Pre-eminently Christian Thoughts.

One of the most extensive works covering the symbolic meanings of the Book of Revelation was written by Emanuel Swedenborg titled the 'Apocalypse Revealed.'

Apocalypse is commonly used in reference to any prophetic revelation or the so-called End Time Scenario. Typically, the messengers of the apocalyptic revelation are described as angels. In the Book of Revelation, the author writes about the revelation of Jesus Christ as Messiah, and about present tribulations leading to the ending of this age and the coming of God's Kingdom. Hence the term 'apocalypse' has come to be used, very loosely, for the end of the world. In letters to the Corinthians and the Thessalonians Paul expounds the destiny of the righteous. He speaks of the simultaneous resurrection and transformation of those who are in Christ (or Messiah).

In the Hebrew Old Testament some pictures of the end of the age were images of the judgment of the wicked and the glorification of those who were given righteousness before God. In the Book of Job and in some Psalms, the dead are described as being in Sheol awaiting the final judgment. The wicked will then be consigned to eternal suffering in the fires of Gehinnom, or the lake of fire as mentioned in the Book of Revelation. Are you, clergy and bishops, ready?

Some Christian movements in the 18th and 19th centuries were characterized by a rise of Millennialism- why many Christians had a Millennial expectation of the glorification of the righteous. The poetic and prophetic literature of the Hebrew Bible, particularly in Isaiah, were rich in millennial imagery, and New Testament writers after Pentecost carried on with this theme. During his imprisonment by the Romans on the Island of Patmos, John in the Book of Revelation (chapter 20), receives a vision of a thousand-year reign of Christ/Messiah upon the earth.

All Christian apocalyptic eschatology has been concerned with the two themes referred throughout the Bible as "this age" and "the age coming". Evangelical Christians have been in the forefront popularizing the biblical prophecy of a major confrontation between good and evil at the end of this age, a coming Millennium to follow, and a final confrontation whereby the wicked are judged, the righteous are rewarded and the beginning of Eternity is viewed.

Some evangelical Christians have taught a form of millennialism known as Dispensationalism, which arose in the 19th century. Dispensationalists see separate destinies for the Christian Church and Israel. Their concept of a "Pre-Tribulation Rapture" of the Church has become better known, thanks in part to the Left Behind series of books and films. Dispensationalists find in Biblical prophecy predictions of future events: the throne of God in heaven and his glory; specific judgments that will occur on the earth; the final form of Gentile power; God' re-dealing with Israel based upon covenants mentioned in the Hebrew Old Testament; the second coming proper; a one-thousand year reign of Messiah; a last test of mankind's sinful nature under ideal conditions by the loosing of Satan, with a judgment of fire coming down from Heaven that follows; the Great White Throne judgment, and the re-creation of the current heavens and the earth as a "New Heaven and New Earth" ushering in the beginning of Eternity. And are you, guys, ready?

To my students: the genre of revelation aims to show God's way of dealing with humankind and His ultimate purposes and its writers often reveal the meaning of present events in connection with the ending of the present age. You come across the same idea in the words of John Milton in Paradise Lost: "Of Man's First Disobedience" (I, 1) so that he can "assert Eternal Providence, / And justify the ways of God to men" (I, 25-26).

Too big to be proud...

I had the rare privilege of being the key-note speaker in a huge, colorful function a few years ago. When I stepped out of my car at the venue, children came running all around; shaking hands with me, touching and poking me, waving at me. In fact, I was trying to keep my balance while being carried up several flights of stairs into the auditorium. I was literally carried away by the warmth of reception I received. I felt like the queen bee with a million bees buzzing around. Interestingly, I was yet to learn that I got all this misplaced accolade just because I was the first to arrive at the scene where they were expecting Mr. N. L. Balakrishnan who would give away tons of prizes to the student- achievers. My heart-felt condolences to the genius who departed us on 25/12/2014.

God has faith in You, Happy 2015.

The most popular new year resolution in the history of mankind would have been to quit smoking. But time and again we have seen that resolution alone is incapable of kicking this venomous habit since people go back to smoking after quitting for a few days. This writer once got an obliging businessman to get up and open his shop during the dark hours of night on a 1st January to buy cigarettes after crushing a few packets under his feet at midnight, just a couple of hours ago. 
Knowing that there is something new to help you in this difficult process may equip you to win the struggle against nicotine addiction which is considered more difficult to quit than heroin addiction by the scientific community

So, its time to get to know what “VAPING” is...

Britain’s Oxford University Press said that it is adding new words from "listicle and paleo diet” to “time-poor and vaping” to its online Oxford Dictionaries to reflect new trends in language. Editors for the site analyze some 150 million English words used online, in newspapers and other sources, and once every few months they decide which new words are so widely used that they merit a dictionary entry. "Vape” or "vaping" describes inhaling smokeless marijuana vapor or nicotine using vaporizors or e-cigarettes. Oxford Dictionary researchers say the usage of both “vape” and “e-cig” has increased about 10 times in the past two years. The trend of e-cigarettes has created a sort of vocabulary around it. Hence people can make use of this crutch- vaping- if they have found it difficult to quit smoking on their own, provided that they quit vaping too within a short time span.

(And how about “listicle”? It means internet article in the form of a numbered or bullet-pointed list and “live-tweet,” the act of posting comments about an event on Twitter as it is taking place. There’s also “binge-watch,” which refers to rapidly viewing multiple episodes of TV shows). Inclusion in the online dictionary does not mean the words will become permanent additions to English language. Many may not make it into the more traditional Oxford English Dictionary. “For some of these, we will say ‘What was that?’ in a decade. Others may become the next "selfie,” last year’s most popular new entry.

Now, to be on the lighter side of life, in the new year:

A woman marries a man expecting he will change, but he doesn't. A man marries a woman expecting that she won't change, but she does... so don't have any regrets.

Know that a woman has the last word in any argument. Anything a man says afterwards marks the beginning of a new one.

There are only two times a man doesn't understand a woman, that is,
(1) before marriage (2) after marriage.

Hence, last good night on the last day of the last week of the last month of the last year to you from me... Good bye 2014.

I wish you all a fabulous 2015 to behave like responsible adults that the previous year taught us how to... Good Bye 2014.

And, I have no yesterday, for time took it away.
Tomorrow may not be mine, but I have Today.
So I wish you now, my friends, a safe 2015.

Every night we go to bed, we have no assurance to get up alive the next morning but still we have plans for the coming day... that’s Hope !
When you are in the light everything will follow you. But when you enter darkness, even you own shadow will leave you... that's Life !!
And God gives everything to a person who has faith in Him.
But if you happen to be agnostic but still have everything, it immensely means God has faith... in You !!!

A peaceful soul, a joyful spirit, a healthy body and a heart full of love:
these are my prayers for you.

Happy 2015, folks. Tk kr.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/…/961625_10205813409…

A singular thought on Christmas

Cuba was an American neo-colony. Prior to the revolution, U.S. business owned 80% of services, 40% of the sugar industry and 50% of railroad transport in Cuba. Cuba is an anti-imperialist nation at its core, and will not give up its values and identity, despite all the propaganda. Cuba’s insistence on ending the blockade and refusing to move forward under Washington’s conditions should be seen as part of its larger, continuing struggle against imperialism. The humiliating defeat of the Americans (cf: Bay of Pigs Invasion) is known in Cuba as the first imperialist defeat.The liberation of the Cuban Five, hitherto accused as militant spies and held without proper trial in America, despite all the work that still needs to be done, represents a victory for people and groups all around the world fighting for liberation and justice which makes this Christmas all the more colourful, meaningful and blissful. Praised be thy name.

Thoughts on a Christmas Eve; Answers only to the point.

Peace on Earth, Good Will Toward Men:

We honour these age-old noble values in every holiday season- and some people actually work to advance them further, all year long. Other folks, by contrast, mock at these values. They spend their days chasing after ever grander stashes of personal treasure, be it gold or expensive cars. These greedy souls- politicians, social parasites, clergy and bishops, included- love the shadow-bringing tales of plutocrats young and old. 

Many folks have heard that December 25 was the birthday of Roman gods long before it was chosen to celebrate the birth of Jesus. Some people also know that our delightful mélange of Christmas festivities originated in ancient Norse, Roman and Druid traditions- or, in the case of Rudolph, on Madison Avenue. But where does the Christmas story itself come from: Jesus in the manger, the angels and wise men?

The answer is that the familiar Christmas story, including the virgin conception and birth of Jesus, is found in the gospels of Matthew and Luke. Scholars have pointed out that these stories are somewhat disconnected from other parts of these Gospels and the rest of the New Testament. In fact, by the time he is a young boy in the temple, Jesus’s parents seem to have forgotten the virgin birth. They are surprised by his odd behavior. There is never again any mention in the New Testament about these incredible events! These stories seem to be an afterthought, written later than the rest of the gospels that carry them. To make matters more interesting, the stories themselves have inconsistencies and ambiguities- contradictory genealogy, for example. Our Christmas story (singular) is actually a composite. Or consider the idea that Mary is a virgin. The Greek writer of Matthew quotes Isaiah as saying: “a parthenos shall conceive and bear a child.” The Hebrew word in Isaiah is “almah,” which means simply “young woman.” But the Greek word parthenos can mean either a virgin or a young woman, and it got translated as “virgin.” Modern Bible translations have corrected this, but it is a central part of the Christmas story.

That adds to the complications. If the rest of the New Testament does not refer to these stories, how did we end up with them? Where do they come from?

One part of the answer comes from Hellenistic culture. (It is no accident all New Testament books are written in Greek.) In this tradition, when a man did something extraordinary there was the assumption that he did it because he was different, either divine or at least semi-divine. They would make up a story about how he came to be divine. Almost all Greek heroes were said to be born of a human woman to a god, viz., Alexander the Great, Augustus and Pythagoras. The father typically was Zeus or Apollo. The god would come and sleep with the woman, pretending to be the husband or as a bolt of lightning, or some such. Greek mythology also shows up in the book of Genesis: the gods lusting after the women and coming down and mating with them.

But why were they added to the Christian story?

Jewish Christians, the first Christians, didn't believe in the virgin birth. They believed that Joseph was the biological father of Jesus. Part of their Christology was “adoptionism”- they thought Jesus was adopted as the unique son of God at some time later in life. There were disagreements about when: Mark suggests baptism, Paul suggests resurrection. But Matthew and Luke think that the sonship of Jesus began at birth. And they want to tell a story that reinforces this point. Matthew and Luke are the source of the Christmas story as most of us have learnt it.

Why didn’t the writers do a better job of cleaning the contradictions?

They did, to some extent. This is called the "orthodox corruption of scripture". But it appears that these birth stories were added toward the end, so scripture got frozen before they could get integrated.

I was raised with the belief that the bible was literally perfect, the “inerrant” word of God, essentially dictated by God to its writers. What you are saying about the Christmas story sure calls into question my conviction and that of many.

Which Bible? There are thousands of manuscript variations. Most biblical stories are probably fiction, not non-fiction. They are mythology in the deepest sense of the word. But we need to get beyond the issue of whether biblical reports happened in the historical, physical sense to understand what they mean spiritually and mythically.

Alright, back to Christmas. Of all the images from the Christmas story, the one that people fall in love is the angels. The Christmas story is full of angels, beings of light. Is this because of the solstice tradition?

Actually it comes from the Hebrew Bible, the Jewish scriptures that were eventually adopted into the Christian Bible as the Old Testament. It also comes from the Jewish literature written between the Old and New Testaments that didn’t get into the biblical canon. Some of these are even quoted in the New Testament, for example Enoch, from the 2nd Century BC. It’s all about angels.

The Luke story focuses on one angel specifically, Gabriel: Is he the archangel?

Gabriel is the Angel of the Lord. He is one of two angels who are named in the Jewish canon and the Christian canon outside the apocrypha: Gabriel and Michael. They are the angels of mercy and judgment. Gabriel means “Strong One of El.” He is first named in Daniel.

How about the favorite Christmas story: The Star of Bethlehem and the Magi.

The Magi are astrologers. They are Zoroastrian priests. Just to the east of the Roman Empire was the Persian Empire, which was Zoroastrian. They see this star at its rising (better translations never say it happened in the East). The astrologers paid a lot of attention to this. It is likely that what this refers to was a heliacal rising, which is the first time that a star appears over the horizon during the course of a year. They thought this was a sign of the Jewish messiah. Scholars speculate that they would have been living in Babylon, where there were lots of Jewish merchants. The Jews had been there from the time of the Jewish exile from Babylonia. We have cuneiform records from them.

Are you assuming that this story is historical?

Think of it as a frog and pond. The pond is real, the frog is not. They are fictional stories in a real setting. They don’t always get the details of the setting right, but they are fictional characters in real places. The Magi follow their star from Jerusalem to Bethlehem. The author has in mind a real star that would be in front of you in this situation. It would have to be a star in the far southern sky. The star in Matthew and the angel in Luke are two variants of the same mythology.

My fundamentalist head is spinning. Is there anything else you’d like to add?

We need to be able to appreciate these stories as myths, rather than literal histories. When you understand where they come from, then you can understand their spiritual significance for the writers and for us.

Thanking you and wishing you a very happy Christmas, Alex Odikandathil.

A New Way of Protest.

Philip Dallyachan

23 hrs · 

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  Prof. Alex Odikandathil Ph.D. The situation that has sparked this write-up is Dallyachen's post on 'Street Kiss Protest' (I've already aired my take on this phenomenon) and my consequent thoughts on why fundamentalists and their evangelical heirs are skeptical of individual freedom, personal choice and all modern, progressive outlooks. The evangelicals have been waiting for the world to end for a long time: may it be by breach or sin or Christ's Second Coming. My conclusion, in a nutshell, is that the apocalyptic theology that developed in the 1880s and 1890s led radical evangelicals to believe that all nations are going to concede their power in the End Times to a totalitarian political leader who is going to be the Anti-Christ. 
  The idea that Jesus is coming back soon was a fairly radical and unconventional idea in the 19th century, but by the 20th century it used to be the air these people breathe. The most recent polls said something like 58 percent of evangelicals believe Jesus is going to return by 2050. They simply take for granted that there is going to be a Rapture and Jesus is going to come back. What is wrong in the public demonstration of affection and love? If you believe you’re living in the last days and you believe you’re moving towards that event, you’re going to be very suspicious and skeptical of anything that is out of the ordinary. It is, in modern parlance, tunnel-vision. Why is everybody running after god-men and god-women for hugs and kisses? Which Gods and Goddesses, among all the religions in the world, have not kissed? If at all there is any negative feeling connected with a hug or kiss, it happens only when done in private or under cover of secrecy. What is the history, meaning, significance and interpretation of 'Kayyasuri' within church-service and 'Kaimuthu', (imparted at any time); will the learned Dally Achen tell me? Thanks.

  1 hr · Edited · Like
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PROVIDENCE

A friend asked: "Do you know the accurate meaning of the word 'Providence'?"
She added, "There are not many people I can talk about English language".
So I came up with this answer which I thought may be helpful to my students. Here's the text of what I wrote:
"Let me refresh what I've learnt. In Linguistics, Semantics (from the Greek semantikos, or 'significant meaning', derived from sema 'sign') is traditionally defined as the study of meaning. One area of study is the study of the semantic relations between different linguistic expressions, usually words. Linguists describe these relations and also try to characterize with as much precision as possible the meanings of words and other linguistic elements.
Semantic change, also known as semantic shift, semantic progression, or semantic drift is the evolution of word usage- usually to the point that the modern meaning is radically different from the original usage. In diachronic or historical linguistics, semantic change is a change in one of the meanings of a word. Every word has a variety of senses and connotations, which can be added, removed, or altered over time- often to the extent that cognates across space and time have very different meanings. The study of semantic change can be seen as part of etymology, onomasiology, semasiology or semantics...
Examples:
1. Awful:
Originally meant "inspiring wonder (or fear)". Used originally as a shortening for "full of awe", in contemporary usage the word usually has a negative meaning.
2. Demagogue:
Originally meant "a popular leader." It is from the Greek dēmagōgós "leader of the people", from dēmos "people" + agōgós "leading, guiding". Now the word has strong connotations of a politician who panders to emotions and prejudice.
3. Gay:
Originally meant (13th century) "lighthearted", "joyous" or (14th century) "bright and showy", it also came to mean "happy" but it acquired connotations of immorality as early as in 1637, eg., gay woman "prostitute", gay man "womanizer", gay house "brothel", gay dog "over-indulgent man" and gay deceiver "deceitful and lecherous" and so on. In the United States by 1897 the expression gay cat referred to a hobo, especially a younger hobo in the company of an older one; by 1935, it was used in prison slang for a homosexual boy; and by 1951 gaymeant homosexuals.
Now, I'll be to the point, okay? Coming to Providence (noun):
1. (often with initial capital letter) The foreseeing care and guidance of God
or nature over the creatures of the earth.
2. (initial capital letter) God, especially when conceived as omnisciently directing the universe and the affairs of humankind with wise benevolence.
3. a manifestation of divine care or direction.
4. provident or prudent management of resources; prudence.
5. foresight; provident care.
I know I will still be far from your expectations. Stay in touch and have a good week-end! " In response, I got the following reply: "Providence is from two Latin words; Pro means before, ahead of time. Videntia or videre means to see. So, "seeing ahead of time". God sees ahead of time though God is outside of time."

"Excellent", I must say. But if a few of you got sleepy, then read the following for a joyous week-end: "Tom had a sleeping problem and was always late for work. His boss was mad at him and threatened to fire him if he didn't do something about it. He suggested that Tom get a prescription for sleeping pills. Tom went to his doctor who gave him a pill and told him to take it before he went to bed. Wow, Tom slept exceptionally well and in fact, beat the alarm in the morning. He had a leisurely breakfast and drove cheerfully to work. "Boss," he said, "That pill actually worked!"
"That's all fine," said the boss, "But where were you yesterday?"

"There's a special providence in the fall of a sparrow"- Shakespeare (Hamlet, V.2)

Thank you and have a good week-end, alex abraham odikandathil

Tail-end:  The fully positive “awesome,” a child of the '80s, is a relatively recent innovation. It began as slang, with a dash of irony or sarcasm to it. That seems to be the crucial ingredient in these crossover words.

“Egregious,” a word that made the opposite crossing from positive to negative (it used to mean notable, excellent), also appears to have arisen from an ironic use. 
And we have plenty of very recent examples of slang crossover (Sick! Wicked! Bad!).
Crossover words are a tremendous testament to our awesome ability to shape the language as we use it.
The positive “terrific” dates to the slang-heavy flapper era, where “killer” also became a playful positive. To master our fears... to take our terror and use it to build something terrific.
Thanks, again- alex odikandathil