How solemn the warning of these ancient records! It is a good and wise principle to be moderate in all thingsin all things except in giving our God his rightful place. One should not be moderate in running from a burning house, or moderate in seeking a lifebelt if the ship is sinking. Our individual lives hang by the thread of grace, and we can cut that thread by giving our enthusiasm to the things of this world rather than to its Creator and Redeemer. An unknown author wrote, Jesus began his ministry by being hungry, yet he is the Bread of Life. Jesus ended his ministry by being thirsty, yet he is the living water. Jesus was weary, yet he is our rest. Jesus paid tribute, yet he is the King. Jesus was accused of having demons, yet he cast out demons. Jesus wept, but he wipes away our tears. Jesus was sold for thirty pieces of silver, but he redeemed the world. Jesus was brought as a lamb to the slaughter, but he is the Good Shepherd. Jesus died, yet by his death he destroyed the power of death.
The abomination that causes desolation is a term for the antichrist union of Church and State. It literally means an idolatrous power, worshipped by unbelievers, that persecutes and desolates. The union of Church and State in the last days will create an abomination that will desolate Gods true people. Was there an application of the abomination of desolation during Passion Week? Indeed there was. It was fulfilled in Judas, the betrayer who enlisted the Jewish authorities and Roman soldiers to help him locate and betray his Lord.
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The benefit of the Koine is that its precision in grammar and syntax must be referred to to determine nuances of language are placed there by the Holy Ghost, Who chose it as the means by which to express God's Will to the expanded audience of "all nations."
I appreciate the illumination which your exposition here adds to the understanding of the roles of Mary and Joseph in completing prophesies foretelling and defining the coming of the Messiah.
My view of the "perpetual virginity" is that the hoopla is simply a marketing ploy, one of differentiating a product such that its purveyor, the RCC, can nominate itself as the only outlet for the distribution of supposed benefits to a select and profitable audience in a segmented market. This, of course, presumes that the Gospel of Christ is not freely available to all, but flows only through a channel of "grace" of which the RCC controls the "pinch points."
Any possessor of an MBA thoroughly understands both the context and the methodology of creating a market, uniquely defining the product, nominating oneself as the sole supplier, and branding its offering such that other suppliers will be seen as inferior in service and supply.
It instructive to examine one of the successful patented medicines, acetylsalicylic acid, was patented in 1900 by the German Bayer company, trademarked as "Aspirin" (now passed into the general vocabulary), and marketed as a wonder drug.
At the end of the First World War, the chemical was made generic, available for anyone to make and market. However, through a strong promotional effort, the name "Bayer Aspirin" and vaunted quality was so impressed on the public that for many years Bayer dominated that market segment.
In fact, my mother-in-law, trained as an RN in the 1920s, would accept no other brand of aspirin for her personal use, claiming that none but Bayer made a satisfactorily pure pharmaceutical product, no matter what reasoning she was offered that generic aspirin was much cheaper, and just as effective, even in the 1990s. Why? Because of the continuing persuasive SPAM, no matter how irrational, claimed superior benefits that kept her allegiance even to the grave.
You can argue all you want that from literal-historical hermeneutics a perpetually virgin Mary is nonsense, but you are going to find out that the RCC allegorical approach to the Mary paradigm has such a firm grasp on simony and so much SPAM that it is to Romanists therefore both an honorable and just ploy to cement customers to the brand such that they will never give it up and go back to true New Testament doctrine.
Besides, those Mary statuettes are so pretty that no religious home should be without them. And a Sallman's "Head of Christ." With a populated crucifix and candle beneath it. And a breviary with Rosary beads. Maybe a kneeler.
209 posted on 4/16/2016 8:13:37 AM by imardmd1 (Fiat Lux)
Poster Comment:
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