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[ch. 15]
But there is not one city of them, but many of them settle in every city. And if any of the adherents of the sect may be present from a strange place, they consider that all things are in common for him, and those whom they had not previously known they receive as if they belonged to their own household and kindred. And they traverse their native land, and on each occasion that they go on a journey they carry nothing except arms. And they have also in their cities a president, who expends the moneys collected for this purpose in procuring clothing and food for them. And their robe and its shape are modest. And they do not own two cloaks, or a double set of shoes; and when those that are in present use become antiquated, then they adopt others. And they neither buy nor sell anything at all; but whatever any one has he gives to him that has not, and that which one has not he receives.
~ Hippolytus (c. 170–235 A.D.), Refutation of All Heresies, Book IX
Points for Clarification, or chasing out snakes.
Christianity is not "Jesus;" as is mistakenly implied, and often deliberately so. Rather, it is God the Father Creator whom you only know and come to through Jesus, and you only know and come to Jesus through and by the Holy Spirit, which is the spirit of honest love and rational truth.
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As much as reasonable objections can be raised against Christianity, no one yet had yet come up with anything and even remotely as good, beneficial, or effective to replace it with. So he rejects Christianity. He then replaces it with what? Even so, and yet among the worst detractors of the faith are to be included those who claim or imply that they are its most devoted adherents.
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Likewise or similarly, he is a hypocrite, coward, traitor, slave and enemy of honest truth because he is a Jew? No, rather he is Jewish that he might serve his master, and this for the purpose of discrediting and helping to destroy the Jews.
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In sum, it is necessary that something be sacred, otherwise nothing is. And if nothing is sacred, there is no life, only slavery and bondage; though granted and of course there are those who do, nevertheless, continue to insist this.
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Internet and similar advertising, tattoos, "artistic" graffiti, Windows 10 updates -- these are all forms of ritual abuse.
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He says "It's the voice from outer space. Therefore, he must be my friend."
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Who is it that thinks themselves funny, and yet (in their own efforts to do so) never is?
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The genius of such as Dante and Shakespeare is that theirs souls were timeless, and could see timeless things. Consequently, we might reasonably conclude, there are and truly timeless things.
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BOTH Joseph (Jacob's son) and Achilles believed dreams came from God. Yet never did either speak of the devil or implied they even knew of his existence. How then can we trust what they say?
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And more. But for now, this will do.
...It is the love of money, that insatiable sickness from which we all now suffer, and the love of pleasure that enslave us, or rather, one might say, sink our lives, soul and all, into the depths; for love of gold is a withering sickness, and love of pleasure utterly ignoble. Indeed, I cannot discover on consideration how, if we value boundless wealth, or to speak more truly, make a god of it, we can possibly keep our natures free from its evil parasites. In close company with vast and unconscionable Wealth there follows, "step for step," as they say, Extravagance: and no sooner has the one opened the gates of cities or houses, than the other comes and makes a home there too. And when they have spent some time in our lives, philosophers tell us, they build a nest there and promptly set about begetting children; these are Swagger and Conceit and Luxury, no bastards but their true-born issue. And if these offspring of wealth are allowed to grow to maturity, they soon breed in our hearts inexorable tyrants, Insolence and Disorder and Shamelessness. This must inevitably happen, and men no longer then look upwards nor take any further thought for their good name. And what is the end of this process? Step by step the ruin of their lives is completed, their greatness of soul wastes away from inanition and is no longer their ideal, since they value that part of them which is mortal and consumes away, and neglect the development of their immortal souls.
A man who has been bribed for his verdict can no longer give an unbiased and sound judgement on what is just and fair, for the corrupt judge inevitably regards his own interest as fair and just. And seeing that the whole life of each one of us is now governed wholly by bribery and by hunting after other people's deaths and laying traps for legacies, and we have sold our souls for profit at any price, slaves that we are to our luxury, can we then expect in such a pestilential ruin of our lives that there is left a single free and unbribed judge of the things that are great and last to all eternity?...
~ "Longinus," On the Sublime (1st century A.D.), ch. 44,translated by W.H. Fyfe.
[ch. 11]
For there is a division among them [the Jews] into three sorts; and the adherents of the first are the Pharisees, but of the second the Sadducees, while the rest are Essenes. These [latter] practise a more devotional life, being filled with mutual love, and being temperate. And they turn away from every act of inordinate desire, being averse even to hearing of things of the sort. And they renounce matrimony, but they take the boys of others, and thus have an offspring begotten for them. And they lead these adopted children into an observance of their own peculiar customs, and in this way bring them up and impel them to learn the sciences. They do not, however, forbid them to marry, though themselves refraining from matrimony. Women, however, even though they may be disposed to adhere to the same course of life, they do not admit, inasmuch as in no way whatsoever have they confidence in women.
~ Hippolytus (c. 170–235 A.D.), Refutation of All Heresies, Book IX
[ch. 18]
When, therefore, Marcion or some one of his hounds barks against the Demiurge, and adduces reasons from a comparison of what is good and bad, we ought to say to them, that neither Paul the apostle nor Mark, he of the maimed finger, announced such (tenets). For none of these (doctrines) has been written in the Gospel according to Mark. But (the real author of the system) is Empedocles, son of Meto, a native of Agrigentum. And (Marcion) despoiled this (philosopher), and imagined that up to the present would pass undetected his transference, under the same expressions, of the arrangement of his entire heresy from Sicily into the evangelical narratives. For bear with me, O Marcion: as you have instituted a comparison of what is good and evil, I also today will institute a comparison following up your own tenets, as you suppose them to be. You affirm that the Demiurge of the world is evil— why not hide your countenance in shame, (as thus) teaching to the Church the doctrines of Empedocles? You say that there is a good Deity who destroys the works of the Demiurge: then do not you plainly preach to your pupils, as the good Deity, the Friendship of Empedocles. You forbid marriage, the procreation of children, (and) the abstaining from meats which God has created for participation by the faithful, and those that know the truth.1 Timothy 4:3 (Do you think, then,) that you can escape detection, (while thus) enjoining the purificatory rites of Empedocles? For in point of fact you follow in every respect this (philosopher of paganism), while you instruct your own disciples to refuse meats, in order not to eat any body (that might be) a remnant of a soul which has been punished by the Demiurge. You dissolve marriages that have been cemented by the Deity. And here again you conform to the tenets of Empedocles, in order that for you the work of Friendship may be perpetuated as one (and) indivisible. For, according to Empedocles, matrimony separates unity, and makes (out of it) plurality, as we have proved.
~ Hippolytus (c. 170–235 A.D.), Refutation of All Heresies, Book VII
["Michele Mascitti 6 Sonatas for Violin and Cello Op.2"]