Alpha and Omega Ministries

Talked a bit about the current trip, but mainly focused upon comments made by Alex O'Connor on a webcast regarding the gospel of John and in particular comments he made about John 12:44 and John 1:1. Hope folks will be helped by the study!

Rich worked hard to work on the audio challenges we have had in the past and the changes made it a lot easier for me to play video clips on the program today. So, we looked at Jeff Durbin's exchange with the Jewish representative in Georgia, and responded to Joel Webbon's criticism of that exchange. Then we looked at some tweets from Stephen Wolfe on sacralism, and finished up playing a few minutes of Jay Dyer bullying a person on line and likewise arguing against the Apostle Paul.

As promised on today's program I read through The Acts of Paul and Thecla, commented on the Orthodox veneration of Thecla as a saint and "equal of the Apostles," and what we can learn about the context of the origination of this apocryphal mythology from the second century. By the way, here is the article I mentioned from the OCA website about Thecla.

So Joel Webbon dropped a webcast about how the State is to correct the Church, and how this has been normative throughout church history. Well, do forgive me, but I've always opposed sacralism, still do, always will, and the errors and holes in the presentation, historically and logically, were big enough for me to drive my big GMC through, so, we did. Lots of stuff about Constantine, ecumenical councils, etc. Ninety minutes plus today! Also made reference to this article I wrote many years ago on the Council of Nicea. https://equip.org/PDF/DN206.pdf

Started off with more evidence of how divided a nation the US is, then moved on to listen to some brief comments from He Who Judges from Afar, and then we moved into some thoughts about the debate with Joe Heschmeyer, specifically on what his point was in emphasizing the time gap between the cross and the Ascension.

Reflected on the deep division that exists in Western Culture today and in the United States in particular, and then moved on to some of the Jay Dyer stuff and the continued need to have an in-depth discussion on the "7th Ecumenical Council," aka Nicea II.

About halfway through the program we had a power spike due to a storm blowing into Phoenix, but we got it all recorded anyway. First I dealt with the amazing explosion of infantile behavior by one Jay Dyer when I dared actually treat him like an adult in challenging him to defend Nicea II in debate. You won't believe his behavior. Then we transitioned into an examination of the reality, acknowledged by all, really, that "presbuteros" and "episkopos" in the Greek New Testament refer to the very same office, a reality disputed by Joe Heschmeyer in our debate in Jonesboro. Enjoy!

Spent ninety minutes talking Ignatius, recensions, manuscripts, etc. with Timothy Easley today! Definitely a program for church history geeks! Hope all two dozen of you enjoy it!