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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.

Is Hell Annihilationism or Eternal Torment

I do (generally) believe what is said by the New Testament writers about Hades, Gehenna and Tartarus. But being that these ideas are ancient and foreign in nature, locked away as they are within the linguistic confines of a dead language, they have to be carefully understood, not quickly nor blithely rattled off from a biblical text printed in modern English. And when they are sifted through for meaning using Hermeneutics (which we all should be doing), I find that the evidence as to whether we should 'believe' in an eternal fire or we should believe in annihilation is underdetermined. So, I allow other, fellow Christians [such as yourself] to make up their own minds on the matter.
I get the sense that you don't accept the Bible as being Gods "eternal, all powerful, inerrant, unchanging, living Word".

We can't say that it it no longer has the same authority, just because it has been translated from the original ancient languages.
If that was the case then we could plead ignorance on judgement day, but Gods Word confirms that we are all without excuse. God has successfully communicated with His creation, so we all give an account of our lives before Him.

Gods Word leaves no room for excuses, such as "I never knew, because the scriptures were so vague and obscure".

Revelation 20:10 The devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are. And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

Revelation 20:15 And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.

As you can see from the above verses, it's not only the devil who is cast into the lake of fire to be tormented day and night forever and ever. But all of those who's names are not written in the book of life are also cast into the lake of fire with the devil.

I also wish that I could wish the awful Bible doctrine of hell away, but it's not possible. The heavens and the earth will pass away but Gods Word remains for all eternity.
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James Comey case: Ex-special counsel John Durham undercut case against James Comey in interview with prosecutors: Sources

They fleeced the laws since 2018, to manufacture reasons to go after Trump...
Nobody had to manufacture anything. Trump committed criminal acts and was found guilty.
so of course they'll fleece the laws TODAY to protect those who committed that lawfare against Trump.
If Trump was competent, he could have made a case. But he's not, so he couldn't.
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Is Hell Annihilationism or Eternal Torment

A couple basic points.

Most denominations do not say hell/LoF is Annihilation. They have similar position to yours.

Secondly there assuredly is salvation after death. All of us receive eternal life *in full* after our physical death. So there's that.
I'm not sure what you mean here. But believing sinners receive eternal life now. In the present time. Our glorified bodies are received later.
Additionally Paul very clearly stated enemies of the Gospel are saved simply by being Israel, not having to do anything other than being Israelites. Romans 11:26-32
Again, I do not know exactly what you are saying here. You are not saved simply because you are a descendant of Israel. John 8:39-47.
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Average consumer now carries $6,329 in credit card debt. 'People are stretched,' expert says

Your source started with the 1930s.

The 1930s was a decade.

1933, and 1934, are within the same decade;
Correct, and the fixtures represent the decade, not individual years
so your source is debunked right out of the gate.
Because you misinterpreted the figures?
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Is Hell Annihilationism or Eternal Torment

You're welcome. Thank you for also sharing your thoughts on these matters in turn. I appreciate your brotherly composure. :cool:
For sure. If I may ask, what do you do with all those passages about Hell and eternal punishment? Because Jesus talked more about Hell than anyone else in the Bible.
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Tim Walz Vows to Bring More Somalis to Minnesota, Despite Growing Fraud Scandal Reaching Into the Billions

I believe that if we have immigration policies that appear to be what it looks like you want that nations will lose their cultural identity. Is that what you want?
You believe that. Do you have any evidence? We have had waves of immigrants for hundreds of years and do not seem to have lost our cultural identity yet.
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Tim Walz Vows to Bring More Somalis to Minnesota, Despite Growing Fraud Scandal Reaching Into the Billions

Assimilate means what exactly? You addressed your post to Christians so I assumed you meant religion. Immigrants add to our culture, it has been evolving from the start. Assimilation sounds like stagnation.
Assimilation into a national culture ain't stagnation.
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Chat thread - Egalitarian Christians edition

Well, I ended up in the part-time hospital chaplain, part-time cathedral role. It's very different to running a parish, but I'm gradually getting my head around it and settling in (and getting to know a new town, and all of that). I have very mixed feelings about the way it's all played out, but I'm grateful for the many good things in where we've ended up. It's definitely weird to me, to be two weeks out from Christmas, and basically have no responsibility to make all of that happen. All I have to do for Christmas services is preach once on Christmas morning! I might even have time to spend with my family...

This is not immediately just about being egalitarian, but I thought this was very interesting and has some overlap: S2 E05 • Graffiti in the Cathedral: Jacquiline Creswell and Alex Vellis - Exhibiting Faith
I hope you settle in well with your new role and town! Have a blessed Nativity season.
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Multi's Thoughts and More

I figured out what will happen in the rest of chapter 13, so I should be able to get it done soon! Also, I have an idea for at least one upcoming chapter (probably either 14 or 15) that will be cute and sweet. :) I just have to decide if there's anything else that should happen first.

I finished animating the parts where everyone goes outside and Taranza gets tangled in Christmas lights. Now I have one more frame to make of Kirby sledding, and then I'll just have to do the parts where Magolor, Taranza, and Susie build snow sculptures and Kirby accidentally throws snow all over Magolor. :laughing: After that, the characters will be done and I'll just have to make the backgrounds and put everything together! I'm excited to be getting close to finishing this animation!
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Does it matter what day Christ was crucified on?

It specifically says what day it was:

John 19:30-31

30 When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

31 Now it was the day of Preparation, and the next day was to be a special Sabbath. Because the Jewish leaders did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath, they asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken down.

The only way to solve this riddle is that the first day of the week is Monday after Sunday. This simply means the gospel writers used Roman weekdays.

Actually, they used the Byzantine calendar.
And what is a special Sabbath
Special Sabbaths of the Jewish Year Special Sabbaths of the Jewish Year

Special Sabbaths and High Sabbaths are not the same as The Seventh-Day Sabbath.

And we are using the Roman calendar from Friday to Sunday, and the interpreters interpreting 3 days and 3 nights and have been using the Roman calendar since year one AD.

And even using the timetables the Israelites used where days begin at 6:00 p.m. it will still come out the same Saturday night would be the first day Sunday night would be the second day Monday night would be the third day.

The interpreters counted Friday as day one, Saturday as day 3, Sunday as day 3. which is where they messed up, they did not leave a 24-hour span from the beginning of the first day when Christ was crucified and buried.

By their interpretations It is believed Christ died around the 9th hour which has been interpreted as 3:00 on a Friday the first day should have been calculated on the Roman calendar, after a 24-hour span, which would make the first day of Saturday the second day of Sunday the 3rd day on Monday Roman calendar. The first night Friday the 2nd night Saturday the 3rd night Sunday Roman calendar so he couldn't have Rose early Sunday morning. It would have to be early Monday morning.

As with the Israelites of those times the Byzantine calendar the year would be different, when the Day begin but not the 24-hour day.
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Why do people hate ICE...

They love to use it when some atrocious acts are committed by someone claiming to be a Christian and you point out that no real Christian would behave that way. It's not a fallacy it's just the truth

That's why I don't believe in it. It can't be the catch all for anytime someone does something. No real Muslim would aact like that. A real Liberal would never be violent. A real whatever wouldn't do whatever. This argument works with individuals and is certainly issue dependant. Sometimes a real whatever wouldn't actually do that.
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The Lord's Wrath - How will it Happen

But there are other things that cause a person's body to disintegrate, like being burned in fire, or being put int a bath of acid. Saying that God uses nuclear weaponry seems to go beyond what Scripture says, and suggests that God first creates a nuclear bomb and then detonates it. I agree that there are similarities between the effects of a nuclear weapon and what happens at the Day of the Lord, but the latter is far worse, unless one knows the Saviour.
From my understanding man-made nuclear weaponry has an intense fireball.

The Devastating Effects of Nuclear Weapons | The MIT Press Reader The Devastating Effects of Nuclear Weapons

And I seriously doubt acid would fit what Zachariah is speaking of unless someone is flying over the people and dropping millions of tons of acid over the population.

Scripture doesn't tell us what God uses or how he does what he does to accomplish anything that has been accomplished.

If God can create the heavens and the Earth he can create the effects of nuclear weaponry and I didn't say anything like what man has, what man has is for man and earthly.

I am not trying to get anyone to agree with My views or even understand them.
Fire and brimstone! Even that would look like man's equivalent of a nuclear explosion.
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Judge dismisses James Comey and Letitia James cases, finding prosecutor's appointment invalid

Not even close..
...
Lols, not even close.

FACT: Tish accused Trump of 'real estate and bank' criminality for dishonestly attempting to secure more-friendlier loans/lower rates, from the bank.
FACT: Trump is now accusing Tish of 'real estate and bank' criminality for dishonestly attempting to secure more-friendlier loans/lower rates, from the bank.
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Tim Walz Vows to Bring More Somalis to Minnesota, Despite Growing Fraud Scandal Reaching Into the Billions

That is NOT what I said, nor is it what I meant. Don't put words in my mouth that I didn't say.
Assimilate means what exactly? You addressed your post to Christians so I assumed you meant religion. Immigrants add to our culture, it has been evolving from the start. Assimilation sounds like stagnation.
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Snake, Snake, Rattle and Roll

Since I've touched on divine mercy in regards to extending life, two more instances come to mind. One was the same pastor as he told of both incidents in one of his sermons.

When he was a school student he had been reading a book while resting his back against an old concrete water tower. Suddenly this voice yelled at him "RUN!"

He said he took off like a greyhound and did a 100 metre sprint in record time. As he did, the concrete water tower collapsed behind him. If he'd stayed there he'd have been killed without question. But the people killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them were apparently given no warning. What's the difference?

There were no other people around either to yell out a warning, and they would not have known what was about to happen anyway.

Another story I heard years ago was during a visit by a chap named (Sir) Fred Nile, a morals campaigner from Sydney. I can't remember a word he said to be honest, but I remember a testimony by a former homosexual who was one of his group.

He said at his second (and deadly serious) suicide attempt, Christ materialised in the corner of the room, moved towards him and somehow merged. He said from that time on he never even had to struggle with homosexual temptation (despite being involved in everything going before that), had married a woman who accepted his past, and had two young sons as proof. They were present when he gave his testimony but they were probably too young to understand what he was saying.

God or an angel (with God's permission) saved that particular chap from suicide, so why not all the other potential suicides whether homosexual or heterosexual?

God is still sovereign when it is all said and done, whether we like it or not.
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Zions New Children

What on earth are you TALKING about? It's OBVIOUSLY fulfilled.
What is really obvious, is how Jewish Israel is once again is the same apostate and God/Jesus rejection condition as twice before.
There is yet to come the final and conclusive fulfilment of Jeremiah 8:5-12. The terrible Day of Reckoning, as many other Prophesies inform us.

It was not the intention of God, to give His prophets a clear, instantly understandable message. To have done that would have revealed His plans to all and sundry.
We can’t yet fully ascertain God’s ultimate design for His creation, although it is clear that he does want those who believe in Him and trust in His Salvation, to be aware of coming events. We are told to trust Him and hold fast to our faith, but to do that in the midst of sudden and shocking events, without some idea of the outcome of such events, and then it will be so much more difficult for us.

Therefore, because God HAS given us the information we need to know about the future, then it is a serious error to ignore it, to fail to gain some understanding or to imagine that a rapture removal to heaven will take us away from it all.

It must be obvious, to anyone who reads the news, that the current world situation is nearing unsustainability, in terms of resources and population. But the flash point and the focus of God’s plan, is the Middle East.
God has not, in the past 77 years, allowed Israel to be conquered and He will not allow that to happen now. Although there will be a judgement upon the Jewish people as well, a remnant will eventually be forgiven and restored. Ezekiel 16:59-63, Romans 9:27

Many prophecies tell of God’s fire judgement; this has not happened as yet, His first judgement of humankind was by a flood. This coming Lord’s Day of vengeance and wrath, is described as a terrible day of fire and earthquakes. It will be a Day when the heavens blaze; 2 Peter 3:7 & 10, burning like a furnace; Malachi 4:1, raining fiery coals; Psalms 11:4-6, fire like a whirlwind, many will be killed; Isaiah 66:15-17, suddenly, in an instant....flames of devouring fire; Isaiah 29:5-6.
But the verse that tells us exactly what God will use on that Day is Isaiah 30:26a The moon will shine as bright as the sun and the sun will shine with 7 times its normal power.

This accurately describes a solar flare, something that does happen on a regular basis, usually harmlessly. In the past there have been larger Coronal Mass Ejections, explosions of the suns surface, but now; scientists warn of the possibility and likely probability of a massive CME, that in our modern age of communications, transport and conveniences, would have a devastating effect.

Now, note the second half of Isaiah 30:26b... on that Day, the Lord will bind up the broken limbs of His people and heal their wounds.
AND Isaiah 30:29 But for you there will be rejoicing, as you travel to the Holy Land.....
This is a wonderful promise to His people, those who love the Lord and follow in His precepts- every faithful Christian. Many, many prophecies tell how His people will be conveyed and gathered into all of the Holy Land, after this Day of judgement. Isaiah 66:18b-21 This forthcoming Day and the gathering are quite different from that described at the Return of Jesus - years later.

Isaiah 52:6-12 On that Day, My people will know My Name.....go out leave Babylon, keep yourselves pure, the Lord will guard and guide you.

Ezekiel 28:25-26 When I execute judgement on all of Israel’s scornful neighbours, then My people: all the true believers, gathered from the nations, will live in peace in the Land, I shall show My holiness in them for everyone to see. [Before Jesus Returns]

Ezekiel 20:41-42 I shall accept you....after I have brought you out from the peoples where you have been dispersed, into the Land promised to your [Spiritual] forefathers.
Ref: REBible. (verses abridged)
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