Two By Twos

Also known as 2x2s, The Truth, & The Way.

This is an international home-based Christian religious movement that was founded in 1897 by William Irvine in Ireland. Mr. Irvine was an evangelist with the interdominational Faith Mission. He began preaching independently that the intinerant ministry outlined in Matthew, chapter 10 (“The Little Commission”) was the only real way of evangelism.

This church grew quickly. It eventually spread outside Ireland. Eventually Irvine began preaching a new order in which the hierarchy developed within the Church would have no placement. This teaching became controversial within the church. This led to his expulsion by the church’s most prominent evangelists. Edward Cooney was expelled 10 years later after Irvine. The church then became much less visible to outsiders for the next 50 years.

Some in the church state it’s a direct continuation of the 1st century Christian church. Others in the church believe that a restoration occurred in the late 19th century. Ministers are itinerant & work in pairs. Hence the name of Two by Twos. Members hold regular twice weekly worship gatherings in local homes on Sunday & midweek. (Like on Wednesday or Thursday. There are other Christian denominations that also have twice a week services.)

The Church also holds annual regional conventions for members & public Gospel meetings. Baptism by immersion, as performed by 1 of the church’s workers, is required to partake in the emblems of bread & wine (or Communion) at the fellowship gathering(s).

The orthodox Christian Trinitarian doctrine is rejected. Doctrine of the church teaches that salvation is reached by attending the group’s home meetings, accepting the preaching of its itinerant, unsalaried ministry workers, & “professing.”

The church teaches that salvation isn’t achieved through faith alone but only through a combination of faith & “works.” Works are considered acts of self-denial such as wearing modest clothes & wearing long hair in a bun (if you’re a woman) or attending all meetings regardless how far away they are. The church doesn’t do any outreach programs or encourage its members to participate in charities.

The church doesn’t have an official HQ or publications. It doesn’t explicitly publish any doctrinal statements, insisting that such tenets may only be directly imparted orally by its ministers, referred to as “workers.” Its hymnbook & various other material for internal use are produced by outside publishers & printing firms. Printed invitations & advertisements for its open gospel services are the only written materials that those outside the church are likely to encounter.

Among members, the church is usually referred to as “The Truth,” “Meetings,” or “the workers & friends.” But members deny an official church/denomination name (like Baptist, United Brethern, etc.).

Those outside the group refer to it as: “Two by Twos,” “The Black Stockings,” “No-Name Church,” “Cooneyites,” “Workers & Friends,” or “Christians Anonymous,” & journalists call it: “2×2” for short. The church has a variety of registered names: “Christian Conventions” (US); “Assemblies of Christians” & “The Alberta Society of Christian Assemblies” (Canada); “The Testimony of Jesus” (UK); “Kristna i Sverige” (Sweden); & “United Christian Conventions” (Australia).

These registered names are used only for specific purposes (like to register for conscientious objection during wartime or taxes) & aren’t routinely used by members.

In 1896, William Irvine was sent from Scotland to southern Ireland as a missionary by John George Govan’s Faith Mission. Because his mission was successful, he was promoted to superintendent of Faith Mission in southern Ireland. Within a few months of his arrival in Ireland, Irvine became disillusioned with the Faith Mission.

Irvine was increasingly intolerant of the Faith Mission’s cooperation with other churches & clergy in various communities of southern Ireland. In 1897, he started independently preaching, saying that true/real ministries must have no home & take no salary. He also held that the manner in which the disciples had been sent out in chapter 10 of Matthew’s Gospel was a permanent commandment which must still be observed.

Irvine’s preaching during his latest mission influenced others who began to leave their respective churches & join Irvine to form an initial core of followers. The church founded by Irvine is the only religion known to have had its origin, & early development, in Ireland.

All the church’s teachings are conveyed orally. The church doesn’t publish doctrine or statements of faith. “Workers” hold that all church teachings are based solely on the Bible. Church members & “workers” will publicly declare that the church doesn’t own any buildings. However, members own rural, or semi-rural, properties dedicated to worship, housing workers, & church gatherings. Its ministers don’t own homes or take salaries.

The King James Version Bible is the only scripture used in English-language services. The Bible itself is held as insufficient for salvation unless its words are “made alive” through the preaching of church ministers. The offhand preaching of the ministry is considered to be guided by God & must be heard directly. Great weight is given to the thoughts of workers, especially more senior workers.

Salvation is achieved through willingness to uphold the church’s standards, by faithfully following in “the way,” & by personal worthiness. Doctrines such as predestination, original sin, justification by faith alone, & redemption as the sole basis of salvation are rejected. The church is exclusivist & salvation is only through the Two by Two ministry & meetings.

Other standards include modest dress, not wearing jewelry, long hair for women & short hair for me, not getting piercing, not dying hair, not getting tattoos, & avoinding activities deemed to be worldly or frivolous (like smoking, drinking alcohol, watching TV & watching movies). The church has actively condemned pre-marital relations & don’t care for LGBTQ+ persons/identities.

The church has rejected the doctrine of the Trinity since its inception. Though the members believe in the Father, Son, & Holy Spirit, the have a Unitarian view of Jesus. Jesus is God’s son, a fully human figure who came to Earth to establish a way of ministry & salvation, but not God’s Himself.

Baptism by 1 of the church’s ministers is considered a necessary step for salvation & full participation, including re-baptism of people by other churches. Candidates are approved by the local workers & are baptized by immersion. Baptisms are often scheduled for 1 morning during a Convention & are typically performed in small ponds on the property.

Members state that the church doesn’t have a formal organization. Members don’t participate in, & many are unaware of, the church’s governance. Both expenditures & funds collected remain secret from the membership & no accounting is made public. Funds are handled through stewardships, trusts, & cash transactions.

The church is controlled by a small group of senior male overseers with each having oversight of a specific geographic region. These head workers handle the 2-by-2 pairing & field assignments with the workers for that area.

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A quotation from Marcus Aurelius

Marcus Aurelius (AD 121-180) Roman emperor (161-180), Stoic philosopher
Meditations [To Himself; Τὰ εἰς ἑαυτόν], Book 12, ch. 14 (12.14) (AD 161-180) [tr. Staniforth (1964)]

More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/marcus-aureleus/2068…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #marcusaurelius #marcusaureliusmeditations #adaptability #chaos #destiny #doom #fate #getalong #God #inevitability #intelligence #meaningoflife #mind #order #prayer #predestination #providence #selfcontrol #universe #world #worthiness

Watched Predestination (2014) by The Spierig Brothers.
( Open to movie suggestion )

#predestination #spierigbrothers
@moviesuggestions

Je viens de voir #Predestination.

Ben c'est un bon mindfuck temporel jusqu'à la dernière minute, comme je ne pensais plus en voir un jour.

Je recommande.

A quotation from Robert Ingersoll

Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, freethinker, orator
Lecture (1884-01-20), “Orthodoxy,” Tabor Opera House, Denver, Colorado

More about this quote: wist.info/ingersoll-robert-gre…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #robertingersoll #robertgreeningersoll #Christianity #curse #death #disease #divineanger #divinejustice #divinelove #divineplan #divinepunishment #divineretribution #divinewill #divinewrath #Eden #fallofman #foreordainment #GardenofEden #Genesis #God #humancondition #illness #mortality #omniscience #originalsin #predestination #problemofsuffering #revenge #suffering #theodicy

Empfehlung,
Empfehlung,
EmpfehEmpfehEmpfehlung

Es war mal wieder #Tele5Mediathek Zeit und da liegt so ein #scifi #thriller #Zeitreise Ding rum das euch das Hirn verknotet

"Predestination" (2014, noch 5 Tage Online)
Ein riesiger Anschlag ruft eine geheime Zeitreisen Agentur auf den Plan die auch direkt wild anfängt in der Zeit rum zu hüpfen.
Na, ob es wohl klappt so die Zukunft von gestern zu korrigieren?
Ethan Hawke ist dabei.
Der ist echt gut! Der hat Spaß gemacht!

Viel Spaß!

#Film #Movie #Tele5 #Predestination #meditathek

Fatalism

Fatalism is the philosophical belief that all events are predetermined & inevitable, making human “free will” basically irrelevant to the ultimate outcome.

Determinism, predestination, & fatalism are often used interchangeably. But there are nuances:

• Determinism: The belief that every event is caused by preceding events & the laws of nature. If you knew the position of every atom in the universe, you could predict the future. It’s about cause & effect.
• Predestination: A theological concept (like we saw with the Calvinists) where a sovereign God has decreed the end from the beginning. It’s about divine will.
• Fatalism: The belief that “whatever will be, will be” (Amor Fati), regardless of the causes or divine decrees. It suggests that even if you try to change the path, you’ll still arrive at the pre-set destination.

In the Greco-Roman world, Fatalism wasn’t a theory. It was a cosmic reality. The Greeks envisioned fate as 3 sisters: Clotho (the spinner), Lachesis (the allotter), & Atropos (the unturnable, who cut the thread). Even the gods were subject to the Fates.

This created where heroism wasn’t defined by changing one’s fate. But by facing it with dignity. For example, Oedipus tries everything to avoid the prophecy that he’ll kill his dad & marry his mom. His very attempt to flee is what ultimately fulfills it.

The Stoics (like Seneca & Marcus Aurelius) practiced a form of “rational fatalism.” They compared humans to a dog tied to a moving cart. The dog can either trot happily with the cart (accepting fate) or be dragged kicking & screaming. The destination is the same. The only thing you control is your internal attitude.

The most famous challenge to fatalism is the Lazy Argument: If it’s fated that you’ll recover from an illness, you’ll recover whether you call a doctor or not. Philosophers like Chrysippus countered this by arguing that certain outcomes are “co-fated.”

It may be fated that you recover. But it’s also fated that you recover because you called a doctor. Your action is a link in the chain of fate, not an alternative to it.

In Islam, the concept of Qadar emphasizes a balance between divine sovereignty & human responsibility, folk traditions across the Middle East & South Asia have historically leaned toward a “written” destiny (Maktub – “it is written”). This perspective often provided a psychological cushion against the frequent tragedies of the medieval world, like a plagues or invasions.

American culture is infamously anti-fatalistic. The famous “American Dream” is built on the idea that you can pull yourself up by your own bootstraps & be the architect of your own destiny/fortune. However, fatalism does exist in American conscienceness in 2 specific ways:

• Literary Naturalism
  • In the late 19th & early 20th centuries, American writers like Stephen Crane & Jack London moved away from Romanticism toward Naturalism. They portrayed humans as “small, soft things” at the mercy of indifferent forces (biology, heredity, & environment). In Crane’s The Open Boat, the universe is depicted as a giant machine that doesn’t care if you live or die. This is “Modern Fatalism.”
• “Appalachian Fatalism
  • Often misunderstood as laziness, this fatalism was a cultural adaptation of the Appalachian region, dominated by dangerous coal mines & unpredictable poverty. If your life depends on a mine roof that could at any moment regardless of your skill, or a boom-or-bust economy you can’t control, a fatalistic worldview (“It’s in God’s hands”) becomes a survival mechanism to manage chronic stress.

In modern physics, the Block Universe theory (based on Einstein’s General Relativity) suggests that time is a dimension just like space. If the past, present, & future all exist simultaneously in a “block,” then the future is technically as fixed & unchangeable as the past. If using this view, our perception of “choosing” is just an illusion created by our movement through the time dimension. Essentially this is Scientific Fatalism.

The philosopher Karl Popper once joked that the fatalist is the person who looks both ways before crossing a 1-way street. Deep down, even those who claim the future is a fixed act, though their choices matter.

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Arminianism

This is 1 of the most significant theological traditions in Protestantism. This represents a major shift in how Christians understand the relationship between God’s sovereignty & human free will.

It began as a technical debate within the Dutch Reformed Church in the 17th century, it eventually became the dominant “theological engine” for American revivalism & much of modern evangelicalism.

Arminianism is named for Jacobus Arminius (1590-1609), a Dutch pastor & professor at the University of Leiden. Arminius was trained in the strict Calvinism of Geneva, he was actually assigned to defend the Calvinist view of predestination against critics.

As he began researching on his own, he became increasingly unsettled by the idea that God might choose to save some (the “elect”) & condemn others (the “reprobate”) before they were ever born.

He argued that if God’s decree of salvation was “unconditional,” then God would ultimately be the author of sin. Arminius sought to preserve both God’s justice & human responsibility, leading to a system where God’s grace is primary but requires a human response.

After Arminius died, his followers (known as Remonstrants) formulated their beliefs into 5 articles. These points were a direct challenge to the “High Calvinism” of the time. These 5 articles are known as the Five Articles of Remonstrance, 1610:

• Conditional Election: God chooses people for salvation based on His foreknowledge of those who will believe, not an arbitrary decree.
• Unlimited Atonement: Jesus died for everyone, not just a select few/elect. However, only those who believe receive the benefit.
• Total Depravity (with a twist): Like Calvinists, Arminians believe humans are too sinful to save themselves. They need help to even take the 1st step toward God.
• Resistable Grace: God offers “prevenient grace” (grace that goes before) to everyone. But humans have the free will to reject it.
• Conditional Preservation: While God empowers believers to stay faithful, Arminians initially left it an open question whether a believer could “fall from grace.” Later Arminians generally argued that they could.

The Dutch authorities called a national council, the Synod of Dort (1618-1619), to settle the dispute. The Remonstrants were condemned as heretics. The council produced the Canons of Dort.

Interestingly enough, the famous “Five Points of Calvinism” (using the acrostic TULIP) didn’t exist before this. They were created specifically as a point-by-point rebuttal to the 5 Arminian articles. Essentially, Arminianism made Calvinism to define itself in the rigid terms we see today.

In American history, Arminianism underwent a HUGE transformation. It made its way across the Atlantic mainly through John Wesley & the Methodist movement. But it truly exploded during the Second Great Awakening (circa 1790-1840).

Preachers like Charles Grandison Finney took to its extreme. Finney argued that a revival wasn’t a miracle from God. But a “result of the right use of means.” By using emotional music, “altar calls,” & “protracted meetings.” He believed he could persuade the human will to choose Christ. This “practical Arminianism” redefined the American religious landscape.

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#1590 #1609 #1610 #1618 #1619 #1790 #17thCentury #1840 #AltarCalls #AmericanRevivalism #Arminianism #Calvinism #CanonsOfDort #CharlesGrandisonFinney #Christians #Dutch #DutchReformedChurch #Elect #Evangelicalism #FiveArticlesOfRemonstrance #FivePointsOfCalvinism #Foreknowledge #FreeWill #Geneva #HighCalvinism #JacobusArminius #JohnWesley #MethodistMovement #Predestination #Protestantism #Remonstrants #Reprobate #SecondGreatAwakening #SynodOfDort #TULIP #UniversityOfLeiden

John Wycliffe

His last name is also spelled: Wyclif, Wickliffe, & Wicklyf.

He’s an English scholastic philosopher, Christian reformer, Catholic priest, & a theology professor at the University of Oxford. He’s often called the “Morning Star of the Reformation.”

He made radical challenges to the Roman Catholic Church like advocating for or made a vernacular translation of the Vulgate Bible into Middle English. He paved the way for the Protestant Reformation nearly 200 years before Martin Luther.

Before he was a reformer, Wycliffe was a titan of Scholasticism at Oxford. At the time, the intellectual world was divided between Realist & Norminalists. The Norminalists, like William of Ockham, argued that “universals” (like the concept of “justice” or “humanity”) were just names (nomina) we give to groups of individual things.

John was a fierce Realist. He believed that universals were real entities that existed in the mind of God. For Wycliffe, everything in the physical world was a direct reflection of a divine archetype.

Wycliffe’s most radical political theory was the Dominion of Grace. He argued that all authority (dominium) is a gift from God. Which meant that the church wasn’t allowed to own property or have ecclesiastic courts, & men in mortal sin weren’t entitled to exercise authority in the church or state, nor to own property. He added a dangerous caveat: only those in a state of grace have a right to exercise authority.

Wycliffe’s later followers (derogatorily called Lollards by their orthodox contemporaries in the 15th & 16th centuries. Lollards meaning “mumblers” or “idlers.”) adopted a number of the beliefs attributed to Wycliff such as theological virtues, predestination, iconoclasm, & the notion of caesaropapism, with some questioning the veneration of saints, the sacraments, requiem masses, transubstantiation, monasticism, & the legitimacy/role of the Papacy.

Wycliffe was born in the village of Hipswell, near Richmond in the North Riding of Yorkshire, England. In 1356, Wycliffe completed his bachelor of arts degree at Merton College as a junior fellow. That same year, he produced a small treatise, The Last Age of the Church.

In 1361, he was Master of Balliol College in Oxford. That year, he was presented by the college to the parish of Fillingham in Lincolnshire. For this, he had to give up the headship of Balliol College, though he could continue to live at Oxford.

Wycliffe’s greatest legacy is his role in the 1st complete translation of the Bible into Middle English (circa 1382). At the time, the Bible was only available in the Latin Vulgate. This was accessible solely to the educated clergy.

Wycliffe believed that the Bible was the ultimate authority. Then every person (from the King to the “plowman”), needed to be able to read it.

Wycliffe didn’t just translate words. He helped create the English language. He’s credited with introducing, or popularizing, over 1,000 words into English, including: female, justice, communication, treasure, & glory.

His “potent” ideas were blamed for the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381. Wycliffe didn’t endorse the violence, however the rebels used his discourse of “equality before God” & Wycliffe’s critiques of Church wealth to justify their demands.

In the U.S. culture, Wycliffe’s legacy is preserved in 2 distinct ways:

• The Democratic Spirit of the Bible: The American religious tradition of individual Bible interpretation & the rejection of centralized ecclesiastical authority can be traced directly back to Wycliffe’s “priesthood of all believers.”
• Wycliffe Bible Translators: Founded in 1942 in California by William Cameron Townsend. This organization (now 1 of the largest of its kind in the world) was named in honor of John Wycliffe. It carries on his mission by translating the Bible into thousands of indigenous languages worldwide.

Wycliffe passed away from a stroke, during a Mass, in 1834. In 1415, the Council of Constance declared him a heretic. In 1428, by order of Pope Martin V, his remains were exhumed from his grave in Lutterworth, burned to ashes, & cast into the River Swift.

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I’m anxious to return to the Parable of the Sower with @Bigdad1211 tonight during Sunday School Express! Please join us — and bring your questions with you! https://youtube.com/live/IvpiSUiO6kg

#Parables #Jesus #Salvation #election #Predestination