{"id":13283,"date":"2023-01-02T19:35:21","date_gmt":"2023-01-02T23:35:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nycphantom.com\/journal\/?p=13283"},"modified":"2023-01-06T17:55:59","modified_gmt":"2023-01-06T21:55:59","slug":"weekly-reflection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nycphantom.com\/journal\/?p=13283","title":{"rendered":"Weekly Reflection"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>1\/6\/2023<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Americans today, the <strong>fundamentalist<\/strong>\/conservative group, often view <strong>China only as CCP<\/strong> and therefore as a whole culture, China's fully influenced by anti-Christian sentiment since 5000 years ago, culminating to CCP in the 20th century if not earlier. So, in this sense, they tend to relate all the CCP wickedness to the entire Chinese culture. This obvious ignorance is common among the American people. Even their Christians. So this is one extreme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There is however, another extreme (merging special and general revelations), which the fundamentalists who are influenced by the view that China = CCP couldn't grasp, even if they tried to appreciate God's work in China in the 5000 year history. This other extreme, is the promotional fiction that the ancient Chinese knew about the true God before the Americans knew how to say \"Bible\". Laozhi had it more maturely, even before the Greeks. That not only was there a flood, but they knew of Noah and the total number of residents in the Ark, all recorded in the Chinese character (\u8239), which is obviously refuted by \u8bf4\u6587 a much earlier text on word morphology. Also, without the Bible, the Chinese knew enough to connect lamb sacrificial atonement to righteousness = \u7fa9, viz. imputed righteousness, Laozhi (600B.C.) already knew about the Trinity in \u9053\u5fb7\u7d93, and many more. Even I can come up with a few of this <strong>Allegorical <\/strong>interpretations: The Trinity is also know to the Chinese in the word \u4e3b\uff0c\u738b. Easy right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Nonetheless, Laozhi is truly great indeed. \u4eba\u6cd5\u5730\uff0c\u5730\u6cd5\u5929\uff0c\u5929\u6cd5\u9053\uff0c\u9053\u6cd5<strong>\u81ea\u7136<\/strong><br>This \u81ea\u7136, has nothing to do with NATURE. \u81ea\u7136 here is closer to \"I AM\" - or \"It is\" in aseity, immutability.<br>\u6709\u7269\u6df7\u6210\uff0c\u5148\u5929\u5730\u751f\u3002\u5bc2\u516e\u5be5\u516e\uff0c<strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">\u7368\u7acb\u800c\u4e0d\u6539<\/span><\/strong>\uff0c\u5468\u884c\u800c\u4e0d\u6b86\uff0c\u53ef\u4ee5\u7232\u5929\u4e0b\u6bcd\u3002<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"\u8001\u5b50\u8bf4\u7684\u300c\u9053\u300d \u662f\u4ec0\u4e48\uff1f\u2223\u5510\u5d07\u8363\u7267\u5e08 (Stephen Tong)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/_sWNg5qQh0M?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Q&amp;A \u8036\u7a4c\u7684\u9053\u8ddf\u5112\u5bb6\u5b54\u5b50\u7684\u9053\uff0c\u6709\u4ec0\u9ebc\u5dee\u5225\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/nbjd739yLLw?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"\u9ad4\u9a57\u53e4\u8001\u590f\u5a01\u5937\u7642\u6cd5\uff01\u6211\u5011\u7d42\u65bc\u77e5\u9053\u590f\u5a01\u5937\u4eba\u6c38\u4fdd\u5feb\u6a02\u7684\u79d8\u5bc6\uff01\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/1xIC9drW750?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Tips in <strong>Hawaii<\/strong>:<br>Lomi Lomi = <em><strong>massage <\/strong>(mana = \u6c14 of bones)<\/em> @ Malama Pono Massage<br>Hiking &amp; <strong>Snorkeling <\/strong>(yellow tangs!) @ Captain Cook Monument Trail<br>Local <strong>Eat <\/strong>@ Kanaka <strong>Kava<\/strong> (local herb taste like alcohol)<br>Mahalo = gratitude<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>As I study through the works of Cornelius Van Til and the greats, I find it necessary to remind myself to not get caught up on the high terminologies they use lest I am bounded by such limitation from able to<strong> communicate the beauty of theology with commoners<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Watched <strong>the Bishop's Wife<\/strong> (1947) starring Cary Grant. Realized that it's copied by The Preacher's Wife starring Whitney Houston. Looked up some questions: Looks like this angel envy thing maybe related to the Nephilim interpretation in Genesis 6:2, that the \"sons of God saw the daughters of men were fair...\" to be interpreted as angels. I am open to that interpretation, but as Tong emphasized, it's better to ground ourselves in a more conservation translation of it, that sons of God = of the Godly Seth's line. And 1Peter 1:12 is just not about envy but angelic curiosity in the Gospel. Secondly, now since this is a \"Bishop's\" and there's talk of building the Cathedral of St. Timothy, I thought the whole time that it was a Catholic film, which actually turned out to be Episcopalian. I remember <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/reformedforum.org\/podcasts\/ctc656\/\" target=\"_blank\">Lane Tipton speaking<\/a> of how Rome <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/watch\/?v=625776111706713\" target=\"_blank\">corrupted the distinction between Creator and Creature with being<\/a> as their tertium quid. So in this film, the angel (or more practically, saints, in real life) is the being and thus this angel must be a bridge between God and man, which is a no for any old princetonian.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Read also some fun facts (<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/ten-things-you-did-not-know-about-the-bishops-wife\/\" target=\"_blank\">10 things you did not know<\/a>-pasted in comment in case of future broken link) about the filming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I'm reminded of long time ago, at least a decade ago, browsing through some <strong>extreme <\/strong>fundamentalist \"Christian\" groups, such as <strong>\"<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/atruechurch.info\/\" target=\"_blank\">A True Church<\/a>\" by Darwin Fish<\/strong>. They (or Darwin Fish, rather) basically call all the famous preachers false teachers. They believe that they (\"true Christians\") no longer sin, based on Hebrews 10:26. John Calvin dealt with this type in his commentary, they were called <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pilgrim-covenant.com\/ntagq\/hebrews-10-26to27\" target=\"_blank\">the Novatians, by Novatus<\/a>. <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/carm.org\/a-true-church\/a-true-church\/\" target=\"_blank\">CARM ministry warned<\/a> about this contemporary extremists as well. I just suddenly remembered them and thought to check them out. Looks like their Youtube uploads stopped about 9 years ago. Though the website's still up, I wonder what happened to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Laurie is a False Teacher - Greg Laurie Harvest Crusade, Anaheim, California, August 2010\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/mUfjdriUZJQ?start=590&feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>1\/6\/2023 The Americans today, the fundamentalist\/conservative group, often view China only as CCP and therefore as a whole culture, China's fully influenced by anti-Christian sentiment since 5000 years ago, culminating to CCP in the 20th century if not earlier. So, &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/nycphantom.com\/journal\/?p=13283\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-theologization"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nycphantom.com\/journal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nycphantom.com\/journal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nycphantom.com\/journal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nycphantom.com\/journal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nycphantom.com\/journal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13283"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/nycphantom.com\/journal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13283\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13301,"href":"http:\/\/nycphantom.com\/journal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13283\/revisions\/13301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nycphantom.com\/journal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nycphantom.com\/journal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nycphantom.com\/journal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}