Heaven and Hell: The View of the Early Church - Clark Carlton (audio)

http://www.ancientfaith.com/specials/heaven_and_hell_the_view_of_the_early_church

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

Galadriel: Mthrandir... Why the halfling?

Gandalf: Saruman believes it is only great power that can hold evil in check, but that is not what I have found. I found it is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay. Small acts of kindness and love. Why Bilbo Baggins? Perhaps because I am afraid, and he gives me courage.

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

Gandalf: The world isn't in your books and maps! It’s out there.

 

 

Holy Communion Prayers - St. Basil "The Great"

 

Prayers Before Holy Communion

 

I believe, O Lord, and I confess, that

You are truly the Christ, the Son of the

living God, Who came into the world

to save sinners, of whom I am the first.

I also believe that this is Your

immaculate Body, and that this is Your

precious Blood. Therefore, I pray to

You: have mercy on me, and forgive

me my transgressions, those voluntary

and involuntary, those in word, those in

deed, those in knowledge and those in

ignorance; and make me worthy to

partake of Your immaculate Mysteries

without condemnation, for the

remission of sins and to eternal life.

 

Behold, I approach for divine

Communion;

O Creator, burn me not as I partake;

For You are Fire burning the

unworthy.

But rather cleanse me from every

impurity.

 

Of Your Mystical Supper, O Son of

God, receive me today as a

communicant; for I will not speak of

the Mystery to Your enemies; nor will I

give a kiss to You, as did Judas; but

like the thief I confess to You:

Remember me O Lord, in Your

Kingdom.

 

Beholding the deifying Blood, O man,

be awe-stricken;

For it is a fiery Coal burning the

unworthy.

The divine Body deifies and

nourishes me;

It deifies the spirit, and wondrously

nourishes the mind.

 

You have smitten me with yearning, O

Christ, and by Your divine love You

have changed me; but burn away my

sins with immaterial Fire, and make me

worthy to be filled with delight in You;

that, rejoicing, O good One, I may

magnify Your two presences.

 

How shall I the unworthy enter into the

radiance of Your saints? If I dare to

enter into the bridal chamber, my

garment exposes me, because it is not

for the wedding feast, and bound I shall

be cast out by the Angels; O Lord,

cleanse the pollution of my soul, and

save me, for You love mankind.

 

O Master Who loves mankind, O Lord

Jesus Christ my God, do not let these

Holy Gifts be for judgment because of

my unworthiness, but for the cleansing

and sanctification of both soul and

body, and for a pledge of the future life

and Kingdom. For it is good for me to

cleave to God, to put the hope of my

salvation in the Lord.

thanks to source:

http://www.denver.goarch.org/liturgical/triodion/holy_week/hs_liturgy.pdf

pg49-

a layman's thoughts on Beauty, Truth, Love, Joy, Peace...

Beauty and Truth were and are forever the pursuit of mankind. It was so with the philosophers and the sages, as primordial man tried to reach higher and touch the energies of God, return to the simplicity and to Beauty itself. It seems true that no created thing in the world is necessarily ugly or evil, but only that the beauty that it once was has been distorted, gone awry, or askew. It has become twisted, deformed or misshapen.  The original image becomes perverted by its use primarily as a means to another end, misused. The pursuit of Beauty and pursuit of eternal love, joy, peace, and truth will remain the sole core of mankind's existential life. This is unavoidable, unimagined, without it. Why do we sometimes miss this beauty in its pure undistorted form or accept any twisted variation of it? Why are our thoughts so scattered to the winds of emotion and intellectual vanities or our body's sole use for the purpose of amusement? Why does the material world of things and more things ever sometimes smother us with the chasing of shadows and dust? Is it possible that our view of beauty is distorted, lost in one form or other? Can the material world satisfy our needs permanently? Can our intellectual accolades fulfill the most basic needs permanently? Can the amusements of our bodies gratify us permanently? If we find that nothing in this world can fully satisfy, fulfill or gratify us, then are we truly seeing things as they are  before us or have we accepted a counterfeit beauty? It seems that the pursuit of virtue for its own sake, or as Confucius' way of the gentleman or Lao Tzu's Tao, stresses a simple and guarded life as essential to even see beauty or experience it. In Plato and Socrates, we understand something deeper, essential, marked by a strange and highly subtle thing. In Heraclitus we encounter the Logos, visible and invisible, a paradox impossible to fully comprehend, but never less real. Mr. Lewis searches, the all corner's mind to find what will finalize his hunger and what will answer the deeper questions. What to compare to the Absolute or why to compare at all if no truth exists? Finally in St. John we experience in person that which we long for.... And that any course of way outside of this has been marked by road-signs to turn back, stop, slow-down, wrong-way, watch for falling rocks, etc. Yet to continue down the wrong way is to ignore the most basic fundamental to life. It is to ignore Truth and remain with the false however it appears to be otherwise.

In the Theologians and Saints we are elevated to the true meaning and pursuit of Philosophy, The lovers of wisdom as a Person...here we see and experience the crowning achievement and goal of the philosophers and sages... we experience the Maker of our soul and the source of all who have sought out, are seeking and will seek. We move from human philosophy to Theology.We experience, truth, love, joy, peace and see the beauty that the things of the world are only a reflection of and when we know this beauty, experience it, we hunger for nothing more. We are full. We are afraid of nothing, we need nothing, we pursue nothing. We have come to our journey's end and this is not the end but the beginning of eternal heaven where there are no worries or fears, and growth eternal, never dull, ever expanding. The nous has received its desire. Christ, the return of the king, the return of beauty to earth, has triumphed over decay, death and the devil. In this truly we Say, Christo Anesti!


In the beginning was the Word (Logos), the Word was with God and the Word was God...
- St. John

"I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.
John 14:6

Of the Logos, which is as I describe it, people always prove to be uncomprehending, both before and after they have heard it. For although all things happen according to this Logos, people behave as if they have no experience, even when they experience such words and deeds as I explain, when I distinguish each thing according to its constitution and declare how it is. The rest of humanity fails to notice what they do after they wake up just as they forget what they do when asleep.
- Heraclitus (535 – 475 B.C.)

We should let ourselves be guided by what is common to all. Yet although the Logos is common to all, most men live as if each had a private intelligence of his own.

-Heraclitus, fr. 2 (p. 19)

Although intimately connected with the Logos, men keep setting themselves against it.

-Heraclitus, fr. 64 (p. 68)

God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing. C. S. Lewis
1898-1963

If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world.
C.S. Lewis -

“Love may forgive all infirmities and love still in spite of them: but

love cannot cease to will their removal.” (39)

C.S. Lewis

1898-1963 (Problem of Pain)

The Church grows under the harshest persecution and grows lethargic

and dies when apart from it

C.S. Lewis

1898-1963

My argument against God was that the universe seemed so cruel and unjust. But how had I got this idea of just and unjust? A man does not call a line crooked unless he has some idea of a straight line. What was I comparing this universe with when I called it unjust? -
- C.S. Lewis - Mere Christianity

I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: 'I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God.' That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic -- on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg -- or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.
- C.S. Lewis – Mere Christianity, pages 40-41.

Zi-lu said, "The ruler of Wei has been waiting for you, in order with you to administer the government. What will you consider the first thing to be done?"
The Master replied, "What is necessary to rectify names."
"So! indeed!" said Zi-lu. "You are wide off the mark! Why must there be such rectification?"
The Master said, "How uncultivated you are, Yu! A superior man, in regard to what he does not know, shows a cautious reserve.
If names be not correct, language is not in accordance with the truth of things.
If language be not in accordance with the truth of things, affairs cannot be carried on to success.
When affairs cannot be carried on to success, proprieties and music do not flourish.
When proprieties and music do not flourish, punishments will not be properly awarded.
When punishments are not properly awarded, the people do not know how to move hand or foot.
Therefore a superior man considers it necessary that the names he uses may be spoken appropriately, and also that what he speaks may be carried out appropriately. What the superior man requires is just that in his words there may be nothing incorrect."
(Analects XIII, 3, tr. Legge)
Confucius

He who sets to work on a different strand destroys the whole fabric.
- Confucius

Heaven means to be one with God.
-Confucius

It is upon the Trunk that a gentleman works.
- Confucius

"If I am walking with two other men, each of them will serve as my teacher. I will pick out the good points of the one and imitate them, and the bad points of the other and correct them in myself."
Confucius (551 BC – 479 BC)

For every man striking away at the root of a problem, there are millions striking away at the branches
- Plato
424/423 BC – 348/347 BC

All men are by nature equal, made all of the same earth by one Workman; and however we deceive ourselves, as dear unto God is the poor peasant as the mighty prince.
- Plato

Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.

Plato (423BC – 347BC)


"A system of morality which is based on relative emotional values is a mere illusion, a thoroughly vulgar conception which has nothing sound in it and nothing true."
- Socrates (469 BC–399 BC)
 
“Would you like to save the world from the degradation and destruction it seems destined for? Then step away from shallow mass movements and quietly go to work on your own self-awareness. If you want to awaken all of humanity, then awaken all of yourself. If you want to eliminate the suffering in the world, then eliminate all that is dark and negative in yourself. Truly, the greatest gift you have to give is that of your own self-transformation.”
― Lao Tzu

“When men lost their understanding of the Tao, intelligence came along, bringing hypocrisy with it.”
― Lao Tzu

“If you search everywhere, yet cannot find what you are seeking, it is because what you seek is already in your possession.”
― Lao Tzu

“So it is that some things are increased by being diminished, and others are diminished by being increased.”
― Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

“When things flourish they decline.”

― Lao Tzu

 

“not to show them what is likely to excite their desires is the way to keep their minds from disorder.”
― Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

“Respond intelligently even to unintelligent treatment.”
“The words of truth are always paradoxical.”
― Lao Tzu

"Esteemed friend, citizen of Athens, the greatest city in the world, so outstanding in both intelligence and power, aren't you ashamed to care so much to make all the money you can, and to advance your reputation and prestige--while for truth and wisdom and the improvement of your soul you have no care or worry?"
— Socrates

"Our youth now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for their elders and love chatter in place of exercise; they no longer rise when elders enter the room; they contradict their parents, chatter before company; gobble up their food and tyrannize their teachers."
— Socrates

"One should never do wrong in return, nor mistreat any man, no matter how one has been mistreated by him."
— Socrates

The end of life is to be like God, and the soul following God will be like Him.
- Socrates

Hatred does not cease by hatred, but only by love; this is the eternal rule.
Siddhārtha Gautama (563 BC to 483 BC)

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; and with the prayers of Saint Peter, the intercession prayers of St. Demetrios myhrr streaming and St. Paisios "the new"of the Mount Athos, may we all be changed by the divine love of God and to a good account before the awesome judgment seat of Christ unto life everlasting. Glory to God.

thanks to source:

http://www.ancientfaith.com/podcasts/aftoday/crisis_of_beauty

Quote by Socrates ~ Father and Maker

It is neither easy to find the Father and Maker of all, nor, having found Him, is it possible to declare Him to all.
- Socrates (469 BC – 399 BC)

Source:


Christ The Eternal Tao, Hiermonk Damascene, Valaam Books 1999. pg43

Quote by Lao Tzu and Heraclitus

My teachings are very easy to understand and to practice; yet there is no one in the world who is able either to understand or to practice them. This is because my teachings have an originating principle and arise from an integrated system. This is not understood, so I am unknown.
- Lao Tzu 6th century B.C.(Gi-ming Shien, trans.)

Of the Logos, which is as I describe it, people always prove to be uncomprehending, both before and after they have heard it. For although all things happen according to this Logos, people behave as if they have no experience, even when they experience such words and deeds as I explain, when I distinguish each thing according to its constitution and declare how it is. The rest of humanity fails to notice what they do after they wake up just as they forget what they do when asleep.
- Heraclitus (535 – 475 B.C.)


Source:


Christ The Eternal Tao, Hiermonk Damascene, Valaam Books 1999. pg29

Quote by St. Gregory of Nyssa

Man's goal is therefore the contemplation of God. In him alone can he find his fulfillment.

thanks to source:

http://365rosaries.blogspot.com/2011/01/january-10-saint-gregory-of-nyssa.html

Quote by St. Gregory of Nyssa

“In speaking of God, when there is question of His essence, then is the time to keep silence. When however, it is a question of His operation, a knowledge of which can come down even to us, that is the time to speak of His omnipotence by telling of His works and explaining His deeds, and to use words to this extent. In matters which go beyond this, however, the creature must not exceed the bounds of his nature, but must be content to know itself. For, indeed, in my view, if the creature never comes to know itself, never understands the essence of the soul or the nature of the body, the cause of being…, if the creature does not know itself, how can it ever explain things which are beyond it? Of such things it is the time to keep silence; here silence is surely better. There is, however, a time to speak of those things by which we can in our lives make progress in virtue.”


Thanks to source:

http://365rosaries.blogspot.com/2011/01/january-10-saint-gregory-of-nyssa.html

Tolkien Quote

Bilbo Baggins: Good Morning!

Gandalf: What do you mean? Do you wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a good morning whether I want it or not; or that you feel good this morning; or that it is a morning to be good on?

 

J.R.R. Tolkien

The Hobbit

Tolkien Quote

Gandalf: True courage is about knowing not when to take a life, but when to spare.

 

J.R.R. Tolkien

The Hobbit

Tolkien Quote

Gandalf: “Surely you don’t disbelieve in the prophecies, because you had a hand in bringing them about yourself? You don’t really suppose, do you, that all your adventures and escapes were managed by mere luck, just for your sole benefit? You are a very fine person, Mr. Baggins, and I am very fond of you; but you are only quite a little fellow in a wide world after all!”

 

J.R.R. Tolkien

Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring

Tolkien Quote

Gandalf: A mortal, Frodo, who keeps one of the Great Rings, does not die, but he does not grow or obtain more life, he merely continues, until at last every minute is a weariness. And if he often uses the Ring to make himself invisible, he fades: he becomes in the end invisible permanently, and walks in the twilight under the eye of the dark power that rules the Rings.

 

J.R.R Tolkien

Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring

 

 

Tolkien Quote

""It's a pity Bilbo didn't kill him when he had the chance."

"Pity? It was pity that stayed Bilbo's hand. Many that live deserve death. Some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them, Frodo? Do not be too eager to deal out death in judgment. Even the very wise cannot see all ends. My heart tells me that Gollum has some part to play yet, for good or ill before this is over. The pity of Bilbo may rule the fate of many."

"I wish The Ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had ever happened."

"So do all who live to face such times, but that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us."



John Ronald Reuel Tolkien(1892 – 1973)
Lord of the Rings, Fellowship of the ring.


Thanks to source:

http://ironic1.com/2007/02/many_that_live_deserve_death_s.html

Quote by St. Andrew of Crete

“the present pleasures resemble the flow of a river, shadow and smoke, a dream and blade of grass.” (St. Andrew of Crete)


source and thanks

http://www.johnsanidopoulos.com/2013/05/emperor-constantines-edict-of-milan.html

Three Misconceptions About the Role of the Church

Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Three Misconceptions About the Role of the Church

By Hieromonk Savvas the Athonite

1. In Hades there is no repentance.

"In Hades there is no repentance" - this is a very basic teaching of Orthodoxy. If your spiritual eyes do not open from here, it will be impossible in the next life.

It is not by coincidence that your eyes will be opened. You must do it, with the help of God of course. You do it with the Grace of God, not by yourself! But you must want to do it in this life.

2. The Church is primarily for this life.

The Church is for this life. There is a fallacy, unfortunately, among Orthodox that the Church prepares us for the other life.

Wrong. It does not prepare us for the other life. It fixes us in this life, for this life, to open our eyes here and to enter the Kingdom of God here and now! In Paradise here and now! And if you do not find Paradise here and now, neither will you find it in the other life, because in the other life you will not be able to repent. There is no repentance in the other life: "In Hades there is no repentance".

3. The Church does not exist "so that all things may go well with us".

There are some who think that the Church exists so that things may go well for us in this life. The Church is not for this either. If we view the Orthodox Church in this way, then we see it as a superstition, and as a religion among other religions. Orthodoxy is not a religion. It is the revelation of God to man, with the purpose of healing the entire person, by healing the nous of man, his body and soul.

Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos

 

thanks to John Sanidopoulos

 

http://www.johnsanidopoulos.com/2013/06/three-misconceptions-about-role-of.html

Elder Paisios on Atheist Politicians

Elder Paisios on Atheist Politicians

- One day, scandalized by a spiritual father who wanted to impose his political convictions on a spiritual child of his, I went to consult the Elder concerning this.

"For me, a hand which doesn't do the cross, whether it's 'right' or 'left', is THE SAME [i.e. atheistic politicians either of the left or of the right]. They don't have any difference."

- Strive to learn who is honorable, righteous and vote for them. Today we have need, not of bright people, but of honorable people.

- Personally, if the communists weren't atheist, if they didn't hunt Christ, I would agree with them. It's good for the plots of land, the factories, to belong to everyone; not for one to be hungry while someone else is throwing away food.

- If material goods are not distributed with the Gospel, in the end they will be distributed with the knife.

 

 

From Talks With Father Paisios by Athanasios Rakovalis (Thessaloniki 2000).

 

thanks to John Sanidopoulos

 

http://www.johnsanidopoulos.com/2013/06/elder-paisios-on-atheist-politicians.html

 

 

Quote by Hobart Mauer

“For several decades we psychologists have looked upon the whole matter of sin and moral accountability as a great incubus and we have acclaimed our freedom from it as epic making. But at length we have discovered to be free in this sense to have the excuse of being sick rather than being sinful is to also court the danger of becoming lost. In becoming amoral, ethically neutral and free we have cut the very roots of our being, lost our deepest sense of selfhood and identity. And with neurotics themselves, asking, "Who am I? What is my deepest destiny? And what does living really mean?"


thanks to source:

http://www.youversion.com/notes/1062874/do-you-have-id-anoher-take-devotional-from-rpm

Dr. Ravi Zacharias and the four questions in life

There are four questions in life for all of us:

Origin
Meaning
Morality
Destiny

Where do I come from?

What gives life meaning?

How do I differentiate between good and bad?

What happens to a human being when he or she dies?

thanks to source at the 59 m mark:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyTa5r4GG4M

Excerpt of Dr. Ravi Zacharias' speech

Excerpt of Dr. Ravi Zacharias' speech:

 

Cultures reduce themselves to three forms of manifestation on Moral Issues. Based on this backdrop three forms, I want you to follow me carefully the words are big but the ideas will become clear….. There are three kinds of culture, theonomous, heteronomous , and autonomous.

  Theonomous is not a theocracy,  Theos meaning God and nomos meaning law. The idea in a theonomous culture is that God’s law is so self-evident within the human heart that there are some imperatives within you that find a consensus in society. That’s God’s law in you , the nomos the law of the Theos, God, that is so ingrained in your soul that there is an emerging consensus within society of certain norms that everyone agrees that are noble or the opposite of them being evil and not to be pursued. If there is a culture today that comes close to a theonomous culture, I would say it is India. They refer to themselves in Hindi “as the people of the soil”, their music talks about it, their lyricists talk about it, their poetry talks about it, the values that the culture tries to hold onto, principally respect for the parents, love for the children, the transmission from generation to generation, the closeness of the family tie. All of those values they consider ingrained in them. They say it is deep within them. There is a theonomous nature to it. It’s not identical but it is close to a theonomous culture.

   Then you get heteronomous culture. What is a heteronomous culture.  Heteros meaning different and nomos--- law, a different law, where there are two distinct sets in operation. There is the controlling few and the masses down here. In secular terminology Marxism is a heteronomous culture where the handful at the top dictate everything for the masses below. In religious terms Islam functions as a heteronomous culture. Either the Ilama or the Imam or whoever, the dictates are given to you from above and the masses then are told to follow along. There is a heteronomy to it, the law comes from above dictated to the masses whether you want to do it or not.

   And then there is an autonomous culture. The autonomous culture, autos meaning self, nomos meaning law, you’re a self-law. You’re a law unto yourself. You follow your individual autonomy. America would not fit into a theonomous culture, it would not fit into a heteronomous culture by definition. We pride ourselves that we are an autonomous culture. So here is the question, if we are an autonomous culture do we respect the autonomy of each individual? If I respect a person who disagrees with me and wants to live a totally materialistic life, ought not that  compliment to be returned and give me the privilege of having my autonomy and my choice to follow God. And my choice to follow where I believe the truth has lead. Autonomous cultures pride themselves on being self-driven, individually driven. But I’ll tell you what: there are some questions that bait the hook… will turn the questions toward people like me or others force us to answer it under the guise of an autonomous culture. But the moment my view is not in keeping with the view that wants to be heard, it switched into a heteronomous culture, and I’m dictated to and this is exactly what I need to believe and not what I actually believe. This bait-and-switch that has taken place is striking, absolutely striking. So we don’t go with the theonomous culture here, we don’t go with the heteronomous culture, we claim to go with an autonomous culture. But autonomous cultures need to be mutually respectful. And I think what the Duke of Edinburgh once said, he said freedom can be destroyed not only by its retraction but also by its abuse. And so I leave you with two thoughts: in the first one I’ll do a little bit of a voice play here not in any way to be unkind but because it was so beautiful and so sweet, so sweetly done. In the 1980s when the cold war was still on, my wife and a couple of colleagues and I were invited to go to Russia somewhere in Moscow. Quite a cold day, a foggy day and we went and my host said would you like to have lunch, I said sure. So we had lunch. And things were sparse then everything was a different consistency of Mayonnaise, mayonnaise bound this mayonnaise bound that, Mayonnaise it just made you feel full. But you know … people were struggling, you looked at the empty shelves and you said what are we to mock that…. The waitress was a lovely Russian gal, bilingual, and she spoke in a sweet voice and we finished our lunch. She leaned over and in a very sweet voice, she said would you like to have some dessert. So my host said things have changed we can also have dessert. I said that will be lovely, what do you have? She said Ice cream. We said what else? Ice cream. We said okay. Yeah we’d like some ice cream. What flavor would you like? We said what flavor do you have? Vanilla. We said any other flavor? No, Vanilla. So the man on the left said would you like to have vanilla ice cream for dessert? We said yes we would. He said, you know the genius , she actually walked away from here thinking she gave you a choice of desserts. That’s what this game of tolerance can become. You’re actually given the idea that you have a choice. Is it true? It ought to be true. And that’s why Os Guinness is right, he thinks civility is a better word than tolerance. Where you may have learned to accept what another person believes but you don’t have to celebrate it and in a civil manner you disagree.

A cartoon I saw years ago with Dennis the Menace sitting in front of his lemonade stand. Sign: All you can drink for ten cents. So a little guy stops and puts up his ten cents. Dennis the menace takes up the glass and pours a wee bit into his glass and gives it to him. The next frame of the cartoon he’s looking bewildered saying what… you know in the third frame of the cartoon Dennis is saying I says it’s all you can drink for ten cents that’s who says it’s all you can drink for ten cents. Is that what tolerance is becoming? We tell you what it all means that’s who tells you what it all really means. I hope not.

Daniel Yankelovich his article ended by the survey of many America couples and he ended by saying the stakes are high. If you feel it is imperative to fill all your needs and if these needs are contradictory or in conflict with those of others or simply unfillable and frustration inevitably follows… to Abby and to Mark, as well, self-fulfillment means having a career and marriage and children and sexual freedom and autonomy and being liberal and having money and choosing nonconformity and insisting on social justice and enjoying city life and country living and simplicity graciousness and reading and good friends and on and on. But indeed choose not to be fulfilled by being more autonomous. Indeed to move too far in this direction is to risk psychosis, the ultimate form of autonomy. The injunction that to find one’s self one must lose one’s self contains a truth that any seeker of self-fulfillment needs to grasp. The injunction that to find one’s self one must lose one’s self contains a truth that any seeker of truth needs to grasp. I could have saved him millions of dollars of research if he had read the Gospel of John. That if any man come unto me and deny himself and pickup his cross and follow me.

 

Thanks to source:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyTa5r4GG4M

Quote by Steve Turner

We believe in Marxfreudanddarwin
We believe everything is OK
as long as you don’t hurt anyone
to the best of your definition of hurt,
and to the best of your knowledge.
We believe in sex before, during, and
after marriage.
We believe in the therapy of sin.
We believe that adultery is fun.
We believe that sodomy’s OK.
We believe that taboos are taboo.
We believe that everything’s getting better
despite evidence to the contrary.
The evidence must be investigated
And you can prove anything with evidence.
We believe there’s something in horoscopes
UFO’s and bent spoons.
Jesus was a good man just like Buddha,
Mohammed, and ourselves.
He was a good moral teacher though we think
His good morals were bad.
We believe that all religions are basically the same-
at least the one that we read was.
They all believe in love and goodness.
They only differ on matters of creation,
sin, heaven, hell, God, and salvation.
We believe that after death comes the Nothing
Because when you ask the dead what happens
they say nothing.
If death is not the end, if the dead have lied, then its
compulsory heaven for all
excepting perhaps
Hitler, Stalin, and Genghis Kahn
We believe in Masters and Johnson
What’s selected is average.
What’s average is normal.
What’s normal is good.
We believe in total disarmament.
We believe there are direct links between warfare and
bloodshed.
Americans should beat their guns into tractors .
And the Russians would be sure to follow.
We believe that man is essentially good.
It’s only his behavior that lets him down.
This is the fault of society.
Society is the fault of conditions.
Conditions are the fault of society.
We believe that each man must find the truth that
is right for him.
Reality will adapt accordingly.
The universe will readjust.
History will alter.
We believe that there is no absolute truth
excepting the truth
that there is no absolute truth.
We believe in the rejection of creeds,
And the flowering of individual thought.
If chance be
the Father of all flesh,
disaster is his rainbow in the sky
and when you hear
State of Emergency!
Sniper Kills Ten!
Troops on Rampage!
Whites go Looting!
Bomb Blasts School!
It is but the sound of man
worshipping his maker.

Steve Turner, (English journalist), “Creed,” his satirical poem on the modern mind. Taken from Ravi Zacharias’ book Can Man live Without God? Pages 42-44

Thanks to source:

http://www.apuritansmind.com/apologetics/steveturnercreed/

Quote by Malcolm Muggeridge

“So the final conclusion would surely be that whereas other civilizations have been brought down by attacks of barbarians from without, ours had the unique distinction of training its own destroyers at its own educational institutions, and then providing them with facilities for propagating their destructive ideology far and wide, all at the public expense. Thus did Western Man decide to abolish himself, creating his own boredom out of his own affluence, his own vulnerability out of his own strength, his own impotence out of his own erotomania, himself blowing the trumpet that brought the walls of his own city tumbling down, and having convinced himself that he was too numerous, labored with pill and scalpel and syringe to make himself fewer. Until at last, having educated himself into imbecility, and polluted and drugged himself into stupefaction, he keeled over--a weary, battered old brontosaurus--and became extinct.”
― Malcolm Muggeridge, Vintage Muggeridge: Religion and Society    


thanks to source:

http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/17437.Malcolm_Muggeridge

Quote by C.S. Lewis from screwtape letters

But you can worry him with the haunting suspicion that the practice is absurd and can have no objective result. Don't forget to use the "Heads I win, tails you lose" argument. If the thing he prays for doesn't happen, than that is one more proof that petitionary prayers don't work; if it does happen, he will, of course, be able to see some of the physical causes which led up to it, and "therefore it would have happened anyway," and thus a granted prayer becomes just as good a proof as a denied one that prayers are ineffective.4



thanks to source:

http://www.garyhabermas.com/books/dealing_with_doubt/dealing_with_doubt.htm

Tolkien Quote on the evil ring of power and Gollum

Chapter two of the Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien

 

'But as he lowered his eyes, he saw far above the tops of the Misty Mountains, out of which the stream came. And he thought suddenly: "It would be cool and shady under those mountains. The Sun could not watch me there. The roots of those mountains must be roots indeed; there must be great secrets buried there which have not been discovered since the beginning."

 

'All the "great secrets" under the mountains had turned out to be just empty night: there was nothing more to find out, nothing worth doing, only nasty furtive eating and resentful remembering. He was altogether wretched. He hated the dark, and he hated light more: he hated everything, and the Ring most of all.'

thanks to source:

http://www.readfreeonline.net/OnlineBooks/The_Fellowship_of_the_Ring/The_Fellowship_of_the_Ring_2.html