The Garden of Eden and The Mark of the Beast

[I don't believe] in Original Sin. [I believe in Anabaptist theology and] those are some of the best saints in history. {} I think no one is guilty, until they can know what they did was wrong. That's what the Book of Genesis means, when Man and Woman ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. That's what made them guilty, was the knowledge. Before that, they were like the beasts, who had no knowledge, therefore no condemnation. Which some may say the Mark of the Beast is a reversion back to that state, when man ought not be in it.

The History of Magic

Jim Morrison once said
A saint is really a criminal
And a criminal is really a saint.
I suppose wanting to be a saint
While being a criminal,
That makes me like Socrates' Eros
Half Wise, and in a mean between them both.
A true philosopher, knowing both
The deep evil and the deep joys;
Yet, I still wish to be a saint,
While have mercy on the criminal
For having been so, too, once myself.

On Matthew

Matthew writing in Hebrew constructions shows Papias is correct, that Matthew wrote His gospel in Hebrew first. And Mark and Luke are not exactly like Matthew. I study the Greek in transliterated form. It’s more likely the similarities are from the same source, true, which is Jesus Christ. That’s the only determination to be made here, is that the similarities show they come from the same source. Not plagiarisms of earlier gospels, but from the man Jesus Himself. Q must be Christ.

Coincidentally, while researching this I’ve found many idioms and parallels to Hebrew constructions in Matthew, all from various sources. And also Matthew’s lack of punctuation, they say, shows a primary Hebrew manuscript. And his use of Hebrew Prophecies from the Old Testament. I even found one source, saying that Matthew is constructed in Aramaic Grammar. (Matthew Black)

On Calling the New Testament The New Testament

Matthew 26:28 For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.

[G2537] (kainos/kahee-nos') of uncertain affinity; 
new (especially in freshness; while 3501 is properly 
so with respect to age:--new. see G3501 

[G1242] (diatheke/dee-ath-ay'-kay) from 1303; 
properly, a disposition, i.e. (specially) a contract 
(especially a devisory will):--covenant, testament. 
see G1303 

Webster's Dictionary Access 5/11/25
Testament: a person's will, especially the part relating to personal property.

The Most Influential Man in History

It's Jesus Christ. 2.4 billion people follow Him: He saved our souls; He was witnessed to have resurrected and people died believing they saw Him raised; He influenced both Judaism and Islam, has been heard by probably 6 to 7 billion people currently living, created the most stable, prosperous and powerful world empire that ever existed through His teachings, conquered barbaric world powers through His teachings and the Empires who colonized in His name; His ethics created the idea of Humanism; His ethics inspired the Enlightenment; His ethics inspired Communism (not saying it's all good); His ethics were the inspiration of the Constitution and Human rights charter; His ethics were the inspiration to end Slavery--you can say all the good in the world came through Him and His teachings. He cleared the way for the prosperity the world enjoys today. Modernism destroyed it.

Actions Have Consequences

Actions have strings of consequences. They ripple out, and affect everything they touch. Still water is good, but turbulent water is filled with waves and can topple a boat. So every action you commit that’s evil, puts a disturbance in the water. It’s like walking in a clear stream, where someone’s drinking. You root up the dirt, they can’t drink. Only a little bit fouls up the water. Or defecating in your water source leads to sepsis and hepatitis. The more you sin, the dirtier the stream gets, and the less you can drink peaceably. And if everyone’s doing it, sooner or later the stream gets bloody because everyone’s fighting for safe water.

On Culture and IQ

I do think IQ tests have a cultural bias, but I also think an education can help you find the means of getting more intelligent. There’s a concrete reality, and intelligence is your ability to grasp it. If you can or can’t. Most people don’t connect those two dots. Less intelligent people, have less to say on the real world. More intelligent people, almost can without fail find answers nobody even knew they were looking for.

My audience doesn’t exist. It has to be forged.

A Man

There is a man who everyone knows
Happy and high on life...
He makes war on all
And strives for all he has
A hero of the folk.
Yet, no compassion and hateful
He teaches others to have no love...
All things to him are war
All things are push or shove.

There is a man who no one knows
Sad and low a scum.
He makes war on none.
He strove for all he had
Yet the folk would not pardon him.
He had compassion on his foes
And taught all others to have love.
All things were warred against him
But he died. Yet, he did much good.

On Religious Toleration

Martin Turner already gave a great answer, but I’ll add my two cents in, if it’s worthy.

One of the lesser known, and often overlooked aspects of the Old Testament, is in Genesis, when Joseph runs the priesthood for the Egyptians. Now you might think, “Eegat! That’s blasphemy”. But it’s actually not. I think in this particular part of the Bible, we’re to respect other traditions. We’re not to speak against other people’s religions, if those religions produce good ethics.

Genesis 47:26 And Joseph made it a law over the land of Egypt unto this day, that Pharaoh should have the fifth part, except the land of the priests only, which became not Pharaoh's.

Here Joseph respects the religious institutions of Pharaoh, and does not try to undermine it. Nor does Daniel while in Babylon.

There’s another part of the scripture, in Isaiah, where it describes the Millennial Kingdom, when Christ Himself reigns on the Earth for 1000 years. All the other people will carry on with their worship, but we will worship the LORD our God in truth.

“1But in the last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and people shall flow unto it.

2And many nations shall come, and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for the law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

3And he shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.

4But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make them afraid: for the mouth of the LORD of hosts hath spoken it.

5For all people will walk every one in the name of his god, and we will walk in the name of the LORD our God for ever and ever.”

So, it also says not to despise an Egyptian or an Edomite. For they’re our brother.

Deuteronomy 23:7 Thou shalt not abhor an Edomite; for he is thy brother: thou shalt not abhor an Egyptian; because thou wast a stranger in his land.

But, it does say not to tolerate religious traditions that elevate sin, therefore some peoples were never allowed to enter into the Temple, and one was said to be perpetually warred with, until they were no more, as they were wicked in their occult practices, and God told Israel to destroy them.

Deuteronomy 23:3 An Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord; even to their tenth generation shall they not enter into the congregation of the Lord for ever:

1 Samuel 15:3 Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.

Exodus 17:16 For he said, Because the Lord hath sworn that the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.

Deuteronomy 20:17 But thou shalt utterly destroy them; namely, the Hittites, and the Amorites, the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee:

Why?

Deuteronomy 20:23 And ye shall not walk in the manners of the nation, which I cast out before you: for they committed all these things, and therefore I abhorred them.

Deuteronomy 9:5 Not for thy righteousness, or for the uprightness of thine heart, dost thou go to possess their land: but for the wickedness of these nations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee, and that he may perform the word which the LORD sware unto thy fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

So the Persian Religions of Zoroastrianism, or Samus worship, wouldn’t be something God would hate. Or Islam or Hinduism—if it’s the right kind. Or Buddhism. But, God does hate sin, in any form, and when a religion elevates it, it is God’s mortal enemy, and He will utterly make an end of it and its practitioners. The LORD hates Sin. So all derivatives of that bastard religion, and it’s not to be made peace with, but utterly destroyed. But the LORD has respect to religions that elevate His law, as the LORD’s Word is above even His name.

Psalm 138:2 I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name.