Guojing said:

So what did Jesus meant in Matthew 19:28?

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Those who follow Him will judge the 12 tribes.

Mark Quayle said:

Well, that's helpful! I can answer you in your own framework, demonstrating its self-contradiction, but you can't answer mine, though you claim it is self-contradictory.

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I don't need to answer yours because the supposed "problem" doesn't exist. God isn't double minded, so when He says He desires all to come to knowledge of the truth, what more is needed?

Mark Quayle said:

Who says anyone believes anything of their own accord? What does that even mean?

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It means that whatever reasons a person claims to believe determinism are not actually related to their belief in determinism, should determinism be true.

Mark Quayle said:

Your affirmations only show that you affirm whatever you affirm. And no, I don't know what you mean by determinism —I can only guess. And I asked you to define free will in order to demonstrate its self-contradictory nature. I know full well you intend "libertarian" free will, which is in essence "full spontaneity", as though the free willed person was his own first cause, which is a logically invalid notion. That a person is free to choose as he will is self-evident. But what he always chooses is chosen at enmity with God, if he is not born-again.

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You seem to misunderstand the argument, because it's not just that i affirm what I affirm, but that whether we affirm or deny free will we must do so on the basis of an act of free will. So in order to make an affirmation of determinism, the claimant must first demonstrate their affirmation to be false.

comana said:

Those that can afford luxury will pay for it but the rest are filling stores like Walmart looking for the lowest cost. High quality is great if you don’t need that extra cash it costs to pay rent and feed your family.

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And when you are buying them are you thinking deeply about how they are made by child or slave labor in authoritarian regimes so we can have a worthy peer to go to war with, like another poster suggested? Or are thinking about it at all and just buying whatever is cheaper?

Hentenza said:

So your “common sense” tells you that the comma should be after the word “today”

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You don't seem to grasp the fact there were no commas in the original scripture, so it was at the discretion of humans centuries later where they put it, and you can bet they put it where their doctrine wanted it. It could just have easily said Truly I say to you today, you will be with me in lparadise. Either way no punctuation in the original.

timothyu said:

Again, the punctuation was added to scripture centuries later from the time of the original. It was at the discretion of the editor to add where they saw fit.

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Not the editor but the scholars that translated the Bible from the original languages. It makes perfect sense to add a comma after the phrase “Truly I say to you”. Languages like Thai and Burmese still lack punctuation but are translated to English adding punctuation.

Aryeh Jay said:

Because they like to buy affordable cheaply made things produced by slave or child labor whose profits go overseas to authoritarian regimes so that the Chinese government can continue to modernize their military and give them a worthy peer to peer force that the United States can face in a future battle space?

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I don't think thats correct for the average shopper. People do buy whats cheaper, but they don't think that deep about it. Do you honestly believe the average person looks at a label on a good and thinks, "oh this is made by slave labor in China. Let's buy it because we want a worthy peer to go to war with"?

Maybe you do, but the vast majority of folks don't. They just buy whatever is the shelf and dont think twice about any of it.

It takes a VERY long time to build a manufacturing facility in the US. Regulations require it. So if we are going to bring it back then patience is required. I honestly don't have much faith that we will bring it back. Corporations aren't going to give their current solid situations for tenuous ones.

And even if we did cut back on goods from places like China the liberals would be the first ones against it because they would complain how it affects the cost. We already saw that earlier when Trump was fighting with China over goods. They were all complaining how we needed those cheap goods. I remember debating them about it.

If I can by US made products I will. I have done a lot of research on products before I buy to see where they come from. Anymore, its very difficult to find anything that is US made or at least made in places that aren't made in places like you mentioned. But if I can I will buy things made in America or places that arent authoritarian regimes with child oe slave labor.

Paidiske said:

True, but this sort of problem is endemic in our churches. So what would help improve them?

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A long time ago a colleague once told me, "Some people are just malcontents." (colorful adjective omitted). Others are just determined to have their own way. Communication to navigate differences assumes both parties are at least semi-reasonable. Not everyone is.

timothyu said:

That's the problem. People rely on tradition instead of common sense.

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So your “common sense” tells you that the comma should be after the word “today” when in every other instance (76 other times) the comma, and there is always a comma, is after the phrase? It sounds to me like someone is grasping as straws to defend their pet doctrine.

rambot said:

OF course the benefactor of that miscarriage of their own religion would certainly excuse it thusly.

But the victims of the Christian church would not think the difference actually matters.

Cause it doesn't REALLY matter.

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I'm not excusing it, it is atrocious behavior that shouldn't have happened. But it is an indictment of the folks who carried it out, not the religion itself. It absolutely matters whether or not the founding documents/central religious figures were emblematic of the behavior that is being censured because it is impossible to condemn the behavior within the religion if it is endemic to it.

Hentenza said:

I would find it very peculiar and a departure from the normal use of the phrase if only on this verse the comma would not come after the phrase but after the following word.

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That's the problem. People rely on tradition instead of common sense that come with an understanding of how man likes to make everything over in our own image..

Hentenza said:

The problem is that Jesus uses the phrase “Truly I say to you” or “Truly, Truly I say to you” multiple times in the NT (77 times) and in every instance the comma comes after the phrase.

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Again, the punctuation was added to scripture centuries later from the time of the original. It was at the discretion of the editor to add where they saw fit.

BNR32FAN said:

According to your map here how is it possible that people on the southern tip of Africa and the southern tip of South America can look south at the same time and both see the Southern Cross constellation when according to your map they’re looking in completely different directions? According to your map they’re looking 90 degrees from each other. So how are they both seeing the same objects at the same time while looking in completely different directions?

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1. It's not my map
2. I've no idea,
3. Try googling it

Larniavc said:

Honestly this is half of the problem. If Christians stopped trying to get people to live the way their particular religion insists Christianity wouldn’t be so controversial.

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Truth is controversial by nature, Jesus did say He came not to bring peace but a sword and people generally don't appreciate being called out for being evil.

BCP1928 said:

No one is asking that, and you are free to let your religious beliefs inform your political views. Christians even have the power to impose them on others, to the extent of one vote each, just like everybody else. Provided, of course, that the imposition is not such as to interfere with their Constitutional rights.

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It goes beyond that, to suppression of public displays or being able to express personal religious beliefs for educators or other public facing government jobs without fear of loss of employment. Even voluntary teacher led or coach led prayer is banned in schools, which to me seems to violate the spirit of the establishment clause.

Vambram said:

Those were not "news stories."

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I love that you put "news stories" in quote marks without justifying or explaining yourself in any way..

JimR-OCDS said:

They're not going to approve a bill that has potential consequences. It would be incompetent to do so.

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Not what I asked. I asked if they had the power to. They did. The Democrats on the other hand had no power to pass the bill on their own. Thus, the Republicans owned the shutdown because they could have unilaterally avoided it.

JimR-OCDS said:

The amendment made in the Senate was not what Schumer's counter proposal was seeking. Read page 57 of the counter
proposal, which would've continued to fund everyone legal and illegal. The bill modification in the Senate only extended
the current healthcare bill. The House then approved it and sent it back to the Senate and then to Trump.

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Ok? It's still a different bill then the one the House passed and thus would have required the House to pass again. Which would have been hard to do since Johnson intentionally recessed the house before the budget deadline with no set time to return. So even with this compromise, the shut down would have happened.

JimR-OCDS said:

Schumer wanted to go back to spending $1.5 trillion which included illegal immigrants and as it was done
before Trump took office. Schumer faced criticism from the democrats when he voted for the resolution
back in March. This time he tried to appease them.

Even Senator John Fetterman (D) sided with the republicans and criticized the democrats for shutting down the government.
The democrats who negotiated with the republicans to reopen the government, blamed Schumer and the DNC for the
shutdown.

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I'm sure it has nothing to do with the fact that all those democrats are moderate to conservative, represent purple states, and were courting Republican votes.

JimR-OCDS said:

The healthcare solution is only kicking the can down the road. Insurance companies will merely raise their premiums
based on how much the government is willing to give them. The president and congress, democrats and republicans,
are going to have to get us away from the "for profit," healthcare system we currently have. A single-player universal
healthcare package will have to be put together, which will be run by a private company with government oversite.
Guess who opposed Hillarycare and put out propaganda against it? The health insurance companies.

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I mean I agree with you about this, but that's never going to happen.

Vambram said:

What expertise or resources did Hunter Biden have that China wanted?

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That doesn't matter whatsoever, does it?

Fervent said:

This isn't about miscarriages of a religion, but a pattern set by its founder.

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OF course the benefactor of that miscarriage of their own religion would certainly excuse it thusly.

But the victims of the Christian church would not think the difference actually matters.

Cause it doesn't REALLY matter.

Landon Caeli said:

I don't think that's actually true. Americans want quality products more than cheap foreign junk. The exception would be high quality products made in places like France, Germany, Switzerland or Italy. We'll gladly pay for their top goods.

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Those that can afford luxury will pay for it but the rest are filling stores like Walmart looking for the lowest cost. High quality is great if you don’t need that extra cash it costs to pay rent and feed your family.

Bradskii said:

Just because it involves religious texts? Good grief...

It doesn't just involve religious texts. You are governed by religious texts. You have no choice in the matter. Whatever beliefs you personally hold are irrelevant. You have no recourse to change anything whatsoever. Some select few (who selects them?) will interpret the Quran, the Veda or the old Testament and you'll have to obey whatever that interpetation is. You can't change it. It is fixed.

If you you prefer that, living under what the Qur'an or Vedas or Old Testament demands rather than in a western style democracy then that's your call.

So will it be your current messy democratic republic or Sharia Law for you? As is usual, I don't ask expecting an answer but only to show that the question will be ignored.

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See post #217.

A federal judge on Monday offered a blistering assessment of the Justice Department’s case against former FBI Director James B. Comey, detailing what he described as a “disturbing pattern of profound investigative missteps” and possible misconduct that could imperil the prosecution.
.....
After reviewing the grand jury transcripts, the judge said he came away with deep concerns about the process leading to that indictment.

U.S. Magistrate Judge William Fitzpatrick criticized authorities for their “cavalier” attitude toward the rights of Comey and others. Lindsey Halligan, the Trump-appointed U.S. attorney overseeing the case, appeared to have made “fundamental misstatements of the law” to the grand jury that indicted Comey on charges of lying to Congress, he wrote.

“Here, the procedural and substantive irregularities that occurred before the grand jury, and the manner in which evidence presented to the grand jury was collected and used, may rise to the level of government misconduct resulting in prejudice to Mr. Comey,” Fitzpatrick wrote.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2025/11/17/comey-james-cook-trump-prosecutions-misconduct/

“The court is finding that the government’s actions in this case — whether purposeful, reckless or negligent — raise genuine issues of misconduct, are inextricably linked to the government’s grand jury presentation and deserve to be fully explored by the defense,” Judge Fitzpatrick wrote.

gov.uscourts.vaed.582136.191.0.pdf

rambot said:

[my edit]
Lol!
There are quite a few nonchristians and Aboriginal groups that would describe Christianity through that exact lens. Or frankly, FAR less flattering verbiage.

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This isn't about miscarriages of a religion, but a pattern set by its founder.

Delvianna said:

Salvation started with the Jews. We are not replacing them, we are grafted in.

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True, and I think there will be more Gentile Christians saved than Jewish Christians. But God will continue to bring His people to Himself (after 4,000 years). It's my belief that the Jews that disbelieve in Christ but love God will inherit the New Earth; and all the Christians will inherit the New Heaven. I realize there's not much direct Scripture concerning this concept so it has mostly to be inferred. Hence all the Scripture that's related to the Jews and the earth!

Jhn 4:22: "Salvation is of the Jews - They have the true religion and the true form of worship; and the Messiah, who will bring salvation, is to proceed from them. See Luke 2:30; Luke 3:6. Jesus thus affirms that the Jews had the true form of the worship of God. At the same time He was sensible how much they had corrupted it, and on various occasions reproved them for it. -Albert Barnes

John Gill: "The promises of salvation, and of a Saviour, were made to them, when the Gentiles were strangers to them; the means of salvation, and of the knowledge of it, as the word, statutes, and ordinances, were enjoyed by them, when others were ignorant of them; and the Messiah, who is sometimes styled "Salvation," see Genesis 49:18, was not only prophesied of in their books, and promised unto them, but came of them, as well as to them; and the number of the saved ones had been for many hundreds of years, and still was among them; the line of election ran among them."

Bradskii said:

Ah, maybe the question has been answered...it seems that you'd prefer not to have a theocracy. You woudn't want believers to have 'preferential treatment'. You wouldn't want to be reduced to a 'second class' status. And because, well...it would allow 'all manner of abuse'.

Hey, we agree! Isn't it lucky that we both live in secular countries.

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Not all theocracies are created equal. Just because I wouldn't want to live in an islamic caliphate doesn't mean I would mind living in a Society of Friends led presbyterian government, or even a Sihk or Brahminist government if I have to go with a non-Christian religion. The specific details matter, not just broad strokes categories that are barely informative.

Vambram said:

What expertise or resources did Hunter Biden have that China wanted?

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Who cares? They’re the ones spending the money.

You’re obviously fine with elected (or otherwise) officials using their positions for personal profit. What’s the problem with Hunter joining in? You can’t argue it’s fine for Trump then turn around and say it’s wrong when a democrat is suspected of doing the same.

timothyu said:

Take away the comma which didn't exist in the original scripts and the meaning given it by man no longer applies.

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The problem is that Jesus uses the phrase “Truly I say to you” or “Truly, Truly I say to you” multiple times in the NT (77 times) and in every instance the comma comes after the phrase. Jesus uses this phrase to emphasize the importance and truthfulness of the statement that follows.

I would find it very peculiar and a departure from the normal use of the phrase if only on this verse the comma would not come after the phrase but after the following word.