Wednesday, March 27, 2024

Recommendations for Books About "Spirit" (Roman)-In Process

Here are some books/publications I own. I'm not going to put them in alphabetical order due to time constraints, but some of these might be helpful for the study of pneumatology:

George Johnston, The Spirit-Paraclete in the Gospel of John. Cambridge UP, 1970.

Cornelis Bennema, The Power of Saving Wisdom: An Investigation of Spirit and Wisdom in Relation to the Soteriology of the Fourth Gospel. Mohr/Siebeck, 2002. 

Roberto Pereyra, "The Holy Spirit in the Letters of Paul," DavarLogos XIII, 2 (2014): 5-24.

John R. Levison, Filled With the Spirit. Eerdmans, 2009. 

Pieter De Vries, “The Relationship between the Glory of YHWH and the Spirit of YHWH in Ezekiel 33-48,” OTE 28/2 (2015): 326-350. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17159/2312-3621/2015/v28n2a7

Gordon D. Fee, God's Empowering presence: the Holy Spirit in the letters of Paul. Hendrickson, 1994.

Gitte Buch-Hansen, »It is the Spirit that Gives Life«: A Stoic Understanding of Pneuma in John’s Gospel. De Gruyter, 2010.

James A. Davis, Wisdom and Spirit: An Investigation of 1 Corinthians 1.18-3.20 Against the Background of Jewish Sapiential Traditions in the Greco-Roman Period. UPA, 1984.

Frank Yin-Chao Lin, "The Significance of the Spirit of Adoption to Christian Life: An Exegetical Study of Romans 8:12-30." Ph.D. Diss., 2017.

Marie E. Isaacs, The Concept of Spirit: A Study of Pneuma in Hellenistic Judaism and its Bearing on the New Testament. H. Charlesworth and Co., 1976.

Anthony Briggman, Irenaeus of Lyons and the Theology of the Holy Spirit. Oxford UP, 2012.

JoAnn Davidson, "Power or Person: Nature of the Holy Spirit" (2016). Faculty Publications. 864. https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/pubs/864

John R. Levison, The Spirit in First-Century Judaism. Brill, 2002.

Monday, March 25, 2024

Comments From Augustine of Hippo on Romans 5:12

Augustine of Hippo has some interesting remarks pertaining to Romans 5:12:

"But if the apostle had wished to assert that sin entered into the world, not by natural descent, but by imitation, he would have mentioned as the first offender, not Adam indeed, but the devil, of whom it is written, that 'he sinneth from the beginning'; of whom also we read in the Book of Wisdom: 'Nevertheless through the devil's envy death entered into the world.' Now, forasmuch as this death came upon men from the devil, not because they were propagated by him, but because they imitated his example, it is immediately added: 'And they that do hold of his side do imitate him.' Accordingly, the apostle, when mentioning sin and death together, which had passed by natural descent from one upon all men, set him down as the introducer thereof from whom the propagation of the human race took its beginning" (On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 1.9).

Sunday, March 24, 2024

Nisan 14, 2024

I'm taking a break from blogging today and will not be checking much for comments either. I want to express my desire that fellow Witnesses will have a nice memorial of Jesus' death tonight, and any readers who might be so inclined are welcome to attend the memorial.

Thanks to Jehovah through Jesus Christ for such a blessed and loving act whereby our Lord gave his body in our behalf.

Christian love,
Edgar

Saturday, March 23, 2024

I Statements in Logic and Their Contraposed Forms

Logic textbooks traditionally teach about four kinds of categorical statements (i.e., propositions) when discussing the Aristotelian square of opposition: they are A, E, I, and O propositions. The first two are universal statements whereas the last two are particular utterances. I will now explain briefly how I propositions work. These are particular affirmatives:

Example of an I proposition:

A) Some trees are oaks.

But what happens if we contrapose an I proposition? This would entail switching subject and predicate, then adding the complement (a term not belonging to the class) of the switched subject and predicate.

Here is the contraposition of an I proposition:

B) Some non-oaks are non-trees.

What?

Notice that B) is similar to the utterance:

C) Some non-Greeks are non-humans.

C)  is the contraposition of Some humans are Greek.

An interesting result of contraposing an I proposition is that the true value of the statement differs after one does the contraposition; it is not preserved with I propositions.

Whether one is doing logic, theology or some other discipline, reasoning correctly is important.

Friday, March 22, 2024

Impossibility and God

Among the things that seem impossible, I guess an angle cannot be trisected using only a straightedge and compass, 7 + 5 cannot be made to equal 13, nor can anyone create square circles, and I doubt that unmakeable hammers can be made. Also, it seems analytic that a Euclidean triangle cannot be four-sided: some things are impossible by their very nature just like uncreatable worlds are impossible to create.

Biblically, we are taught that God cannot sin, lie or be tempted (Titus 1:2; Hebrews 6:18; James 1:13); you can take what Jehovah proclaims to the bank (2 Corinthians 1:20-22 Revelation 21:3-5).

Thursday, March 21, 2024

Updated Version: On the Lord's Evening Meal and Communion Sacrifices

One Scriptural passage that helps me to appreciate tomorrow night's upcoming Memorial of Christ's death on Nisan 14 is 1 Corinthians 10:18:

"Behold Israel after the flesh: have not they that eat the sacrifices communion with the altar?" (ASV)

When posing this rhetorical query, Paul alludes to the OT practice of communion sacrifices. One encounters a lovely description of such offerings in Leviticus 7:1-38. I want to recount briefly what that biblical chapter recounts and apply it to the apostolic words in 1 Corinthians 10:18ff.

The communion sacrifices were peace offerings designed to restore the broken relationship that obtained between God and His ancient worshipers; they constituted a holy presentation to Almighty God (YHWH), and when offering a communion sacrifice, an Israelite was supposed to offer Jehovah his or her best.

Leviticus 7:28-30 mandates that one presenting a communion sacrifice to Jehovah should offer the "fat upon the breast" to God as a wave offering: Leviticus 7:30 briefly explains what a wave offering entailed. In addition to offering the fat and the blood to Jehovah (Leviticus 7:33), the one giving peace offerings to God also was commanded to present "the right leg" of his sacrifice as "a sacred portion" to the officiating priests. Furthermore, the High Priest and his sons were to have a share in this communion offering. What a privilege all those who offered communion presentations enjoyed! Paul rightly said that those who sacrificed upon the altar became (by their respective gifts to God) sharers in the altar. But how might this Levitical practice apply to Christians today?

As Paul intimates, the Lord's Evening Meal (1 Corinthians 11:20) or Lord's Supper is the antitype of the OT peace offerings. Just as ancient worshipers of God brought their sacrifices to Jehovah in order to repair the breach that obtained between themselves and God, so anointed Christians annually observe the Memorial of Jesus' death in order to remember how God repaired the figurative breach between him and sinful humanity, thereby fully reconciling humanity from sin and death.

Anointed Christians share in the antitypical communion meal by partaking of Christ's blood (the cup of wine) and his body (the bread). The emblems at the Memorial are symbols or signs of the spiritual reality effectuated by God and Christ. Those who partake of the cup and wine on Nisan 14 share with God's altar as they have a meal in effect with Jehovah, his High Priest Jesus and fellow anointed ones (underpriests). It is still an inestimable privilege to convene for a meal with God. Anointed Christians therefore esteem the undeserved kindness that Jehovah has shown to them through the Son of God's ransom sacrifice. However, they are not the only ones who benefit from being present at the yearly communion meal.

The great crowd of other sheep who possess a hope of living forever on earth while not partaking of the emblems and thus sharing in the altar still have their appreciation for Christ's sacrifice deepened as they listen to the discourse given about Jesus' death and watch the symbols of his death being passed around the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses. Therefore, I hope that everyone attending the Memorial this year reflects deeply on what Christ's death means for us, and may you continue to grow in love and appreciation for Jehovah God (YHWH) and his only-begotten Son.


Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Jehovah Is Unequivocally the Grand Creator

Nehemiah 9:6 (HCSB)-"You alone are Yahweh. You created the heavens, the highest heavens with all their host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You give life to all of them, and the heavenly host worships You."

Jehovah created the stars (Psalm 8:4-5; 19:1-4; 1 Corinthians 15:39-41). Scientists estimate that the cosmic stars outnumber the multitudinous grains of sand on earth. For example, the Milky Way galaxy contains an estimated 100-400 billion stars, and it is but one of an estimated 2 billion to 2 trillion galaxies in the observable universe.

Galaxies are arranged into clusters, which some have compared to grapes.

Clusters are organized into superclusters and certain scientists describe clusters this way:

"These usually consist of chains of about a dozen clusters which have a mass of about 10^16 solar masses (ten million billion suns). Our own Local Supercluster is centred on Virgo and is relatively poor having a size of 15Mpc. The largest superclusters, like that associated with Coma, are up to 100Mpc in extent. The system of superclusters forms a network permeating throughout space, on which about 90% of galaxies are located."

See https://www.icc.dur.ac.uk/~tt/Lectures/Galaxies/Clusters/Cambridge/gal_lss.html
Furthermore,, think of the many oceans, lakes, and rivers on earth: Scotland has the impressive Loch Lomond and we all know about the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

One academic website provides this data: "The total number of tree species on Earth is around 73,000, including roughly 9,000 not yet known to science."

See https://seas.umich.edu/globalchangebiology/publications/number-of-trees-on-earth

All of these things testify to the power and wisdom of Jehovah, our grand creator (Ecclesiastes 12:1 NWT 2013).