James the half-brother of Jesus

James the half-brother of Jesus

Scriptures that show Mary had other children after she had Jesus.  Matthew 12:46; Matthew 13:55; Mark 3:32; Luke 8:20; John 2:12;Acts 15:13-18

Scripture showing James, the half-brother of Jesus made the decision at the Jerusalem Council – Acts 15:13-21

¹³ And after they had become silent, James answered, saying, “Men and brethren, listen to me: ¹⁴ Simon has declared how God at the first visited the Gentiles to take out of them a people for His name. ¹⁵ And with this the words of the prophets agree, just as it is written: ¹⁶ ‘After this I will return And will rebuild the tabernacle of David, which has fallen down;

I will rebuild its ruins, And I will set it up; ¹⁷ So that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord, Even all the Gentiles who are called by My name,
Says the Lord who does all these things.’  “Known to God from eternity are all His works. ¹⁹ Therefore I judge (emphasis mine. Tony S) that we should not trouble those from among the Gentiles who are turning to God, ²⁰ but that we write to them to abstain from things polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from things strangled, and from blood. ²¹ For Moses has had throughout many generations those who preach him in every city, being read in the synagogues every Sabbath.”
Now the names of the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; Matthew 4:21. See also Matthew 10:2
“Is this not the carpenter's son? Is not His mother called Mary? And His brothers James, Joses, Simon, and Judas? Matthew 13:55

Two James. One was the brother of the Apostle John.

The other is the half-brother of Jesus

Acts 12:2 (“Then he killed James the brother of John with the sword.”) shows they had already killed James (known as the Just) the brother of the Apostle John before the Jerusalem council so the James at the council could not have been James the Just, an original Apostle.

When God brought Peter out of prison, he (Peter) told those in the house praying to let James and the others know God freed him. Remember, at this point James the Just was already dead.

Acts 12:17 ¹⁷ But motioning to them with his hand to keep silent, he declared to them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. And he said, “Go, tell these things to James and to the brethren.” And he departed and went to another place.

James was important enough that Paul went to him to verify his message was on-track. Acts 21:18 ¹⁸ On the following day Paul went in with us to James, and all the elders were present.

Peter seemed concerned when people came from (supposedly) James. Galatians 2:12   for before certain men came from James, he would eat with the Gentiles; but when they came, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing those who were of the circumcision.

More on Positive and negative reinforcement.

A bit of a continuation. A Christian does not take their actions based on attaining something (i.e. Heaven) or avoiding something (i.e. Hell). A Christian knows they cannot earn Heaven by their actions and, through the blood of Christ and their faith in Christ, the Christian is already a part of the family of God and is going to heaven. The actions of a Christian are based on the love of Christ for them and their love for and faith in Christ, positive reinforcement.

Negative vs, positive reinforcement.

Reading a book on management today something concerning Christianity and all other religions became quite clear to me. What I am about to say is a general comment concerning the differing philosophies. I know specific instances can be argued. The difference is that all other religions work on negative reinforcement where Christianity works on positive reinforcement. That is: other religions base their actions on avoiding negative results but in Christianity actions are based on positive results. Christianity is based on love, caring for others, etc. based on following Christ and His love for all creation. With Christ actions bring a positive result, even wrong actions can bring positive results - repentance and forgiveness.

lost the vibrancy of the early, primal, church

We need to rethink our view of Jesus and Christianity as it is today. We have lost the vibrancy of Jesus and the early, primal, church. We go to church, hear our worship rituals and then go home. Where are the miracles, the vibrancy, the world changing dynamics of the Church of God? We are more interested in our ease and not rocking the boat than actually living the life Jesus showed we must.

Tony Smith

“The Holy Spirit is not just a fuel additive; rather the Holy Spirit is essential for the proper ethical development of the conscience of the Church into a godly prophetic community.” John & Minda Edmiston

Uncertainty in Carbon Dating

Uncertainty in Carbon Dating
There is significant uncertainty in carbon dating.  There are many variables that contribute to this uncertainty. 1) The proportions of C-14 in the atmosphere in historic times is unknown. 2) Various plants have differing abilities to exclude significant proportions of the C-14 in their intake. 3) “It's predicated upon a set of questionable assumptions. We have to assume, for example, that the rate of decay (that is, a 5,730 year half-life) has remained constant throughout the unobservable past. However, there is strong evidence which suggests that radioactive decay may have been greatly accelerated in the unobservable past.¹ We must also assume that the ratio of C-12 to C-14 in the atmosphere has remained constant throughout the unobservable past (so we can know what the ratio was at the time of the specimen's death). And yet we know that "radiocarbon is forming 28-37% faster than it is decaying,"² which means it hasn't yet reached equilibrium, which means the ratio is higher today than it was in the unobservable past. We also know that the ratio decreased during the industrial revolution due to the dramatic increase of CO₂ produced by factories. This man-made fluctuation wasn't a natural occurrence, but it demonstrates the fact that fluctuation is possible and that a period of natural upheaval upon the earth could greatly affect the ratio. Volcanoes spew out CO₂ which could just as effectively decrease the ratio. Specimens which lived and died during a period of intense volcanism would appear older than they really are if they were dated using this technique. The ratio can further be affected by C-14 production rates in the atmosphere, which in turn is affected by the amount of cosmic rays penetrating the earth's atmosphere. The amount of cosmic rays penetrating the earth's atmosphere is itself affected by things like the earth's magnetic field which deflects cosmic rays. Precise measurements taken over the last 140 years have shown a steady decay in the strength of the earth's magnetic field. This means there's been a steady increase in radiocarbon production (which would increase the ratio).”
https://www.nde-ed.org/EducationResources/CommunityCollege/Radiography/Physics/carbondating.htm

http://www.allaboutarchaeology.org/carbon-dating.htm