Greetings from Upstate New York. I'm a computer programmer with a philosophy degree who loves to study St. Thomas Aquinas's theology, Plato's dialogues, and Aristotle's thought. Opera is my favorite kind of entertainment. So I hope may post an aria or two if that would interest anyone.

Maybe someone here will explain the Seventh-day Adventist doctrine about soul sleep because it confused when an Adventist told me about it. I'm here to learn from you.

Oh, did I mention that I'm an American monarchist?

I'm eager to "talk" with you.

(I don't know where else to post this. If there is a more appropriate forum for this, please feel free to move it.)

I have seen this message on Christian Forums. What does it mean? I have not been able to find an explanation for it.

Hello friends. I come to you to request your prayers in dealing with some very troubling physical ailments I am experiencing right now.

I have been having trouble with my left ear for some weeks now. I'm really not sure what it is, but the symptoms are mild hearing loss and a low variable humming noise. I don't have pain, but it's making me clench my jaw.

The other thing I'm experiencing is pain in my lower sternum. I think this may be related to indigestion, as I have been having bouts of that recently.

I pray that together we could banish these symptoms as God Wills, and that I won't have to visit the doctor. In Jesus name. Amen.

Science confirms that there is not one observation of dust,rocks,gas,sun-light producing a horse, or rabbit, or amoeba, or bacteria over time.

Science confirms that observations of over 80,000 generations of bacteria in the "long running evolution experiment" results in "more bacteria" - i.e. more prokaryotes - and not a single eukaryote. That's more generations of direct observation than supposedly it took for humans to evolve in the first place.

Science confirms that when something vastly complex in terms of machinery with encoding, decoding , manufacture, error-correction is detected it is a sign of intelligent design and manufacture and not merely a function of what we expect from dust,gas,rocks and sunlight "in sufficient quantities given enough time and chance".

The Bible says that it is infinite capability, infinite wisdom and power that is the "cause" the origin of that vastly complex machinery with encoding, decoding , manufacture, error-correction mechanism fully functional and autonomous.

To many rational minds this idea of the creator having more capability and intelligence than the thing created - makes sense and fits what we observe in real life.

By contrast -- the problem for evolution's doctrine on origins is so big that we could even see a world class atheist scientist - a true believer in Evolution's doctrine on origins - lamenting the problem that they are stuck with.
======================
Colin Patterson (Senior paleontologist at the British Natural History Museum and author of the Museum’s general text on evolution)

April 10, 1979 Letter from Colin Patterson to Sunderland


“ I fully agree with your comments on the lack of direct illustration of evolutionary transitions in my book. If I knew of any, fossil or living, I would certainly have included them.

"You suggest that an artist should be used to visualize such transformations, but where would he get the information from? I could not, honestly, provide it, and if I were to leave it to artistic license, would that not mislead the reader?

"I wrote the text of my book four years ago. If I were to write it now, I think the book would be rather different. Gradualism is a concept I believe in, not just because of Darwin’s authority, but because my understanding of genetics seems to demand it.

"Yet Gould and the American Museum people are hard to contradict when they say there are no transitional fossils. As a palaeontologist myself, I am much occupied with the philosophical problems of identifying ancestral forms in the fossil record.

"You say that I should at least show a photo of the fossil from which each type of organism was derived. I will lay it on the line- there is not one such fossil for which one could make a watertight argument.[The reason is that statements about ancestry and descent are not applicable in the fossil record. Is Archaeopteryx the ancestor of all birds? Perhaps yes, perhaps no there is no way of answering the question. It is easy enough to make up stories of how one form gave rise to another, and to find reasons why the stages should be favoured by natural selection. But such stories are not part of science, for there is no way of putting them to the test. So, much as I should like to oblige you by jumping to the defence of gradualism, and fleshing out the transitions between the major types of animals and plants, I find myself a bit short of the intellectual justification necessary for the job “

[Ref: Patterson, personal communication. Documented in Darwin’s Enigma, Luther Sunderland, Master Books, El Cajon, CA, 1988, pp. 88-90.]

In an email dated October 24, just days before the 2020 presidential election, the “Biden team” reportedly demanded that Twitter scrub information critical of Hunter Biden from the site, according to a jaw dropping release of “The Twitter Files” by new CEO Elon Musk.

It really makes me sick, the deception these people are willing to perpetrate in order to win an election.

Speaking with Christiane Amanpour from a women’s rights summit Thursday, Hillary Clinton compared America’s treatment of women as part of a global misogynistic movement in line with Iran’s theocratic ayatollahs and Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.


“We have come along way on so many fronts but we are also in a period of time where there is a lot of pushback and much of the progress that has been taken for granted by too many people is under attack: literally under attack in places like Iran or Afghanistan or Ukraine — where rape is a tactic of war — or under attack by political and cultural forces in a country like our own when it comes to women’s healthcare and bodily autonomy,” Clinton said.


Killing babies out of convenience is progress? If so I don't like Clinton's vision of progress.

The Sabbath commandment starts with

"Remember the Sabbath day... Ex 20:8
"Six days you shall labor... the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD (YHWH)
"for in SIX days the LORD made... and rested the seventh day therefore the LORD bless the Sabbath day AND sanctified it (made it holy)" Ex 20:11

That Ex 20:11 statement is pointing directly at Gen 2:1-3
Gen 2:2 Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. 2 And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.

Some will say "that is fine - I choose to ignore both the Sabbath and the Creation facts in Gen 1 and 2". Well they have free will and can choose to ignore whatever they wish.

But this thread is for those who choose to pay attention to the details in the text.. It does not support evolution, it does not teach evolution, it does not even make room for it. And all scholars agree that "Moses was not a Darwinist trying to teach darwinism's doctrine on origins to the newly freed slaves at Sinai".

I made the mistake of turning my 'Holiday styling' back on out of curiosity when I heard that we'd changed to snow.

Now I can't turn it off. I've unchecked the Holiday Styling' box (several times) and 'Saved' it (several times) - it's still snowing.

I've restarted CF (several times) and restarted the PC (several times) - no luck.

Like many others I'm finding the snowflakes distracting not to mention inappropriate for my version of Christmas. In Australia it never ever snows at Christmas.

Can someone please fix this ??

If not - can you please substitute a few sharks cruising by instead of the snow, so I can feel part of the celebration?

OB

How do you prepare for Sabbath?

Hello,
Has someone an idea what the Jews saw in this verse, that made Jesus reply that their guilt remains ? And, too, whether wars could possibly originate in this kind of seeing of them ? (just a hypothesis of mine)

#1 There is IN CHRIST JESUS --47 TIMES . This is our Lord's resurrected NAME .

#2 IN the Lord --41 times

#3 In Christ --31 times

#4 In HIM --20 TIMES

#5 IN THE LORD JESUS --6 TIMES

#6 IN WHOM --6 TIMES

#7 IN JESUS --1 TIME

#8 IN HIMSELF --2 TIMES

#9 IN THE BELOVED --1 TIME

Many of these subjects are DOCTRINAL , with 62 sub-categories


Then there are 49 PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS '

ABOUND MORE , 1 Thess 4:1

APPROVED --Rom 16:10

BE STRONG --Eph 6:10 , Phil 4:13 , 2 Tim 2:1


I believe this a very important subject to BE IN CHRIST !!


What say you ??


dan p

I feel like I'm the only one that notices this, so maybe I crazy. For over a hundred years progressives have been trying to convince women that marriage is a bad thing. So, why do these same progressives have an obsession with homosexual marriage? Could this be an example of Orwellian/1984 "Double Think?"

My name is Raidell and I have been a Christian for 9 years. Its been real rough but I have been through a lot. Still currently am but God willing to lead me out of it.

If E = mc2 then we can divide and conclude that...

Mass (m) = Energy (E/c2)

And there are three varieties...

Natural E/c2 - All mass is basically cooled plasma
Mental E/c2 - Mentally, A mathematical formula, but this has chemical and spiritual properties as well.
Spiritual E/c2 - E (motivation, warmth, love) / c2 (faith, hope, charity, joy)

This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. - 1 John 1:5

Unfortunately, though, the light and the darkness interact here on planet Earth...Comparing the light and the darkness, the opposite of E/c2 would be z (absolute zero)/ d (darkness)...

Natural z/d - Nothing, empty space.
Mental z/d - Again nothing but empty space.
Spiritual z/d - z (laziness, coldness, hatred) / d (fear, despair, greed, sorrow)

A correct spiritual E/c2 is an important ally to any faith. Which is why I became a Christian, because I found something of spiritual value. But… Because the mind and the heart are 16” apart… One can understand doctrine and still miss it spiritually…

“It is the heart which perceives God and not the reason. That is what faith is: God perceived by the heart, not by the reason.” - Blaise Pascal

When we feel out of the Spirit (E/c2) and into the flesh (z/d) it is time to make some changes…

In the Spirit - Impossible to depression
In the Flesh - Frequently to depression

“Evangelion” (that we call the gospel) is a Greek word, and signifies good, merry, glad and joyful tidings, that makes a man’s heart glad, and makes him sing, dance and leap for joy. - William Tyndale

Turning the clock back to 2800 BC to the first great emperor of China, Fu-Hsi, who saw trigrams fall down from heaven. The straight lines representing light (E/c2) and the broken ones darkness (z/d).




So the light and energy (E/c2) pull upward while the lack thereof (z/d) pull downwards. These trends are also trends seen in the old testament book of Judges...


And I have edited them a tad to my liking...


By latching those in the Yin of darkness with correct teachings is what equips them to move out of their darkened world into a life of light and energy in the great outdoors. And from a Christian perspective... And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full. This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: - John 1:4-6

2014 - They take Crimea from Ukraine - Obama
2022 - They invade Ukraine - Biden

It sometime feels like they sat back and waited for four years to do anything.

Both Obama and Biden are notoriously weak. In both Presidents, Russia saw something that didn't stop them from invading another country.

Another federal appeals court has rejected President Biden’s attempt to move forward with his student debt relief plan while lawsuits over the program inch toward the Supreme Court.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit refused late Wednesday to lift a ruling from a Texas court that struck down the policy as illegal.

First, I'd like to remind all readers that this is a Christians Only thread in a Christians Only Forum.

This concept is very easily definable within Scripture and is very significant in the current state of affairs in our world.

"Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love."
1 John 4:7-8

Only God can define love. And if love is defined by God, and taught so in the Bible, then what is considered to be love by the world's standards, cannot be love. If someone who does not live in alignment with God's Ways is loving something, or someone, what they are experiencing and expressing cannot be love. The world does not define what love is when love was first defined by God and His Word.

There are many who love all kinds of things in this world; cars, money, power, drugs, alcohol. You name it.

I have personally known multiple addicts who truly believed they loved their substance of choice. They loved what it did for them, they loved how it made them feel physically, how it made them feel about themselves mentally and emotionally and they loved how it made them feel loved by others.

I have a sibling who has battled alcohol for many years. They admitted to me, on more than one occasion, that they believed the alcohol was 'who they were' in a sense. They had been duped by the substance to actually identify with it at a very deep level, as part of themselves. Refusing to accept that it was a problem in their life, they would encourage me to stop with the judgment of the alcohol and just get to know them for who they are. They promised that I would like them so much better if I'd just get to know them. Many attempts to explain to them that the alcohol was not who they were fell on deaf ears; explaining to them that if they'd just sober up long enough to learn who they really are that they would see the difference. This was all to no avail and the spirit of the substance still owns them to this very day.

The Bible speaks in many places of snares. It refers to idols as snares, and even to the ways of the pagan nations (the world) as snares. These snares are just like they sound. They are spiritual traps that ensnare a soul and it is very difficult, if not impossible, to free oneself from them. Without God's divine providence, it is impossible to be set completely free of these snares.

The main point of this discussion is that anything can be made into an idol in one's life, absolutely anything. The person can truly believe that they are loving, and in-love with, that thing or that person. But if that experience is not in alignment with God, and His purposes for mankind, it cannot possibly be love. It is not of God, ... it is of another. The spirits that indwell idols, and accept worship of them, are very powerful demons. Worship can come in many forms. One of the most common forms is simply putting that thing above all else.

Young people today are addicted to so many different things and they have no awareness, nor belief in the possibility, that what they are doing is detrimental to their well being and to their very soul. All kinds of tech is loved and held as a type of idol; people in great numbers are in love with the idea of their social media images. In their twisted understanding of reality, they truly believe it is who they are.

There are many ungodly lifestyles today that are based around this false experience, and idea, of love, but there are much, much worse lifestyles coming right behind them. There are already organizations in place to foist upon the world the acceptance of love between grown adults and children, Pedophilia. And there are even those who will someday be loving and marrying animals.

LOVE is OF God and ONLY God can define love. He has done so in His Word. Anything less than that IS NOT LOVE.

Elon Musk confirmed on Friday that Kanye West’s Twitter account has been suspended shortly after the rapper posted a Swastika merged with a Star of David and shared private messages between the two.


Twitter’s chief executive was responding to a Twitter user who had asked the businessman to “fix Kanye please” after the rapper’s account was shut down.


“I tried my best. Despite that, he again violated our rule against incitement to violence. Account will be suspended,” Musk wrote.

Hey, a question for people here- do experience the joy of the Lord and also peace, also if you do is it supernatural? For whatever reason I do not have either joy or peace, I experienced joy for about 5 minutes after I got saved and then it left and has never come back. I talked to my pastor and he says he experiences supernatural joy and peace on a daily basis! Some experience this much more than others. There must be a very good reason why I do not have this!

The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) issued a search warrant to Reddit Nov. 29 to identify the person responsible for the recent leak of the racially disparaging conversation between former Los Angeles City Council President Nury Martinez and other local officials.

According to Police Chief Michel Moore, since last month the LAPD has been looking into whether the audio recording was produced illegally last year. Under California law, private conversations cannot be recorded unless all parties agree to be taped.


Blow the whistle on these racists; go to jail.

Never mind the fist amendment.

And ya'll have snow all over yas.

Although I've dealt with this for most of my life (since adolescence when I first developed sexual feelings), for some reason right now my same-sex attractions have been figuring prominently in my mind. I'm atttracted to both sexes (so "bisexual", except I don't know if it's right for a Christian to use such a label) and while I don't see my attractions to men (I'm a man) getting more prominent or my atttraction to women reducing in any way, it's still just lingering in my head.

It's not giving me any kind of sadness or inferiority, but there's this sense that nobody gets it. I talked to my pastor a while back about seeing if I could arrange a meetup with other people in my church with SSA (same sex attraction, this is the common abbreviation). Unfortunately, he told me that even though there were others like me in the church, none of them were willing to consider homosexuality a sin and so he didn't consider it a productive discussion. That was really saddening--that there wasn't a single person in my church that could relate to what I was feeling that was on the same "side" of the issue as me. It's made me feel very much alone and isolated, all at a time when I'm wondering if maybe I should have left my church to go find another one.

I find myself having sexual fantasies of women and wanting to see men naked. It makes me wonder how much I'd enjoy sex with a man as I know I would with a woman. I've never had any kind of sexual activity before and I don't plan to outside of wishful thoughts, but I find them hard to resist sometimes. In the past I've had sexual thoughts about some of my friends, both male and female, and it's given me tremendous guilt. I suppose most Christians would tell me to cut off all contact with the people I've had these thoughts about, but that would be a lot of good people that I used to have such wonderful friendships with before some thought popped into my head. Also, lately I'm finding myself writing a lot of stories (I'm an aspiring writer) where my main protagonist is a bisexual man like myself. It's like my characters are being tempted into identifying as that just like I am, even though for years this wasn't a stumbling block to my faith.

My church is full of friendly people and has a vibrant community. But I still feel like an outsider there. I don't have a spouse or children, and I am still not sure if I ever will (I doubt most Christian women are willing to marry a man with same-sex attractions who also has a past with inappropriate content and mental health problems). I don't feel like I come from the same culture that they do. I don't think I have all the same beliefs they do, either. I'm starting to wonder what the point of being a Christian is nowadays. The only thing I can remember God doing for me is telling me He loved me, back when I first became a Christian. He accepted me without any reservations then. But now I have to put in all the effort and grow in Christ all by myself? It just seems like a lot of work, reading the Bible when I often feel like most of it doesn't have any relevance to me. My pastor seems to think just reading whatever randomly-assigned Bible verse his "read the Bible in a year" plan will give me all the answers, but instead I'm just finding that I have to accept that I can't figure out a lot of answers. I feel like I'm on the verge of leaving the faith and I really don't want to. I just feel like I'm failing some test that every other Christian I see is passing with flying colors--namely, to just trust God and somehow see Him in everything. I have to wonder where God is when I just look at the world and all I see are either natural processes or miracles happening only to other people, and not me. I want God to help me in my unbelief.

I feel like I'm on the verge of leaving the faith sometimes and it's miserable, because it's not what I want. I know that there are plenty of arguments for God's existence, proof of the validity of the Resurrection, and I feel like my life needs some kind of meaning and purpose. I just want to be able to keep my Father involved in that. I hate that wanting to serve and honor Him makes me feel like I'm having to pull away at so much of myself, when my heterosexual Christian friends don't have to make any sacrifices at all and life is just easy for them. I know that's not true, but it feels that way sometimes.

Just to thank all of you who have worked on the upgrade. I understand that it is necessary in order to keep the site safe and secure - so thanks again for that. So far, I've looked at it on my phone, but tonight I'm on my computer and the pages look very clear. I know there are a few issues like the hats etc. Could these be options we add rather than being there by default please? All in all though it looks very good and your work is appreciated.

I met my ex best friend 10 years ago. Since about five years ago, I felt God asking me to end this friendship. I didn't listen to him, because I felt that I couldn't let go of this person because i'm a person who love friends and people. Anyway about two years ago, this person started disrespecting my boundaries. For example when we went out shopping, she would take pictures of what I bought and put it on her social media as if she was the one who bought it. She started fighting to eat at her favourite restaurants every time we hung out, even though I don't stay in the city like her and hardly get to eat at my favourite places. I compromise sometimes and eat where she wants but every time it is her turn to compromise, she gets angry and keeps saying things like 'you always want your way.' she also told me that she can't eat sugar because of an allergic reaction so she never wants to eat anything sweet when we are together, but when she is with other friends she drinks sweet coco, and eats all kinds of sugary treats. She also always sends me videos and reels, about 3-4 a day, even though I've told her at least five to six times that she must stop because I find it really annoying. she also likes sending me jokes such as "im waiting for you to be a millionaire so I can spend the money". she also thinks about me all the time, messaging me and saying things like oh I ate an egg today and thought of you because you taught me how to peel an egg" things like that. I don't even remember that I taught her how to peel an egg.

in my opinion, I think she has a love hate relationship with me. she either really hates me or loves me (in a lesbian way), because how she behaves kind of is in line with these kind of feelings. She really hates men and always rants to me about how men are rotten people, and she likes to put on fake moustaches and stuff, to be honest I was getting a bit creeped out and feeling kind of cringe, and I'm really glad I ended the friendship. Of course I was really blind to it, but I cannot turn a blind eye any longer. I finally sent her a text ending our friendship. I know I've done the right thing, but it still feels weird, like when I wake up I get this shock and short panic attack like, wow I ended this 10 year relationship I can't believe I did that!

Do you think I did the right thing and if I did, how should I learn to adjust to this?

I SO loved the toddler years which were SO much fun
now I have a teen who I rarely see
I miss doing fun things together & playing all day

taking teen to one of the writing groups I'm in as she's a terrific writer
however, it meets only once/mos
teen stays after school for several activities & is in bedroom doing homework most evenings
how do I get the "closeness" & fun of the toddler years back?

any suggestions?