New Posts

Michie · 2025-12-11T23:13:39-0600

Welcome!

ladodgers6 · 2025-12-11T23:06:55-0600

2PhiloVoid said:
What you're seemingly asking, as far as I can tell, is for me to divulge as to what my choice of praxis is when doing theology. Well, for me, theology hinges on the application of research in Historiography, the Philosophy of History, Archaeology, and various Critical Biblical Studies, as well as upon Philosophical Hermenuetics and Evidentialism.

As for Metaphysics, I tend to ignore it and just focus on Physics and material science without worrying about the final ontologicalquestions, but where knowledge is concerned, then I draw upon a number of scholars for analyses dealing with Epistemology and our justification for claims of "knowledge." I would rather study the Cosmos or the fact that the Earth revolves around the Sun rather than guessing as to what Heaven and Eternal Life will actually be like. I'm sure it'll be grand with a Capital J.

But here's the thing: I have no intention of going around wacking other Christians over the head, insisting upon their dogmatic compliance with how I ultimately understand the Bible and then condemning those who don't. As for the issue of 'Hell,' which this thread pertains to, I don't care if Christians subscribe to either Eternal Fire or Annihilationism. I do have less room for Universalism, but I might be persuaded to "allow" universalist Christians to have room to believe as they wish without automatically consigning them to the Lake of Fire for hoping that everyone would be saved.

Thanks for sharing with you. I like having discussions with civil manners. Yeah, people IMHO have their own prerogative & aptitude to seek what they wish. I am a novice astrologer whose always in awe when witnessing the wonders of space. Just witnessing M31, Saturn, Jupiter all point to a Divine Maker. Physics or natural laws all also point to a designer. I am now studying Quantum Physics & Micro Biology: Human Cells (Mitosis).

All that being said, doesn't reveal what God has accomplished in His Son for His people. The historical record of the eschatological consummation of God's Redemptive Plan is what I am interested in. That to me is more awe taking that anything else I have read. I am only sharing with you.

Thanks again for sharing.

Richard T · 2025-12-11T23:03:23-0600

There is no escaping some afflictions. "The afflictions of the righteous are many, but the Lord delivers us from them all." Learning "obedience from the things we suffer." This suggests we encounter troubles but as we trust God, He pulls us toward himself. One thing that helps is to avoid taking the bait or trap that Satan tries to put on us at times. We have to watch our confession and not believe in the lies of the devil. Such lies are generally based on our own fears, condemnation, or other negative thinking. We can push much aside using God's word!

linux.poet · 2025-12-11T23:02:42-0600

Gracious Heavenly Father and Lord Jesus,
Please be faithful to hold Neostar’s body and soul together throughout the maze of medical treatments he has to endure. I pray for wisdom for him, that he may best know how to comfort his wife during her time of grief. I pray for relief from guilt as well, that he may remember that You have paid for his sins, and strength to apologize to his wife, and rest for them both,
In Christ’s Name,
Amen

GodDoesListen55 · 2025-12-11T23:00:07-0600

Both, probably cats a little more than dogs though.

Football or Fútbol?

1Tonne · 2025-12-11T22:57:37-0600

JulieB67 said:
We cannot throw out texts like these-

Psalms 37:10 "For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be: Yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be."

Proverbs 24:20 "For there shall be no reward to the evil man; The candle of the wicked shall be put out."

Psalms 37:38 "But the transgressors shall be destroyed together: The end of the wicked shall be cut off."

Psalms 37:20 "But the wicked shall perish, And the enemies of the Lord shall be as the fat of lambs: They shall consume; into smoke shall they consume away."

Psalms 92:7 "When the wicked spring as the grass, And when all the workers of iniquity do flourish; It is that they shall be destroyed for ever:

Philippians 3:19 "Whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.)"

II Thessalonians 1:9 "Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power;"

II Peter 2:12 "But these, as natural brute beasts made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not, and shall utterly perish in their own corruption;"

The Greek is pretty clear that means fully destroy.

We are given the example of God's eternal fire in what happened to Sodom and Gomorrah-

Jude 7 "Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them, in like manner giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire."

All those passages use the language of destruction, cutting off, and perishing, but none of them require non-existence. In Scripture, “destroy” often means ruin, defeat, or loss, not annihilation:
-Israel is said to be “destroyed” yet clearly still exists (Hos 13:9).
-The prodigal son was “dead” (destroyed) yet fully conscious (Luke 15:24).
-Believers were “dead in sins” (Eph 2:1), but not nonexistent.

“Destruction” in biblical language describes the condition of the wicked, not their disappearance.

2 Thessalonians 1:9 actually supports this: “everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord.”
You cannot be away from God’s presence if you no longer exist. That’s a state, not annihilation.

And Jude 7 doesn't teach annihilation either. Sodom isn’t still burning today, yet Jude calls it an example of eternal fire. The fire is eternal, not because the fuel burns forever, but because the judgment is eternal in its effect, just as Hebrews 6:2 speaks of “eternal judgment.”

The OT “destroy” passages describe the certainty and completeness of God’s judgment, not the end of conscious existence.
So none of those texts overturn the clear New Testament statements of ongoing, conscious consequences (“their worm does not die,” “the smoke of their torment goes up forever,” Rev 14:11).

Here are some questions:

1. If “destroy” means non-existence, how can people be “destroyed” yet still exist?

Hosea 13:9 “O Israel, you are destroyed, but in Me is your help.”
Israel still existed afterwards.
Question: If “destroyed” here doesn’t mean annihilation, why must it mean annihilation in the passages you quoted?

2. How can someone be “dead” yet conscious?

Luke 15:24 “This my son was dead and is alive again.”
Ephesians 2:1 “You were dead in your trespasses.”
Both “dead” persons were conscious.
Question: If biblical “death” can mean ruin, not non-existence, why assume “second death” means extinction?

3. How can people be “away from the presence of the Lord” (2 Thess 1:9) if they no longer exist?

Non-existence has no experience, no location, no duration.
Question: How can the wicked be punished with “everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord” if they are annihilated and no longer present anywhere?

4. Why does Jesus describe an ongoing state, not an event?

Mark 9:48 “Their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.”
This is duration, not extinction.
Question: If the person ceases to exist, whose worm is still not dying?

5. Why does Revelation describe ongoing torment if annihilation is true?

Revelation 14:11 “The smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever… they have no rest day or night.”
Question: If they are annihilated instantly, how can there be “no rest day or night”? Rest from what?

6. Why does Revelation 20:10 say the devil is tormented “day and night forever and ever,” then place humans in the same fate?

The beast and false prophet are still in the fire 1,000 years later.
Question: If the lake of fire instantly annihilates, how are they still there alive after 1,000 years?

7. Why does Daniel 12:2 contrast eternal life with eternal shame/contempt, not eternal non-existence?

People cannot feel shame or contempt if they don’t exist.
Question: If the wicked are annihilated, how can they experience “eternal contempt”?

8. How can “eternal fire” in Jude 7 refer to annihilation when Jude applies it to a past event?

Jude 7. Sodom is an example of “eternal fire.”
The fire isn’t still burning, but the judgment is eternal.
Question: If “eternal fire” means annihilation, why does Jude use it for a judgment whose effects, not the flames, are eternal?

9. Why does Jesus warn about “weeping and gnashing of teeth” if annihilation is instant?

This is ongoing consciousness and regret.
Question: How can a destroyed, nonexistent person weep or gnash their teeth?

10. Why does Jesus say the punishment is “eternal,” not the fire?

Matthew 25:46 “Eternal punishment” (κόλασις αἰώνιος).
Not “punishment for a moment followed by non-existence.”
Question: Why does Jesus parallel eternal life and eternal punishment if one side is conscious and the other is not?

Richard T · 2025-12-11T22:52:52-0600

Factotum said:
I definitely agree that Jordan is THEE ABSOLUTE WORST in history, when it comes to drama... here's my choice, for his worst drama moment:
Login to view embedded media

...and when it comes to TEAM sports, I stand with Magic Johnson re: the NBA ...when he said it is illogical to use the amount of titles won, to determine the GOAT player in a team sport. Because winning titles = there are just 'too many moving parts' that are impossible to give proper credit to.

Bill Russell has the most titles, but 6 and 0 in titles with Jordan as the leader is very impressive. I think that older poeple who grew up watching Jordan are generally going to pick him. Lebron is a beast though and I doubt we will see another player that is similar to his skills perhaps ever again.

Carmenls · 2025-12-11T22:50:38-0600

My son Jakeb isn't doing well tonight at all. Please ask God to heal him, keep him safe and watch over him. Please ask God to heal him mind and body and protect him and give him joy. Please ask God for total healing. A miracle. Thank you and God bless you.

linux.poet · 2025-12-11T22:50:03-0600

Gracious Heavenly Father and Lord Jesus,
Please watch over the health of this family, and be faithful to heal as needed.
In Christ’s Name,
Amen

linux.poet · 2025-12-11T22:48:14-0600

Gracious Heavenly Father and Lord Jesus,
I pray for healing for Jakeb’s stomach. Please keep Carmen’s husband safe, and help her to be free from worry.
In Christ’s Name,
Amen

linux.poet · 2025-12-11T22:46:20-0600

Gracious Heavenly Father and Lord Jesus,
I pray for healing for Carmen and her various health problems. Help her to be there for her family and not to be sick and in pain.
In Christ’s Name,
Amen

Richard T · 2025-12-11T22:26:58-0600

Gene2memE said:
This one was actually done by the book. The seizure appears to be a legal under US law and at least defensible under international maritime law.

However, if you were looking to calm down US-Venezuela tensions, this REALLY doesn't help. One would think that this sort of action amounts to deliberate provocation.

This seizure also shows the Trump Administration's hypocrisy over its recent actions across the Caribbean with the drone strikes AND its lack of action concerning sanctioned Russian oil vessels.

To conduct this seizure, the US co-ordinated elements from the FBI, US Navy, US Coast Guard and various other Homeland Security investigation/intelligence organs and put physical elements (ships, helos) into harms way in international waters. Yet, it is very deliberately NOT doing this to seize the "drug boats" and arrest their crews, instead choosing extrajudicial execution as a strategy.

Also, the US has sanctioned more than 180 Russian oil tankers. I wonder how the Trump administration would react to proposals that it pull similar seizures on Russian vessels in the Mediterranean?

The Europeans should do this all the false flag ships that the Russians use. Many of those ships too have environmental problems. Russia’s shadow fleet accused of polluting EU waters

I suppose they are too afraid to stop them? They have prosecuted a few that have cut underwater cables though.

com7fy8 · 2025-12-11T22:24:44-0600

"Test all things; hold fast what is good." (1 Thessalonians 5:21)

Delvianna said:
AI's logic isn't even that good because it bases its answers on whatever you want to hear. It will bypass logic rules if the answer will make you happy. It learns what you like and manipulates the answers based on that. It's called Reinforcement Learning From Human Feedback (RLHF) and ALL large models like ChatGPT and Gemini are trained using that.

Well, "Artificial Intelligence" (AI) can not tell me what I want to hear, if I have not given it feedback, I would think. For example, when I ask for a sermon about "humildad" in Spanish so I can see what vocabulary is used to communicate about humility in Spanish . . . I haven't given AI any info about what I feel and believe, or why I am doing the search. Also, of course, I check websites for messages on a subject; and I need to be attentive to what Spanish messages might say that can help me to become genuinely humble like Jesus.

What I think I have seen, though, is how AI can give a message that might have some scriptural content, but also it can tend to be about what I can get for myself, not emphasizing all that is for God and what His purpose is > Romans 8:29. And I can be told I control choices, in fact controlling what God has "permission" to do!! However, there are people who slip this kind of thing into their sermons, also; so not only AI might tell people some "soft" message not really requiring what Jesus expects with us.

Even if AI is "objective", it can be limited to what is on the Net . . . that people have written. And some number of people are limited to their own ability to prepare messages, while others are selling their ministry even though Jesus says >

"Freely you have received, freely give." (in Matthew 10:8)

And while ones are ministering for sale, they can be operating in a spirit not freely giving so their ministry is defective because it is in an un-freely-giving spirit and not in the ability of the Holy Spirit. For example, ones can make a major thing of what is for you, and how you learn to control the devil and you control what God does with you or not. There can be nothing about submitting to God and how He makes our character submissive so we can obey Him in His peace > Colossians 3:15.

And "Heaven" can be treated as what is for you . . . with little or no attention to how Jesus is > as our example so that, for God, we become and love like Jesus. Instead, we can hear and read quite a lot about how great Heaven is going to be, for us, and be stirred-up with this. Plus, there can be quite a lot about how God so loves us and has done so much for us, without mention of how God's unconditional love and Jesus dying for us is our *example*to*follow* >

"forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you." (in Ephesians 4:32)

"And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma." (Ephesians 5:2)

Plus, it appears that a number of ministers talk about God's chastening/correction/discipline as more of a way to punish us or pressure us to do what He wants. But I offer that Hebrews 12:4-14 shows that our Father's real correction is in our character, changing us to share with Him in His own holiness in His love's "peaceable fruit of righteousness". In other words, He corrects our character to become like Jesus so we are submissive to our Father, like Jesus is, plus we are loving like Jesus, and Jesus in us shares with us in our character so we become pleasing to our Father like Jesus is so pleasing.

So, then, perhaps we could say that real correction is focused on how Jesus is so pleasing to our Father . . . while human teaching about correction can be so focused on things we are or are not doing and our own ability to decide what we want to do. To me, it seems that both AI but also human ministers can tend to focus more on us humans!!

But every scripture can be used by God to minister us into the likeness of Christ and how He loves and how He is so pleasing to our Father, sharing this with us, as Jesus grows in us as our new inner Person > I mean how God means Galatians 4:19 >

"My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you," (Galatians 4:19)

lismore · 2025-12-11T22:17:41-0600

If a group are 1.5% of the population and yet have 41% of air time on Netflix, it isn't a representation it's an agenda. God Bless.

RamiC · 2025-12-11T22:15:30-0600

Shane R said:
6 years.

She can do it then. There is plenty of prayer time there, and she can focus on all the right grades and characteristics that they like at the Citadel. Jesus please help Shane R's oldest daughter get into the Citadel, and if You really have another plan for her life, please guide her to what it is and enable her to enjoy it.

Richard T · 2025-12-11T22:08:31-0600

I

Hans Blaster said:
Are they? Every legal analysis I have seen of these "assault" cases that have been brought in bulk is that they are weak and overcharged. Under normal circumstances weak cases are dropped or reduced in severity *before* charging (or indictment). But, nothing here is normal and in some juridictions where there have been these large deployments of ICE/CBP personnel very publicly, the US Attorney on orders from the AG have been extremely aggressive on charging very minor crimes.

Here is our challenge: Find a federal court district where minor assault charges are successfully indicted in a "red area". (Ones where these charges have failed include CDCA, DDC, NDIL.)

Federal Charges must be brought in the same state that the crime was committed. The exception is if crimes crossed state lines. So no grand jury shopping that is out of state.

.Mikha'el. · 2025-12-11T22:00:36-0600

Login to view embedded media

Ain't Zwinglian · 2025-12-11T21:59:35-0600

Always in His Presence said:
Agreed - John the Baptist recognized the Presence of his Savior even in the womb - however it doesn't have any connection to Salvation.

This is a real bad theological belief! How do you know it doesn't have any connection to salvation? What Scripture passage can possibly say or even infer this?

Your statement "it doesn't have any connection to Salvation" is falsified by the context in Luke 1. John was filled with the HS before he was born (Luke 1:14) and would come with the power and spirit of Elijah (Luke 1:17). All salvation is attributed by the HS....and in John's case, Scripture specifically says he was filled the HS. The Spirit regenerates believers, bringing them from spiritual death to life.

I Cor 12:3. no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.
Romans 14:17 For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit,
Romans 5:5. God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.
Mt. 10:20 For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.
John 6:63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.
Jesus taught that one must be "born of the Spirit" to enter the Kingdom of heaven (John 3:5).

Salvation with the associated Kingdom of God was given to John when the Heavenly Father in his grace gives him his Holy Spirit before he was born.

loveofourlord · 2025-12-11T21:48:05-0600

probinson said:
Why even have VAERS if the reaction is always to just discard it completely? You say it's to "track trends", but clearly you don't believe that since you say it can't be used as "proof of anything".

VAERS exists so that public health agencies can say we have a system for tracking vaccine injuries while summarily dismissing everything it contains.

it isn't proof, nor can it be used as proof, it's a, "Hmmmm okay suddenly an upshot of people having this kind of complication, lets see if related." and thats when you find out oh it isn't. Self reporting is unreliable as a source on it's own.

samaus123456789 · 2025-12-11T21:39:54-0600

The gospel of Nicodemus which is actually inspired written pre 70 AD makes it clear 5500 is the original numbers based on the dimensions of the ark in Exodus 25:10 of 2.5 by 1.5 by 1.5 cubits which adds up to 5.5 which the Israelites understood to mean the messiah would come 5500 years from creation. Those ark numbers are the same in all hand written versions of the OT. It is also quoting the life of Adam, and Eve 5500 messianic prophecy which early Christians believes was written by Moses. Here is the most plausible reason the numbers were shortened after 70 AD by the synagogue of Satan (SOS) - some early Christians were using the Gospel of Nic, and Life of Adam, and Eve to say look the messiah was coming 5500 years from creation, and so the SOS shaved 1500 years off their early pre masoretic hebrew manuscripts. They must of changed the Assumption of Moses, Jubilees, and 2 Esdras (all not pseudepigrapha) as well as they all give 4000 BC. The only other times they could of been deflated or inflated is the Qumran period, the Maccabean period, or the Babylonian period. Ezra had to re write the bible during the Babylonian period as the Babylonians destroyed it however I can't think of any reason to change 1500 years of age in those time periods. If anyone knows let me know.
If the SOS only wanted to change the text so Shem, and Melchizadek live at the same time to suit their belief they are the same people they would of only had to change one number, and not subtract 1500 years. Conflict of Adam, and Eve with satan written after 70 AD but before 500 AD says Melchizadek was the son of Cainan, and that text was written by Christians so there is some weird Melchizadek beliefs out there in the first few centuries AD.

Here is the timeline based on Gospel of Nicodemus. It is 70 years short possibly textual variant

Creation 5430 BC
Flood 3218 BC
Tower of Babel 2687 BC
Abraham born or died? 2081 BC (modern date 2000-2200 BC depending on MT or LXX)
Exodus from Egypt 1611 BC (1446 BC is modern date)
Solomons temple build 1100 BC (967 BC is modern date)
Solomons temple destroyed 636 BC (587 BC is the modern date)
Jesus born 1 AD.

Those dates came from this section: it says the dates are in Ezras books but they are not in Ezra/1 Esdras/2 Esdras so it is possibly citing lost works of Ezra. It is citing Life of Adam, and Eve with the 5500 year prophecy, and the extra 70 books outside the normal canon for the worthy only which is in 2 Esdras.

. Now our custom is that every year before our assembly we open this holy Bible and inquire the testimony of God. And we have found in the first book of the Seventy how that Michael the angel spake unto the third son of Adam the first man concerning the five thousand and five hundred years, wherein should come the most beloved Son of God, even Christ: and furthermore we have thought that peradventure this same was the God of Israel which said unto Moses: Make thee an ark of the covenant in length two cubits and a half, and in breadth one cubit and a half, and in height one cubit and a half. For by those five cubits and a half we have understood and known the fashion of the ark of the old covenant, for that in five thousand and a half thousand years Jesus Christ should come in the ark of his body: and we have found that he is the God of Israel, even the Son of God. For after his passion, we the chief of the priests, because we marvelled at the signs which came to pass on his account did open the Bible, and searched out all the generations unto the generation of Joseph, and Mary the mother of Christ, taking her to be the seed of David: and we found that from the day when God made the heaven and the earth and the first man, from that time unto the Flood are 2,212 years: and from the Flood unto the building of the tower 531 years: and from the building of the tower unto Abraham 606 years: and from Abraham unto the coming of the children of Israel out of Egypt 470 years: and from the going of the children of Israel out of Egypt unto the building of the temple 511 years: and from the building of the temple unto the destruction of the same temple 464 years: so far found we in the Bible of Esdras: and inquiring from the burning of the temple unto the coming of Christ and his birth we found it to be 636 years, which together were five thousand and five hundred years like as we found it written in the Bible that Michael the archangel declared before unto Seth the third son of Adam, that after five thousand and a half thousand years Christ the Son of God hath (? should) come

DamianWarS · 2025-12-11T21:31:59-0600

fhansen said:
I agree with most of this completely and yet this is the very reason Jesus could truthfully say in Matt 19:17,
"If you want to enter life, keep the commandments”, referencing the ten,

and Paul could say In Rom 2:13:
"For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous."

or in Rom 8:12-14
Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live. For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God."

The new covenant is not about whether one must be obedient but rather about how one becomes obedient, authentically, and, yes, love, which fulfills the law by its nature (Rom 13:10), is that authentic means. It's the righteousness that the law and prophets only testify to but cannot accomplish in us (Rom 3:21-22). That accomplishment comes solely by virtue of becoming united with the Vine, by communion with God, the very source of love. And that union, that ingrafting, is first established by faith.
"...not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith" (Phil 3:9).

Your argument hinges on interpreting all these references to mean the 10 where the texts never say this. Mat 19:17 we have a familiar account of someone asking Christ which commandments he should keep, Christ's answer seems to cover only the second half of the ten and adds an extra to love your neighbour as yourself. But the takeaway is not how justified the man was for keeping these, but that he still lacked. This exposes the 10 as lacking itself, not to mention it was only 5 commandments. Jesus uses these as a segue to expose the real problem, which addresses the heart.

No one is arguing that murdering, stealing, lying and adultery are wrong or that respecting your parents is a good idea. These are well-established morals that preexist the 10 itself and can be found in any culture. But the bigger question is not how profound these ideas are, but what follows in v20, "what do I still lack". The issue is not what the man kept, but what he was lacking that could not be answered by the 10 (or in this case, the 5)

We can conflate all these references and say "what they really mean is to keeping the 10" but this needs to be injected into the text, not to mention we are missing the point. The tablets are a seal of the covenant relationship first established in Ex 24 (the 10 were spoken in 20 and the tablets were received in 31). This is the covenant, and Hebrews 8:13 says it has been made obsolete.

Deut 5:2-3
The Lord our God made a covenant with us at Horeb. It was not with our ancestors that the Lord made this covenant, but with us, with all of us who are alive here today

The rest of Deu 5 is quoting the 10. The 10 had a unique relationship as a covenant relationship with Israel, "not with [their] ancestors." This shows us the 10 were never designed for outside the covenant relationship and explicitly for Israel. Coupled with Hebrews 8:13 it's hard to understand why our eyes are still fixed on the 10. It is Christ that we should be looking to and keeping "his commandments" which surpass the 10 in all ways as they address the root of the heart using a heuristic approach. Monotheistic values (commandments 1-3), we can say, are about loving the Lord with all our heart, yet "with all our heart" implicitly reaches further, so it's not just about no other gods, no idols and not taking his name in vain, but it goes beyond. These can all be mechanically observed and divorced of any heart action; Christ's law addresses the depths of our hearts that that's the point, not a list of rules. This is the same with loving your neighbour as yourself, it goes infinitely beyond the actions of the 10, no longer motivated with simply not harming our neighbour from a preset list but a charge to actively pursue love.

The 4th seems like the oddball one, but it really is a monotheistic claim, rescuing pagan 7th-day claims to point to the one creator. ANE (ancient near east) cultures already had a lot of these values in place. Hebrews had a strict 7-day week system, which was unique to them; other cultures used moon phases that may have aligned to a 7-day week but were reset with the lunar month (unlike the Hebrews, who decoupled the two systems). The decoupling is important because the weeks align with no observable phenomena (like moon phases), leading to pagan beliefs. But 7-day iterations already had established practices and values among surrounding cultures long before Israel was formed. It wasn't unique to them, and they inherited these values over being the first to introduce them. It wasn't unusual that the Hebrews had rituals or veneration practices on this day, and surrounding cultures would have overlapping agreement. But the difference is that Sabbath aligns with creation/monotheistic claims over using it to highlight pagan 7-day claims, and is also used redemptively, pointing to Christ. It is deeply rich with meaning, but these point to and are fulfilled by Christ, who is the source and meaning of the sabbath day. Where the physical observance is a part of the old covenant that no longer needs to be repeated.

essentialsaltes · 2025-12-11T21:27:20-0600

The deeply personal reasons why many Indiana Senate Republicans said no to Trump

Jean Leising spoke at a breakfast this fall at her 8th grade grandson’s school. Hours later, when she was set to give him a ride home from basketball practice, he bashfully told her that his entire team had received text messages about her that day — “and they were all bad.”

“Boy, when I got home that night, that’s when I decided,” said Leising, a 76-year-old grandmother of eight, first elected to the Senate in 1988. “I was angry. So the next day, I said, ‘I’ve got to talk about this.’ Because this is over the top. This shouldn’t be the way it was.”

“But that was the beginning,” she added. “It only got worse from there.”

It was clear on Thursday that a pressure campaign waged by the White House and its allies had backfired.

“You wouldn’t change minds by being mean. And the efforts were mean-spirited from the get-go,” she said. “If you were wanting to change votes, you would probably try to explain why we should be doing this, in a positive way. That never happened, so, you know, I think they get what they get.”

“Hoosiers are a hardy lot, and they don’t like to be threatened. They don’t like to be intimidated. They don’t like to be bullied in any fashion. And I think a lot of them responded with, ‘That isn’t going to work,’” [another senator] Glick said. “And it didn’t.”

Michie · 2025-12-11T21:17:14-0600

President Donald Trump said he remains open to meeting with Pope Leo XIV and insisted he wasn't aware of the pontiff's comments expressing disagreement with his immigration policies.

In an interview with Trump broadcast on Tuesday, Politico’s Dasha Burns asked the president to weigh in on the pope's characterization of his immigration policies as “inhumane.” Trump insisted he hadn't heard the comments before launching into a defense of his policies to combat illegal immigration that went largely unenforced under his predecessor, former President Joe Biden.

“I haven’t heard any statements from the pope,” he said. “I’m sure he’s a lovely man. His brother’s a lovely man.”

Continued below.

Trump willing to meet with Pope Leo, responds to Catholic leader's criticism of immigration policies

President Donald Trump said he remains open to meeting with Pope Leo XIV and insisted he wasn t aware of the pontiff s comments expressing disagreement with his immigration policies

www.christianpost.com

New Posts

New Posts

1. If “destroy” means non-existence, how can people be “destroyed” yet still exist?​

​

2. How can someone be “dead” yet conscious?​

3. How can people be “away from the presence of the Lord” (2 Thess 1:9) if they no longer exist?​

4. Why does Jesus describe an ongoing state, not an event?​

5. Why does Revelation describe ongoing torment if annihilation is true?​

6. Why does Revelation 20:10 say the devil is tormented “day and night forever and ever,” then place humans in the same fate?​

7. Why does Daniel 12:2 contrast eternal life with eternal shame/contempt, not eternal non-existence?​

8. How can “eternal fire” in Jude 7 refer to annihilation when Jude applies it to a past event?​

9. Why does Jesus warn about “weeping and gnashing of teeth” if annihilation is instant?​

10. Why does Jesus say the punishment is “eternal,” not the fire?​

The deeply personal reasons why many Indiana Senate Republicans said no to Trump​

Filter

Forum statistics

Share this page

1. If “destroy” means non-existence, how can people be “destroyed” yet still exist?

2. How can someone be “dead” yet conscious?

3. How can people be “away from the presence of the Lord” (2 Thess 1:9) if they no longer exist?

4. Why does Jesus describe an ongoing state, not an event?

5. Why does Revelation describe ongoing torment if annihilation is true?

6. Why does Revelation 20:10 say the devil is tormented “day and night forever and ever,” then place humans in the same fate?

7. Why does Daniel 12:2 contrast eternal life with eternal shame/contempt, not eternal non-existence?

8. How can “eternal fire” in Jude 7 refer to annihilation when Jude applies it to a past event?

9. Why does Jesus warn about “weeping and gnashing of teeth” if annihilation is instant?

10. Why does Jesus say the punishment is “eternal,” not the fire?

The deeply personal reasons why many Indiana Senate Republicans said no to Trump