe anyone who would challenge one’s faith in God or tempt one to sin.

Many claim that Lucifer was mentioned in Genesis 3, but he was not. The villain in the story was simply referred to “the serpent”. This likely a metaphor, the most popular theory and likely truth being Adam’s penis and the sexual temptation he shared with Eve.

Many also claim that Lucifer tried to tempt Jesus Christ in Matthew 4:1–11, but in this verse, the tempter was only referred to as “the devil”. The Greek word “diabolos” from which “devil” is derived, means “slanderer”, which, in this context, can easily refer to someone who made false claims against God in order to convince Jesus to turn away from his path. You could say that by trying to tempt Jesus, this devil was slandering God by suggesting that he is not the way and he, she or it could have been anyone, including a person, a spirit, an angel, or even God himself.

Another interesting fact is that “Hades” was translated into “Hell” as was the Greek word, “Tartarus”. The problem is, Hell and Tartarus are not the same place. When mentioned separately, they were described quite differently. Hell is where human souls go after living a life of sin while Tartarus was where evil beings of great power were sent as punishment. In Greek myth, it’s where the Titans were imprisoned and in Christian myth, it was the place where fallen angels were condemned to dwell.

So much has been lost in translation due to the poor quality of surviving scrolls and books, assumptions based on ancient words with double meanings, minds clouded by political agendas and drink, and so many of these stories have been tainted by (other?) popular works of fiction.

You also must take into consideration that stories and “facts” change from one moment to the next. We can’t even begin to imagine how many such tellings have changed over this vast amount of time. The first Bible stories were written over 3,220 years ago. Many of us can’t recall what we ate last week or how to spell certain words. How are we to base our lives on stories containing less continuity than a modern comic book?

[stil-lindigo]

the fox god.

a comic about a trickster.

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creative notes:

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all my other comics

store

[adventuretolkienlover]

DOMINION: The Fall of The House of Saul VOLUME 2! Christian Sci-fi Comic on Kickstarter Now!

Guys! You have to check this out! Let me explain what this is.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dominioncomic/dominion-volume-2-chapters-4-5-exclusive-print-run?ref=user_menu

I didn't know about this comic till today. But I can tell you it's awesome!

If you like Star Wars, Narnia, and The Lord of The Rings, then this comic is for you. Created by two christian collage professors, Dominion retells the full story of bible heros David, Saul, and Jonathan with a dramatic Sci-fi atmosphere and elements. It is heavily inspired by J.R.R. Tolkien's and C.S. Lewis's story telling and writings. And as a C.S Lewis fan, I am SUPER impressed! The art is gorgeous and amazingly planned out. And the animal characters are brilliant.

The second volume of the comic is almost funded, but it only has five more day to go and it needs you help. Check out the page to learn more about it! Any help is good help!

Thanks and God bless!

[lepetitdragonvert]

Thumbkin and Other Stories

Text Version by W. K. Holmes

Artist : Barbara C. Freeman (1906-1999)

Blackie & Son Limited

London and Glascow

[xiaq]

No, but lets talk about this. I dug out my grad school notes and everything.

So my grandmother is acting a fool on FB (what else is new).

And I can't respond to her because I might actually give her a heart attack if I shared some of the images included below. But I wanted to rant to someone so here we are. First, yes, the drag bit at the Olympics was inspired by The Feast of the Gods, by Dutch artist Jan van Bijlert in the 1630's, not The Last Supper mural by Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci, in the 1490's. And yes, pearl-clutching Christians need to touch grass and tone down the victimization because it's getting embarrassing. I think we've established this now from multiple reputable sources.

But like. Even if the Olympics DID make a drag parody of the The Last Supper, it's SO funny that Christians are holding up that painting as some sort of ideal heterosexual conservative icon when plenty of historians (including my Renaissance art prof in grad school) are certain da Vinci was gay. The man had no documented female lovers but was arrested for sodomy with a male prostitute (though charges were later dropped). He had extremely close relationships with his secretary Salaì and pupil/friend Francesco Melzi who both traveled the world and lived with him for most of their lives and through the end of his. When he died, Melzi wrote in a letter that there was "a burning and passionate love" between them. And Salaì modeled for da Vinci all the time--let me tell you, there are some hella erotic drawings of him. Exibit A:

But maybe heterosexuals draw their bros erect all the time and label the drawings "Angel Incarnate." Maybe.

Also if Christians really want to clutch their peals, this drawing might look familiar because da Vinci created his well known John the Baptist painting based on this and other sketches of Salaì.

Well, hello. Also worth noting: there are lots of fun doodles in da Vinci's sketch books, including things like the below--two dicks with legs poking at a butthole labeled Salaì.

Do you REALLY think that this (likely queer) man would care if someone based a drag show off one of his paintings?

[howlingtothevoid]

Begging God to fix you!

(And other tales about religious trauma)

[wolfythewitch]

isaac

[religiously-inclined]

Story of the Moths

Growing up, I was pretty well removed from most things religious. However, to make me and my sister not afraid of moths, my mother told us a story about them that she’d read in some magazine. It had religious tones, but she really wanted us to not fear moths.

Moths are the most beautiful animals in the animal kingdom. At one time they were more colourful than the butterflies. They have always been helpful, kind, and generous creatures. One day the angels up in heaven were crying. They were sad because it was cloudy and they couldn’t look down upon the people on earth. Their tears fell down to the earth as rain. The sweet little moths hated to see everyone so sad. They decided to make a rainbow. The moths figured that if they asked their cousins, the butterflies, to help, they could all give up just a little bit of their colours and they could make a beautiful rainbow.

One of the littlest moths flew to ask the queen of the butterflies for help. The butterflies were too vain and selfish to give up any of their colours for neither the people nor the angels. So, the moths decided to try to make the rainbow themselves. They beat their wings very hard and the powder on them formed little clouds that the winds smoothed over like glass. Unfortunately, the rainbow wasn’t big enough so the moths kept giving a little more and a little more until the rainbow stretched all the way across the sky. They had given away all their colour except brown, which didn’t fit into their beautiful rainbow. Now the once colourful moths were plain and brown. The angels up in heaven saw the rainbow, and became joyous. They smiled and the warmth of their smiles shown down on the earth as sunshine. The warm sunshine made the people on earth happy and they smiled, too. Now every time it rains the baby moths, who still have their colours, spread them across the sky to make more rainbows.

Source: The Story People

[sweetstgal111]

it pains me so much

[luhvrlis]

GIRLS TURN 13 AND PICK ONE OF THESE AS THEIR PERSONALITY:

[lemonduckisnowawake]

You know, it's a tragedy that there are no (or very little) Vampire x Christian stories out there, not for angst or theology or forbidden seductiveness or whatnot but for the sheer comedy of it all. I mean, the Christian would technically be immune to all of the vampire's shenanigans, like for example...

Vampire: Fool, I am the most powerful vampire in the West. Nothing but the force of an entire holy temple could even deign to scratch me Christian: Idiot, I AM a holy temple. 1 Corinthians 6:19, fear me and the Spirit inside that can burn you to ashes

[francesderwent]

[fictionadventurer]

Maybe the problem with Christian fiction is that it's non-denominational. People are just "Christian", with no effort put into showing what practicing that religion looks like for them specifically. No indication that there are other Christians who could have different beliefs. No wrestling with differing ideas and the struggle of how one should live out their Christian faith. And that makes it unrealistic and unrelatable.

[lepetitdragonvert]

Légendes et contes d’Andersen

Éditions Gründ

1962

Artist : Jiri Trnka

The Little Mermaid