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The Mamdani Model: More Socialist Mayors to ComeBeware! The DSA will attempt to repeat Mamdani’s success in other Democrat strongholds.

Part Ib opens with our discussion using abortion as an example...

I think you are confusing the correlation with causation. Legalization of birth control, abortion, and easier divorce all occurs in the US in a narrow window starting in the mid-1960s. I am well aware The Church (of Rome) consideres sex outside marriage to be a sin and abortion to be murder. I have heard many a homily on the subjects. That was not the point I was addressing. Rather I was addressing the false assumption that women having abortions are unmarried and not in relationships.
I never made that assumption. That is your assumption on my thinking. Your creating an either/or. I am not placing any stipulations on why abortions happen. Only that they increased dramatically after those laws were changed. Its the combinations of all factors that led to the increase.

Its more about the fundemental ideology or belief basis for those laws which was that abortion and divorce were ok now. Or at least compromised from the biblical standard. That is what opened the gates.

Even a Christian within a marriage sees abortion murder and certainly unmarriage relationships and bearing kids is anti bible. So two wrongs don't make a right. But part of the problem is the devaluing of marriage so that sex is now acceptable outside marriage. Which then opens the door for unwanted preganacies.
This is not the case, then or now. Churches push this false impression all the time. Both birth control and abortions are used by married women because they don't want another child or one at the current time.
This is begging the question. You can be married today and not be a Christian. But if a couple are married under God as Christians then abortion is a sin. So you are conflating secular marriage with Christian marriage which is part of the problem and shows how secular norms and Christians norms are so different.
Since these things have occurred, unwanted pregnancy rates are down, abortion rates have fallen and so have divorce rates. (I suspect domestic violence is also down, but I don't have recollections of reading those statistics.)
You literally just told me I was conflating correlations with causes.
That's not what I said. I mentioned that "baby killing" was the other primary bit of propaganda used by anti-abortion Christians.
Why, is it propaganda when its a biblical truth. Stating truth is not propaganda. This is a good example of how Christian beliefs are now seen as hateful and in this case propaganda or some false belief that is being pushed.

Simply stating as Christians have always said that abortion and marriage outside biblical marriage is a sin is not hate or propaganda. Its simply expressing a belief and people have a right to express that belief.
What are non-biblical Christians? If that's the kind that never read the bible, then we were definitely them.
Ok Christians who reject the bible. If you can call them Christians. Christians who not only reject the bible but promote unbiblical ideas. You can't sit on both sides of the fense.
While churches certainly hold the position that "abortion is murder" that concept does not appear in any passage of the Bible. It is constructed by stacking conclusions upon on conclusions through theology. (That's they way theology is done it seems.) Other groups using the same sacred texts do not reach the same conclusions.
Yes this is part of the very ideology that supports progressive ideas. They have to undermine the bible to do so. By questioning the truth that abortion is wrong they open the door for abortion.

Are you saying there is no biblical determination that even erring on the side of caution as to Gods creation and the divine act of procreation in recreation Gods creation can be just terminated based on some relative justification. At the very least we should stop 99% of abortions.
No. Again, you didn't read carefully. You used two terms straight from Mao's revolution: "The Long March"
Then you don't know history. I explained this in the previous post. So perhaps you should be reading my posts more carefully.

Antonio Gramsci’s long march through history

and the "Cultural Revolution". Both are well known epoch in Chinese communist history and neither was relevant to your discussion from why I could tell, so I was trying to figure out why you kept using CCP terminology.
Well the4y also have meaning in the west. You should not have assumed and I did explain this as the Long March through the Institutions. Its was a new strategy coined by Gramsci that instead of armed conflict in taking over the establishment. They could infiltrate the institutions and and take over that way.

Which is Marxism and instead of being about Class thanks to the same academic ideologues Critical theories it became Cultural Marxism and about every percieved oppressed identity and not just class.

Hense gender, race, sex, religion and a growing number of newly created identities. Hense a Cultural revolution rather than an armed revolution. Though it seems now people are willing to use violence and arms because the Long March has not succeeded.

But then this type of political ideology was always going to decend into violence and armed conflict because thats how it was birthed in the first place. A oppressor and victim worldview so at some point violence will be needed to free the victims if all else fails.
Probably because I happen to thing the outcomes of the "sexual revolution" were good things.
But surely thats a subjective belief. So those who believe that it caused a lot of damage to people and society have an equal say. If a bible believing Christian tells their belief that sex outside marriage is a sin or SSM is a sin then this is not hate and wrong but just the right to express a belief by conscience. The same with those who believe sex outside marriage is good.

So how do we sort that out as to what public policy should be based on. You can't have both. Is it majority rules. Or maybe whoever can get into a position of influence. Maybe have more money behind them to market their morals lol.
The US was not a "Christian nation", then or ever, nor was it "Muslim" or "pagan". It was and is *secular*. (your country may be different, but I am not prepared or inclined to discuss your country.)
Then what did the Colonies base their morals on. What morals did the Federation base it morals on. Was it the majority social norms. What was the majority social norms based on.
In your house, perhaps, not in mine.
OK so does every house have an equal say. Which house holds the truth on what is moral so that we can make a determination over which house we should use as the basis for social policies and laws.
and built in part on false premises
What was the false premise. That abortion was wrong or that society was wrong about thinking abortion was wrong.
As I noted above, I agree with less influence of moralistic Christianity on sex and marriage.
So if we have less influence from Christianity then what influence do we use instead for social norms on sex and marriage.
This is an ongoing conflation of the mores of the 1950s with all periods before then. It just wasn't the case.
Its not a conflation because what the 1950s were using as their basis was the bible which was the same basis for every other time in history. Including back to the early church right up until today. It has not changed. That we can only find certain times where society aligned with those biblical truths is irrelevant as to their truth.

It is those never changing truths that are the basis and what is being used to compare with other beliefs and ideologies on social moral issues. I am saying for the times when society lived up to those truths compared to the alternatives and especially modern progressive norms the differece is stark and conflicting.

That conflict is being played out in the culture wars we see where these norm differences come into contact.
Nah, it's just evidence for an strongly anti-modernist strain of Christianity.
What is a modernist strain of Christianity. You are not even a Christian. How can you know what Christianity is fullstop.
An extreme claim! LOL! It is a literal fact that "laws" and "social norms" are not the same things.
I never said they were the same thing. I said laws are often based off social norms. How did SSM come about. It happened because society had changed and were more open to SSM.

Its a self evident fact that you could not legalise homosexuality within a pro Christian norm lol. The society has to evolve to change to then accept that change in law. They go hand in hand.

I mean even speeding laws have a moral basis. Why is speeding wrong. Because it causes accidents. Why are accidents wrong. Because they can harm and kill people. Is that not a moral basis.
Not sure what that means.
Have you not heard the famous quote "the personal is political which was part of 2nd wave feminism and set the stage for bringing the political into the private sphere.

The famous slogan is "the personal is political," popularized by feminist Carol Hanisch in a 1969 essay. The phrase argues that personal experiences, particularly those of women, are not just private matters but are often rooted in systemic political issues and power structures, such as gender inequality. It served as a rallying cry for second-wave feminism to challenge the idea that public and private life were separate.

Now after decades of such ideologies as Critical theories which build on this politics has moved into every part of our lives. The State is the Father, Mother, Priest, Therapist, Educator and Moral arbitor over everyone.

Now the "the personal is political," this has brought in belief and morality because this is a part of personal. Its all intertwined. So now State policies and laws are not seperated from religion, belief and morals. Thats why we had PC and Woke and all the other radical moralising ideologies like Extinction Rebellions and BLM ect ect ect. Thats why people are fighting in the streets of politics and religion.

You need to do some research. I know you are knowledgable on physics but please don't pretend your a psychologist and sociologist as well.
I suggest you learn more of the early history of your relgion then. In the early decades what we now call Christianity (sometimes called in these contexts the "Jesus movement" or "The Way") was a sect of Judaism. Importantly for my point in inclusion is that Judaism is from outside western culture.
I have studied extensively the early churh. Yes Christianity came from basically a Jewish sect and there were a number. But the important destinction is that it became the only sect or even religion as far as Islam that opened up to non natives or sect members.

When it opened to the Gentiles it opened to western civilisation. Because this is what the Gentiles became, the Western civilisation that was the only civilisation that brought Christianity from that Jewish sect to all nations.

But this makes it even more relevant. Because a a belief from outside the west became the west. Making it even more universal which was the whole point. Its a plus not a negative that this supports its truth.
I am not kidding and do you really need to ask? (I know you know.)
Surely this is your personal opinion and a belief. If Christ is truely the saviour of all humankind then surely this is the greatest thing. Your begging the question that what you believe is the greatest good.

OK so if everything came from the Greeks and Romans what exactly is the good of Christianity in the west. Why did we change history based on Christ in BC and AD. What about universities and hospitals and science itself which was first initiated by Christian scientists trying to discover Gods creation.
It didn't and no one said it did. Certainly not me. What I said is that the things from ancient western culture that *I* find most valuable or important are most certainly not Christian -- democracy, mathematics, the early stages of science, as is the case for the best things of the Enlightenment.
I think its an assumption that these things did not actually come from Christian values. Like democracy was used in the early church that the congregation was to affirm the leaders and the leaders were servants to the people. Or that all are equal in Christ as the basis for equality and human rights.

Remembering that apart from this in the GrecoRoman pagan world there was no such rights. I think you underestimate Christianity and the bibles influence.

In fact the bible is the foundational book for all western literature and canons. It was literally the only book and all other books on truth stem from this. The bible to the west is not just truth but the pre-requisite for truth. I don't any other phenomena has had as much impact on the west as Christianity and the bible.

Anyway it does not matter. Its a fact its a prominent belief and moral code in western nations and one of the options we can use to base society on. As opposed to Islam or Woke or HUmanism or Feminism or any other ideology.
Finally the Romans were quite tolerant of other religions, but the did expect everyone to make the appropriate supplications to the civic and imperial cult. Jews (including Christians) being by then monotheists refused to do so and this cause some trouble.
Which is another way of saying they were intolerant of the Jews and Christians in the end.
Roman philosophers wrote on sexual morality and family without any input from Christianity. This is reality, not some "bias view".
Wrote about what moral basis for sex and family. Which set of morals were they referring to. Was it Venus. Or was this just some personal opinion of a philosopher.

If Roman beliefs about gods are puralistic then it will inherently have to accommodate paga ideas around sex ie sex outside marriage and between any consenting adults. Men could have more than one wife ect as this was a status symbol for me who were the greater sex.
"neither slave nor free" was about salvation through the death of Jesus -- anyone could be saved. It didn't change actual social status of anyone, slave, woman, or Jew.
Actually it means exactly what it says. This verse includes 'neither Jew or Gentile'. It was that all were equal in Christ when it came to salvation. The free were no more better than the slave or the Jew to the Gentile. The Jews were regarded as special to Judaism and the frre were seen as higher status than the slaves. But all were the same in Christ.

But this was not the case for the Romans who went by status and class.
You're going to ask Mr. Morrison for that. Perhaps it was ironic "best"ness given that in the same song he sings of wanting to kill his own mother.
Well the west also brought psychodelic drugs. Maybe thats why he thought the west was the best lol.
We're going to need a part Ic as I have other things to do...
Fair enough
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B flat B♭

@David Lamb @Strong in Him @prodromos & to who ever it may concern.

Just to let you know I am feeling a lot better now thanks to the Lord, thank you for all your kind concerns, I thought I were dying. You are really terrific people on here.

Many blessing :praying:

Apple
Glory to God!
I'm very happy to hear you are feeling better.
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Is Hell Annihilationism or Eternal Torment

Ezek 28:

15 “You were blameless in your ways
From the day you were created

Until unrighteousness was found in you.
16 “By the abundance of your trade
You were internally filled with violence,
And you sinned;
Therefore I have cast you as profane
From the mountain of God.
And I have destroyed you, O covering cherub,
From the midst of the stones of fire.
17 “Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty;
You corrupted your wisdom by reason of your splendor.
I cast you to the ground;
I put you before kings,
That they may see you.
18 “By the multitude of your iniquities,
In the unrighteousness of your trade
You profaned your sanctuaries.
Therefore I have brought fire from the midst of you;
It has consumed you,
And I have turned you to ashes on the earth
In the eyes of all who see you.
19 “All who know you among the peoples
Are appalled at you;
You have become terrified
And you will cease to be forever.”’”

========================

Malachi 4:
“For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace; and all the arrogant and every evildoer will be chaff; and the day that is coming will set them ablaze,” says the Lord of hosts, “so that it will leave them neither root nor branch.” 2 “But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings; and you will go forth and skip about like calves from the stall. 3 You will tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day which I am preparing,” says the Lord of hosts.


I find your logic illusive just then

"cease to be forever"
"wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life"
destroyed as in "by reducing them to ashes" 2 Peter 2

No doubt the second death of Rev 20 does involve a great deal of suffering and torment but it ends just as Ezek 28 states even for the devil himself
You failed to understand that Ezek 28 is not speaking about the devil. It's actually about Lucifer, who was not created as a devil, but became "the Devil" or Satan, after He rebelled against God and sinned.

It would really help your cause if you did a bit of a study to understand the surrounding context of the scriptures, you refer to. It's not profitable to just pluck them out of their intended context and misapply them to support your unbiblical opinion.

Yes God will burn the whole earth and every living thing in it, with fervent heat and the elements such as rocks will melt away. But nothing will be annihilated, because He will restore everything and everyone back to their proper estate again. Lucifer was destroyed, so He doesn't exist anymore as Lucifer. Now He exists as Satan or the Devil.

No man will exist in his current form, in the life to come. Some will be resurrected to glory and others to their damnation. But there's no escaping into annihilationism, it's simply not an option.
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The NEA is pushing far left teaching upon children

No, because the pronoun police demand that certain pronouns be used by others. No one here has made that demand. Are you?
One would have thought no demand was required if people just went with what was preferred by the person.

Is using the non-preferred pronoun really so hard for you to do?
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Trump dispenses with trials, orders military strike on alleged Venezuelan drug-trafficking boat (Now up to 2, 3, 4...)

Well, there we have it. Comitting the textbook example of a war crime is "bold and brave". Extreme solutions are needed to save the lives of your people. You just have to be keep being brutal to solve the problem.

This kind of reasoning has been used to rationalise the worst atrocities of mankind. But with an army as strong as yours and the world too fractured to oppose you, perhaps this time you can kill your way to utopia.
According to this post you sound awfully pro-terrorist. Shame!
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The Final Experiment (Flat Earth Bites The Dust)

Nothings being hid, because people have repeatedly gone to the North Pole.

You can even go yourself.

And I still do not get your line of argument. Posting screenshots of Google searches is... nothing except posting screenshots of Google searches.
When one has no training in, or seemingly no awareness of, the skill of critical thinking and the application of logic, it very easy to confuse assertions with evidence and beliefs with proof. If one is raised in such an enviroment I imagine it is very difficult to break free from the clutches of mindless nonsense.

When I was in primary school I remember being given a school book about evolution, diagrams of a fish like creature crawling onto land an artist's impression of ape men sitting round a camp fire having a jolly, based on a single tooth. The people who produce such drivel for children were evidently ideologically driven blinkered zealots, but I have even encountered people in the church who would irrationally defend this stuff.
If your exposure to evolutionary theory is based on a book for primary school children it is hardly surprising you have such a distorted understanding. Perhaps if you were to dip into a handful of the thousands of textbooks on evolution, or the millions of research papers, then the scales on your eyes would fall away and you could view the magnificence of the bioshphere and celebrate the means by which your God created the diversity of life on the planet.
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Is Morphic Resonance Real

AI Overview

Morphic resonance is
a theory proposed by biologist Rupert Sheldrake that suggests all natural systems, including organisms and crystals, have a collective memory that influences their form and behavior over time. This proposed mechanism of "formative causation" claims that past forms and behaviors of similar systems create a cumulative, invisible influence that shapes the development and patterns of present systems, rather than being governed by fixed physical laws alone. It implies that nature is habitual and that new behaviors can spread more rapidly through a species because of this shared, non-physical memory.

Key concepts

Collective memory: Each species, from animals to plants, possesses a collective memory that individuals can access and to which they contribute.

Habitual nature: The theory suggests that the regularities of nature are more like habits that have been reinforced by repetition, rather than being immutable laws.

Similarity: The resonance is based on similarity. The more similar an organism or system is to past ones, the greater the influence it will have.

Behavior and form: Morphic resonance is said to influence both the physical form and the behavior of a system. For example, it is proposed to explain instincts and how certain patterns of behavior, like a new trick learned by rats in one location, can be learned more quickly by other rats of the same breed elsewhere.

Individual memory: The resonance of a system with its own past is also suggested as a way to explain individual memory, where memories are not entirely stored in the brain but are accessed through a resonance with the brain's past states.
No. SHeldrake is a fraud.
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Relative of Trump Press Secretary taken by ICE

The unfortunate reality is that many Cuban Americans who immigrated illegally and benefited from American generosity now strongly oppose immigration reform for others in similar situations.
I dont think its unfortunate at all. Things have changed. People are realizing what its doing to America and the problems it is causing.
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Trump to use wartime Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to deport illegal migrants from ‘enemy nations’: sources

Release Honduran President found guilty of importing millions of dollars of drugs into the country: It doesn't matter. Trump did it so he's keeping us safe.
After the Clean Coal we will have the Healthy Drugs.
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Has anyone attempted a 40 day fast?

I think it important to note, both Luke and Matthew tell us that Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, and according to Luke this was in order to be tempted by the devil (my interpretation: fasting was incidental to the temptation).

I would not attempt to recreate such a fast unless I was very clear that the Holy Spirit was leading me to it, that I was not being deceived by the enemy, and that pride was not inflating my self-importance.

Just my two cents.
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Now does everyone understand why the "right to refuse illegal orders" video was made?

This. If they are in the water without a ship in the middle of the ocean, they are no longer a threat and therefore no longer a target.

If you want to remove them from the board, you send out a craft and detain them. You don't send another missle their way.
Show me the proof that any of this actually happened.
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6 Craziest Revelations From Scathing Report on Kash Patel — Including His Refusal to Leave a Plane Until He Was Given a Female Agent’s Jacket

Please explain how that changes my observation?
It sounded to me like you misinterpreted the term strongman to mean someone who tends to be fair and generous. Terms like strong as in virtuous, and strong willed, and strongman are not synonymous. Therefore it doesn't make any sense to compare the term strong as in virtuous to the term strongman just because they both contain the word "strong". Otherwise one might as well throw strong odor into the mix.
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Etymology of bible words jew, jewish, gentile, judaism

Isaiah 65 starts off saying how God will reveal himself to the Greco Romans first century but also the Israelite remnant as they are no longer his people first century but he promised to save some of them. Well I think it is double meaning maybe it is just Greco Romans
It is written to the southern kingdom of Judah aka Judeans Jews.

then

15 You will leave your name
for my chosen ones to use in their curses;
the Sovereign Lord will put you to death,
but to his servants he will give another name.

Since 70 AD the word Jew means Christ killer, liar, deceiver, charlatan, dishonest, greedy, slimey etc. a curse word. And ofc God killed them all throughout the OT, and then 70 AD. Gods servants Christians have another name Christians. They were first called Christians at Antioch, and don't be ashamed of the name Christian because God has given you that name.
So does Romans 2 28 29 continue on after 70 AD or was it meant just to highlight the difference between the OT definition of Jew, and NT definition in the transition period from the old covenant to the new covenant 30-70 AD?
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When You Lose Interest In A Series You Once Liked

It's likely if this didn't happen before.

I would say that it only started happening when I passed 65. When trying to watch a movie I can't help but feel like I'm wasting time that could be better spent doing something productive. I've tried watching a movie on one monitor while doing something productive on another one, but I inevitably find the movie to be too distracting, and so I have to turn it off. This happens even if I set aside a specific time during the week to watch it. I just can't sit around doing nothing. I have to be actively doing something all the time.

It's like having that voice in your head when you're trying to go sleep...that you just can't get to shut up, only for me it isn't sleeping that it doesn't like, it's sitting still and doing nothing.
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A look at Hosea 12:13-14:9 and John 1:51 (Haftarah for Torah portion "VaYetze")

HOSEA 12:13-14:9

The prophet condemns Israel for “forsaking the LORD.” Israel was led out of Egypt by the prophet Moses (Moshe) and tended to, provided for by YHVH, yet Israel forsook the LORD, chasing after false gods, going into idolatry. Now the LORD will punish, and his wrath will fall upon his people.

Yet YHVH still loves his people, yet will exact punishment and judgment just like a father, will punish and judge a disobedient son or daughter. Can we expect anything less from Adonai? If we abandon our LORD and live like a lost person, loving the desires of the lost world and the flesh, can we expect anything less than judgment from HIM who set us free from sin?

We always hear "God is Love", "God is kind." "God is good." Yes, yes, all true, but we also need to look at the other side of our creator. He is also a God of wrath and judgment, of discipline. Does this not show how our earthly fathers are? Our fathers showed us love, yet also discipline when we erred. They needed to spank us or punish us to get us on the right path again. Exodus 34 describes God as abundant mercy and long-suffering, slow to anger. The Hebrew idiom, "erech Apaim" (long-suffering or slow to anger) is known as "long nose." We imagine an angry person breathing heavily through their nose, but having a loooooonnnggg nose would mean more patience. But God does have his limits.

Yet there is hope. In Chapter 14, it starts with: “Shuvah Israel ad YHVH Eloheikha” (Return Israel unto the LORD thy God…” There is always hope while we have the breath of life. The words “Ad” or “Ed” have the same Hebrew consonants, “Ayin Dalet,” which can also mean “Witness.”

Adonai witnesses our waywardness as well as our “return” to Him. There is sin, and there is also repentance. This is what he wanted His people to do, this is what He wants US to do, since we are all part of His people. So, don't wait until it is too late. We might feel His chastisement in one way or another in this day and age, yet He still loves us and is calling our attention.

The word "Teshuvah," from which "shuv" is the verb, is "return, turn around, having a change of mind and direction." So the Prophet Hosea calls the attention of wayward Israel to their waywardness. As an example, God told him to marry a prostitute, an unfaithful wife. She found herself on the slave market, yet Hosea bought her back. This is the same way God reaches out to all believers who have gone off the straight path and jumped off the deep end of the pool with cement shoes! He'll break the cement and bring us back if we are willing.

Like Israel, have you gone astray? I think we all have, some more than others. There is hope in Messiah Yeshua (Jesus Christ), who paid it all.


John 1:51

This part of John tells of Nathanael's encounter with Yeshua. Early in Yeshua's ministry, when there we only a few disciples, John, Phillip, and Simon Peter, Yeshua saw Nathanael under a fig tree. We might imagine what he might have been doing, perhaps in prayer or just resting. He got up and followed Phillip, and Yeshua saw him and said, "Here is a true son of Israel, nothing false in him." So, we could say that Yeshua looked deep inside of Nathanael and saw the "inner Nathanael. (meaning "a gift of God) God's gift was faith and sincerity. He told him the following:

"You will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man." This echoes the time that Jacob was fleeing from angry Esau and was headed to Haran, about 400 miles away, to seek a wife (or two). He had a dream of a ladder (Sulam), the Hebrew word meaning for "Sulam" is a "ladder with rungs" or a "Staircase." And angels were descending and ascending on the Son of Man. The identity of the "Sulam" is Yeshua himself. Angels are being sent to serve him, and also, angels are called "messengers."

In Hebraic thought and commentary, the ladder or staircase had 22 rungs or steps symbolizing the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Each Hebrew letter has a meaning, so if Yeshua is the ladder, then we get to God the Father through the Son, as in John 14:6. Each step or rung could be part of our relationship with the LORD, "Aleph" being God, "Beit" (B) Household of faith "Gimmel" (G) greatness in our relationship "Dalet' (D) "Yeshua as the "Door" as in John 10:9. Like I said, it is commentary, but don't we all advance in life with the LORD step-by-step, and rung-by-rung?

Now Nathanael was not living at the time of Jacob, but Jacob's name was changed to "Israel," so Nathanael being a "Son of Israel," can mean that "Yes, indeed, he is a descendant of Jacob, and he has the faith of Jacob. But now, Nathanael will see that Heaven has indeed opened and Yeshua has come down from Heaven to minister on Earth, and indeed, the angels will be at his service. Who knows how many times angels have gotten us out of fixes and situations, being instructed by God? We will find out in heaven, and hopefully will meet our guardian angel.

Shalom, have a blessed rest of the week.

Porneia, sexual immorality and romantic love, committed love in marriage.

First, about porneia > I think this is listed in Colossians 3:5 as a thing to put to death >

"Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry." (Colossians 3:5)

Here, "fornication" is porneia. And we are to put it "to death". So, I see this does not only mean to stop the outward and physical immoral actions, but put to death the spiritual depth of it including feelings and emotions and desires that are spiritual but immoral. So, it is stuff that is keeping a person away from relating right with Jesus as our Groom, and with brothers and sisters in Jesus the right way. It means stuff that keeps us from living in God's love. It gets our attention away.

So it is, then, an anti-love thing which needs to be put to death . . . getting rid of what in my heart would have me being immoral. Kill it so I can be alive in God's way of loving, instead. My experience is that interest in immoral activity has different things operating, and which keep me from loving the way I should >

*Interest in the pleasure*, even if I don't act on it, can keep my attention away from personally submitting to God in His peace . . . all the time > as we are "called in one body" to do >

"And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful." (Colossians 3:15)

God's peace is so better than the feelings of pleasure of sexual stuff. To be intimate with nice feelings is not as great as being intimate with God and one another in His peace ruling us. I have found how I can use a woman for pleasure, but my intimacy is not really with her, but with the feelings I like. So . . . it is anti-love . . . using someone, instead of really loving her. And what contributes to this? >

*beauty discrimination* > I can favor a nicer looking woman, instead of loving every woman the way God wants. And immoral attraction can be brought on by how nice a woman acts and looks; so it is not really getting to know her and share deeply. And look what happened when Jacob discriminated against Leah because she was not beautiful like Rachel >

"When the LORD saw that Leah was unloved, He opened her womb; but Rachel was barren" (Genesis 29:31)

Jacob did not want Leah to be his wife; he got tricked into getting her. And he favored Rachel more than Leah, because of what they looked like. And I see how the LORD expected him to love her dearly and completely; and so the LORD enforced this, by not allowing Rachel to have children. And yes I have seen how my way of loving women can be connected with what they look like and how nicely they talk and move.

And a couple of women I have fallen for "the hardest" have turned out to have major personal and character and emotional problems. But they were "extravagant" looking and acting.

But Jesus says >

"if you love those who love you, what reward have you?" (in Matthew 5:46)

So, it is anti-love if I favor someone only because of how I can use her for pleasure . . . physically, or just to look at her, and/or because of how she can charm me. Yes, God "gives us richly all things to enjoy," we have in 1 Timothy 6:17; however, this does not mean for me to discriminate in how I love each person.


Paul says how to relate >

"not in passion of lust" > in 1 Thessalonians 4:5.

I think this goes even for in Christian marriage. There can be a difference between lust, versus desiring one another in intimate and tender caring for one another . . . in God's love. God's love is so better than just lust for the pleasure and what the companion looks like and the charming voice.

"Let all that you do be done with love." (1 Corinthians 16:14)

"All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any." > in 1 Corinthians 6:12.

So, even in holy matrimony . . . it seems to me that God wants us to be first about sharing with Him in His love, all the time, and in this intimacy with God we discover how He has us sharing with one another in marriage and our other close relating as brothers and sisters in Jesus.

So, if I am just thinking about using someone, and only using someone to look at . . . this is getting me away from loving her . . . including how instead I need to be blessing and praying for her. And it has me away from staying submissive to God in His peace ruling us in our hearts > Colossians 3:15.
That is all true yet it remains essential to understand there is no Greek word 'lust' in the NT. In the English the word 'lust' is inherently immoral/bad, but the same cannot be said for the underlying Greek word for 'strong desire'. And even strong (physical) desire within marriage should be considered good with the morally 'right' attitude. The LXX even uses the word 'agape' in Song of Songs in an erotic context. Strong physical desire in marriage without the proper holistic love is selfish and probably ends up hurting the other party. But there is a Christian tendency to Asceticism (growing very strong already in the 2nd century AD) that seems to depart from the Jewish perspective, and that views physical desire by definition as sinful, or at best just tolerated for the sake or pro-creation.
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Zions New Children

Isaiah 49:1-26 Listen to Me you peoples far distant,...... But Zion [the Holy Land] said: The Lord has forsaken me, and my Lord has forgotten me…. The children which you will have, after you have lost the former ones, shall say to you: This place is too small for us, give us more space to dwell . Then you will say to yourself: Who has begotten me these, seeing I have lost my children, and am alone and desolate, and where have they come from? Thus says the Lord GOD, Behold, I will lift up mine hand to the Gentiles, and set up my standard to the people: and they shall bring thy sons in their arms, and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders, for they shall not be ashamed that have faith in Me.
There's a sense in which this is all fulfilling the oldest of promises and prophecies, before they even ENTERED the land in the first place!
Yes, I'm talking about Deuteronomy, where God promises that he will judge them if Israel rebel and expel them from their land.
But even then he will remember them - and bring them back.

That's exactly what happened.
Israel was expelled by the Babylonians, and returned by the Persians!

Hebrews 12:22-24 But you have come unto mount Zion......
We Christians are the latter children of Zion, Spiritually of the twelve tribes, the true Israelites of God, all the faithful Christian peoples from every tribe, race, nation and language. Revelation 5:9-10
Now let's try something a bit different.
Let's try reading it in context - not just plucking it out of context to justify our own little Nicholas Cage movie!

If you look in context - it's full of warnings and encouragements to the Christians reading the letter - not a prophecy about the future - not at this point anyway. The bit you quote is about their current relationship with God. It's a metaphor for how Christians are the current expression of God's kingdom on earth right now as we await his return when heaven and nature meet!

If you strip out Mount Zion to the future - you do irreparable damage to the rest of the passage and make it nonsensical. Because it's all part of the application to the immediate readers!

This is one of the classic verses that illustrates how the apostles saw the "Kingdom of God" in eschatological tension.
The church, representing the kingdom, in the 'now but not yet' nature of our era.
The overlapping outbreak of God's kingdom on earth while earthly rulers still frustrate, and sometimes even persecute us.

They pray, from where-ever they are scattered across the Roman empire, and it's as if they've come to Mount Zion!
It's that simple and beautiful!

Hebrews 12:
14Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. 15See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many. 16See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son. 17Afterward, as you know, when he wanted to inherit this blessing, he was rejected. Even though he sought the blessing with tears, he could not change what he had done.
18You have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire; to darkness, gloom and storm; 19to a trumpet blast or to such a voice speaking words that those who heard it begged that no further word be spoken to them, 20because they could not bear what was commanded: “If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned to death.” 21The sight was so terrifying that Moses said, “I am trembling with fear.”
22But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, 23to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the Judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, 24to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.
25See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks. If they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, how much less will we, if we turn away from him who warns us from heaven? 26At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” 27The words “once more” indicate the removing of what can be shaken—that is, created things—so that what cannot be shaken may remain.
28Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, 29for our “God is a consuming fire.”

And you want to turn this into a Nicholas Cage movie?
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Federal judges block Texas from using its new US House map in the 2026 midterms

Texas Senate passed a bill that forbids public schools from teaching history and current events about race that might upset students.
How dare they try to upset students at a time like this! Don't they know there's a war on? We're at war with Eastasia, we've always been at war with Eastasia.

-- A2SG, report to room 101, immediately!
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Obama care collapsing.....

GOP faces a familiar dilemma: What to do about Obamacare?

Republican leaders have found themselves in a familiar place: pledging to make major changes to the Affordable Care Act, citing rising health care costs and a looming deadline - but far from agreeing on how to do it.

Republicans promised a mid-December vote on how to proceed on the expiring subsidies, in exchange for support from some Democrats for ending the government shutdown in November. Democrats have argued that the simplest and most politically popular option is to extend the subsidies, which were implemented in 2021 and meant to help defray the cost of health coverage during the covid-19 pandemic. But many GOP lawmakers have campaigned for years on pledges to “repeal Obamacare” and say that continuing to fund the subsidies is a nonstarter, calling instead to shift the money to Americans in the form of health-savings accounts.

“The White House has a solution for cost-sharing,” [can we see it? The last one the WH rolled out vanished in less than a day] Kevin Hassett, director of the National Economic Council, said Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” predicting that “people are going to work this out” by Christmas.

“We don’t want to cause panic for the folks who are worried that they’re going to lose the thing that they have,” Hassett added.

Thirteen House Republicans, mostly from liberal-leaning states, sent a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) during the shutdown warning that a failure to extend a version of the subsidies would “risk real harm to those we represent.”

However, many Republicans oppose extending the subsidies - arguing that they are a pandemic-era relic - and instead see the debate as an opportunity to revisit health care reforms the party has sought in the past.
The problem lawmakers of both parties face is they don't want to lose the millions of dollars the for-profit health insurance industry funnels into their reelection campaigns. This money is largely why the GOP first promoted the Heritage Foundation plan as it was market-based and relied on private, for-profit health insurance. It's also why Democrats supported it later on, and that's the only reason the GOP now has a problem with it. But, the problem there is, they haven't come up with any idea that actually provides health care coverage AND relies on for-profit health insurance (protecting their own campaign bottom lines). The only idea I've heard floated about is health savings accounts, which seem like a good idea...if you have money. If you don't, it isn't.

Then again, when has the GOP ever really cared about people who don't have money?

-- A2SG, except when they vote Republican, of course....
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Two National Guard soldiers shot in Washington DC

And speaking of politicizing, when is the President going to order the flag lowered for the death of one of our troops?
Too divisive. It's not like she was some important podcaster or Youtube personality known for pushing politics.
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