Month: July 2017

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Norm Geisler references TrueFreethinker.com:
Apologeticspress.com’s Kyle Butt references TrueFreethinker.com:

Read the article about which Gary Habermas, PhD (Distinguished Research Professor & Chair of the Department of Philosophy at Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary) said, “I have hung on to it since you sent it, & plan to keep doing so”: Historical Jesus – Two Centuries Worth of Citations.

Social networks:
My Amazon author’s page
Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
Archive video site
Ken Ammi’s Product Reviews
My CafePress shop
Google +

Norm Geisler references TrueFreethinker.com:
Apologeticspress.com’s Kyle Butt references TrueFreethinker.com:

Read the article about which Gary Habermas, PhD (Distinguished Research Professor & Chair of the Department of Philosophy at Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary) said, “I have hung on to it since you sent it, & plan to keep doing so”: Historical Jesus – Two Centuries Worth of Citations.

The term stoicheion (Strong’s G4747) is a layered one and is thus variously employed. It refers to “any first thing, from which the others belonging to some series or composite whole take their rise, an element, first principal…elements, rudiments, primary and fundamental principles of any art, science, or discipline.” As such it is used on an element of spoken speech (not writing), elements as in that of which the universe consists, etc.

Herein I continue my “Exodus as premise for…” series, all of which you can find here.

Various aspects of the founding principles and therefore laws are premised upon being freed from Egypt, for example, “And you shall tell your son in that day, saying, ‘This is done because of what the LORD did for me when I came up from Egypt’” (Exodus 13).

Various holidays are premised upon the Exodus event:
Leviticus 23 Ye shall dwell in booths seven days; all that are Israelites born shall dwell in booths: that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.

Deuteronomy 16 Observe the month of Abib, and keep the Passover to the LORD your God, for in the month of Abib the LORD your God brought you out of Egypt by night.

Deuteronomy 16 You shall eat no leavened bread with it; seven days you shall eat unleavened bread with it, that is, the bread of affliction (for you came out of the land of Egypt in haste), that you may remember the day in which you came out of the land of Egypt all the days of your life.

God also appeals to the Exodus events as reasons for dealing with certain nations in certain manners:
Deuteronomy 23 An Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter the assembly of the LORD; even to the tenth generation none of his descendants shall enter the assembly of the LORD forever, because they did not meet you with bread and water on the road when you came out of Egypt, and because they hired against you Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse you.

Deuteronomy 25 Remember what Amalek did to you on the way as you were coming out of Egypt, how he met you on the way and attacked your rear ranks, all the stragglers at your rear, when you were tired and weary; and he did not fear God. Therefore it shall be, when the LORD your God has given you rest from your enemies all around, in the land which the LORD your God is giving you to possess as an inheritance, that you will blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven. You shall not forget.

Judges 6 Thus says the LORD God of Israel: ‘I brought you up from Egypt and brought you out of the house of bondage; And I delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of all that oppressed you, and drave them out from before you, and gave you their land.

1 Samuel 15 Thus says the LORD of hosts: ‘I will punish Amalek for what he did to Israel, how he ambushed him on the way when he came up from Egypt.’

1 Samuel 15 Then Saul said to the Kenites, “Go, depart, get down from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them. For you showed kindness to all the children of Israel when they came up out of Egypt.”

Another manner whereby God also appeals to the Exodus events as reasons for dealing with certain nations in certain manners and how the Hebrews are to deal with those nations as well as each other is in terms of emphathy:
Exodus 22 You shall neither mistreat a stranger nor oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.

Exodus 23 Also you shall not oppress a stranger, for you know the heart of a stranger, because you were strangers in the land of Egypt.

Leviticus 19 The stranger who dwells among you shall be to you as one born among you, and you shall love him as yourself; for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.

Deuteronomy 10 love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.

Deuteronomy 24 “You shall not pervert justice due the stranger or the fatherless, nor take a widow’s garment as a pledge. But you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and the LORD your God redeemed you from there; therefore I command you to do this thing. “When you reap your harvest in your field, and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it; it shall be for the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. When you beat your olive trees, you shall not go over the boughs again; it shall be for the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow. When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not glean it afterward; it shall be for the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow. And you shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt; therefore I command you to do this thing.

Here are some examples of the Exodus event’s premise within law:
Leviticus 19 You shall have honest scales, honest weights, an honest ephah, and an honest hin: I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt.

Leviticus 25 You shall not lend him your money for usury, nor lend him your food at a profit. I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan and to be your God…if one of your brethren who dwells by you becomes poor, and sells himself to you, you shall not compel him to serve as a slave. As a hired servant and a sojourner he shall be with you, and shall serve you until the Year of Jubilee. For they are My servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt; they shall not be sold as slaves. For the children of Israel are servants to Me; they are My servants whom I brought out of the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.

Deuteronomy 13 But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has spoken in order to turn you away from the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of bondage, to entice you from the way in which the LORD your God commanded you to walk. So you shall put away the evil from your midst…And you shall stone him with stones until he dies, because he sought to entice you away from the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.

In the next segment, all of which you can find here, we will consider Exodus as premise for an episode of “who done it?”

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A plea: I have to pay for server usage and have made all content on this website free and always will. I support my family on one income and do research, writing, videos, etc. as a hobby. If you can even spare $1.00 as a donation, please do so: it may not seem like much but if each person reading this would do so, even every now and then, it would add up and really, really help. Here is my donate/paypal page.

Due to robo-spaming, I had to close the comment sections. However, you can comment on my Facebook page and/or on my Google+ page. You can also use the “Share / Save” button below this post.

Social networks:
My Amazon author’s page
Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
Archive video site
Ken Ammi’s Product Reviews
My CafePress shop
Google +

Norm Geisler references TrueFreethinker.com:
Apologeticspress.com’s Kyle Butt references TrueFreethinker.com:

Read the article about which Gary Habermas, PhD (Distinguished Research Professor & Chair of the Department of Philosophy at Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary) said, “I have hung on to it since you sent it, & plan to keep doing so”: Historical Jesus – Two Centuries Worth of Citations.

Social networks:
My Amazon author’s page
Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
Archive video site
Ken Ammi’s Product Reviews
My CafePress shop
Google +

Norm Geisler references TrueFreethinker.com:
Apologeticspress.com’s Kyle Butt references TrueFreethinker.com:

Read the article about which Gary Habermas, PhD (Distinguished Research Professor & Chair of the Department of Philosophy at Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary) said, “I have hung on to it since you sent it, & plan to keep doing so”: Historical Jesus – Two Centuries Worth of Citations.

Have you ever shaken your head in disbelief at the expounding of certain Christian teachers? Do these people seem to be false prophets, deceivers, ignorant and unstable, promoters of controversies, ferocious wolves, who offer meaningless talk, who are conceited and understand nothing, who exploit you, who tell fortunes for money, and use godliness as a means to financial gain?

Herein I commence my “Exodus as premise for…” series, all of which you can find here.

I have heard many Atheists point out, in complaint, that the first four of the Ten Commandments, the Decalogue, do not even pertain to ethical issue. This is a styled counterargument to the Judeo-Christian claim that Judeo-Christian ethical principles are premised upon them.

Note that the first commandment states, “I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.” It seems to me that Atheists do not recognize what this is because they are the worst sorts of fire and brimstone preachers. That is to say that they instantly jump into condemnation and do so without a premise—and when they do attempt to assert a premise they beg, borrow and steal from Judeo-Christian ethical principles. Thus, they do not recognize that this first commandment establishes the premise for all those which follow.

Since, “I am the LORD thy God” who is that one that “brought thee out of the land of Egypt” in freeing the Hebrews “out of the house of bondage” therefore, He has the right to establish ethical principles, “remember and do all My commandments, and be holy for your God. I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: I am the LORD your God” (Numbers 15) and “You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God redeemed you; therefore I command you this thing today” (Deuteronomy 15) also, “you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and you shall be careful to observe these statutes” (Deuteronomy 16). In fact, it is noted that “Then people would say: ‘Because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD God of their fathers, which He made with them when He brought them out of the land of Egypt” (Deuteronomy 29) and “the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God: I am the LORD” (Leviticus 26) so that by being freed they were entering into a covenant.

Now, since God enjoys this exclusive right then it is an ethical commandment to “have no other gods before”1 Him since, and we loop back around to, He has the right to establish ethical principles since He enjoys the exclusive rights.

The Hebrews were to “fear the LORD, serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the River and in Egypt. Serve the LORD!” (Joshua 24) and sometimes, “they forsook the LORD God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt” (Judges 2).

Thus, it is unethical to “not make…any graven image, or any likeness” so as to “bow down thyself to them, nor serve them” because “I the LORD thy God am a jealous2 God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of” who exactly? “them that hate me” and yet, “shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.”

Following from this it is therefore unethical to “take the name of the LORD thy God in vain” since it is He who liberated the Hebrews, “Neither shall ye profane my holy name; but I will be hallowed among the children of Israel: I am the LORD which hallow you, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: I am the LORD” (Leviticus 22).
They were also to “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy” because “in six days the LORD” created everything “rested the seventh day” and we are to be like Him as He showed Himself to be a liberator, “And remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out from there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm; therefore the LORD your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day” (Deuteronomy 5).

The rest are largely self-explanatory, “Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee. Thou shalt not murder. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s.” All are reflective of God’s very nature and essence which is the ethos: the oughts, should, the imperatives.

Now, my point has actually been to elucidate that which is constantly peppered throughout the Bible such as that God stating “I am the LORD” (Exo 12) which also explains why, thereafter, He had the right to state “I am the LORD thy God” and “have no other gods before me” as any true and worthy god could have prevented Him from doing that which He did and it was “against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment” (Exodus 12). Also, He did so due to compassion for the Hebrew’s suffering.
For these same reasons, He did this so as to make an impression upon all nations who would hear of it again validating “I am the LORD thy God” and “have no other gods before me” as any true and worthy god could have prevented Him from doing that which He did. This also served as a constant reminder of a premise upon which to establish His right to command and also as an empathy premise since the Hebrews were to treat non-Hebrew foreigners well since Hebrews were once the foreigners.

Beginning with “the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying: ‘To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates’” (Genesis 15) which sets the stage for all that which follows. This continues when “Joseph had been taken down to Egypt” (Genesis 39) 3. God stated, “I am God, the God of your father; do not fear to go down to Egypt, for I will make of you a great nation there” (Genesis 46). Yet, after Joseph’s success in Egypt, “a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph…spoke to the Hebrew midwives…and he said, ‘When you do the duties of a midwife for the Hebrew women, and see them on the birthstools, if it is a son, then you shall kill him; but if it is a daughter, then she shall live.’ But the midwives feared God, and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the male children alive” (Exodus 1)4.

In the next segment, all of which you can find here, we will consider Exodus as premise for God’s mighty acts due to His compassion.

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A plea: I have to pay for server usage and have made all content on this website free and always will. I support my family on one income and do research, writing, videos, etc. as a hobby. If you can even spare $1.00 as a donation, please do so: it may not seem like much but if each person reading this would do so, even every now and then, it would add up and really, really help. Here is my donate/paypal page.

Due to robo-spaming, I had to close the comment sections. However, you can comment on my Facebook page and/or on my Google+ page. You can also use the “Share / Save” button below this post.

The term stoicheion (Strong’s G4747) is a layered one and is thus variously employed. It refers to “any first thing, from which the others belonging to some series or composite whole take their rise, an element, first principal…elements, rudiments, primary and fundamental principles of any art, science, or discipline.” As such it is used on an element of spoken speech (not writing), elements as in that of which the universe consists, etc.

Hebrew 5:12 uses the term in terms of literal first principles, “when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles [stoicheion] of the oracles of God.”

2 Peter 3:10, 12 use it in the material elements manner, “the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements [stoicheion] shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up…the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements [stoicheion] shall melt with fervent heat?”

Other usages employ the term as indicative of that which we would term premises.

Galatians 4:3, 9 “Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements [stoicheion] of the world…how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements [stoicheion], whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?”

Colossians 2:8, 20 “Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments [stoicheion] of the world, and not after Christ…Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments [stoicheion] of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances.”

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A plea: I have to pay for server usage and have made all content on this website free and always will. I support my family on one income and do research, writing, videos, etc. as a hobby. If you can even spare $1.00 as a donation, please do so: it may not seem like much but if each person reading this would do so, even every now and then, it would add up and really, really help. Here is my donate/paypal page.

Due to robo-spaming, I had to close the comment sections. However, you can comment on my Facebook page and/or on my Google+ page. You can also use the “Share / Save” button below this post.

Social networks:
My Amazon author’s page
Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
Archive video site
Ken Ammi’s Product Reviews
My CafePress shop
Google +

Norm Geisler references TrueFreethinker.com:
Apologeticspress.com’s Kyle Butt references TrueFreethinker.com:

Read the article about which Gary Habermas, PhD (Distinguished Research Professor & Chair of the Department of Philosophy at Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary) said, “I have hung on to it since you sent it, & plan to keep doing so”: Historical Jesus – Two Centuries Worth of Citations.