“
7Even in the case of lifeless things that make sounds, such as the pipe or harp, how will anyone know what tune is being played unless there is a distinction in the notes?
”
”
Anonymous (Holy Bible: NIV, New International Version)
“
Promises are like assholes," Elsbeth pipes up. "They stink when you put your nose in them.
”
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Jake Bible (Z-Burbia (Z-Burbia, #1))
“
I have seen how in our history, people of color have been enslaved by “Bible-quoting” Christians. When slavery was finally threatened with being relegated to the dustbins of history in America, it was that section of this country known as “the Bible Belt” that rose to defend the enslavement of black people in the bloodiest war of American history. When slavery finally died as a legal option on the battlefields of Gettysburg, Antietam and Appomattox, the Christians of the Bible Belt, once again quoting their scriptures for justification, instituted laws of segregation with the full support of the federal government. When those segregation laws finally began to fall in the 1950s and 1960s, I watched the Bible being quoted to justify the use of lead pipes, police dogs, fire hoses and even the bombing of black churches in which little girls in their Easter finery were killed—all in an attempt to preserve “white supremacy.” I notice that even today the political party in America that most claims to represent what is called “the Christian vote” is still working to impede the political process for black people, to make voting so difficult as to prevent them from casting their ballot.
”
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John Shelby Spong (Biblical Literalism: A Gentile Heresy: A Journey into a New Christianity Through the Doorway of Matthew's Gospel)
“
16“To what can I compare this generation? They are like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling out to others: 17“ ‘We played the pipe for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.
”
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Anonymous (Holy Bible: NIV, New International Version)
“
Pessimism is a towering skyscraper eighty stories high in the suburbs of the soul at the end of a long avenue with waste ground on either side and a few poorly-stocked little shops. Several ultra-fast staircases give access to the building, running up from the cellars to the roof-gardens. The comfort of this place leaves nothing to be desired and only the greatest luxury is acceptable, but every Friday the residents gather on the ground floor to read from a bible bound in the skin of a blind man. The psalmic words they intone rise up through the pipes, sigh in the stoves and sweep the chimneys coated inside with black grease which leaves dirt on the skin. Water runs constantly in the bathrooms and the showers beat down on the numbered bodies, peppering them with sand. On Sundays the bed linen unrolls by itself and nobody makes love. For this tower block, like an obscure phallus scraping the vulva of the sky, is usually a hive of sexual activity. The most beautiful woman lives there, but no-one has ever known her. It is said, that dressed in furs and feathers, she keeps herself shut away in a first-floor apartment as if in a white safe. Her windows are scissors which cut short both shadow and breath. Her name is AURORA.
”
”
Michel Leiris (Aurora)
“
THE NINE SATANIC STATEMENTS
1. Satan represents indulgence, instead of abstinence!
2. Satan represents vital existence, instead of spiritual pipe dreams!
3. Satan represents undefiled wisdom, instead of hypocritical self-deceit!
4. Satan represents kindness to those who deserve it, instead of love wasted on ingrates!
5. Satan represents vengeance, instead of turning the other cheek!
6. Satan represents responsibility to the responsible, instead of concern for psychic vampires!
7. Satan represents man as just another animal, sometimes better, more often worse than those that walk on all-fours, who, because of his 'divine spiritual and intellectual development', has becomes the most vicious animal of all!
8. Satan represents all of the so-called sins, as they all lead to physical, mental, or emotional gratification!
9. Satan has been the best friend the church has ever had, as he has kept it in business all these years!
”
”
Anton Szandor LaVey (The Satanic Bible)
“
There are three kingdoms," the astrologer resumed, pressing down the ashes of his pipe with his finger. "Of the Old Testament, that of the Father, the kingdom of fear. Of the New Testament, that of the Son, the kingdom of expiation. Of the Johannite Gospel, that of the Holy Ghost, the kingdom of redemption and love. They are the past, present and future; winter, spring and summer. The first, says Joachim of Floris, gives us the blade, the second, the leaf, and the third, the ear. Two of the Persons of the Trinity have shown themselves. Logically the Third must appear.
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Joris-Karl Huysmans (Là-Bas (Down There))
“
There is not, throughout the whole book called the Bible, any word that describes to us what we call a poet, nor any word that describes what we call poetry. The case is, that the word prophet, to which later times have affixed a new idea, was the Bible word for poet, and the word prophesying meant the art of making poetry. It also meant the art of playing poetry to a tune upon any instrument of music. We read of prophesying with pipes, tabrets, and horns—of prophesying with harps, with psalteries, with cymbals, and with every other instrument of music then in fashion.9 Were we now to speak of prophesying with a fiddle, or with a pipe and tabor, the expression would have no meaning, or would appear ridiculous, and to some people contemptuous, because we have changed the meaning of the word.
”
”
Thomas Paine (The Age of Reason (AmazonClassics Edition))
“
LaVey’s bible (1969), members worship the trinity of the devil—Lucifer,
Satan, and the Devil—including nine pronouncements of the devil that Satan
represents:
1. indulgence, instead of abstinence,
2. vital existence, instead of spiritual pipe dreams,
3. undefiled wisdom instead of hypocritical self-deceit,
4. kindness to those who deserve it, instead of love wasted on ingrates,
5. vengeance, instead of turning the other cheek,
6. responsibility, instead of concern for the psychic vampires,
7. man as just another animal, sometimes better, more often worse, than
those who walk on all fours, who because of his divine and intellectual
development has become the most vicious of all,
8. all of the so-called sins, as they lead to physical, mental, or emotional
gratification,
9. the best friend the church has ever had, as he has kept it in business all these
years (LaVey, 1969, p. 25).
Holmes (1990), who interviewed two
”
”
Eric W. Hickey (Serial Murderers and their Victims)
“
All I know about the Bible is that wherever it goes there’s trouble. The only time I ever heard of it being useful was when a stretcher bearer I was with at the battle of Dundee told me that he’d once gotten hit by a Mauser bullet in the heart, only he was carrying a Bible in his tunic pocket and the Bible saved his life. He told me that ever since he’d always carried a Bible into battle with him and he felt perfectly safe because God was in his breast pocket. We were out looking for a sergeant of the Worcesters and three troopers who were wounded while out on a reconnaissance and were said to be holed up in a dry donga. In truth I think my partner felt perfectly safe because the Boer Mausers were estimated by the British artillery to be accurate to 800 yards and we were at least 1,200 yards from enemy lines. Alas, nobody bothered to tell the Boers about the shortcomings of their brand new German rifle and a Mauser bullet hit him straight between the eyes.’ He puffed at his pipe. ‘Which goes to prove, you can always depend on British army information not to be accurate, the Boers to be deadly accurate, the Bible to be good for matters of the heart but hopeless for those of the head and, finally, that God is in nobody’s pocket.
”
”
Bryce Courtenay (The Power of One)
“
Luther made a distinction between the inner and outer word: the latter is the Scripture and the former the revelation of Christ. Thus the Bible is the cradle wherein Christ is laid and the swaddling clothes in which Christ is wrapped. Or the Word of God is the water that comes to us through the pipes (the written witness).
”
”
Donald G. Bloesch (Holy Scripture: Revelation, Inspiration & Interpretation: Revelation, Inspiration Interpretation (Christian Foundations, Book 2))
“
Luke describes Stephen, Barnabas, and the disciples as “full of the Spirit” (Acts 6:5; 7:55; 11:24; 13:52) and notes that the deacons were expected to be the same (6:3).33 This pipe is made not for a wind that comes in explosive power resulting in extraordinary deeds, like the mighty rushing on the day of Pentecost (2:2). Rather, this pipe is designed for the continual presence of the Spirit which transforms people downcast by persecution into those who experience the unexpected emotions of joy (13:52), contentment (7:59), and forgiveness for their persecutors (7:60). This is not the music of ecstatic utterance but of characteristic constancy.
”
”
James M. Hamilton Jr. (God's Indwelling Presence: The Holy Spirit in the Old and New Testaments (New American Commentary Studies in Bible and Theology Book 1))
“
He lambastes Catholics. He opposes the J. B. Phillips version of the Bible because Phillips had a friendship with C. S. Lewis, who drank beer and smoked a pipe.
”
”
Philip Yancey (Where the Light Fell)
“
The chapel is the most important building in traditional colleges and a pipe organ is often the centerpiece of a chapel.
”
”
Vishal Mangalwadi (The Book that Made Your World: How the Bible Created the Soul of Western Civilization)
“
In the tenth century AD, Augustine’s biblical philosophy of music inspired a group of Benedictine monks to build the world’s largest pipe organ in the cathedral of Winchester, England. The organ required seventy men and twenty-six bellows to supply wind to its four hundred pipes. Technologically, the pipe organ was the world’s most advanced machine until the invention of the mechanical clock. Europe’s organs stood as emblems of the West’s unique desire and ability to use the arts, science, and technology for the glory of God as well as for the relief of humanity’s suffering and toil.**
”
”
Vishal Mangalwadi (The Book that Made Your World: How the Bible Created the Soul of Western Civilization)
“
Bridle your anger, trash your wrath, cool your pipes—it only makes things worse.
”
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Anonymous (The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language)
“
knew: “I believe that many who find that ‘nothing happens’ when they sit down, or kneel down, to a book of devotion, would find that the heart sings unbidden while they are working their way through a tough bit of theology with a pipe in their teeth and a pencil in their hand.
”
”
Christopher Watkin (Biblical Critical Theory: How the Bible's Unfolding Story Makes Sense of Modern Life and Culture)
“
...you must be constant in the use of means and lay hold on every opportunity of enjoying the gospel. This our Lord commends in Mary, calling her attendance on the word preached a choosing the "good part" (Luke 10:42). There, you will taste the crystal streams and view the golden minds of sound doctrine and wells of salvation. This is the place of spiritual wonders where the dead are raised, the lepers cleansed, the eyes of the blind opened, and the devils ejected. Gospel ordinances are the golden galleries where the King of Glory walks, the bed where immortal souls are begotten unto God, and in which the broken hearts do travail till Christ is formed in them [Gal. 4:19]. Through these golden pipes, the water of life is poured out on thirsty, panting souls for the cheering of their spirits. Here is the doctrine preached and words where by you must be saved (Acts 10). Here, Christ's mother found Him, it being the place where the Bridegroom and the bride meet and solace themselves together.
”
”
John Fox (Time and the End of Time: Discourses on Redeeming the Time and Considering Our Latter End)
“
I’d just turned back to window-covering when a hand landed on my shoulder. Alycia’s father, the one with the goatee and Tinder date. “Uh—Edie, is it?” “Eve.” Their family clearly had trouble with names. “Eva. Do you know where my daughter is?” Damn. Why me? I’d tell him about the yacht, I decided. But would I tell him about possible difficulties with its navigation? I didn’t want to implicate David. And yet. I stood there with the hammer. It felt heavy. “She didn’t choose to come back with us,” I said. His mouth hung slightly open. “I’m sorry. You mean she’s still down there? All by herself? On the beach?” Beside me, Sukey stopped hammering also. “She sailed for Newport,” said Sukey, blunt as always. “On a yacht called the Cobra. Owned by a venture capitalist.” “Ha ha! No seriously,” said the goatee father. “Seriously,” said Sukey. “You’ve got to be kidding me!” “Nope,” said Sukey, and went back to hammering. When the father turned away he seemed stunned. Then the gynecologist mother came down the steps from the breakfast room. “They’re saying it’s a Cat 4. Winds up to 140!” “All this hysteria’s for nothing,” said the short father. (Low’s, I recalled with a surge of satisfaction.) He was holding a beer bottle. Hadn’t lifted a finger to help cover the windows, just watched and critiqued. “You’ll see.” Another mother stuck her head out the door. “Hey. Where’s Alycia?” Not again. I sighed. “On a yacht headed for Rhode Island,” I said. “They’ve got excellent food on that boat,” piped up Dee. “The chef used to work at Chez Panisse.” I opted not to look at the mother’s face right then. Everyone knew Alycia didn’t eat.
”
”
Lydia Millet (A Children's Bible)
“
We had a system of accounting, a chart on a wall. There were merits and demerits. A merit was for an outrage successfully committed, a demerit for an act that should bring on humiliation. Juicy got merits for drooling into cocktails undetected, while Low got demerits for kissing up to a father. Probably not his own—Low’s parentage was a well-kept secret. But he’d been spotted asking a guy with male-pattern baldness for wardrobe advice. Low was a baby-faced giant of Mongolian descent, adopted from Kazakhstan. He was the worst dresser among us, rocking a seventies look that involved tie-dyed tank tops and short-shorts with white piping. Some made of terrycloth.
”
”
Lydia Millet (A Children's Bible)
“
It proves nothing against inspiration, as some have asserted, that the writers of the Bible have each a different style. Isaiah does not write like Jeremiah, and Paul does not write like John. This is perfectly true,—and yet the works of these men are not a whit less equally inspired. The waters of the sea have many different shades. In one place they look blue, and in another green. And yet the difference is owing to the depth or shallowness of the part we see, or to the nature of the bottom. The water in every case is the same salt sea.—The breath of a man may produce different sounds, according to the character of the instrument on which he plays. The flute, the pipe, and the trumpet, have each their peculiar note. And yet the breath that calls forth the notes, is in each case one and the same.—The light of the planets we see in heaven is very various. Mars, and Saturn, and Jupiter, have each a peculiar colour. And yet we know that the light of the sun, which each planet reflects, is in each case one and the same. Just in the same way the books of the Old and New Testaments are all inspired truth, and yet the aspect of that truth varies according to the mind through which the Holy Ghost makes it flow. The handwriting and style of the writers differ enough to prove that each had a distinct individual being; but the Divine Guide who dictates and directs the whole is always one. All is alike inspired. Every chapter, and verse, and word, is from God.
”
”
J.C. Ryle (Practical Religion Being Plain Papers on the Daily Duties, Experience, Dangers, and Privileges of Professing Christians)