A Travel Log Into Eternity

  And a great portent appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars; she was with child and she cried out in her pangs of birth, in anguish for delivery. And another portent appeared in heaven; behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems upon his heads. His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven, and cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to bear a child, that he might devour her child when she brought it forth; she brought forth a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to his throne (Revelation 12:1-5, RSVCE) The Book of Revelation is a work of art. It contains numerous analogies and metaphors that are sometimes hard to understand. One way to get closer to the meaning of the text is to dive into Levantine culture and history to see the parallels that Saint John ha...

 Sola Fide, or the principle of "faith alone", is a core principle of the reformation among other the other sola-principles. It basically states that we are saved because of our faith in Jesus Christ, and our faith alone. No works of salvation needed, no small print, no nothing. There are different notions in the Protestant denominations that argue that faith once is enough and one cannot lose their salvation, while others state that faith has to remain active to have saving power. But how scriptural is Sola Fide? Well, if you take single verses out of context and ignore others, you could get to the conclusion it is a core doctrine.  We ourselves, who are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners, yet who know that a man is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ, and not by works of the law, because by works of the law shall no one be justified. (Galatians 2:15-16, RSV...

  In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard for his godly fear. Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered; and being made perfect he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him, being designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek. (Hebrews 5:7-10, RSVCE) Jesus is our High Priest after the order of Melchizedek. I think most people know who Jesus is, but Melchizedek is still widely unknown among the general population. First, where and when can we see who Melchizedek is? The answer is the Old Testament. In Genesis, the author has the following to say: After his return from the defeat of Ched-or-lao′mer and the kings who were with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet him at the Valley of Shaveh (that is, the King’s Valley). And Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was priest of God Most Hi...

  We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law. (Article of Faith 1:12) To some, such a statement might be redundant, to others, it might be a surprise. For the former, this makes no sense to put an emphasis on such a principle because, in our modern world, it is one of the most natural things to be subject to a form of government. So why would someone explicitly have to state that? Well, statements like the Article of Faith number 12 come from a time where the Saints have been persecuted constantly. Some claimed they would be rebels, some said they would want to overthrow the U.S. government and replace them with their own system. Especially when Joseph Smith run for the office of President, conspiracy theorists had a blast.  For some, though, Article of Faith is a surprising statement. There might be different reasons for it. One of them is that the Old Testament almost throughout all books paints a ...

 The point is this: the one who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the one who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that by always having enough of everything, you may share abundantly in every good work. (2 Corinthians 9:6-8, RSVCE) This intro quote comes from Saint Paul's Second Letter to the Corinthians. Back in his days, there was no social security system that supported you when you had to go through economic hardships. As a relatively new religious phenomenon, Christian sects had a hard time being accepted by their pagan neighbors. Without being accepted into society, they could not expect any help from their fellow citizens. This means that it was more important than ever to be a community where every member could rely on each other in times of need. But, of course, this...

 When I talk to someone I have just met and we get to the topic of religion, the conversations usually go somewhat like this:     THEM: What is your religion?     ME: I'm a Christian?     THEM: Cool. What kind? At this point, throughout my journey through Christianity, I had to give answers like "I am a Lutheran," or "I am a Mormon (now known as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints)". While it technically should have been sufficient to say that I am Christian, it is not. But why is that so? The problem lies in the nature of man and the vagueness of scripture. Let's focus on the latter first. Jesus said a lot of things, but not all of them were written down. And even the ones that were are not discussing a lot of 21st-century problems. So over time, certain discussions about vague passages and their interpretation have occurred. From time to time, these little disagreements got bigger and lead to the split of Christian groups into ...

 In pop culture, being ghosted means that somebody you try to communicate with is not responding to you. They are basically keeping you on "read," as others would call it. This can be pretty hard for some people because they either relied on an answer or feel isolated and ignored. Imagine your future path hangs on one response that you are waiting for. This would make you lose your patience, and it would probably give you a couple of sleepless nights. Now, imagine it would not just impact your future path here on earth, but all of eternity. This would be hell, yes literally hell, because we would be separated from God and his word. Luckily, there is a "response": The Holy Spirit. <<When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly a sound came from heaven like the rush of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues as of fire, distributed and resting on each one of t...