✪ See subordination - among Trinity
✪ "Gay and lesbian teenagers are only slightly more likely than heterosexual kids to attempt suicide, contrary to past studies that suggest gay youths have about triple the rate of trying suicide, says a Cornell University psychologist...Studies finding that about 30% of gay adolescents have attempted suicide exaggerated the rates because they surveyed the most disturbed youngsters and didn't separate thoughts from action, says Ritch Savin-Williams. Nearly all research on the topic has drawn teens from support groups or shelters, where the most troubled gather, and has taken at face value the claim of a suicide attempt, he says. Savin-Williams' own two studies...focus on 349 students ages 17 to 25. When they said they had tried to kill themselves, he asked what method they used. He also separated out the small minority that attended support groups...Over half of reported suicide attempts turned out to be "thinking about it" rather than trying anything...The other study of 266 college men and women found that gay youths were not significantly more likely than straight classmates to have tried to take their own lives. Again, the homosexual students were more likely to report "attempts" that further questioning revealed as thoughts...Poorly designed studies that exaggerate their suicide risk "pathologize gay youth, and that's not fair to them," he says. [Marilyn Elias, "Gay Teens Less Suicidal Than Thought, Report Says," online: http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/life/2001-11-26-gay-teens.htm, 26 November 2011, accessed 16 May 2014.]" Andy Woods, Religious Freedom under Fire, Bible Prophecy Blog, April 3, 2015 [http://www.bibleprophecyblog.com/2015/04/religious-freedom-under-fire.html] accessed 20150404.
✪ Questionable: Isa. 30:26 (?);
✪ "What bigger event than the second coming of Christ would demand signs of a global magnitude? . . . just as the sun was literally darkened as a sign, during Jesus’ crucifixion, so will it be darkened in His return." Thomas Ice, "Preterist ‘Time Texts’", Ref-0209, p. 95. "When He died, the sun refused to shine (Luke 23:45). When He comes again it will not shine (Mat. 24:29)." Randolph O. Yeager, The Renaissance New Testament, p. 312, cited by Thomas Ice, "The Olivet Discourse", Ref-0209, p. 168. The root for “seasons” in Gen. 1:14 (h4150) can denote “appointed time, or place.” See Ref-1307, p. 286 and following for an attempt to find fulfilment of these signs in a lunar eclipse at the crucifixion. "Luke 23:45 . . . Problem: An eclipse of the sun is impossible during a full moon. Jesus was crucified during the Passover, and the Passover is always at full moon (which is why the date for Easter moves around). NU introduces a scientific error." Ref-1504, p. 319.
✪ "This passage [Mat. 24:29] might be taken to mean that the signs in the physical sun, moon and stars, were the immediate precursors of the revelation of the Son of man; but the teaching of Christ which we have just been considering absolutely forbids that interpretation; and to that extent it helps us in our search for the true meaning. . . . In the first place, seeing we are debarred by the Lord's plain teaching from taking these commotions to be physical signs, visible to the eye, preceding and heralding His coming, or as having any special connection with that event, it would seem almost imperative that we give the words a figurative meaning. . . . in speaking of the unsettled state of the nations He uses a familiar figurative expression, namely, the sea and the waves roaring. This figure represents the turbulence of the peoples of the earth (see Revelation 17:15, Isaiah 8:7), just as the sun, moon and stars represent rulership, governments, and authorities. Thus we find good reason for concluding that the Lord is here speaking figuratively of unusual happenings in the political firmament." Ref-0896, p. 107. ". . . because there is more atmosphere for the sun’s or moon’s light to go through at sunset, the shorter blue wavelengths are filtered out, resulting in the familiar red color of either celestial body at this time. In the case of an eclipsed moon, there would be the extra darkness of the earth’s shadow on the face of the moon. Further, some of the light reflected back from the moon would have passed through the earth’s atmosphere twice, adding to the reddening. These considerations for the special case of a lunar eclipse viewed at sunset mean that the fully eclipsed portion would not be just red, but dark red. blood red. The portion in the penumbra (partial shadow) would show a lighter hue, red or possibly orange/yellow." Rodger C. Young, How Lunar and Solar Eclipses Shed Light on Biblical Facts Ref-0066, Vol. 26 No. 2 Spring 2013, 37-44, p. 39. See 20170909144421.pdf. "In the wisdom of God, the feast of Passover always took place in the middle of the lunar month, guaranteeing that a full moon would illuminate the night time activities of the festival. Everyone knew that the comforting sight of the rising full moon could be expected right around sunset. Shortly after the sun set in the west [on the night of the crucifixion], the moon rose in the east. It was dark. Dark red. Bloody red. . . . This was, in a sense, a “natural” miracle. Its miraculous aspect lies in its timing: the timing and trajectory of the moon’s orbit around the earth so there was an eclipse at this time, and also the timing of the earth’s rate of rotation so that, at the longitude of Jerusalem, the earth’s atmosphere would cause the moon to appear with a dark red color when it rose over he horizon." Rodger C. Young, How Lunar and Solar Eclipses Shed Light on Biblical Facts Ref-0066, Vol. 26 No. 2 Spring 2013, 37-44, pp. 40,42. See 20170909144421.pdf.
✪ "Many cultures have legends that seem to be based on this event. For example, there is a Greek myth of Apollo's son, Phaethon, who disrupted the sun's course for a day. Since Joshua 10 is historical, cultures on the opposite side of the world should have legends of a long night. In fact, the New Zealand Maori people have a myth about how their hero Mauri slowed the sun before it rose, while the Mexican Annals of Cuauhtitlan (the history of the empire of Culhuacan and Mexico) records a night that continued for an extended time." -- Immanuel Velikovsky, Worlds in Collision, 1950, 61 [Creation 19(3) June -- August 1997, p. 35.)
✪ "It is helpful to know that around A.D. 100, the day on which believers were to gather for the breaking of bread was Sunday, not the Sabbath as some would have us believe. . ." William C. Varner, Book review of "The Didache", Ref-0164, 14/1 (2003):130-133(133).
✪ "There are basically three opinions as to the logical order of the Divine decrees [of Covenant Theology] in eternity. Supralapsarianism teaches that God decreed the election and reprobation of men before He decreed the Fall. Infralapsarians say that the election and reprobation of men logically comes after the decree that they should fall. Sublapsarianism (which is recognized as a distinct position by a few Reformed writers) differs from infralapsarianism in that it teaches that the decree to provide salvation (to all men) follows the decree to elect." Paul Henebury, "Review of Robert Reymond's Systematic Theology", Ref-0055, Vol. 8 No. 24, August, 2004, 245:272, p. 257 n9. "While slightly more sympathetic to the infralapsarian position, Dabney stands with a number of other Calvinists in the moderate stream who disparaged the lapsarian debates in general. In their view, the whole project goes well beyond the bounds of Scripture and involves us in questions that are ultimately unanswerable (or at least defy systematization). Herman Bavinck was another notable representative of this viewpoint." Derek Ashton, An Irenic Discussion of Arminianism and (Moderate) Calvinism, THEOParadox, [http://theoparadox.blogspot.com/2013/01/an-irenic-discussion-of-arminianism-and.html?m=1] accessed 20130110. "Van Til agrees with Bavinck that neither supralapsarianism, which stresses the latter perspective, nor infralapsarianism, which stresses the earlier, is in itself scripturally adequate. Supralapsarianism “led to a virtual denial of second or historical causes,” while infralapsarianism “led, sometimes, to a virtual denial of God’s plan as the first or last ultimate cause as controlling all finite causes.” . . . Van Til recommends that we follow Bavinck and resist choosing between supra- and infralapsarianism. Instead, he believes, we should keep the earlier and the later perspectives in balance. . . . Supralapsarianism says that everything God does in the world advances the purposes of election. Infralapsarianism says that as God advances the purposes of election in history, there are real transitions and changes, and God’s plan includes those as well." Ref-1344, p. 220. "Beza is said to be the originator of supralapsarianism. Rogers stated, “Beza was the first supralapsarian among the Reformers who rooted all theological affirmations in God’s eternal decrees.” Supralapsarianism is something that is not to be found in Calvin’s theology, but is evident in new Calvinism." Drew Curley, New Calvinism, Part III: A Calvinist Soteriology, Ref-1525, Volume 19 Number 57 (Summer/Fall 2015), 133-184, p. 143.