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CF has always been a site that welcomes people from different backgrounds and beliefs to participate in discussion and even debate. That is the nature of its ministry.
In view of recent events emotions are running very high. We need to remind people of some basic principles in debating on this site. We need to be civil when we express differences in opinion. No personal attacks. Avoid you, your statements. Don't characterize an entire political party with comparisons to Fascism or Communism or other extreme movements that committed atrocities. CF is not the place for broad brush or blanket statements about groups and political parties. Put the broad brushes and blankets away when you come to CF, better yet, put them in the incinerator. Debate had no place for them. We need to remember that people that commit acts of violence represent themselves or a small extreme faction.
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You were the one that wanted to introduce IQ levels as a comparative metric between different cultures. We can see clearly the Islamic socialist caliphate of Minnesota does quite well compared to the very Christian Bible Belt states of the south.
You are right, I did use Hebrews 12:22-24 wrongly. It refers to the Spiritual Mt Zion.
The assembly of Gods peoples in the physical Land of Zion, is yet to happen. John sees them there in Revelation 7:9
While the topic of free speech is intertwined with UC Berkeley’s legacy, it has recently become a particular source of concern on campus and across the nation.
“Speech is not violence. The Left conflates the two in order to justify its own violent reactions to differing points of view.” Michael Knowles “I go to UC Berkeley…” Usually, when a Berkeley student utters these words to those who aren’t lucky enough to attend our university, they are met with...
bpr.studentorg.berkeley.edu
A campus culture of more than just a few outliers being intolerant of "anything but the most progressive viewpoint" was evidently enough of a problem, and some Senior faculty recognized it was something that needed to be addressed in the form of a brand new course called "Openness to Opposing Views"
On this point, you're very, very wrong. "Making society as a whole more Christian" is exactly what the 7 Mountain Mandate seeks to do. It's a core tenet of the theology driving a lot of the swell in Christian Nationalism and it's also infused a lot of branches of evangelicalism that aren't explicitly Dominionist.
The Seven Mountains Mandate calls on Christians to gain influence, or ‘take dominion,’ over seven key areas of culture: religion, family, education, government, media, business and the arts.
Huh. Well that is an interesting view, but that was not my point. My point is that being mediocre and being a strongman are not mutually exclusive. In point of fact I think they go hand in hand.
I've never observed nuclear fusion in the lab, either. But like macroevolution, scientists have observed it.
Right. This has been observed for a very long time.
It's always funny that YECs pretend that science is about faith, as thought faith were a bad thing. But science can't be about faith, since it depends on evidence. If your faith isn't strong enough to save you, science can't help.
"Macroevolution" means the evolution of new species. If that seems meaningless to you, we've located the problem.
It seems so. You've confused evolution including macroevolution, which is an observed phenomenon, with universal common descent. And that is from genetics, not evolutionary theory. Even Darwin just supposed that God created some number of original living things.
All this confusion is curable, if you're willing to investigate a little.
Dave, I appreciate your kind reply. However, I think if you look deeper. the Ezekiel verses parallel the Jeremiah verses in talking about the new covenant for Israel and the earthly kingdom they could expect.
Jer 31:31 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:
Jer 31:32 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD:
Jer 31:33 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Jer 31:34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.
The desire to see everything in the bible (especially the gospels) as applying to us can be very strong. By maintaining a distinction between what is intended for Israel and what is for the body of Christ, we can avoid a lot of confusion. I know it is unconventional and unfamiliar, but then there was a time when not praying to Mary was radical.
Brutal Bible Bloodbaths is now available on Steam Early Access. It has a ridiculous amount of blood though otherwise the graphics are like Minecraft since they are not very realistic.
Based on a shocking Bible passage, use weapons like your magic laser sword to cleanse the promised land with optional blood splatter and body chopping.
store.steampowered.com
It is based on Deuteronomy 20:16-20 - and some boys talk about it - I was wondering if Christians thought the humor was offensive... Login to view embedded media
Though I thought the boys seemed to be pretty respectful of God.
If this Game is for children, have you considered rating it PG?
Not that that would matter, if only atheists are playing this, since they will probably try to make God look as ugly as possible, and not tell them the whole truth.
For example, were the Israelites to love the command, in the sense the young boy thinks?
Proverbs 17:5
...whoever rejoices in the ruin of another will not go unpunished.
Would it therefore please God, if one sits and enjoys doing this... finding delight, and glee, as they slaughter their victims?
Of course not.
While that may not bother atheists, warning people with children who may want to please God about how God feels about the matter, would be to their benefit.
No lover of God would enjoy this game though, for those two reasons.
God (1) hates the one loving violence, and (2) will punish the one that delights in the destruction of individuals.
In fact, God himself does not delight or pleasure in the death of anyone. Ezekiel 18:23, 32
For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord GOD
A child being aware of this, and considering God, would most certainly avoid this game, and any like it.
This shows footage of a sacrificed toddler being sliced up, worshipping a foreign goddess idol causing soldiers to kill you, chopping clothed temple prostitutes, ordering soldiers to go on a killing spree, a cow corpse spilling blood onto flowers, receiving a quest, being told to chop living chickens' legs but their head was chopped instead of their legs:
Think of a firing squad.
They line the criminals who received their death sentence, in front of their grave, and on the order, they fire their guns... making sure they don't miss.
It may not be a job they enjoy, but it's a job.
It's not likely they would be grinning as they pull the trigger... although living in a world where many have developed callous hearts, and will sit and enjoy watching Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and the like, there are the odd number that would take pleasure in hanging someone; chopping off their head, and seeing it drop...
Love of darkness is indeed normal today. John 3:19
This shows the player chasing people around houses in order to kill them, tidying up after the soldiers by pushing chopped bodies into a pit, and skilfully chopping animals.
How accurate is your game?
If it's not accurately based on the scriptures, it's not based on the scriptures.
Usually, when endeavoring to make a game or movie based on history, or a document, or book, people do thorough research, so as to not misrepresent the facts.
Joshua 10:28, and Joshua 11:11 are corresponding text, and no one was buried, or pushed into a pit, and there was no need to skillfully chop animal, since they burned the city. So any survivor would be "incinerated".
The Israelites did not only have swords. They had spearmen Numbers 25:7, and they also had archers Genesis 27:4; Genesis 48:21, 22. The archers in David's time, were accurate to a hair's breath, and would not miss.
I can't see them running behind a horse, or cat.
Striking the city with the sword doesn't necessarily mean the sword alone was used.
Joshua 24:11-13 reads
11 “When you crossed the Jordan River and came to Jericho, the men of Jericho fought against you, as did the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. But I gave you victory over them.
12 And I sent terror ahead of you to drive out the two kings of the Amorites. It was not your swords or bows that brought you victory.
13 I gave you land you had not worked on, and I gave you towns you did not build—the towns where you are now living. I gave you vineyards and olive groves for food, though you did not plant them.
Psalm 44:3 reads
They did not conquer the land with their swords; it was not their own strong arm that gave them victory. It was your right hand and strong arm and the blinding light from your face that helped them, for you loved them.
So, there are a few details missing from your game.
Not that they make that much of a difference to what you are aiming to achieve.
This asks some very fundamental questions of Christian understanding of the Bible..
"Many Christians in the West, N. T. Wright believes, have a fundamental misunderstanding of the very goal of their faith.
Instead of seeing Christianity as the story of God renewing the whole cosmos — Heaven and Earth united — they have been taught to think of salvation primarily as a private escape plan: the soul departing for Heaven when the body dies...
The result, according to the 77-year-old New Testament scholar, Pauline theologian and Anglican bishop, is not just a skewed theology of the afterlife, but a distorted understanding of everything from End Times prophecy to spiritual warfare.
"The problem is that most Western Christians today think that the whole point of Christianity is for our souls to go to Heaven when we die, whereas the New Testament concentrates on God coming to dwell with us," Wright told The Christian Post in an interview about his latest book, The Vision of Ephesians: The Task of the Church and the Glory of God.
"The direction of travel is wrong, and the result is wrong, and the intermediate stages are wrong."
That misdirection has shaped how generations of believers have read and misunderstood Scripture, according to Wright. In the ancient world into which Christianity emerged, the idea of the soul floating away into Heaven was already common, he said.
"These were the people we now call the middle Platonists, people like Philo of Alexandria, or Plutarch. … They talk happily about their souls going to Heaven. The early Christians really don't," Wright said.
Instead, the New Testament proclaims something vastly different; not human departure to Heaven, but divine arrival on Earth.
The former bishop of Durham pointed to the final chapters of Revelation, where "the dwelling of God is with humans," and Ephesians 1:10, where Paul says God's eternal purpose is "to sum up in the Messiah all things in heaven and on earth."
"But you'd have thought that God's plan from the beginning was to enable us to leave Earth and go to a place called Heaven instead," Wright said. "That's simply not what Ephesians, or indeed, the rest of the New Testament, is all about."
The misunderstanding extends even into Bible translations, he emphasized. The Greek word "psuche," often rendered "soul," is rooted in the Hebrew "nephesh," which does not denote an immortal, disembodied essence but the whole living person.
"A nefesh is one's whole self; a better translation will be 'person,'" Wright explained. Passages that have fueled Platonic readings, such as Jesus telling the thief on the cross, "Today you will be with me in Paradise," are frequently oversimplified.
"Jesus is going to be back in a couple of days' time … because He's going to be raised from the dead," Wright said. "There are many passages which routinely get misread."
Apart from what @Ophiolite has already posted, there is the minor detail of the hollow earth 'ambassador' bringing up the nuclear bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which happened in 1945, more than a decade after Admiral Byrd's fictional encounter with the hollow earthers. It demonstrates that the fictional diary wasn't written until after World War I.
FBI investigates Tablighi Jamaat connections in Washington DC attack as Afghan veteran's radicalization path emerges through disturbing family phone calls.
this is a weird one made during the 80s Satanic Panic. Many of their songs (including this one) have a Japanese cover. This was included on a promotional VHS they would send religious stores to play to advertise their music label
Login to view embedded media
The people involved in the production the music is produced by an Australian denomination (which later became known as a cult in 1989 (at the very least in Australia)) known as The Family/Family International with their music label being known as Heaven's Magic. I hope this qualifies at least retroactively.
The video was presented as him doing something bad, undesirable, or "aggressive." My comments pointed out that he's not doing anything that thousands of other evangelicals before him have done and continue to do every Sunday.
In Islam there is a “sixth pillar” known as jihad which wants to make society as a whole more Islamic. How one interprets that depends on the culture and individual. Evangelical Christianity cannot be compared to Islam.
On this point, you're very, very wrong. "Making society as a whole more Christian" is exactly what the 7 Mountain Mandate seeks to do. It's a core tenet of the theology driving a lot of the swell in Christian Nationalism and it's also infused a lot of branches of evangelicalism that aren't explicitly Dominionist.
Dominionism isn't explicitly violent the was that "jihad" is often interpreted, but it does seem to becoming more tolerant of it.
Editors’ note: The Christian Post Opinion Page has published two countering views on Calvinism. To read the opposing view in the piece titled “Which comes first in salvation order: Faith or regeneration?” click here.
Want to know a secret? If you’re a Christian, you were saved before you knew you were.
Now, I’ll bet that the vast majority of you reading this think that you made a personal decision — all on your lonesome — to receive Christ, and once done, you were a child of God in the faith. John Chipman believes this, as evidenced by his article, “Which comes first in salvation order: Faith or regeneration?”
He says, “Faith precedes regeneration. Always. For everyone.”
Many think that the reverse is heresy and short-circuited. Still, I’m going to ask you to give me a few moments to make a case for the position of regeneration (the Spirit’s supernatural work of giving spiritual life to us, transforming the heart, and enabling faith, so that we become a new creation in Christ), preceding faith. I used to believe the reverse in my earlier Christian walk, but am now convinced that we can’t make that move of commitment towards God until He enables us to do it.
What's not understood here that it's not either/or, but both/and. Yes, we must first be enabled, by grace, by God, to turn to Him, to respond when He calls. And yet, that grace is still resistible. We can refuse to open the door, we can say "no" either at the beginning of a potential walk with Him or later on down the road after we've embarked upon it.
To maintain that we don't need that grace, that we do it all ourselves, would be Pelagian. To maintain that God so overwhelms the will and totally changes/regenerates man first is to completely misread and misunderstand His purposes for man: that of drawing him back from the originally willful-and unjust-rejection of Him in Eden and to the relationship/communion with Him that man was created for along with the ever-increaisng justice/holiness -the ever-increasing love, to put it best- that is intrinsic to that relationship and to the willingness that He cultivates, covets, and that likewise blossoms and grows as we act upon or express it.
"Whatever the signal is, we don't know if the plants produce it for the purpose of signaling or if it is an accidental byproduct that other plants then 'eavesdrop' on," Renton said.
Other unknowns: What structures are plants using to talk to and listen to one another? And can insects and animals spy on plant conversations and exploit them for their own purposes?
To these questions and more, Gagliano said, the answer is "we don't know."
But "the data are here. Plants are doing something," she added. "I can't fully explain it, but that doesn't mean it's not happening."