> > And before you say anything, Dave, I'm a native-
> >born US citizen and I don't even have any >*ancestors* from Europe. :)
>
> Yeah, like I'm still reading this thread. We followers of the old ways don't worry ourselves about such things. When we die, if we were good warriors, Odin will call us to Valhalla. Otherwise, we'll just sort of hang out in the Underworld, which is sort of boring but not really torturous.
>
> By the way, have you figued out that Nyperold is Jewish yet?
>
> -- Dave

Really? No, I did not know that, though upon reflection I don't find it surprising. He is a Messianic Jew, presumably, since he accepts the NT as canon and the divinity of Jesus and Jesus' atonement.

I didn't speculate on that because (the noble side of it) I try not to make assumptions about people's actual races and ethnic backgrounds based on their stated beliefs (which is different from making assumptions about people's beliefs based on their stated beliefs, of course) and (the ignoble side of it) I'm not familiar with the respective Messianic Jewish movements or how they differ from "mainstream" Gentile Christianity. I do have some Jewish Christian friends, but I'd say they don't fall into the same category because they don't have much of a culturally Jewish background, coming from families that have been assimilated into Gentile Christianity for a few generations. In fact, most of them come from mixed Jewish/Gentile blood (though technically, IIRC, one's still racially "Jewish" as long as the bloodline runs through the mother's side). (The other Jewish Christian I know, one of my teachers, was converted to Christianity along with her parents as a young child.) Hence they aren't, for example, familiar with the Mosaic Law, have no knowledge of Hebrew, and prefer the term "Jewish Christian" to "Messianic Jew". I don't know which one Nyperold prefers; to me it's not much of a distinction except on which aspect one emphasizes. But then the word "Christian" wasn't even invented until the Church had already grown a bit, and Paul many times says that to be a Christian is to be a true Jew, circumcised in the heart and a child of Abraham's promise.

It would make sense that Nyperold, coming from a culturally Jewish background, would be more familiar with the OT and the Law and would choose to emphasize that part of the Bible more than would one of us typical Gentile Christians who still wonder what that whole big first section of the Bible is for. :) (I've heard my friends describe the OT as the "boring and difficult" part of the Bible, which strikes me as a tragedy, considering that not only is knowledge of the OT essential to understanding of the NT but also that the OT contains many of the most beautiful sections of the Bible. Paul was a great letter-writer and debater, but as a poet he can't hold a candle to David or Isaiah or Solomon. Someone once lent me a book, _The Bible Jesus Read_, and it changed my whole perspective on the OT.)

Oh, and, BTW, Dave, you may have fun in Valhalla for a while but then you're gonna get jacked when the Giants invade Asgard and blast the whole setup to oblivion. I forget what happens to the Underworld ghosts, but I think Hel basically absorbs your energy and *uses* you to blast the whole setup to oblivion. Either way it's not much of a long-term future.

Now, if I followed *my* old ways I'd have a better long-range future, like shooting for being reincarnated as Sam; that's of course before I reach the ultimate state of Nirvana.

Ar"where I could spend eternity jamming with Kurt Cobain, of course"thur