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mindlight · 2025-12-14T03:50:42-0600

Hans Blaster said:
Of course not, the USA has not bananas, nor is it in Africa. (Banana republics are in Central America and fruit companies no longer control any nations.

Both Hawaii and Florida grow bananas. Banana republic was a term that originated in Central America but it has been applied to African countries also e.g. Central African Republic and South Africa were both referred to as such.

The main point here is about gerrymandering and manipulations of the system to ensure the incumbent stays in power. I doubt if you disagree with that vis a vis Trump.

Factotum · 2025-12-14T03:50:09-0600

This is so, so sad to hear he was treated this way, like a rabid jungle animal for threatening to harm himself. And then be arrested "...after an incident at a staffer's home during which prosecutors allege he [only] threatened self-harm, a situation his defense attorney described as a mental health crisis..." without a doubt.
Had he been one of us Caucasians, would he had simply been transported to a mental health provider??

What ex-Michigan coach Sherrone Moore said in court at arraignment

Fired University of Michigan football coach Sherrone Moore was ordered to continue mental health treatment as a condition of his bond on Dec. 12.

www.usatoday.com

ranunculus · 2025-12-14T03:49:29-0600

@Ellesmere
The quote you shared is fake

Dan1988 · 2025-12-14T03:28:12-0600

Servus said:
Are there other ministers who are on equal footing with him, or is he unique?

God led me to my particular Shepherd, so He is unique because God didn't lead me to any others. I'm not free to roam around and follow strangers, because God didn't give them any authority to teach me anything.

My Shepherd is responsible for my spiritual health, just think of it as having a family Doctor who knows everything about your health. So why would you go to Doctors who know nothing about you.

Apple Sky · 2025-12-14T03:22:15-0600

Strong in Him said:
I know the phrase, "sorry, I made a mistake" is hard - but give it a go.

What just because I didn't say ' I don't believe that anyone has been to moon', I've made no mistake & have nothing to be sorry for.

Factotum · 2025-12-14T03:16:32-0600

RocksInMyHead said:
...the criminality concepts might be similar...

Yes, I agree with that. As it is the sole point I was trying to make... that Tish likely sat up, imagined that Trump might be committing the same bank criminality she's been committing for decades, created a campaign around the goal of prosecuting him, then... charged him, just like she promised to if she won.

Just a reprehensible and corrupt woman.

Bob Crowley · 2025-12-14T03:15:29-0600

It's breaking news but there have been multiple shootings at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia.

Live: Police responding to reports of active shooter at Bondi Beach

The public is being urged to avoid the area and two people are in custody. Follow live.

www.abc.net.au

The death and injury toll is as yet unkown.

Two suspects have been arrested but not identified. I'll bet a pound to a penny that they are Moslems.

Jewish celebration was taking place at location of shooting
Andrew Thorpe profile image
By Andrew Thorpe

The shooting appears to have taken place at the northern end of Bondi Beach, near or at Bondi Park Playground.

We don't yet have any information about the target or nature of the shooting, but we can confirm that a Chanukah by the Sea event was scheduled to take place at that playground from 5pm, and had begun.

Today is the first day of Chanukah, or Hanukkah, an eight-day Jewish festival of lights.

1Tonne · 2025-12-14T03:03:43-0600

Jipsah said:
I don't watch videos. The idea that everybody has eternal life by default is rubbish.

You should watch the video. It is only 20 odd minutes, and it explains where people who believe in annihilation go wrong. (Though I do not agree with everything he says in the vid, I still think he is pretty onto it and does very well with refuting annihilationism.)

Those who are sent to destruction do not get eternal life. They get eternal death.
I think the real difference between us is how we understand “death.” We actually agree that those sent to destruction do not receive eternal life. Where we differ is what eternal death means. Your view seems to treat death as a finality. When the body dies (the shell), this is a finality in the physical. So, your understanding of “eternal death” is understood as extinction, the person is gone forever.

My view is different. Scripture shows that when the body dies, it is not the end of the person. The spirit/soul continues but sleeps in the grave, unconscious, awaiting the resurrection (Eccl 9:5; Ps 146:4; John 5:28–29). Earthly death is therefore not final; it is temporary and preparatory.
Because death is not final in the first sense, I don’t see the second death as annihilation either. It is eternal death because it is eternal ruin, eternal separation, and eternal loss of life with God, not because the person ceases to exist. Death, biblically, can be an ongoing state of ruin, not merely a moment where something stops existing.

So yes, the wicked do not receive eternal life. They receive eternal ongoing death/ruin. Eternal death is not non-existence; it is the eternal opposite of life with God.
That’s the core difference in how we’re reading the texts.

Unqualified · 2025-12-14T02:46:03-0600

If it’s disproven it might work because science is prejudiced about making him rich. Only the elite well indoctrinated can excell.

NBB · 2025-12-14T02:41:13-0600

Yarddog said:
I'd have to agree with Time. AI may be the biggest development since the internet.

Internet was harmful for society, useful tool for sure, but it was not for good, and AI who knows what they would do with it, maybe they want to control everything people do behind a mainframe like some Bond villain or something, they are proposing digital ID, i would guess this is related to AI and more control.

Servus · 2025-12-14T02:38:50-0600

There's nothing weird about people sitting in front of a dead tree while eating candy out of socks.

Unqualified · 2025-12-14T02:38:48-0600

I don’t know. He was a child and fully man as well and had to learn and grow before His ministry started. But I don’t know when to draw the lines of time on it. It took,I h prayer and the Holy Spirit to fully realize.

RamiC · 2025-12-14T02:32:27-0600

9 degrees celsius here, with a "temperature to drop" prediction right next to it

This is okay, because God made leather and wool, because He is kind. It is hard on the homeless :pray:

.

keras · 2025-12-14T02:28:12-0600

eclipsenow said:
You jump around between verses like a hyperactive grasshopper - without slowing down and considering the context of each author.

This is a great example of eisegesis.

On the contrary, all of the verses I provided in #154, refer to the one event - the great and terrible Day of the Lords vengeance and wrath.
Your replies are just to 'shoot the messenger', and flood the thread with the opinions and beliefs of preterism and Spiritualism.

Tell us when you think the righteous will enter Israel and extend all their boundaries?
When will the Lord send fire to consume our enemies? Isaiah 26

Dan1988 · 2025-12-14T02:22:08-0600

HIM said:
Do you realize that You haven’t made an argument that substantiates anything.

No I don't believe that, I believe some have ignored the scriptures I referred to, which support my argument

Apple Sky · 2025-12-14T02:18:22-0600

Sunshine

Unqualified · 2025-12-14T02:16:43-0600

-13 degrees F. ?

MarkRohfrietsch said:
Warm indeed, remote start system to get it warmed up. It has full time FWD, but also a "Snow" mode which locks the differentials and is heavy enough to go through a foot of snow. While the Jeep is warm, the weather is not; already went down to -17 C. two nights ago. In Feb. It is not uncommon to see lows of -25 C.

Ellesmere · 2025-12-14T02:01:03-0600

HARK! said:
After noting his desire to quickly release documents related to the assassination of former President John F. Kennedy, if elected, Trump clarified that he’d be willing to do the same with the Epstein files.

Trump suggests he’ll release Jeffrey Epstein ‘client list’ if elected: ‘I’d have no problem with it’

During an appearance on “The Lex Fridman Podcast,” Trump, 78, insisted that he never visited the dead financier and alleged sex trafficker’s notorious private island, where scores of young women an…

nypost.com

Reversing President Trump's pledge to release the Epstein files should come as no great surprise!

One would have thought that Americans had have learned by now that failure to deliver on his promises is a reoccurring theme in "TRUMPWORLD

Christsfreeservant · 2025-12-14T01:47:39-0600

Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the descendants of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. And coming in, he said to her, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.” But she was very perplexed at this statement, and kept pondering what kind of salutation this was. The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end.”

Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” The angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God. And behold, even your relative Elizabeth has also conceived a son in her old age; and she who was called barren is now in her sixth month. For nothing will be impossible with God.” And Mary said, “Behold, the bondslave of the Lord; may it be done to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her. (Luke 1:26-38 NASB1995)

Jesus always existed with God, and he was and is God, the second person of our triune God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. So he didn’t just come into being when he was born as a baby to his mother Mary. For Jesus willingly left the throne in heaven which he had with God the Father, he came to the earth, and he was born to Mary, but conceived of the Holy Spirit. So he was not born with a sin nature as we are, and he never once sinned. But when he lived on the earth he was both fully God and fully human (God incarnate).

[John 1:1-36; John 8:24,58; John 10:30-33; John 20:28-29; Romans 9:5; Philippians 2:5-11; Colossians 2:9; Titus 2:13; Hebrews 1:8-9; 1 Peter 1:20-21; 2 Peter 1:1]

Now Mary was chosen of God to bear the only begotten Son of God, but this did not make her someone to be worshipped as though she is a god. But she was a young woman of tremendous faith in the Lord who believed what the angel told her, even though she didn’t understand, at first, how it was going to take place, since she was a virgin. And that took a lot of faith and courage to believe what the angel told her, too, especially since she would most certainly now be marked as an adulteress, for who would believe her story?

Now try to put yourself in her position, which will be harder for males, or try to imagine a situation where God might send an angel to you to call you to do something that you know will get you tagged as crazy, or as someone who cheated on your mate, and so you know people are going to think you have lost your mind or that you have sinned against God. And so you know they are not going to believe you, and that they are probably going to reject you, or that they might even put you to death for what they think you did.

For this isn’t just a “nice story” that gets repeated once a year, but this is a story of tremendous faith and trust in God and in his calling upon the life of a young woman who sets a great example for us who follow Jesus with our lives as to the kind of faith which we should have, too; a faith which believes in miracles and in divine intervention. And Mary said, “Behold, the bondslave of the Lord; may it be done to me according to your word.” And this should be our response to God when he calls us to do “the seemingly impossible.”

And some of us may be being faced with difficult situations in our lives which seem to not have answers, and the Lord may be leading us in directions we never thought possible, and so we know we will have to step out in faith, believing that God is in control, and then just trust him with the details. And Mary can serve as a wonderful example for us of that faith, where we rest in the Lord, and where we consider ourselves as servants of the Lord, and so we say with Mary, “May it be done to me according to your word.” Amen!

His Tender Mercies

An Original Work / January 26, 2014
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

Fear not! I’m with you.
Be not dismayed!
God watches o’er you.
Trust Him today.
He’ll lead and guide you;
Give you His aid.
He’ll love and keep you
With Him always.

Walk in His footsteps.
He’ll lead the way.
Trust in His love;
Believe that He cares.
He will not leave you.
Faithful He’ll be.
His tender mercies
Now you will see.

Fellowship with Him
Throughout the day.
Tell Him your heartaches.
He’ll heal always.
Rest in His comfort.
He is your friend.
Your faith He’ll strengthen,
True to the end.

Login to view embedded media
“May it Be Done to Me”
An Original Work / December 14, 2025
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

Richard T · 2025-12-14T01:31:56-0600

ThatRobGuy said:
That's always a possibility...

However, in this instance, the "likely an ISIS gunman" isn't far fetched considering it happened in Syria.

I believe Syria still has the 2nd largest ISIS presence in the world behind Iraq.

If Wikipedia is accurate about this, ISIS controls 6 provinces (out of 14) in Syria, which would substantiate the Pentagon spokesman's statement about it happening "in an area where the Syrian President does not have control."

But as a group what is the motive for ISIS? They want to bring the heat to their consolidation on parts of Syria? I do not know the full dynamics there but I bet some other groups (Perhaps even the USA itself) would love to have the USA drive out ISIS.

Pommer · 2025-12-14T01:26:19-0600

BPPLEE said:
That's true. But I don't believe Allah is the same as Yahweh

I’m fairly certain that Muslims believe that Yahweh and Allah are the same Being.
Whatever it is that you, personally, know about the subject, you might not be…correct, based on the fact we’re talking about how other people believe.

dlamberth · 2025-12-14T01:21:17-0600

stevevw said:
It is when its used to claim that knowledge and belief in the mind and body divide within Christianity just disappeared.

As far as I can see using the Dark Ages to say that Christianity did not have any views or beliefs on the Mind and Body divide is denying Christian thought. I proposed that the early church understood the Mind and Body divide in their beliefs and teachings.

Early Christianity was and still is all over the board regarding Mind/Body Divide. There historically is a bit of tension over this subject with even some leaning towards a trichotomy (body/soul/spirit) dichotomy way of thinking. But Christianity, from what I know of it, always has and even now depends upon some concept of mind/body divide. Using the term "conspiracy" though for a miss-construing (do I have that right?) of a basic religions belief structure is a bit over the top.

The term "Dark Ages" is misleading which is why that era is generally now called "The Early Middle Ages".

Pommer · 2025-12-14T01:16:47-0600

Oompa Loompa said:
The Somalian fraud and tribalism was going on long before Trump. That is what happens when you import the third world into your country in mass, give them welfare to make them comfortable, and have zero expectation for them to assimilate. They bring they bring the third world with them and replicate it where they are.

Why invite people in who won’t vote for you?
I understand this completely.

Servus · 2025-12-14T01:15:10-0600

NxNW said:
Reminds me of the time when Trump was told he needed to add braille to the elevator controls, and he said, "We're not going to rent to blind people!"

I heard he kicked Hellen Keller out to the curb.

samaus123456789 · 2025-12-14T01:00:33-0600

peter2 said:
Why not, thanks. i shall have a try. Actually, i, lastly and above all, wondered whether the intention of protecting Jesus was relevant, not from Jesus chilhood or Mary's motherhood.
Rather,
as regards God's centered reasons or plan to let him die on the cross :
Was it God's will to use the protecting feelings of Mary and Joseph to spare the baby Jesus life, or did they both flee to Egypt without caring for such feelings, but already at that moment, and may be they as well, being concerned by God's centered care about Jesus' doom on the cross ?

In the infancy narratives, the Bible presents both things happening at once:

Mary and Joseph act with the very normal protective love of parents.
God is also actively guiding events so Jesus lives to fulfill his mission.

What the text actually emphasizes

In Matthew 2, Joseph doesn’t “reason it out” from a long-range plan about the cross. He’s repeatedly warned in dreams (“take the child… flee to Egypt… Herod is about to search for the child to destroy him”), and he obeys quickly. That’s the narrative focus: obedient protection under divine direction.

So the flight isn’t described as “they didn’t care about feelings” or “they were already thinking about the cross.” It reads like: God warns; Joseph protects; the child is preserved.

Did they flee because of feelings, or because of “God’s plan”?

Most Christian readings would say: both, but not in the same way.

On their side (human level): they protected Jesus because that’s what faithful parents do—fear, urgency, love, responsibility. Those “protecting feelings” are not treated as a distraction from God’s will; they’re part of how God normally works through people.
On God’s side (divine level): God wills that Jesus not die as an infant at Herod’s hand, because Jesus’ death is meant to happen at the appointed time, in the appointed way—publicly, voluntarily, and as part of the saving work the Gospels later describe.

So God’s will isn’t “use their feelings instead of his plan,” but “use their love and obedience within his plan.”

Were Mary and Joseph already thinking about the cross?

The texts don’t suggest they had a fully formed, detailed concept like: “We must save him now so he can die on the cross later.”

They do have hints, though:

In Luke 2, Simeon’s prophecy includes both Jesus’ destiny and a coming sorrow for Mary (“a sword will pierce your own soul”), which Christians often connect to the passion.
Mary “treasures” and ponders, but that’s not the same as having the whole script in her head.

A simple way to put it:

They knew enough to obey and to trust.
God knew (and intended) the whole arc.

The core theological idea

Classic Christian theology calls this providence through secondary causes: God accomplishes his purposes through real human decisions, real emotions, real obedience—not by bypassing them.

So yes: it’s very reasonable (and very “biblical”) to say God intended Mary and Joseph’s protective care to be one of the means by which Jesus was preserved—without implying they were coldly calculating “his doom on the cross” from the start. ( chat GPT

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What the text actually emphasizes​

Did they flee because of feelings, or because of “God’s plan”?​

Were Mary and Joseph already thinking about the cross?​

The core theological idea​

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What the text actually emphasizes

Did they flee because of feelings, or because of “God’s plan”?

Were Mary and Joseph already thinking about the cross?

The core theological idea