Spiritual Laws

What is Christianity? Even as early as the founding of the first churches at Antioch and Jerusalem, this was a difficult question. The two decades after Christ's death on the cross, when all Christian teachings were oral, saw much debate between Christ's disciples and followers. Some of Christ's disciples went to Egypt and Ethiopia, others to Sumeria and Armenia, and some (such as Paul) went to Greece and Rome. The teachings varied from disciple to disciple, place to place, and of course from time to time. Christianity in the 4th century (Council of Nicaea) was a different beast than it was in the 1st century. But right now I want to look at early Christianity, when the witnesses of Christ's miracles were still alive.

20 years after the death of Christ, various individuals saw the necessity of putting Christ's teachings in writing. Peter, Paul, Mark, Matthew, Luke and John are the most well-known, though many others also contributed to the writings of early Christianity. The Gospel according to Mark is the first canonical gospel ever written (although it is placed second in the bible). Matthew and Luke chose to expand on Mark's gospel in different ways, to better help specific subgroups of Christians. Matthew wrote for Hebrews and Luke wrote for Greek-speaking Gentiles. John wrote independently, drawing from his own experiences with Jesus and focusing a lot on God's love for us. These four books are further supplemented by the Acts of the Apostles and the Letters of Saint Paul to form the New Testament.

Fast forward to the present. Christianity has many denominations, but there are still some common elements that unite all Christians. One modern Christian mentions these unifying principles as seven truths, that we can choose to believe in or not believe in. These seven truths exist regardless of our individual beliefs:

1. There is one God, eternally existent in three persons.
2. God created everything in this universe, including all the physical laws.
3. God gave humans free will, to choose Him over sin.
4. Humans rebelled, and sin was introduced.
5. All mankind is inherently sinful.
6. The penalty for sin is eternal separation from God.
7. God is not willing that any of us should have to pay that penalty, so he came to earth, assumed the form of man (in the person of Jesus Christ), and paid the penalty for us; The gift of salvation is free to all, but the choice to accept it is up to each person.

The seven truths above may or may not be an accurate summary of the basic beliefs of Christians around the world, but I think it is pretty darn close. And the basic concept behind them is that they are true whether we believe in them or not, whether we like them or not. As for myself, I'm more familiar with the four laws than I am with the seven truths.

When I was a baby Christian, I had a hard time wrapping my head around the New Testament, so I relied on a booklet titled the Four Spiritual Laws to summarize the foundation of my faith. It's basically a short, cutesy way of looking at the Gospel message. Over one and a half billion copies of the little booklets have been published so far (that I know of).

The Four Spiritual Laws are written as follows:

1. God LOVES you and offers a wonderful PLAN for your life.

"God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life" - John 3:16.
"I came that they might have life, and might have it abundantly" - John 10:10.

2. Man is SINFUL and SEPARATED from God. Therefore, he cannot know and experience God's love and plan for his life.

"All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" - Romans 3:23.
"The wages of sin is death" - Romans 6:23.

3. Jesus Christ is God's ONLY provision for man's sin. Through Him you can know and experience God's love and plan for your life.

"God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" - Romans 5:8.
"Christ died for our sins...He was buried...He was raised on the third day, according to the Scriptures...He appeared to Peter, then to the twelve. After that He appeared to more than five hundred..." - 1 Corinthians 15:3-6.
"Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me'" - John 14:6.

4. We must individually RECEIVE Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord; then we can know and experience God's love and plan for our lives.

"As many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name" - John 1:12.
"By grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one should boast" - Ephesians 2:8,9.

Receiving Christ involves turning to God from self (repentance) and trusting Christ to come into our lives to forgive our sins and to make us what He wants us to be. Just to agree intellectually that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that He died on the cross for our sins is not enough. Nor is it enough to have an emotional experience. We receive Jesus Christ by faith, as an act of the will.

These two circles represent two kinds of lives:












Finally, we end with a prayer...
"Lord Jesus, I need You. Thank You for dying on the cross for my sins. I open the door of my life and receive You as my Savior and Lord. Thank You for forgiving my sins and giving me eternal life. Take control of the throne of my life. Make me the kind of person You want me to be."

Triceratops is the next Brontosaurus

History Revised, courtesy of Rooster Teeth Comics. Story by Griffon Ramsey and Art by Luke McKay.

Indeed, I still remember seeing Brontosaurus in dinosaur books when I was a child. Turned out that it was just an Apatosaurus with the wrong head. Now scientists are saying that Triceratops and Torosaurus were actually the same species. A Triceratops was basically a juvenile Torosaurus. So, we can say sayonara to yet another popular dinosaur. Thanks for nothing, scientists.

Here are a couple articles about the Triceratops debacle:
Triceratops May Not Have Existed.
Has Triceratops Really Been Torosaurus All These Years?

Edit: I thought Triceratops, being the juvenile, would be replaced by Torosaurus in science. I was all ready to give Cera from the Land Before Time a sweet goodbye. But apparently scientists are killing off Torosaurus and relabeling all related fossils as Triceratops instead. The reason, as far as I can tell, is that the name Triceratops was coined three years before Torosaurus. Since Triceratops was discovered first, its name stays.

Bye bye, Torosaurus. We didn't know you well enough to realize all your babies were actually Triceratops. Ya, we didn't pay much attention to you. Sorry 'bout that.

The Alphabet

I know I posted less than 7 hours ago, and it's weird to post again, but I just felt like sharing. It reminds me of the time when I was posting on forums instead of blogs, and instead of one topic every other week, I would make a dozen threads in a day and check on them over the next month to read and reply. Ah, the good old days.

Anywho, I wanted to share the origin of the alphabet. Wikipedia also has a nice article on the history of the alphabet. To be honest, I can't verify any of that, since archaeology was never my strength (I prefer written history instead). You would think some ancient writers would write about the history of writing, but no... archaeologists have to do the hard work to get answers.

Which reminds me of the subject of historiography, the study of history. Or more accurately, the study of how people record and study history. The first historiographer that I know of was Herodotus of ancient Greece. Herodotus wrote "the histories," the oldest surviving history book. I believe Herodotus was one of the first Greeks to conclude that the Caspian Sea is a lake, and not a true sea at all. He also believed it was possible to sail directly between India and Greece, simply by going around Lybia. As it turns out, he was mostly correct, except that the African continent is much larger than he ever imagined.

He made a number of big claims in the histories that took a long time to verify. He described a Scythian city near modern-day Ukraine that was a hundred times larger than Troy (it wasn't until the 1970s that someone was able to prove he was telling the truth). He mentions giant ants in India (he was probably referring to marmots). He also boldly claimed that Etruscans (who lived in Italy at the time) were descended from Turkish nomads. Most ancient Romans scoffed at this claim, but DNA evidence has proven Herodotus to be correct.

Of course, some things are still believed to be false. Herodotus mentioned Phoenixes living in Egypt, which has never been proven. However, given how many of his other amazing claims turned out to be true, it may turn out that at some later date an archaeologist will uncover phoenix fossils in Egypt.

Here's a recreation of a map Herodotus made of the world as he knew it:

The Wheel of Time

The Wheel of Time is an epic fantasy series by Robert Jordan, currently consisting of eleven books in the original series (Plus the twelfth written by Brandon Sanderson), and a prequel (New Spring). Jordan died in the middle of writing the twelfth, A Memory of Light, which he had promised would wrap up the series once and for all, even if the publisher had to invent a new book format. His wife and editor selected Brandon Sanderson to complete the series based on notes left behind by Jordan.

Sanderson has decided to write three books to complete the series, and so far he has done an excellent job of resolving various plot threads in his first book, the Gathering Storm. The next two, Towers of Midnight and A Memory of Light, may actually provide a good ending to the series. It is unfortunate that Jordan was unable to complete the series himself, but at least we know with Sanderson that it will end. I'm looking forward to reading more.

That said, I wanted to talk a little bit about the backstory of Wheel of Time. The Wheel of Time series is a rare gem exploring technological regression and redevelopment. Thousands of years before the time of the first book, during the Age of Legends, humanity had the Aes Sedai (magic) equivalents for airplanes, elevators, trains, cars, artificial fibers, air conditioning, and various other goodies that we modern Earthlings have in bunches. Then, in an effort to find a power source to fuel their increasing technology, the Aes Sedai scientists discovered a limitless power source underground. They bore a hole into it to tap the energy, but discovered that the energy had a will of its own (this is the Dark One, the big bad for the entire series). Released from its underground prison, the Dark One sowed chaos in the world, and the Age of Legends was lost.

I am very curious to learn more about that world, because it sounds incredible. We also get strong hints that Aes Sedai from the Age of Legends were not as adept as modern Aes Sedai at all the magic that modern Aes Sedai perform. Instead, the Aes Sedai from the Age of Legends (including the Dark One's chosen servants) relied on technology. Many of the Chosen, reputed to be the strongest Aes Sedai in the world, have proven that they aren't all that strong individually at all. Much of their power is borrowed from the Dark One or based on knowledge and experience. Several modern Aes Sedai are still able to beat them despite that.

Furthermore, modern Aes Sedai are rediscovering many of the tricks lost during the Age of Legends. And Rand's academies of science have produced interesting items such as telescopes, the combustion engine (trains, cars), and electricity. For all we know, after Rand breaks the world, we will have another Age of Legends. It makes me really curious about what the original Age of Legends was like, and what the world will be like afterwards.