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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.

Maine elects woman convicted of killing Canadian tourist to city council: ‘So broken’

But you see, 34 is more than 1. So if we give them 34 pennies, they will gladly give us 1 $100 bill.
I've fallen for that trick before, and I'm not falling for it again. Good day Sir!
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Pope Leo says faith and love for migrants are connected

Did God give it to you or did your ancestors take it from the indigenous people here first?
My ancestors? I don't know them. And in 100 more years, nobody alive can say they ever knew either of us. We won't even be a memory for anyone.

...But right now, in this time, this country belongs to the living citizens.
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The Thing Most Sabbath Keepers Do not Talk About.

God cared about a tree in Eden. It’s just a tree, right? Or was it a test that changed everything.
irrelevant.
I think one is missing the point behind it. It’s not just about Saturday or Sunday, it’s the power behind it and whose voice are we listening to. God commanded one thing, was very specific another power changed it not based on God’s Authroity, He warned us this would happen Dan7:25 and we see a clear history of it, most people followed this power (even without realizing it as it happened so long ago) instead of being faithful to what God said. It’s really a test of our loyalty, because we are told whoever we obey is who we serve (or worship) Rom6:16 And God’s remnant people keep God’s commandments Rev12:17
“And he will speak against the Most High and wear down the saints of the Highest One, and he will intend to make alterations in times and in law; and they will be handed over to him for a time, times, and half a time. But the court will convene for judgment, and his dominion will be taken away, annihilated and destroyed forever.”
‭‭Daniel‬ ‭7‬:‭25‬-‭26‬ ‭NASB2020‬‬

Did you forget about verse 26? Are you again interpreting this verse to refer to all when it applies to only a subset of people? Not only that but I’d resolved in the next verse?


“So the dragon was enraged with the woman, and went off to make war with the rest of her children, who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus.”
‭‭Revelation‬ ‭12‬:‭17‬ ‭NASB2020‬‬

Which commandments? This verse refers to Jesus so the commandments are His not the 10 commandments.


I am a firm believer God really means what He says. If God commanded us to keep Tuesday holy, who are we to argue with our Maker. He was very specific about His Sabbath and what it means to Him. God stated plainly in His commandments written by the finger of God which is the Holy Spirit of Truth. He never said we can substitute what we don’t agree with for our own man-made ideas. He condemned this teaching Mar7:7-13 Mat15:3-14 I find the Sabbath to be the blessing and delight just as He promised Isa8:13-14 Isa56:2. I believe we are to change our lives around His word, not try to bend the Bible to fit our life. In the end it will be up to God. I think He made His case clearly, but I know you don’t agree, so I guess it will get sorted out soon enough. I do wish you well.
But you are missing the fact that He gave us a new covenant and a new covenant has different terms than the old covenant.

“‘And in vain do they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men.” He was also saying to them, “You are experts at setting aside the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition. For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘The one who speaks evil of father or mother, is certainly to be put to death’; but you say, ‘If a person says to his father or his mother, whatever I have that would help you is Corban (that is, given to God),’ you no longer allow him to do anything for his father or his mother; thereby invalidating the word of God by your tradition which you have handed down; and you do many things such as that.””
‭‭Mark‬ ‭7‬:‭7‬-‭13‬ ‭NASB2020‬‬

Do you not see your error in quoting these verses? This is a condemnation of the law because no one can keep the law perfectly.

“And He answered and said to them, “Why do you yourselves also break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother,’ and, ‘The one who speaks evil of father or mother is to be put to death.’ But you say, ‘Whoever says to his father or mother, “Whatever I have that would help you has been given to God,” he is not to honor his father or mother.’ And by this you have invalidated the word of God for the sake of your tradition. You hypocrites, rightly did Isaiah prophesy about you, by saying: ‘This people honors Me with their lips, But their heart is far away from Me. ‘And in vain do they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ ” After Jesus called the crowd to Him, He said to them, “Hear and understand! It is not what enters the mouth that defiles the person, but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles the person.” Then the disciples came and *said to Him, “Do You know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this statement?” But He answered and said, “Every plant which My heavenly Father did not plant will be uprooted. Leave them alone; they are blind guides of blind people. And if a person who is blind guides another who is blind, both will fall into a pit.””
‭‭Matthew‬ ‭15‬:‭3‬-‭14‬ ‭NASB2020‬‬



This is exactly why Jesus was crucified and nailed the law to the cross. No one can keep the law perfectly. Only Jesus was able yo keep the law perfectly so He fulfilled it. No one else could.

You are welcomed to keep the sabbath. You will not get any judgement from me but you have to stop accusing those that do not believe as you of living in sin and being idolaters. You have no right to judge others. That is God’s purview not yours.
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The auto-pen scandal is going to be massive

Makes one wonder how an ignorant, dim witted old man became a billionaire and was elected president twice
Blame who you like but...

"I love the poorly educated!!!"
-Donald Trump

"Smart people don't like me".
-Donald Trump


Considering how much is dad left him at the time, it's widely consider he did very mediocre.

I mean since he's been president he's been doing very well because his supporters are cool with him enriching him and his family while in office. Kind of deranged actually.
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A guest opinion : Trump Is Pushing Us Toward a Crash. It Could Be 1929 All Over Again.

Everything was fine then Trump. Except, everything was not fine.

After the 2008 financial crash, which economists completely missed, some people were calling for a rethink on economics from the ground up. That never happened. Too bad. It should have.

Hyman Minsky: Stability is destabilizing.

Let that sink in. Stability brings shenanigans.

After around 70 years of stability, the wheels start falling off the cart. Trump would be a minor player in this. The damage has already been done.
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The Lutheran Hail Mary and the Orthodox Angelic Salutation

It is well known that Calvin opposed the ubiquity of Christ's body, because he thought that even in the resurrection Christ's human nature had normal human limits. While I admit that we don't know what precisely a resurrection body is like, I'm trying to imagine how a human would deal with the prayers of a billion people.

This is probably a peculiarly Reformed point of view.
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Be Instructed Judah

Your entire theory is based on replacement
It is what can be called - The Jesus Theory.
Jesus came and offered Salvation to all who would accept it. Paul made it clear that ethnicity for Christians doesn't count anymore.

But God does have a secret, that is; He knows exactly who are the descendants of Jacob are today. Amos 9:9
But we don't and it isn't for us to know, so why try to make out that a group of mixed race non Christian peoples, who have formed a nation in a small part of the holy Land, are Gods people?
They are not and the OP tells us of their virtual demise.

The Christian peoples, from every tribe, race, nation and language, will gather in all of the Holy Land, Ezekiel 34:11-16, + and will be divided into 12 groups, each called after a son of Jacob. As Revelation 7:1-14 describes.

Lets not hear any more opinions based on false teachings.
Address the plain Words of Jeremiah 6, - Judah will be punished and their houses given to other people.
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Am I Weird, Or Is He Weird?

@Isaac the Recluse @mourningdove~ @Michie @Jermayn @comana @RileyG @FireDragon76 @2PhiloVoid

Got more replies than expected. Thank you everyone for reading, and for your input. There's some info left out of the OP because I like to keep posts as short as possible, and because I didn't think it relevant, or because I thought it was too personal.
I apologize for this post being long, which I try to avoid usually, but it seems necessary here.

The man I'm talking about is my priest, and I didn't really know if I should say that. I know most of you don't have priests, some of you have pastors maybe.

He's a very kind and caring man. He knows me well. I've confessed my sins to him. He knows me better than I know him, but I do know that even before becoming a priest he lived a very straight-laced life. Never smoked, never drank, that kind of thing. In 10 years with him as my priest, I've had to confess to him two brief illicit relationships I've had. With women, grown women. There was no adultery involved. I confess every sin of significance. If I ever had that abominable inclination towards children, he would know.

The incident I'm talking about happened at our church's Halloween party. I and some other guys had been there that morning to clean and set up for the party. Another adult at clean up told me he'd be at the party later, and I went to the party to talk to him about some real estate business.

When I first arrived at the party, walking in, the priest waved me over to sit with him. First thing he said after "hello" was "You came to a children's Halloween party?" The human brain works quick, and I said something like "Oh yeah, I love seeing the kids in their costumes." I mean, yeah, I like kids seeing kids in cute costumes on the same level any normal person might like it, so it wasn't a lie. I just thought maybe saying I was there for business might seem un-festive and maybe even crass. This may have been a mistake on my part. I've been to other kids events in the past, like Halloween and Easter egg hunts, but I go to socialize and have fellowship with the adults.

There's one thing I got wrong in the OP. I said I'd never said a word to any of his children, but I had forgotten one single exception with the boy. Many years ago, one Sunday morning during our church service, the priest's son was throwing a loud tantrum in the narthex, screaming and crying. I was in the narthex being an usher. I watched his mom try to calm him, and his mom's mom try, and others try, all in vain. He wouldn't stop, so his mom put him outside on the balcony, where he continued the tantrum.

I had a hunch that I might be able to calm him, and the hunch was actually based on the fact that I'd never spoken to him. I had the idea that he might feel awkward acting out in front of an adult stranger, because the other adults who unsuccessfully tried to calm him were the more gregarious types who I frequently see talking and playing with the kids after church. So when his mom walked back in, I asked her "Do you mind if I go out and speak with him?" She said "please do ", so I went outside and made small talk.* It worked. He calmed down, was happy and smiling, came back inside, and the mom and grandmother were grateful and thanked me.

I should add that that morning, we were having our service at a vacant retail office space. While I was talking to his son, it was right outside the front of the building which is made up of wall to wall, floor to ceiling plate glass windows. I was alone with the kid, but in plain view of about a dozen people, including his mom and grandmother, in the narthex.

I have no idea if the priest's wife ever told him about that, but I wonder if she did, that perhaps he got the wrong idea about me wanting to talk to his son alone outside the wall of clear glass windows?

But I don't really think he thinks I have any perverse "thing" for kids. The thing that insulted me most was when he said "but you can hang around us here", which seems to imply that he thinks that I want to glom onto his family, as if I'm some lonely loser or something. He knows my immediate family is all deceased, but I'm an uncle and a great uncle, and my nephews and nieces and I have always gotten along great our entire lives, and always spend time together throughout the year.

I'm going to talk with him next week. I really do appreciate everyone's input, especially the part about parents wanting to be protective. I never had children, but I have a beautiful doggie that I love, and if anyone ever tried to harm it, it would be better if a millstone were tied around their neck...:)

* This was in January. During the small talk I asked him what he got for Christmas. He said all he got was a tomato. A single tomato. I suspect this isn't the whole truth, but if it is, I'm afraid I'm going to have to have a second talk with my priest and his wife about how Santa Claus is supposed to work. :)
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Maine elects woman convicted of killing Canadian tourist to city council: ‘So broken’

You don’t agree that violent murder is more serious? Curious.

Satisfy me? She could be doing something that has nothing to do with making decisions for the people of a city.
I just don’ t se how it is a problem in this situation. What precludes her from making decisions?

As to murder, we bring back soldiers who kill and call them heroes. If taking a life causes irredeemable damage, and yes, many soldiers do it willfully, then why promote war veterans with kills as great citizens, even leaders?
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Are professed Christians that worship our Lord on Sunday instead of Saturday sinning?

There are many examples of God's laws being followed without it being recorded when God first gave them such as with Genesis 39:9 where Joseph knew that it was a sin to commit adultery, so the fact that the first recorded instance of a command against adultery wasn't until Sinai does not give justification for assuming that there was no law against adultery prior to that, and the same is true for the Sabbath.
The Ten Commandments, which Sabbath is part of, were not given until Exodus 16.

Not Abraham, not Isaac, not Jacob, none of the patriarchs kept Sabbath (Fathers prior to Egypt did not keep the Sabbath: Deut 5:2-3 "The Lord our God made a covenant with us at Horeb. The Lord did not make this covenant with our fathers, but with us, with all those of us alive here today."). The first time the Sabbath is mentioned in some significant way is in the 16th chapter of Exodus, when God feeds the people manna from heaven as they wander in the wilderness.

And the manna comes every day except the Sabbath day, and the day before they get enough for that day, so that they don’t have to work on that day. And that gives them a little preview of what’s coming, because in the 20th chapter you have the Ten Commandments, and in the Ten Commandments, prescriptions are given that do set down laws for the Sabbath day. This is the first time any such laws have been given by God.

The Sabbath was not instituted for man in Genesis. It was instituted officially in Exodus, in the law of Moses. A further understanding of that comes from Exodus chapter 31. The Lord speaks to Moses in verse 12, and He says to him, “As for you, speak to the sons of Israel saying, ‘You shall surely observe My Sabbaths; for this is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the Lord who sanctifies you.

“‘Therefore you are to observe the Sabbath, for it is holy to you. Everyone who profanes it shall surely be put to death; for whoever does any work on it, that person shall be cut off from among his people. For six days work may be done but on the seventh day there is a Sabbath of complete rest, holy to the Lord; whoever does any work on the Sabbath day shall surely be put to death. So the sons of Israel shall observe the Sabbath, to celebrate the Sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant.

“‘It is a sign between Me and the sons of Israel forever;’” - why? - “‘for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, but on the seventh day He ceased, and was refreshed,’” - or rested. Here we find that Sabbath is a sign; it is a sign. That is to say, it points to something else. It is a symbol, connected to the Mosaic covenant.

When God made a covenant with Noah, He promised Noah that He would never destroy the world again, and God identified a sign. What was the sign of the Noahic covenant? Rainbow. When God made a covenant with Abraham, He made that covenant with Abraham and He designated a sign, and the sign of the Abrahamic covenant, participation among the covenant people Israel, was the sign of circumcision. And here you have in the Mosaic covenant another sign, and the sign this time is the Sabbath.

It was only a sign. Observing it with a duplicitous heart gained nothing. In fact, Isaiah 1:13 says, “Bring your worthless offerings no longer, Incense is an abomination to Me. New moon and Sabbath.” The prophet Hosea pronounces a similar judgment on their hypocritical Sabbaths: “I will put an end to all her gaiety, her feasts, her new moons, her Sabbaths.” It didn’t mean anything to observe it outwardly without a heart of love and devotion to God.

The Sabbath was a reminder of creation. The Sabbath was to remind the people of Israel that they had forfeited paradise; that man had forfeited paradise. The law said to them, “Obey this law and you will be blessed.” God said that repeatedly: “Obey this law and you will be blessed,” to show them that righteous behaviour would restore a taste of Eden’s paradise. Righteous behaviour would also point to a future, a future kingdom when paradise would be regained.

So, the Sabbath, every Sabbath that went by, when they rested, they were reminded of a perfect creation, a paradise of God dominated by righteousness, which had been forfeited by sin and could only be regained again by righteousness. God then institutes the seventh-day system - not for everybody in the world; in fact, specifically, it says, for Israel. Verse 17: “A sign between Me and the sons of Israel forever.” Every seventh day was a reminder that they were living in a fallen world. Every seventh day was a reminder that they had lost paradise.


The Sabbath was the sign to Israel of the Old Covenant. Because we are now under the New Covenant, we are no longer required to keep the sign of the Old Covenant. The New Testament nowhere commands Christians to observe the Sabbath.

Paul warned the Gentiles about many different sins in his epistles, but never about breaking the Sabbath.

The early church Fathers, from Ignitions to Augustine, taught that the Old Testament Sabbath had been abolished and that the first day of the week (Sunday) was the day when Christians should meet for worship.
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Why Does the Bible Tell Us to Behave In Ways We Can’t? How Can Anyone Be Saved?

The messenger of YHVH, the apostle paul, did.
Did Apostle Pal kept every single commandment of God? No. Thus he was a sinner in need of a Saviour.

Have you learnt nothing from Paul's letters?

Romans 3
“None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” - this includes Paul

23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, - this includes Paul

Romans 7
9 I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. 10 The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. 11 For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. 12 So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.
13 Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. 14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. 15 For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. 17 So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
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Maine elects woman convicted of killing Canadian tourist to city council: ‘So broken’

Which is why she was charged with manslaughter, the most serious sounding charge.
I can’t find the actual case but there is a penchant for prosecutors to deal in a case where the defendant is willing to plead guilty. She might have been charged with murder but pleaded down to manslaughter.
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