Previous William Thomas Sherman Info Page postings, quotes, observations, etc.
Think of this. The ideal is all that's truly real. And all the rest, including everything physical, immediately tangible, and perceptible, are but its shadows. And yet shadows that some see as nothing less than the real; even though such shades can be deliberately changed and transformed in their appearance by those skilled at doing so.
Call me a Johnny-come-lately if you like, but this past weekend I just discovered the world of online radio -- and this, my friends is, or at any rate should be, the future. Perhaps finally now, and in conjunction with personal websites, competition and the concomitant ousting of the drone-like, parasitical, uncreative, and culture stifling monopolists will once more return to the world of mass communications.
Two prominent websites to check out in this wise are:
and
* Classic KING FM -- now listener subscribed (and advertiser freed!)
And of course this is just for starters. I don't listen to corporate-party line NPR anymore; because with colors red-black-and-blue, I am at a loss to know what nation they are supposed to be broadcasting for.
I was listening to BBC2 earlier today and they aired a show dedicated to the late pop-music (and miscellaneous) impresario Jimmy Saville, and that had excerpts from (apparently) an interview in which he stated:
"They don't do variety [shows] any more. People like variety, but there's no one around [now] to produce it."
I had to laugh.
[ch. 7]...For each of the Gospels is a collection of announcements which are useful to him who believes them and does not misinterpret them; it brings him a benefit and naturally makes him glad because it tells of the sojourn with men, on account of men, and for their salvation, of the first-born of all creation, [Colossians 1:15] Christ Jesus. And again each Gospel tells of the sojourn of the good Father in the Son with those minded to receive Him, as is plain to every believer; and moreover by these books a good is announced which had been formerly expected, as is by no means hard to see...
[ch. 35] Christ as the Living and the Dead. In what has been said about the first and the last, and about the beginning and the end, we have referred these words at one point to the different forms of reasonable beings, at another to the different conceptions of the Son of God. Thus we have gained a distinction between the first and the beginning, and between the last and the end, and also the distinctive meaning of A [Alpha] and O [Omega]. It is not hard to see why he is called [Revelation 1:17-18] “the Living and the Dead,” and after being dead He that is alive for evermore. For since we were not helped by His original life, sunk as we were in sin, He came down into our deadness in order that, He having died to sin, we, [2 Corinthians 4:10] bearing about in our body the dying of Jesus. might then receive that life of His which is for evermore. For those who always carry about in their body the dying of Jesus shall obtain the life of Jesus also, manifested in their bodies.
[ch. 37] Christ as a Servant, as the Lamb of God, and as the Man Whom John Did Not Know.
Again, let any one consider how Jesus was to His disciples, not as He who sits at meat, but as He who serves, and how though the Son of God He took on Him the form of a servant for the sake of the freedom of those who were enslaved in sin, and he will be at no loss to account for the Father's saying to Him: “You are My servant,” and a little further on: “It is a great thing that you should be called My servant.” For we do not hesitate to say that the goodness of Christ appears in a greater and more divine light, and more according to the image of the Father, because [Philippians 2:6,8] “He humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death, even the death of the cross,” than if He had judged it a thing to be grasped to be equal with God, and had shrunk from becoming a servant for the salvation of the world. Hence He says, [Isaiah 49:5-6] desiring to teach us that in accepting this state of servitude He had received a great gift from His Father: “And My God shall be My strength. And He said to Me, It is a great thing for You to be called My servant.” For if He had not become a servant, He would not have raised up the tribes of Jacob, nor have turned the heart of the diaspora of Israel, and neither would He have become a light of the Gentiles to be for salvation to the ends of the earth. And it is no great thing for Him to become a servant, even if it is called a great thing by His Father, for this is in comparison with His being called with an innocent sheep and with a lamb. For the Lamb of God became like an innocent sheep being led to the slaughter, that He may take away the sin of the world. He who supplies reason to all is made like a lamb which is dumb before her shearer, that we might be purified by His death, which is given as a sort of medicine against the opposing power, and also against the sin of those who open their minds to the truth. For the death of Christ reduced to impotence those powers which war against the human race, and it set free from sin by a power beyond our words the life of each believer. Since, then, He takes away sin until every enemy shall be destroyed and death last of all, in order that the whole world may be free from sin, therefore John points to Him and says: [John 1:29] “Behold the Lamb of God which takes away the sin of the world.” It is not said that He will take it away in the future, nor that He is at present taking it, nor that He has taken it, but is not taking it away now. His taking away sin is still going on, He is taking it away from every individual in the world, till sin be taken away from the whole world, and the Saviour deliver the kingdom prepared and completed to the Father, a kingdom in which no sin is left at all, and which, therefore, is ready to accept the Father as its king, and which on the other hand is waiting to receive all God has to bestow, fully, and in every part, at that time when the saying [1 Corinthians 5:28] is fulfilled, “That God may be all in all.” Further, we hear of a man who is said to be coming after John, who was made before him and was before him. This is to teach us that the man also of the Son of God, the man who was mixed with His divinity, was older than His birth from Mary. John says he does not know this man, but must he not have known Him when he leapt for joy when yet a babe unborn in Elisabeth's womb, as soon as the voice of Mary's salutation sounded in the ears of the wife of Zacharias? Consider, therefore, if the words “I know Him not” may have reference to the period before the bodily existence. Though he did not know Him before He assumed His body, yet he knew Him when yet in his mother's womb, and perhaps he is here learning something new about Him beyond what was known to him before, namely, that on whomsoever the Holy Spirit shall descend and abide on him, that is he who is to baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire. He knew him from his mother's womb, but not all about Him. He did not know perhaps that this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit and with fire, when he saw the Spirit descending and abiding on Him. Yet that He was indeed a man, and the first man, John did not know.
[ch. 39] Christ as Wisdom and Sanctification and Redemption.
We must not, however, pass over in silence that He is of right the wisdom of God, and hence is called by that name. For the wisdom of the God and Father of all things does not apprehend His substance in mere visions, like the phantasms of human thoughts. Whoever is able to conceive a bodiless existence of manifold speculations which extend to the rationale of existing things, living and, as it were, ensouled, he will see how well the Wisdom of God which is above every creature speaks of herself, when she says: [Proverbs 8:22] “God created me the beginning of His ways, for His works.” By this creating act the whole creation was enabled to exist, not being unreceptive of that divine wisdom according to which it was brought into being; for God, according to the prophet David, made all things in wisdom. But many things came into being by the help of wisdom, which do not lay hold of that by which they were created: and few things indeed there are which lay hold not only of that wisdom which concerns themselves, but of that which has to do with many things besides, namely, of Christ who is the whole of wisdom. But each of the sages, in proportion as he embraces wisdom, partakes to that extent of Christ, in that He is wisdom; just as every one who is greatly gifted with power, in proportion as he has power, in that proportion also has a share in Christ, inasmuch as He is power. The same is to be thought about sanctification and redemption; for Jesus Himself is made sanctification to us and redemption. Each of us is sanctified with that sanctification, and redeemed with that redemption. Consider, moreover, if the words “to us,” added by the Apostle, have any special force. Christ, he says, “was made to us of God, wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.” In other passages, he speaks about Christ as being wisdom, without any such qualification, and of His being power, saying that Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God, though we might have conceived that He was not the wisdom of God or the power of God, absolutely, but only for us. Now, in respect of wisdom and power, we have both forms of the statement, the relative and the absolute; but in respect of sanctification and redemption, this is not the case. Consider, therefore, since [Hebrews 2:11] “He that sanctifies and they that are sanctified are all of one,” whether the Father is the sanctification of Him who is our sanctification, as, Christ being our head, God is His head. But Christ is our redemption because we had become prisoners and needed ransoming. I do not enquire as to His own redemption, for though He was tempted in all things as we are, He was without sin, and His enemies never reduced Him to captivity.
~ Origen (185-232 A.D.), Commentary on the Gospel of John, Book I
As it is not practicable for me to include as many portions of this work as we else might like, the following is a list of other chapter headings from the same and which expatiate on Christ's nature. (For more, simply see the text itself at the above link.)
* Christ as Light; How He, and How His Disciples are the Light of the World.
* Christ as the Resurrection.
* Christ as the Way.
* Christ as the Truth.
* Christ as Life.
* Christ as the Door and as the Shepherd.
* Christ as Anointed (Christ) and as King.
* Christ as Teacher and Master.
* Christ as Son.
* Christ the True Vine, and as Bread.
* Christ as the First and the Last; He is Also What Lies Between These.
* Christ as a Sword.
* Christ as Righteousness; As the Demiurge, the Agent of the Good God, and as High-Priest.
* Christ as the Rod, the Flower, the Stone.
* Christ is the Logos.
Now if Christ is all these, then I should hope by now it is not only possible but easy for you to distinquish HIM, should and if ever you need to, from a spirit person impersonator.
Some of you may remember this (circa 1966):
["TV SPOT- "The Christmas That Almost Wasn't" (1966) Directed by Rosanno Brazzi"]
For a fun, two-part documentary on the same, and that also provides an informative inside look at how those stock and ubiquitous Italian films of the 60's were made, see:
Two versions (with the first of these in two parts) of "Comfort Ye My People" & "Every Valley Shall Be Exalted." While the orchestra (not to mention the video and audio quality) in the second version may not be quite up to speed with Trevor Pinnock and the English Concert's rendition, Mr. Watson's singing you, will find, is something purely angelic -- though lower the volume a bit on it as the audio is, comparatively speaking, unusually loud.
*----*
["Haendel - Messiah - Comfort ye my people" -- with Kurt Streit and Trevor Pinnock and the English Concert]
["Every valley shall be exalted- Messiah, Haendel" -- with Kurt Streit and Trevor Pinnock and the English Concert]
["Comfort Ye, Ev'ry Valley G.F Handel "Messiah" - H. Lamont Watson" -- Earlham College Orchestra]