Wednesday, November 4, 2026

Holdsworth and Me as Apologists


The following video is mainly on the Sacrifice of Abraham.

Here is Holdsworth's solution:

1. A test can benefit the person being tested and those who learn from the test, even if the examiner already knows the outcome.
2. Abraham’s test teaches Abraham and the reader about his faith, and points forward to Christ’s sacrifice.
3. Therefore, God’s test of Abraham can serve a meaningful purpose even if God already knows how Abraham will respond.


I'm not against that, just have something to add, and also comment on his intro.

Defending the Worst Thing in the Bible
Brian Holdsworth | 4 Nov. 2026
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmSbcZpU7HA


0:49 My background as an Apologist.

At fifteen minus a month, I arrived at a boarding school. I tend to say, on HP, whatever the pros and cons of fictional magic, it's still a boarding school story. Noting that Rowling never went to one.

I was at the time believing roughly like an Evangelical, minus the anti-Catholicism you find in some neighbourhoods, but tending to Lutheranism, since Lutheranism allowed Christians to resist Communist Revolutions and wasn't Pacifist.

I spent four years in two houses of that school. When I left, I was in the Swedish back then version of OCIA. Yes, I have a pre-Trad Catholic life too.

Part of the reason was, the strategy some had to push me away from the faith was pointing to Evangelicals owing the Bible to Catholics. "Oh, don't you say so? Well, I should probably be Catholic, then!" ... that's a very sunny résumé of dialogues that were often pretty grim, back and forth between debate and personal harrassment, like calling me a jerk or threatening me, or calling me a faggot, if I said sth they considered too right wing.

I had arrived a nearly sympathiser with Hitler. As I have part Jewish ancestry, you can guess what the not quite was about. I left a pretty solid sympathiser with Franco. You bet my saying right wing things wasn't a rarity. The second house was more quiet, but I already had Apologetics in my system. And there was one guy who had smoked weed in the Catacombs of Paris, before being sent up. So, more quiet, doesn't mean no occasions.

For some reason, the Sacrifice of Abraham didn't come up very often.

In recent months, I made a calculation on when the Arabian desert ceased to be green and lush. I concluded that Abraham might have blundered and nearly killed Ishmael, except for the miracle, while sending him to a place he thought was still liveable.

When Isaac later met Ishmael, perhaps it saved Isaac's life that Abraham had nearly killed him too.

Some bring up people who have certain mental conditions and kill their own, I think Hercules is a better butt of that rebuttal ... he actually did kill wife and more than one child with her, prior to precisely the twelve labours.

5:33 The initiation, it isn't into something like Freemasonry?

Including Catholic approved parallels. Knights of Columbus or things ...

Sharing by Eva Vlaardingerbroek


Eva Vlaardingerbroek Takes Aim at EU Migration Policies
The Financial Express | 3 Nov. 2026
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKVMMSOsjis

Monday, November 2, 2026

BantuCityDiaries Said Something


He might of course be right about the main topic of the video, mercenaries.*

Is Russia Actively Baiting Africans to Join Its Military and Fight in Ukraine
BantuCityDiaries | 2 Nov. 2026
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yh28fp-Gzjc


While we do not support Russia's failed invasion of Ukraine, most people when forced to take a side would lean towards Russia in Africa.


So, French "far right" as they are often called are often pro-Putin, pro-Russia.

In the case of a civil war in France, they might hope Russia helped out.

Meanwhile, quite a lot of troublemakers are either Black African or North African, and like people in their home countries (or home countries of parents and grandparents) would be pro-Russia ... and Russia knows that.

Could Russia be playing both sides against each other?

I'm a Swede, born in Austria, grew up parts of my childhood in Germany. I'm pro-Ukraine. Like, Swedes were allied to Mazepa against Peter the Great.

Why should African soldiers have to die for Ukraine's hatred of Russia? Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger are only functioning as countries today because of Russian support. We value the partnership with Russia in Africa.


Noted.

I should think Ukraine could need their men on their own ground ....




* A counterpoint:

Lured by Russia, African soldiers end up on deadly front lines of Ukraine war
Jul 3, 2026 6:45 PM EST | By — Simon Ostrovsky, By — Katia Patin | PBS News Hour
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/lured-by-russia-african-soldiers-end-up-on-deadly-front-lines-of-ukraine-war


Francis Ndung'u Ndarua from Kenya is mentioned there, and also here:

CNN : ‘You escape, or you die’: African men say Russia duped them into fighting in Ukraine
By Larry Madowo, Katharina Krebs | Published, Updated Feb 4, 2026
https://edition.cnn.com/2026/02/04/africa/russia-african-recruits-military-ukraine-intl-cmd

"Our Divine Lord in His Human Nature Is a Jew" (Mgr Williamson is Right)


(OK, I find two quibbles, being by temperament a quibbler.)

The Seven Ages of the World - Bishop Williamson
Fidei Promotor | 21 Jan. 2020
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AD-4XYg3trY


1:42 Four thousand years ... based on the Vulgate.

Does it totally trump Martyrologium Romanum which for the distance from Creation to Flood, Flood to Abraham is based on a version of the LXX?

If so, why was the reading kept all the way up to the change of liturgy, which obviously as Trads we refused?

Five thousand years BC, Adam was alive. 500 years old according to Syncellus, 200 years old according to the Roman Martyrology for Christmas Day.

19:13 "one Pagan and one Jew" [Henoch and Elijah]

No doubt, one Gentile and one Jew ... if one can speak of pre-Flood people as Gentiles, when they were before this division.

Puritans at Salem Village (Now Danvers)


What Really Happened at The Salem Witch Trials: The Myths, the Madness, and the Truth.
Melissa Dougherty | 30 Oct. 2026
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WmfjKozVls


21:06 No, not necessarily.*

Having destructive powers over others, through intense contact with demons, is not the best recipe for not being self destructive.

I wonder if apart from jealousy and murder there was some attempt at witchcraft back in 1995.

And if that's why May Martinez is having totally unreal ideas about what's happening to Colleen's soul right now. Not forgetting Raul, btw.

Tadaryl put a pentagram on Colleen's chest. Invited demons can have mimicked Colleen giving the Martinez couple false visions that look really plausible.

There is Heaven. There is Hell. None of these places admit of change. There is Purgatory, and there is no indulgence for those there, if murdered, by the execution of the murderer.

The ones living after Colleen are thinking in terms of Greek tragedy, not Christian truth.

Meanwhile, her portrait was held at an execution, and the one who should be dead is, one month later, in pain, but getting better and is alive.

But back then, one can not exactly say that those dabbling in esotericism were totally smart after the killing.

And the demons are obviously to witches in a position to turn the tap and cut the power supply. "You wanted fun, with little girls screaming? Fine. Safety? That wasn't the deal" ...

Not saying Salem was witches either, but that line of reasoning is not exactly correct. If you want to double-check, go to someone who came out of Satanism. There are some, even online.

22:37 Actually,** Calvinism is kind of Judaising ....

Seriously, no Jew was personally involved.

In the case of little Andrew Ochsner of Rinn, I think an actual witch-cult is a more likely culprit than the Jews, and so is the uncle. The boy was alive and this meant his brother had a son and his brothers widow couldn't remarry him by the levirate exception.




* In response to:

And again, I always like to play it forward. Think about it for a second. You would think that if it was witchcraft, okay, let's play that forward. If it really was witchcraft and these witches had this much power that they would just hex the town or or the people who were coming to get them.


** In response to:

Like seriously guys, I'm surprised the Jews aren't being blamed for the Salem witch trials at this point.

Sunday, November 1, 2026

Flat Earthism Isn't the Same as Geocentrism, and Vice Versa (even if Rowbotham promoted both)


Why Does the Bible Say That?
BLK SHP Bible Talk | 30 Oct. 2026
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1xtJrWsYEo


13:11 When it comes to Genesis 1 and the pre-human parts of Genesis 2, God gave the information directly, the only way it could come.

From Adam naming the animals in Genesis 2, the rest of Genesis could and probably did come from human observers and the people who handed down their accounts.

13:17 I agree about Genesis 5 and 11, Genesis 19 and 47 ...records handed down in the family.

I'd consider them gap free, which you don't seem to do.

In the case of Genesis 1, there is actually Jewish tradition (not repudiated by Catholicism) that Moses got the six day account from God on Sinai.

21:48 If Geocentrism is true, Jesus actually is at the outer edges of the universe, beyond the fix stars.

Jesus is still Man. This means His body still has three dimensions touching space (i e surrounding bodies, including air) around It.

Where?

To a Geocentric, it is obvious, God made a place above the Fix stars, arguably coordinates of Jerusalem (as unlike the Fix stars they don't circle the Earth every 23 h 55 minutes or so). It is inhabitable by man, including by the God-Man and His Blessed Mother.

In the Eucharist, the Body of Jesus is also on the altar. However, there it is not the dimensions of the Body, but of the bread, that touch the surrounding space inside (usually) the Church.

Beza and Bellarmine were at one in a respect. Jesus has a place where He can actually sit down on a material throne. Difference? To Beza, that's the one place where Jesus is in His body, every presence elsewhere is spiritual only. To Bellarmine, His body is "kind of bilocated" (the word technically means something different) so it is also where the dimensions of bread touch the air and paten and fingers of the priest in Mass. But, also ... this is not Jesus' primary bodily presence, that one is in Heaven.

There is a huge difference between the spiritual "dryness" of Flat-Earthism beyond supposed inerrancy, and what riches Geocentrism holds.

So, I've mentioned a correct view of Ascension and Eucharist. Add to this Romans 1 and John 5:17.

If God, as God, didn't work on the Sabbath by turning the Universe around Earth, the one below Empyrean Heaven with Fix Stars as uppermost layer moving, the Sabbath would be stuck on Friday evening on whatever time zone, presumably Jerusalem, where God saw the beginning of the Sabbath.

Equally, by turning the universe around Earth each day, God is flexing and showing His power to be inexhaustible.

Let's say St. Paul wrote Romans 58 years after Jesus was born, that is 5199 + 58 years after creation, in that case, God had visibly since creation shown His power 1 920 077 times. And another 12 or 24 hours between these, over Joshua's army, that the power is His, that of the God fighting for Israel, and not of any other God.

And obviously, one more: in Joshua 10:12, the successor of Moses and namesake of Jesus does two things:

  • prays to God for what he should do or was going to do
  • speaks on God's behalf to what needs to change behaviour.


Now, Joshua doesn't tell the Earth to stop turning. If this were just his words as narrator, as in next verse, big deal, that could easily fall under phenomenal language. But in this verse, he is speaking on behalf of the Creator.

The kind of people who have taken "adapted to audience" views on verse 12 have then also gone on to pretend that when Jesus drove out demons, that too was adapted to audience. A view I hope you find as abhorrent as I do.

22:13 And Paul did say sth about the cosmos.

Agreeing with Aristotle that God is proven by the movement of the stars around Earth.

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and injustice of those men that detain the truth of God in injustice Because that which is known of God is manifest in them. For God hath manifested it unto them For the invisible things of him, from the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made; his eternal power also, and divinity: so that they are inexcusable
[Romans 1:18-20]


The words translated "eternal power" can be translated "inexhaustible power" which is what God shows visibly, for the naked eye to see of any man who has lived since Adam and Eve watched the first sunset, by turning stars, Sun, Moon and other planets, around the Earth each day.

22:20 OK ...

For I judged not myself to know anything among you, but Jesus Christ, and him crucified.
[1 Corinthians 2:2]


Did he renounce knowing the names of Jannes and Mambres? No, he didn't. Did he renounce knowing Genesis 5 and 11? We know from the quote to* Timothy, he didn't.

Speaking of which, the young earth timeline could be compatible with modern cosmology, if earth were simply the last piece and God arranged for all distant stars to have their light arrive on day 4. But it tends to go along with a young universe timeline, which is also implied by Genesis 1:1.

And Geocentrism has a bonus for this too, if you have ever heard of the Distant Starlight problem.

You see, with Geocentrism, Aberration of Starlight and Parallax are not two different phenomena depending on Earth's movement. They are parts of a proper movement of the star.

Therefore, the 0.76 arc seconds of alpha Centauri are not an indication that binary star is 4 light years away. And so, over some other intermediate steps, the Spiral Nebula of Andromeda is not a Galaxy 2.5 million light years away. And so, there is no starlight contradicting that God created the universe in 5200 BC.

"The one who sits above the circle of the earth came down and stood on the ground with us."


And told us He (along with the Father and the Holy Spirit, mentioning specifically the former) told us, the first evening of a Sabbath doesn't become a second evening of the Sabbath on its own, but God's doing it.

Doesn't sound like He considered the Earth was spinning. Or doing so on its own.

But supposing God moved only Earth around itself each day, it could be a god of only earth, and Romans 1 says the opposite.

23:58 Let's see:

Therefore, if you be risen with Christ, seek the things that are above; where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God Mind the things that are above, not the things that are upon the earth
[Colossians 3:1-2]


The shape of the universe doesn't seem to be among the things "that are upon the earth" because St. Paul mentions there is a place where Christ can take a seat.

Presumably not in a spaceship surrounded by dark void with no oxygen and presumably not in "another dimension" than the three we live in, as a body that can take a seat is three dimensional.

Ergo, in Empyrean Heaven, above the Fix Stars.

"And 10,000 years into it, nobody's going to be talking about the shape of the earth."


1 000 000 years into it, someone will be looking down on someone who didn't get the correct explanation and dismissed the Bible, and went to Hell.

Now, the shape. Khûg as you mention (CH is actually Kaph or Qoph, so can be transscribed as KH), doesn't mean ball. However, "circle" doesn't mean automatically "disc" and all of its surface. It can also mean the ring around the disc, and therefore also the circumference, even without a disc. LXX translates "ton guron tes ges" and "guros" means "the turn around" ... God is sitting on whatever He is taking "full circle" around the Earth each day.

On the stereoma I have heard two theories, perfectly literally factual, from myself, that it is the aether that God is primarily moving (in solidarity, so as a solid) with bodies in it, but Sungenis thought that when God made it, the compression was to solid hydrogen, to metallic hydrogen. Hence the name, even if it didn't stay solid.

And on four corners, "eretz" has a different meaning in Genesis 1:10 from Genesis 1:1. In idiomatic English, only 1:1 would translate as "earth", while 1:10 would have "land" or "Middle-earth" (in the middle between interior Hell and Heaven, but also between Pacific and Pacific).

The four corners can be identified, and I just saw a globe that isn't marking the ice, Ellesmere island isn't a fifth corner.

From Alaska to Siberia, the line is convex, with Ellesmere island furthest North. But it's still not a corner between these two. From Siberia to Tasmania and from Tasmania to Cape Horn the lines are concave. From Cape Horn to Alaska, the line is only convex West of Anchorage and on the panhandle. The four corners exist and are a glorious confirmation of two things:

  • St. John in Apocalypse knew what no man could then have naturally known.
  • Earth isn't a flat disc. The one version of a Flat Earth that would have been Biblical, and was believed by Lactantius, I think, would have been one where the Atlantic has an edge on the West and the Pacific an edge somewhere East of China, and no huge Pacific and no Americas on any other side of any globe. By now, geography rules that out. Rowbotham didn't propose that.


Meanwhile, visions will be brought up by those pretending, as believers or as mockers, that the Bible is Flat Earth.

Nebuchadnezzar's dream is a dream.
Satan gave Jesus a TV show, the high mountain wasn't for perspective, but for solitude, as this happened before Baird.
Ezechiel 1 has presumably at one point been illustrated by a man "getting his head through the firmament" and that illustration has got out of its correct context into the propaganda of Flammarion, who, as I learned yesterday, lost faith over becoming a Heliocentric.

* Here:

All scripture, inspired of God, is profitable to teach, to reprove, to correct, to instruct in justice
[2 Timothy 3:16]