Strange Religious Imagery In Contrast To The Gospel

Loannina Village Lake from trekearth

  

Prelude

These are the abstract webcam light sparring videos which were posted as a late edition to my Dr. Russell Norman Murray blog latest post and so I repost here. Chucky is hit it the back of the head lightly with a bat in video two. My ice tea glass appearing as a blue object, due to the intentional abstract nature of the videos, is almost shattered by the bat in video four. Weapons used are a Swiss Army Knife retracted, an aluminum baseball bat, and a stick for striking and as spear. I realize the area is limited as this does limit kicks but actually a fair amount of lower to mid-range kicks are used and 'Bruce Lee' type high kicks are difficult to land in real fighting situations because thug persons will tend to crowd a victim on the street, and a victim may be attacked by more than one person in a street event. Also very few persons can actually kick very high and very fast like Bruce Lee and for myself decent high kicks would be a secondary back-up potential finish move and not a primary move. With my build other options are better primary options but I have practiced high kicks, just in case.

Strange Religious Imagery In Contrast To The Gospel

Examining strange and bizarre religious imagery as in the images below I am reminded that Biblical Christianity has sacraments and rituals such as Baptism and Communion, Eucharist, The Lord's Supper. Browning states that 'sacramentum is from the Latin and means 'oath'. Browning (1997: 329).  I agree with a Reformed, Evangelical position that works including from any religious practices do not add to one's salvation in Christ. Erickson opines that justification by faith in the Book of James is discussing the concept that true and genuine Christian faith and belief will produce good works. Erickson (1994: 1014). It is not contradicting Pauline concepts in Romans 1-6, Galatians and Ephesians 1-2 that a Christian is justified and saved by grace through faith. This should lead to good works. I have however, discussed on my blogs the Biblical concept that not all Christians are in a full state of repentance in faith and if one dies will be judged accordingly, please see 1 Corinthians 3: 10-15, 2 Corinthians 5: 10,  James 2, 2 Peter 3.

BROWNING, W.R.F. (1997) Dictionary of the Bible, Oxford, Oxford University Press.

ERICKSON, MILLARD (1994) Christian Theology, Grand Rapids, Baker Book House.

In this world and on this Sunday and new week there are other religions that exist that do overemphasize works from a Biblical perspective. These are practices that are not in any way going to add to human salvation.

Here are some photos I found online from the 'Vegetarian Festival' in Thailand.

From:

Once again the inline link does not work with this new interface:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nine_Emperor_Gods_Festival#Celebration_in_Thailand

This festival in Thailand is called the Vegetarian Festival. It is celebrated throughout Thailand, but the festivities are at their height in Phuket where about 35% of the population is Chinese. It attracts large crowds because many religious devotees will slash themselves with swords, pierce their cheeks with sharp objects and commit other painful acts.

Demonized mechanic? Google Images



Do you think anyone 'needles' him about his appearance?  Google Images

Looks like a Marvel or DC supervillian, but nope. Google Images

Not sure if he takes requests. Google Images

Go ahead make my festival! Google Images

Ah, he may find a way to injure others during this fine event. Google Images