Thoughts on Bible & Current Book

Thoughts for Book:

1. An all knowing Deity

If something is pre-known, is it also predestined?
By definition, an all knowing Deity knows all.  Therefore would know the outcome of any scenario.  This infers the deity would also know the sinners and saints – before they come into existence.  That being the case, their destinies are, effectively, pre-ordained – regardless of the choices they make.  Freewill becomes an interesting concept.  What is freewill to the individual making the decision is already pre-known by the deity.  This means prayer confers no effective benefit, and the lack of prayer confers no harm – since, whether or not one shall pray on a regular basis, or only under special circumstances, was known before they were born.
If one breaks the rules, the outcome is known – before they even knew what the rules were.
One could not decide, either out of spite or frustration, to break a rule – or follow them – since that action is already known and accounted for.
There can be no true judgment.  There can be no judgment.  There is only an end result of which we are not aware.  It is for that reason those who perceive future events predict a limited number of individuals shall survive.  The rest have already made their choice to fail, in the same way that the minority have made their choice to succeed.
The critical element is, it is the numbers who emerge and not the individuals.  Hence the scriptural prediction can state there will be twelve thousand of the each of the twelve tribes – even though, for centuries, theologians and historians have struggled to explain where the ten missing tribes went.  Even not knowing where they are, it is known that twelve thousand of each tribe, one hundred and twenty thousand who cannot be identified, will be the ones assured survival.
Consider a possibility: each of the tribes had a Levite leadership.  Then it follows that the possibility arises that it is the leadership that shall survive.  That leadership is defined by those having “the spirit” and the spirit is defined as wisdom, knowledge and understanding.  Thus it seems that the leadership will be the most educated – though formal education is not necessary; they will exhibit wisdom and understanding.
Consider the approach of St Augustine: Unable to grasp the Laws of Moses and first five books, he declared that it was the Hebrews who did not understand – freeing him to rewrite the reality in terms that he could grasp and not in terms presented both as law and formula.  The result was plague and the disappearance of the very Church Augustine supposedly served – the African/Coptic and Middle  Eastern denominations.  Those he spoke to, the Romans, welcomed the idea that they understood – thus they failed to grasp what Paul had said when he defined the circumcision and uncircumcision  as the laws or complete abandonment of the laws.  Later Rome failed to grasp the reality that the Scythian had given them the circumcision calendar as their own and so tricked them into accepting a part of the circumcision – which meant that they were now bound by it all.
Was all this foreknown by the all knowing deity?  Isn’t it the basic definition of that deity that it was, and that the outcome was inescapable?  Doesn’t it follow that, if Paul was speaking honestly, those who violated the circumcision were doomed to failure?  How do you not wash?  How do you not quote the Tem Commandments?  How do you not utilize the calendar?  How do you do these things and thus avoid accepting part of the circumcision and thereby becoming bound by it all?

2. The Church of Satan, the church of the City of the Seven Hills.

Popular lore contains, or continues the mythology associated with Revelation stating that the Roman Church is the Church of Satan.  Obviously the vision was written by a non-Catholic, or, at least, a non-Roman Catholic.
Think about the mythology associated with Vampires.
Who follows the orders, and is subservient to, whom?  Is it not the servant, or slave, who is obedient to their master?  If a master-servant relationship exists and the evil are the servants of the devil – and obedient to, or fearful of, the symbols of the Roman Catholic Church – does that not infer that that Church and all its derivatives are Satanic.  Does that not infer the Western, or European, Churches,  are the embodiment of Satan is mortal institutional form?
Certainly the unwillingness to consider the possibility indicates it is a reality for those who immediately deny it.  This is especially true for those who cannot offer a rational and observable alternative.
True, we obey those who hold power – backed by the threat of physical violence.  But, are such powers deemed to be god or evil?  The criminal who sells protection – generally against their own evil – is remains, by nature, evil.  Has not the Church invoked, and grown powerful through, Inquisitions and Witch hunts?  What power or prestige has it amassed which is not tainted by murder and torture of innocents?
But, of course, it is not alone.  Islamic power is awash with the murder of Christians and destruction of their communities.  Modern Jihadists have no difficulty violating the Koran – killing innocents and their own.  Do not those who profess to support Islam engage in the mass murder of the faithful on pilgrimage to Mecca?  Do they not kill women and children in marketplaces?  Islamic women and children.  Do they hurt women when the Prophet specifically stated that he wanted the faithful to protect them?  Did he not state that faithful women were not safe in the streets – because the unfaithful would hurt them?  The Jihadists are those that the Prophet denounced.  Those who impose violent acts, who engage in “honor killings, are without honor and a disgrace to the Koranic creed.
But.  Does it matter?  The majority will die, because they are imperfect.  They will die with false words on their tongues – they are certain that they are right, and shall remain so as they step into the flames of eternity and return to the ash from which they were born.