Hello, Palau! Welcome to Saints on the Loose

 

 Hello, Palau!  Welcome to the world-wide group of readers from many countries who also visit this blog.  I hope you find some of the posts useful or meaningful. I was unable to find translation for Palauan, Sonsorolese, or Tobian.

The “Translate This Page” gadget directly above the “Total Pageviews” Counter has the capability of translating the English text of this blog directly into numerous other languages.

パラオの皆さん、こんにちは！このブログをご覧いただいている、世界中の様々な国からの読者の皆様へようこそ。記事が少しでもお役に立てたり、意義深いものになれば幸いです。

 「合計ページビュー」カウンターのすぐ上にある「このページを翻訳」ガジェットを使うと、このブログの英語テキストを様々な言語に直接翻訳できます。

Parao no minasan, kon'nichiwa! Kono burogu o goran itadaite iru, sekaijū no samazamana kuni kara no dokusha no minasama e yōkoso. Kiji ga sukoshi demo o yakunitate tari, igibukai mono ni nareba saiwaidesu. `Gōkei pējibyū' kauntā no sugu ue ni aru `kono pēji o hon'yaku' gajetto o tsukau to, kono burogu no eigo tekisuto o samazamana gengo ni chokusetsu hon'yaku dekimasu.

            This blog has been viewed from at least one hundred and forty-seven countries: Albania, Algeria, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Aruba, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cambodia/Kampuchea, Canada, Cayman Islands, Chile, China, Colombia, Congo, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Estonia, Ethiopia, Finland, France, Gabon, Georgia, Germany,  Ghana, Greece, Guam, Guyana, Honduras, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Ivory Coast/Core d'Ivoire, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kiribati, Kosovo, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Latvia, Lebanon, Lesotho, Libya, Lithuania, Luxembourg,  Macau, Macedonia, Madagascar, Malaysia, Mali, Malta, Mexico, Moldova, Mongolia, Morocco, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Palau, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Republic of the Congo Reunion, Romania, Russia, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Tanzania, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, Togo, Tunisia, Turkiye, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States of America, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Vietnam,  Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

Hello Zambia!

 Zambia has just been added to the list of 139 countries from which this blog has been viewed. The Church is is for everyone in every culture! Thank you for your interest! Praise the Lord! Μαράνα θά.

מרנאתא

The Origin of the English Language Word "Goodbye"

        The English language word, Goodbye, a "parting word"used grammatically as an adverbial phrase, is derived from "Godbwye" a shortened form of the Old English phrase God þē mid sīe: (in modern English: "God be with you.")  God  (God) þē ("thou" = "to you") mid ("with") sīe: (a form of "to be").

        The first known recorded occurrence of the word was in 1573 when it was used by the English scholar and poet, Gabriel Harvey. Harvey often wrote in Latin, claimed to have invented the English language hexameter format of poetry, and coined these English language words: "rascality," "extensively," "conscious," "jovial," "notoriety," and "idiom."

Saints on the Loose! Tools: "Search This Blog" and "Translate This Blog".

        On this blog, Saints on the Loose!, there are two useful tools: "Search This Blog" and "Translate This Blog".

        The "Search This Blog" drop-down tool provides the reader with access to over 1700 subject listings from Christian doctrinal issues, social and cultural issues, sports, health, movies, food, books, television programs, history, Christian heresies, apologetics, and many other subjects.

        The "Translate This Blog" drop-down tool allows the the reader to select a language other than English in which they may read the blog post. This tool uses the Google Translate function and, as of January 2025, can translate 249 languages. A detailed but not excessively technical discussion about Google Translate can be found on Wikipedia.

        Use of these two tools in tandem can greatly increase the usefulness of this blog to you.

        The Google Translate tool provides what is probably a very literal, but readable translation.  Idiomatic meaning and some subtleties unique to particular languages may be lost. The following two example translations are of a portion of this post, in Traditional Chinese and in Spanish..

在這個部落格 Saints Loose! 中，有兩個有用的工具：「搜尋此部落格」和「翻譯此部落格」。

        「搜尋此部落格」下拉工具為讀者提供了數千個主題列表，包括基督教教義問題、社會和文化問題、體育、健康、電影、食品、書籍、電視節目、歷史、基督教異端、護教學，以及許多其他主題。

        La herramienta desplegable "Buscar en este blog" proporciona al lector acceso a miles de listas de temas, desde cuestiones doctrinales cristianas, cuestiones sociales y culturales, deportes, salud, películas, comida, libros, programas de televisión, historia, herejías cristianas, apologética, y muchos otros temas.

Hello Guyana!

 Guyana has just been added to the list of 136 countries from which this blog has been viewed. The Church is is for everyone in every culture! Thank you for your interest! Praise the Lord! Μαράνα θά.

מרנאתא

Where is Sinim?

 

Isaiah 49:12 refers to a country named סִינִים (Sinim). It is never again mentioned but obviously was known at the time. Modern thought believes that this is possibly a reference to China, very far to the East.

The modern English word sino comes from the Late Latin word sinae which is a plural form which translates as “Chinese.” The Latin word may possibly be derived from the Old Chinese word 秦 (Qin). This word is often used in compound-word constructions such as Sino-Russian or Sino-Japanese. It is the root of the English language descriptive word sinitic, which means “relating to Chinese things.”

The Jews may have traded with the Chinese as early as the 3rd Century BC/BCE, with other possible contacts in the 7^th and 8^th Centuries. In the 11^th Century, a small Jewish trading settlement was established at Kaifeng. The Mandarin-speaking Jewish merchant’s modern descendants are now assimilated into the mainstream Chinese culture and, in 2016, numbered about 600-1000 in China and 20 in Israel.

In the 16th Century, the Ottoman Empire established a trading relationship with China in part because of a love of Chinese white porcelain. The Chinese are known to have had a merchant colony in Jerusalem during this period.

Chinese porcelain fragments have been found in the Middle East. In 2024, a broken piece of a Chinese porcelain bowl from the Ming Dynasty was found during a dig on Mt. Zion outside the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem. The Chinese inscription translates as “Forever we will guard the eternal spring.“

ESCHATOLOGY SERIES, POST #2: ESCHATOLOGIES FROM VARIOUS CULTURES

Eschatology is theology concerned with the final events of history. The word is derived from the Greek words  ἐσχάτος  eschatos ("last") and λόγος logos ("word"). Eschatology is therefore the study of “last things.” The focus of eschatology is usually on reality as a whole rather than on the individual. The word eschatology first appeared in the English language about 1550. 

In most known cultures, including the most primitive, there has been a belief in some sort of existence of the individual after death. Some held that the afterlife would be a dull and dreary thing., others that only the good would survive into an afterlife.  Some felt that the afterlife would be largely an extension of this one, perhaps on a more exalted plane as reward for bravery or great skill.  Many held that the retribution for an evil life was annihilation.

The Babylonians and Assyrians felt that retribution for evil came largely in this life as did the divine rewards of long life, strength, prosperity, and many children. The ghost of the individual existed in the underworld with the other dead. Demons ran around in the underworld inflicting punishment for sins committed during life.

In the ancient Egyptian religion, the good individual could hope for unending life with Osiris, the sun god. The existence was in some ways physical and this is the reason for mummification of the body. In the afterlife the actions of the deceased during life are weighed and judged. The dead face several trials and are subject to a second death if they fail.

Ancient Persian (Persia, modern Iran) religion (Mazdaism, Zoroastrianism, Parseeism, etc) was dualistic with a conflict between equally powerful good (Ahura Mazda) and evil (Ahriman) deities. The two deities were co-creators of the universe. The evil deity will, in the end, be vanquished and a judgement of people based on their life's deeds will occur. Those with evil deeds will be purified by fire, Hell will be purged, and the earth will be renewed by a purifying fire.

The ancient Greeks believed that life on Earth was the highest good for man. After death, the soul survived in a dull attenuated existence with little emphasis on retributive justice for life's misdeeds. A few very evil individuals would receive eternal punishment in Tartarus and a few favorites of the gods
would exist in eternal bliss in the Elysian Fields.  

Recently, there was much popular discussion of "2012." This was based on Aztec mythology which predicted the end of our current cycle of time on 21 December 2012. The Aztec mythology describes several cycles ruled by deities who are destroyed at the end of each cycle along with all the humans living during that cycle. The sun is the deity of the current cycle.

The human sacrifices regularly performed by the ancient Aztecs had a specific purpose. The blood and the extracted human hearts were seen as the food or fuel which maintained the ability of the Sun god to function. The stability of the universe depended upon regular human sacrifices.

Norse (Scandinavian) eschatology is presented in the story of Ragnarok, the climactic battle of the  cyclical Old Norse mythology. Nearing the end of the cycle, people, and the Gods themselves, will become increasingly corrupt, not honorable, dissipated, apathetic, and nihilistic. The Frost Giants, led by the renegade god Loki, will come and the battle will begin, accompanied by natural disasters. Most of the Norse gods will be killed and the world will eventually be dead and silent, covered with water and in total silence. After a time, fertile land will emerge from the water and the few gods who survived the battle will gather. A new first couple of humans will repopulate the new clean earth and the gods will celebrate.

In some religious/philosophical systems, such as Baha’ism and Jainism, there is neither a beginning nor an end.  Baha’is believe that reality consists of a series of progressive revelations by prophets. The coming of each new prophet is the judgement of the previous religion., with the prophet Bahaullah having brought the ultimate revelation.

The most severe forms of Buddhism deny even this. Within each moment in time, both birth and death are present. As each moment is born, the previous moment dies. The only reality is the present moment. There is no reward or punishment and no God. Individual existence with its cravings and desires is the ultimate evil.  Salvation is the extinction of every type of desire, even the desire for existence.

Hinduism sees reality and time as a series of repeating cycles as Shiva destroys and regenerates the universe repeatedly. The individual is part of this cyclical nature and ultimately will come to realize that individuality is an illusion. The individual consciousness is in actuality part of the Ultimate Reality and its ultimate destiny is absorption back into the Whole. All reality will contract into a singularity which will then begin again to expand.

Islamic eschatology points toward a Day of Judgement in which each persons good deeds will be balanced against their evil deeds. The sayings of the Prophet Muhammad give many signs which will indicate the approach of the Day of Judgement.

Judaism is most concerned with life now, in the present time, and is more corporate than individual. The concept is that the important thing is observance of the Law in order to prepare ourselves and the world for the coming of God's kingdom on Earth. The religion is absolutely monotheistic and God is absolute in His control of the universe. Man is intended to live in friendship with God during this life. There is very little discussion of retributive justice in the afterlife. 

Jewish eschatology is based on the Nation of Israel as a whole, not on the individual. The promises of the Old Testament are to the nation, the people of the land Am ha'aretz (עם הארץ), not the individual. The hope is for the establishment of a theocratic Messianic kingdom, based in Jerusalem, which will rule the world with justice and peace. 

An introduction to Christian eschatology will be presented in the next post.

The Lord's Prayer in Numerous Languages

This page has translations of the Lord's Prayer in numerous languages. Those who speak or read English should look at the prayer as written in the Old English of the year 1000. There is also an audio file of the prayer spoken in Old English.

http://www.prayer.su/other/all-languages.html

Predictive Text Technology Threatens Chinese Ideography

An recent article in the USA Today newspaper talks about how the use of cell phones and computers with predictive text technology is causing a degradation in the ability of Chinese users to write the traditional Chinese language ideographic symbols. Many say that the technology causes the user to become fast but inaccurate.

Modern cell phones and word processors use predictive text technology in which one key or button represents many letters or characters. When the user enters a key or button, the program chooses the most likely next letter or character (a “prediction”). The next entry results in a smaller set of possible letters or characters based on the first two entries. As more keys or buttons are entered, the predicted text becomes increasingly likely. (Google and other search engines use predictive algorithms of words instead of letters to hone in on your desired search subject as you type in your request).

Predictive text technology as applied to the Chinese language makes use of the pinyin writing system. Written Chinese is an ideographic system rather than an alphabetic system. Alphabetic writing systems  represent sounds by using a set of distinct letter symbols. Ideographic writing systems use symbols to represent ideas or concepts. Alphabetic writing systems are much more compact and flexible than ideographic systems and are able to incorporate foreign or “loan” words much more easily.

Alphabetic writing systems (and the number of letters used by each) include English (26), German (26), French (26), Italian (21), Arabic (28), Urdu (38), Korean (24), Spanish (29), Russian (33), Greek (24), Vietnamese (30), and Hindi (46). In contrast, knowledge of 4000 characters is necessary to achieve functional literacy in written Chinese.

Chinese predictive text programs used in cell phones and word processors make use of the pinyin system which they “translate” into Chinese characters. Pinyin is the official phonetic system for transcribing the sound of Chinese characters into Latin script in China, Taiwan, and Singapore. An example: 北京 is represented in pinyin as Běijīng, which, in English is rendered as Beijing. In the older Wade-Giles system this was presented as Peking.

Some Chinese have become concerned that as the digital predictive text technology proliferates, traditional Chinese calligraphic script will fade away. That process has probably already begun with pinyin eventually being the victor. This is a sad phenomenon because written Chinese is visually beautiful, but it is probably inevitable at some time in the future

http://news.stanford.edu/news/2012/november/chinese-typewriter-historian-112812.html

http://www.lastwordonnothing.com/2013/01/04/5218/

To demonstrate the beauty and the complexity of the written Chinese, see the following quotation from Acts 28:31, the verse from which this blog takes its theme.

“Preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ, with all confidence, no man forbidding him.”

In the Greek, the final word of this verse is ἀκωλύτως, “unhindered,” hence, “Saints On the Loose!”

Acts 28:31 in the Simplified Chinese characters:

宣布神的国度，并教导有关主耶稣基督 - 所有的他勇气和！不受阻碍

Acts 28:31 in the Traditional Chinese characters:

他宣布神的國度，並教導有關主耶穌基督 - 所有的勇氣和不受阻礙

Acts 28:31 in Pinyin transliteration:

fang4dan3 chuan2/zhuan4 jiang3 shen2 guo2 de* dao4 , jiang1/4/qiang1 ye1su1 ji1du1 de* shi4 jiao4dao3 ren2 , bing1/4 mei2you3 ren2 jin4zhi3

Biblical Sources of Phrases in Common Use: Forbidden Fruits

Recently, on the bulletin board in the place in which I work, someone wrote , “Do NOT Read This!”  Seeing this, almost everyone’s immediate response is “Why not?”  We do not respond well to being told what to do.

When an action or a thing is forbidden to us, it often becomes very attractive.  Many will risk their reputations, or their fortune, or their career, or even their family, to have it.  This is the idea behind “forbidden fruit.”

The allusion is to the biblical story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.  Everything was permitted to them except the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.  Of course, they had to have that fruit. (Genesis 2:16-17, 3:1-6)

The English language phrase is a metaphor for any pleasure, vice, or indulgence that is considered to be immoral, illegal, or “forbidden.”  

Definition: Casuistry.

Yesterday, I spoke about casuistry in relation to Mark 7:10-13. The word, casuistry, is derived from the Latin word casus, which means “event” or “case.”  The benign definition of casuistry is that it is a discipline within ethics which deals with ambiguous issues of right and wrong.  The most common use of the word today is more sinister: it is described as sophistical reasoning used in matters of ethics.

Sophism (from the Greek word Σοφία = “wisdom”) comes from the ancient Greek Sophists who developed elaborate philosophical and rhetorical arguments to teach excellence and virtue to young men.  The catch was that they charged for their teachings.

Socrates refused to take any money for teaching and considered the practice by the Sophists to be deceptive and specious.  From this developed the modern English use of the word: a specious argument used to deceive and to obscure one’s true intent.  There are many modern examples of this practice.

Negative Grammatical Constructions

William Shakespeare is almost universally recognized as the greatest writer of the  English language in history.  He is known to have used double and triple negative constructions for emphasis.

A double negative has two negative words in one sentence.  The effect of two negatives is that the second negative negates the first, rendering the meaning as a positive statement.

In a triple negative construction, the third negative returns the meaning of the sentence to a negative form.  Think of “No, not never!”

The Puritan preacher Thomas Lye (d. 1684, England) pointed out such a construction occurring in Hebrews 13:5.

“Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” Hebrews 13:5

Lye said that this construction could be translated as "I will not, not leave thee; neither will I not, not forsake thee."  Effectively, this is a quintuple negative.

ἀφιλάργυρος ὁ τρόπος, ἀρκούμενοι τοῖς παροῦσιν. αὐτὸς γὰρ εἴρηκεν, οὐ μή σε ἀνῶ οὐδ' οὐ μή σε ἐγκαταλίπω,  οὐ is translated in English as "no," or "not"  God will never leave or abandon us.

Dog is Good

Modern culture seems to have absolutely lost the understanding that words and concepts have meaning.  I believe that this is a result of the relativism which is rapidly becoming the prevalent world view.

I recently saw a bumper sticker on a car.  The bumper sticker had a cartoon of a dog wearing a halo and the caption “Dog is Good.”  While I definitely agree with the sentiment, something about this bothered me greatly.

The halo is an almost universally recognized symbol for sainthood.  The phrase “Dog is Good” is an English language play (*) on the words “God is Good.”  The sainthood reference made me itchy.  The “good” reference concerned me greatly.  While I am absolutely convinced that there is no intent here to do so, the “good” reference could be viewed as sacrilegious.  This is a word that people, in their obsession to not offend anyone, shy away from now, but it is still pertinent.  People in the modern Church seem to have lost their understanding of the Holiness of God.

Jesus responded very quickly when He was called “good” by a loving follower.

“And when he was gone forth into the way, there came one running, and kneeled to him, and asked him, Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God.”  Mark 10:17-18

“Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.” 1 Peter 1:16 (This references Leviticus 11:44)

………………………………………..

(*) :  For non-English speaking readers of this blog:  In English, the words G_O_D and D_O_G contain the same letters and at a quick glance, can appear to be the same word.

For Pete's Sake!

“For Pete’s sake!  Would you please stop doing that?!”

“For Pete’s sake” is an idiomatic exclamation in English which expresses annoyance, irritation, or frustration with the actions of another person or with a situation.  It is considered to have originated as a substitute for “For Christ’s sake!” which many considered to be an irreverent use of the Lord’s name. This substitution is called a euphemism (from Ευφημία (Greek:  Eu: “good” or “true” plus phemi: “speech, speaking”).  The idea od the word is the opposite of the word “blasphemy.” (Βλασφημέω (Greek:  Blaspho: “I injure”).  A euphemism substitutes a mild, indirect, vague, neutral, or inoffensive word for one which is considered to be rude, harsh, blunt, offensive, profane, vulgar, uncomfortable, insensitive, socially unacceptable, or blasphemous.

“For Pete’s sake! ” instead of “For Christ’s sake!”  The derivation of this substitution is not at first obvious until you realize that “Pete” probably refers to Peter the Apostle.  Many Christians would still find this phrase to be offensive.

A few examples of English language euphemisms:

“Fallen asleep” or passed away” instead of “dead.”

“In trouble” instead of “pregnant.”

“Weiner” instead of “penis.”

“Getting laid” instead of “having sex.”

“Bloody” instead of “God’s Blood.”

“Dang” or “darn” ” instead of “damn.”

“Gosh” ” instead of “God.”

“Gee” ” instead of “Jesus.”

“What the heck?” instead of “What the Hell?”

“Rosebud” ” instead of “anus.”

“Pardon my French” instead of “Excuse my use of profanity.”

“Mary Jane” instead of “marijuana”

“SOB” instead of “son of a bitch.”

“Take a dump” instead of “defecate.”

“Drinking” instead of “consuming alcohol.”

“Visually impaired” instead of “blind.”

“Not the brightest light bulb” instead of “stupid.”

Although this particular post is English-specific, euphemisms are used in most, if not all, languages.  Many consider the Tetragrammaton, YHWH, to be a euphemism which is used to ensure that the holy name of God is not pronounced out loud because of its extreme holiness.  Jews regularly substitute the word “Adonai” (Lord) in place of YHWH.

Book Comment: Poems of Faith

In college, I had a triple major course of study of Biology, Psychology, and English with a minor in Chemistry.  In my poetry classes, the name of Helen Steiner Rice often came up for denigration.  Her poetry was held up as an extreme example of excessive sentimentality and rigid adherence to an ultra-simple rhyming scheme.  Her poems resemble the verses in greeting cards because that is where Steiner began writing her poetry, working for American Greetings.

Helen Steiner Rice (b. 1900, Ohio, USA – d. 1981) was an advertising manager turned poet who has become known as “America’s beloved inspirational poet laureate” and the “Ambassador of Sunshine.”   Her books have sold over seven million copies, so far, and they still are selling well, years after her death.

By all accounts, Mrs. Rice was loved by everyone who knew her.  She was a pious, prayerful woman devoted to her Lord.  She told her friend, Fred Bauer that “I’m just another worker in the vineyard of the Lord, trying to do God’s will.  All I have to say is in the thoughts He places on my heart, thoughts I put to rhyme.”

Poems of Faith (1981) is a collection of 124 of Mrs. Rice’s poems.  In keeping with the nature of Mrs. Rice’s poems, the book is illustrated with paintings of numerous flowers by artist Judith fast.  The poems are not to everyone's tastes, including mine, but there is nothing heterodox or objectionable in any of them.  Millions of people find them to be inspirational statements of Christian faith and devotion. 

A Steinerian poem in response to the critics of Helen Steiner Rice.

http://chestertonandfriends.blogspot.com/2008/05/helen-steiner-rice-clerihew.html

Definitions: Chastity

Chassity, Chassidy, Chassitee, Chessity, Chessidy, Chasadee.  These and a great many more are variants of a very popular English language female personal name.  They all are apparently attempts to represent the word “chastity.”

One wonders how much people understand about the word if they cannot even be bothered to spell it correctly.  The English language word is derived ultimately from the Latin word “castus,” meaning “pure”.

Aldous Huxley humorously (I think) called chastity “the most unnatural of all the sexual perversions.”

An internet Google search brings up numerous attempts at a definition, most centering on the avoidance of sex.  The Christian understanding of the word can include that meaning but it is much more meaningful than that.  Remember that God viewed the Israelite’s attraction to other cultures and other gods as adultery against Himself. (Hosea 4; Ezekiel 16:35-42; Jeremiah 3:1, 13-14, and, in the New Testament, James 4:4)

The Christian martyr, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, said of the virtue, “The essence of chastity is not the suppression of lust, but the total orientation of one’s life towards a goal.”

Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. Galatians 5:23

"By pureness, by knowledge, by longsuffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned," 2 Corinthians 6:6

"One that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity;" 1 Timothy 3:4

"Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity." 1 Timothy 4:12

"For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ." 2 Corinthians 11:2

"That the aged men be sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith, in charity, in patience." Titus 2:2

"Likewise must the deacons be grave, not doubletongued, not given to much wine, not greedy of filthy lucre;" 1 Timothy 3:8

"Even so must their wives be grave, not slanderers, sober, faithful in all things." 1 Timothy 3:11

“Sex in the Body of Christ” http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2005/may/34.28.html

Film Comment: El Evangelista

You say that you want to see a Christian comedy about a professional drug gang enforcer/assassin?  Well, here it is.

Pablo (J. Salome Martinez) always pauses before killing his victims to allow them the chance to make their peace with God.  Whether or not they do, he then fills them with bullets.  Surprisingly, though the film is extremely violent, there is no cursing.

Pablo and his assistant are bumbling hit men who eventually are able to carry out their assignments.  There is a lot of running around and shooting and killing.

The turning point for Pablo comes when he is assigned by his boss to assassinate a Pentecostal pastor who is interfering with the local drug trade.  Pablo becomes a Christian and turns his life around.  This is where the real problem with El Evangelista (2006) lies.

Pablo moves to another area and begins his happy new life.  What about his probably vengeful former associates?  What about his responsibility for numerous murders?  Did he have a responsibility to self-report to the authorities?  Should he have given his knowledge of the drug trade to the police?  Is repentance without confession really repentance?  Can we escape temporal consequences for our actions?

This is a Spanish language film with English subtitles.