"Hillel and Shammai were the most illustrious teachers by parables before the time of Christ. After Him was Meir, with whom tradition says the power of inventing parables notably declined. The fig-tree of the Jewish people was withered and could put forth no more fruit.

When our Lord appeared among men as a Teacher He took possession of the parable and honored it by making it His own, by using it as the vehicle for the highest truth of all. Knowing how Jewish teachers illustrated their doctrines by the help of parables and comparisons, Christ adopted these old forms and gave them a newness of spirit, as He proclaimed the transcendent glory and excellency of His teaching.

...the parables of Jesus are superb in their aptness, conciseness, beauty and appeal. Although He did not create the parabolic type of teaching, He certainly endowed it with high originality and gave it a deeper spiritual import and dimensions hitherto unknown. " (Herbert Lockyear, "All the Parables of the Bible," Zondervan, 1963, p.10)

"If the Tiber reaches the walls, if the Nile does not rise...if the sky doesn't move or the earth does, if there is a famine or a plague, the cry is 'The Christians to the lions!'" (Tertullian, Apologeticus XL.ii)

ROMAN SANITATION: "Precautions must be taken in the neighborhood of swamps...because there are bred [there] certain minute creatures that cannot be seen with the eyes, but that float through the air and enter the body through the nose...and there cause serious illness. Being exposed to the sun during the day is wholesome, as any animalculae that are bred nearby and brought in are either blown away or quickly die from lack of humidity." --Marcus Varro, 1st Century BC. Varro, 1, 12, [7]; as quoted in Command Magazine, May, 1996, #37, pg. 16; POB 4017, San Luis Obispo, CA 93403.

EP SANDERS: The Pharisees were not as powerful as the NT makes us think they were during the NT period, for Josephus does not even mention them for the period between 6 and 66 AD, when the revolt brought them back into the narrative. This silence can only mean they were not power-players of note. Despite this silence, Josephus attributes to the Pharisees great authority and indirect power, as indicated during the reign of John Hyrcanus (c.134 BC):

"Particularly hostile to [Hyrcanus] were the Pharisees...And so great is their influence with the masses that even when they speak against a king or high priest, they immediately gain credence." (Antiq. 13.288)

"...the Sadducees [have] the confidence of the wealthy alone but no following among the populace, while the Pharisees have the support of the masses." (Antiq 13.298)

"There are but few men to whom this doctrine [Sadducean] has been made known, but these are men of the highest standing. They accomplish practically nothing, however, for whenever they assume some office, though they submit unwillingly and perforce, yet submit they do to the formulas of the Pharisees, since otherwise the masses would not tolerate them." (Antiq. 18.17) (Judaic Practices & Beliefs, 66 BCE – 66 AD)

"It is impossible to say," wrote one Spanish humanist, "how deeply Platonic thought has penetrated the basic layers of modern Western civilization. The most ordinary people in the West constantly make use of expressions and ideas which go back to Plato." (Jose Ortega y Gasset, quoted in Reay Tannehill's Sex in History, NY: Stein and Day, 1980, pp.92-93, cited by COLORADO FOR FAMILY VALUES, "CFV REPORT," Vol. 26, March, 1995, POB 190, Colorado Springs, CO 80901

THE PROPER WAY TO PRAY: "The proper way for a man to pray," said Rev. Dr. Wise, "is standing straight with outstretched arms, and rapt and upturned eyes."

"Oh, no, no, no," said Elder Shaw, "such posture is too proud. A man should pray with eyes fast closed and head contritely bowed."

"It seems to me, said Father Dr. Blunt, the hands should be austerely clasped in front, with both thumbs pointing to the ground."

"Last week I fell down the well, head first," said Farmer Brown, "with all my toes a'stickin' up and my head a'pointin' down. I prayed a prayer right there and then, best prayer I ever said. The prayinest' prayer I ever prayed while standin' on my head."

PREDESTINARIANISM: A heresy that came to full bloom in the Reformation which says that man cannot be saved by his own free will but only by the elect choice of God. The heresy denies that God wills the salvation of all mankind. (The Maryknoll Catholic Dictionary, 1965 Edition, Grosset & Dunlap, NY, NY)

PREDESTINATION (Latin praedestinare, to determine beforehand): A word that is given a number of meanings, and unless distinguished carefully, can lead to confusion and error.

1. In a heretical sense, it is a belief that one's actions are not only preknown by God but predetermined. It teaches that God from all eternity has decreed what He shall do in time and therefore whatever a person does for good or evil has already been decreed by God. It implies that God can will sin and eternal damnation, and thus denies man's free will. It fails to make a distinction between God's omniscience by which He knows what a man will do, and man's own free will which determines his acts. Thus while God may know a man will be lost, it is still God's will that that man be saved.

2. In a theological sense, it is that Divine Providence by which God rules the world, immutably decreeing the salvation of all rational creatures. In God's knowledge human beings are predestined for salvation and others to be lost, yet it is God's desire that all men be saved and to this end He gives graces and aids which man is free to accept or reject. Thus while in God's knowledge certain individuals are to be lost, this is not by the choice of God but by the choice of the individuals. (The Maryknoll Catholic Dictionary, 1965 Edition, Grosset & Dunlap, NY, NY)

"PAPIAS maintained that after the resurrection of the dead there will be a period of a thousand years when Christ's kingdom will be established on this earth in physical form. He is said to have maintained the mishna [Jewish teaching] of a millennium." (Papias in Eusebius 3.39.11; Jerome, "On Illustrious Men 18"'; cited by Eberhard Arnold, "The Early Christians," Plough Publishing, 1997, pg 151)

JUSTIN: "But I, and every other Christian who has the right beliefs in all things, know that there is a resurrection of the flesh, followed by a thousand years in the rebuilt, beautified, and enlarged city of Jerusalem, as the prophets Ezekiel, Isaiah, and the others announced. (Dialogue with Trypho the Jew, 80.1,2,4,5; cited by Eberhard Arnold, "The Early Christians," Plough Publishing, 1997, pg 152)

Origen: "...one fact which proves that Jesus is something divine and sacred is this: that the Jews have suffered because of Him for a very long time such terrible catastrophes...for what nation is exiled from its own capital city, and from the place sacred to the worship of its ancestors, except the Jews alone? ...It was fitting, then, that the city where Jesus underwent sufferings should utterly perish, and the Jewish nation be overthrown...And we can say with confidence it never will be restored to its former condition." (Contra Celsum 4:22; cited in The Origin of Satan, p140, Elaine Pagels, 1995, Random House, NY)

GOD SETS TIMES AND DOES NOT DELAY:

Hab 2:3 "For the vision is yet for the appointed time; it hastens toward the goal, and it will not fail. Though it tarries, wait for it; for it will certainly come, it will not delay.

Acts 1:7 He said to them, "It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own

authority;

Acts 17:26 and He made from one, every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined {their} appointed times, and the boundaries of their habitation,

Gal 4:2-3: ..."but he [the heir] is under guardians and managers until the date set by the father. So also we...

GOD TO REMOVE THE THRONE FROM JECONIAH: (Also called Coniah; see Jer. 24:1; 1 Chr. 3:16).

Jer.22:24-30 God removes throne.

V.30: "childless" not physically childless. He had children: 1Chr. 3:16-17. "Childless" is explained as "for no more shall a man of his seed prosper, sitting upon the throne of David, and ruling in Judah."

Since Jesus is in the lineage of Coniah (see Mt. and Lk,) he cannot sit in Judah and rule on the throne of David (Jer. 22:30). This defeats premillennialism, for that is where they say he is to sit and rule.

PURGATORY (O.F. purgatoire): The state in which souls exist for a time after death to work out the temporal punishment due to venial sins or forgiven mortal sins. The soul is purified in this state to prepare it for its entrance into the delights of heaven and the Beatific Vision. "It is therefore a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from their sins" (@ Mac. 12:46). (The Maryknoll Catholic Dictionary, 1965 Edition, Grosset & Dunlap, NY, NY)

1030 All who die in God's grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation, but after death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven.

1031 The Church gives the name Purgatory to this final purification of the elect, which is entirely different from the punishment of the damned. The Church formulated her doctrine of faith on Purgatory especially at the Council of Florence and Trent. The tradition of the Church, by reference to certain texts of Scripture, speaks of a cleansing fire. "As for certain lesser faults, we must believe that, before the Final Judgment, there is a purifying fire." – The New Catholic Catechism, 1992 French version (1994 English translation)

APPLYING MERITS: "The Catholic Church does not claim to directly apply the infinite merits of Jesus Christ and the superabundant merits of His saints to the souls in purgatory, over whom she has no jurisdiction . . . a Catholic may gain a plenary indulgence and offer it up for a particular soul in Purgatory, but God is not pledged to apply it." (Question Box, p. 414.)

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