[dana.acker]

No psychedelics? What fun is that?😉 But no, really, I get where you are coming from elemenopil, on several levels. I used to say, “Christianity would be a great religion if it weren’t for the Christians.” NOW HOLD ON A MINUTE, don’t anybody get your feathers ruffled. There are some wonderful, sincere, devout Christian believers who I am honored to call Brother and Sister. But having been a Christian pastor, and involved in professional Christian ministry for a a while, I became disillusioned with much of what I experienced in organized religion.

Don’t get me wrong; there are some good churches and ministries that are really doing the Lord’s work. I’m not anti-church, OK? But at the same time, I’m neither inclined to hitch my wagon to any denomination’s star, nor any group’s particular theological “system.”

For almost all of my adult life, I’ve driven old cars, so I could build my library. I have very solid theological convictions, that have acted as the rope attached to the anchor that has kept my boat afloat while traversing troubled seas. I would probably consider myself an outlaw Protestant Evangelical who is very sympathetic to the Orthodox Church(es), and doesn’t think Roman Catholics are the enemy. But that said, I put none of the aforementioned institutions on any pedestals.

My particular beef with modern day Christianity in most of its forms, is that it has lost its supernatural foundations and worldview, which means it has ignored, neglected, minimized, mythologized or spiritualized most of the Bible, both Old and New Testaments, and many of the non-canonical 2nd Temple Jewish and early Christian writings, many of which informed several of the Biblical writers.

It is said that, “The devil’s greatest accomplishment was convincing mankind [including the Church] that he doesn’t exist.” When Mike defines our political, societal and medical struggles as “good versus evil,” I take that very seriously. While not denying or minimizing the effects of “the fall” or “original sin” in Genesis chapter 3, I attribute much of the depravity that has plagued the world for millennia, to the account of events in Genesis 6:1-5. I absolutely reject the view that the “sons of God” mentioned in the passage are the righteous heirs of Seth who fell in in with wayward women and whose progeny went astray. And, I absolutely reject that the Hebrew word for Nephilim means “fallen ones,” unless one is referring to extremely large, half human hybrid fallen ones. The Sethite view of Genesis 6 is not what the text says, and it’s certainly not what Biblical Hebrews believed, or allowed to inform their writings. But that’s just me.

OK, I’m done preaching. Should anyone wish to continue this conversation off topic or forum, my email is: ackerforge@yahoo.com I do realize some if not many people might not want to discuss religious matters (for lack of a better term) here at the Tavern, and I wish to respect that.

AND, as a disclaimer, with all due respects, I do not care what a person thinks or believes about what I think or believe. I do not entertain arguments; they are non-productive, and seldom change anybody’s mind anyway. If anyone wishes to talk civilly, I’ll talk, but otherwise, let’s change subjects. Say how about those Braves; think they’ll make the playoffs this year?