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How is it that the Catholic Church is evil?

Very nice analysis. The problem with modern Protestantism that I can see is the overemphasis on faith, which we get from Martin Luther saying we are saved by faith alone.
Augustine does not teach that and neither does scripture. Scripture says we are saved BY grace THROUGH faith.
I think the so-called "Five Solas" of the Reformation have it right, that salvation is:

sola scriptura (by Scripture alone), solus Christus (in Christ alone), sola fide (through faith alone), sola gratia (by grace alone), and soli Deo gloria (to the glory of God alone).
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New belief among teenagers. What do you think?

Don't give it too much relevance. Tiktok and social media can amplify unusual beliefs or attitudes in ways that aren't helpful, or actually reflective of the real world. Furthermore, some people subconsciously or conscious are using Tiktok to get attention. Attention, positive or negative, gets monetized on these platforms.

I've seen alot of purple haired types at my local coffee shop, with more nose rings than my shower curtain, but, I've never met one of these "therians".
According to the info I read, Therians in general don't have an appearance that distinguishes them as such.
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AI thinks aliens have occupied Earth

Ofc, it doesn't think/reason until you ask a question.

AI's actually the first to suggest that Earth might be currently under alien occupation. I never asked the question "do you think the Earth is occupied by aliens?" before it gave that suggestion.

But it did already believe in aliens after finding strong correlations between documented accounts and effects that is explainable with quantum physics.

It further associated these entities with evil spirits without me suggesting it.
I know very little about artificial intelligence, but I thought that any information AI has to work with came in the first instance from human beings. The idea that AI can "believe" something sounds extremely unlikely to me.
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Blameless in the Law

Genesis 9:8 Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him: 9 “I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you 10 and with every living creature that was with you—the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you—every living creature on earth. 11 I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.”

12 And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: 13 I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14 Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, 15 I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. 16 Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.”
The first/natural waters destroyed the natural man. Per plan. The natural man has always been fated for (eventual) termination.

The fate of the 2nd man awaits is not realized until we put off the so called "mortal coil" and are "made spirits." 1 Cor. 15:42-56

Isaiah 54:
8 In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer.
9 For this is as the waters of Noah unto me: for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth; so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee.
10 For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee.

So yes, some read Jesus' Words of "as in the days of Noah" and they see DOOM and GLOOM. And it will be DOOM and GLOOM for the devil and his messengers.

But NOT for people. That is another matter altogether
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Being embarrassed about Jesus?

You seem to be saying that the Jews before the Sadducees did believe in Heaven and Hell but I don't think the Bible supports that.
Why would you think I am saying that John?
Perhaps I am not understanding what you are trying to find out.
I thought you wanted to know why the Sadducees didn't believe in the afterlife... or resurrection.
You said:
I was wondering why they didn't believe in the afterlife.

How did heaven and hell get into the picture?
There is nothing in the Bible suggesting that the Sadducees didn't believe in heaven or hell. Nor that they did.
The Bible says they didn't believe in resurrection, nor angels nor spirit. Acts 23:6-8

According to secular sources, the Sadducees were known for their strict adherence to the written Torah and rejected the oral traditions of the Pharisees.
One source states Josephus, says:
The Pharisees have delivered to the people a great many observances by succession from their fathers, which are not written in the laws of Moses; and for that reason it is that the Sadducees reject them, and say that we are to esteem those observances to be obligatory which are in the written word, but are not to observe what are derived from the tradition of our forefathers”.

What I said to you, is the reason for this is the Sadducees are made up of some of the Jews who were in captivity to Babylon. This sect, would have deviated from the Jewish teachings, because the Torah, the Prophets and Writings contain teachings on the resurrection, angels, and spirit.
According to Nehemiah, a lot of the leading Jews - priests among them, married foreign women, and their children did not know the Jewish culture... obviously because the foreign mothers educated their children in their culture.
So, that is one explanation, as well as the fact that some of the returning Jews opposed God's teachings for greedy and selfish gain.

Is that what you read?

My point was that the novel about Titan seemed to get a lot of things right, similar to your Persia, etc, example. Yet people would just believe it is a coincidence.

My quote is about apparent supernatural phenomena and God. It isn't really related to the flat earth. I've asked some atheists about the Persia/Babylon prophecies and I'll see what they say.
The Bible says that God destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah with fire and Sulphur.
Archaeological evidence suggests that a catastrophic event led to the destruction of ancient cities in the region. This event is believed to have caused intense heat, fire, and the release of sulfur.

What do you think atheist will say about that?
What every skeptic of the Bible will say...
"It possibly involving a meteor impact or a natural disaster, some cosmic airburst, such as an exploding meteor or comet, could have caused widespread destruction, including a high-temperature thermal pulse and a hypervelocity blast wave that devastated the area, and the Jews got confused and attributed it to some deity, and then wrote some story, and it got put in their book."
LOL :grinning:

BTW what do you think about my upside down Bible and Connect 4 stories? Do you think they were coincidences and had nothing to do with some kind of God? I think their likelihood is extremely low.
I didn't read about them.
Perhaps you can give a brief summary.
I can tell you though, that most things do have something to do with some kind of God, and are not coincidental.
There are two forces at work and both have interests in our lives - the God of darkness, and the God of light.

I accept the evidence that supports the truthfulness of the Bible.
So, I believe every word, as I have good reason to do so. I'm not skeptical about God and the Bible.
What it says has all proved true.

Did you know the Bible actually prophesied what we are seeing today, which is baffling officials about what to do about the world's crisis?
It's all there in the Bible... like reading today's news... yesterday.

photorealistic-earth-planet_23-2151075939.jpg

What do you think about the increasing global crisis... their causes and impact?
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Christianity no longer seems moral to me

What do you mean by "God remains the same"? this could suggest some kind of platonic metaphysics that I don't think captures the relational, dynamic nature of the Trinitarian God.
In this context, I simply mean that God is God regardless of human opinions about God. What is true of Him persists regardless of how we understand Him.
The story of the Syrophoenician woman and Jesus' encounter with the woman at the well are good examples of the dynamic I am speaking of. God isn't a unity without distinctions, but a communion of Persons, each involved in perichoeretic movement. Perichoresis means "to make space for others", a kind of "dance", which suggests movement and dynamism, not Platonic stasis.
Yes, I also oppose the Platonic idea of God's impassivity. That is not what I was getting at with my contention that God is objective.
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Believers being bullied by other brothers and sisters in Christ.

1. May I express that I once was a "church going christian" for years and years and years.
2. I need no excuse to say I no longer attend a brick and mortar building called a "church." That does not mean I am "taking the easy way." Nothing about the Christian life is "easy."
3. As for work, I was a nursery worker in church, Sunday School Teacher, member of many Bible Studies, took my children every Sunday, Wednesday and brought them up in knowledge of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Jesus is concerned with our Hearts/Souls and not how regularly we "work."
4. The "narrow door" is not the church building but believing in the the Lord Jesus Christ, giving Him our total trust and living as best we can by following His Way. The Pharisees and other "workers, strict followers of the Law" thought they had it down pat too.
5. I did not stop going to that building because of "frustration, etc" but I stopped going to that building whenever my step daughter (my husband's only daughter) committed suicide and NOT ONE PASTOR, LAY PERSON, came to our door to give my husband one bit of help.

The "church" is not that building, whether or not it is a big building, little building but the "church" is the Body of Christ believers.
I am sorry to hear about your step-daughter. The fault in the lack of help was not the building's, but the membership of the church. Please don't imagine that all churches are the same. All the local churches of which I have been a member in my 50-plus years as a Christian had members who showed great care for one another. But I stress that none of this has anything to do with whether a particular church has its own brick and mortar building, or meets for worship in a hired hall, a private home, or even in the open air.
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NT Wright refutes claim that early Christians expected immediate End Times

N. T. Wright is a partial Preterist so in his view a lot of Bible focus sort of stops at 70 AD - destruction of Jerusalem (I think some Preterists call that the second coming but Wright does not apparently).
I considered myself a partial preterist and I never thought that. Rather it is John's baptists preaching of the wrath that was coming to those under the law, which began in 70 ad. Faith in Christ was the a way of escape...


I think that a straight forward reading of the Bible supports pre-millennial positions make more sense than the preterism.
Paul speaks here of Gentiles vs Jew's. Jew's are judged by the law, And thee wrath and curse they were under was coming...
Ro 2:12 For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law: and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law;

Paul was an evangelist focused on outreach to gentiles - and there is no way that letters to gentiles were going to focus on non-Christian Jews in Jerusalem as the main point.
Gentiles were being persuaded to become Jew's for a reason? Paul was addressing this....
Phil 3 focus - is pretty obvious to a gentile believer -
18 For many walk, of whom I often told you, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ, 19 whose end is destruction, whose god is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things. 20 For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; 21 who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.

1 Thess 4:13-18 is the focus for every funeral according to Paul - and is not talking about non-Christian Jews dying in Jerusalem in 70 A.D.
Wrath and cursing are prophesied in the law to Jew's under the law. It was coming.


The whole law

Ga 3:10 For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.


Ga 5:3 For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law.

Ga 3:10 For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.

This generation here.........

Mt 3:7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?

Lu 3:7 Then said he to the multitude that came forth to be baptized of him, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?

Lu 21:23 But woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck, in those days! for there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people.

Joh 3:36 He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.

And here : The apostles to the Jew's

Acts 2:38 Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
39 For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.
40 And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation.


Have you read the law????

God punishing Israel with the curse and his wrath (of long continuance)


De 28:59 Then the LORD will make thy plagues wonderful, and the plagues of thy seed, even great plagues, and of long continuance, and sore sicknesses, and of long continuance.

Deut 25:26 For they went and served other gods, and worshipped them, gods whom they knew not, and whom he had not given unto them: {whom he … : or, who had not given to them any portion } {given: Heb. divided }
27 And the anger of the LORD was kindled against this land, to bring upon it all the curses that are written in this book:
28 And the LORD rooted them out of their land in anger, and in wrath, and in great indignation, and cast them into another land, as it is this day.

The Gospel to the Gentiles is an escape from Gods wrath as well......
De 30:1 And it shall come to pass, when all these things are come upon thee, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before thee, and thou shalt call them to mind among all the nations, whither the LORD thy God hath driven thee,
Deut 30:5 And the LORD thy God will bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it; and he will do thee good, and multiply thee above thy fathers.
6 And the LORD thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live.
7 And the LORD thy God will put all these curses upon thine enemies, and on them that hate thee, which persecuted thee.

Partial Preterism?
I don't know what you would call this. I call it fulfillment of the prophetic utterances of the law being fulfilled.

Ro 3:31 Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law

Mt 5:18 For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.
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Progressive Covenentalism

Hello!

I am exploring eschatology to have a better understanding. I see arguments for both premillennialism and amillennialism, though I admit to being biased towards the former due to my denomination and upbringing.

One view I am considering is progressive covenentalism. It seems pretty compelling from a biblical standpoint and I think it fits the best with the New Testament. I do think it's pretty obvious, based on the text, that Jesus is the true Israel and all who are grafted in are heirs to the promise, including the promise of the land.

However, I am on the fence between progressive covenentalism and progressive dispensationalism.

My issue is that I do think there is some kind of significance to the return of the Jewish people to their land and I anticipate a future Messianic kingdom like in Acts 1:6, but I think dispensationalists can go too far with the separation between Israel and the Church. So, I don't want to say that Israel and the Jewish people have no significance at all to God's greater plan, and some verses do seem to teach that the Jewish people will be restored.

What are your thoughts?
I do best by simply explaining what I believe, and utilize the various schools as needed. With Dispensentionalism I agree that Israel's future hope as a Christian nation is real. With Premillennialism, I think Israel's future national hope will be in the Millennium after Christ returns.

I think the way God dealt with Israel under the Law was different from the way He deals with nations under the New Covenant precisely because the Law preceded Christ's redemption. So the major difference is that God's Law impacts Christians today with no sense of participating in rituals meant to look forward to that event.

I disagree with Covenant Theology and its sense of Replacement Theology, viewing the Church as the New Israel and viewing Kingdom Hope as realized in our current Salvation. Theocracies only survive in the present and past eras on a partial basis, since countries are mixed and are weak to the forces of sin. A country corrupts until failure is inevitable.

Israel failed under the Law only because it was the first theocracy to exist, and the Law merely showed the process of sin in degrading a country until its inevitable failure. In the NT era nations that are Christian, or theocracies, fail the same way Israel did.

Christ comes to usher in the Kingdom of God in the Millennium by refining nations who had been called to faith, including Israel and the Christian nations. Other nations will simply be defeated and made subject to international Christian Law.

What Christians experience today of the Kingdom of God, or Realized Eschatology, is not eschatological, but only the impact of the Kingdom on the current process of Salvation. It is, in effect, a downpayment on our future inheritance, lived out in a world in which Sin is still allowed a choice and to hold sway.
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Anyone else have a unique eschatology?

I suppose mine might be considered unique, in that I find the whole discussion extremely tiring and would rather just find out when it happens. My sole concern is to make sure that I eat the lamb with my walking stick in hand and my sandals on my feet.

Though I do fall into the post-mil camp, but just because I agree that the eschaton was inaugurated with the resurrection and every day since is about the inbreaking of the kingdom of God.
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So far, at least nine (now ~40) (now >70) judges, including Trump appointees, have called a halt to Trump executive actions

Let me quote it again for you.
I dont believe thats how class action suits are supposed to work.

Several conservatives, including Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, warned against courts using class-action litigation to essentially supplant the kind of nationwide injunction the court had just shot down.

“Lax enforcement of the requirements” for certifying a class, Alito wrote in an opinion joined by Thomas, “would create a potentially significant loophole to today’s decision.”

Federal courts, he added, “should thus be vigilant against such potential abuses of these tools.”

Whether Laplante’s decision is an “abuse” or exactly what the Supreme Court had in mind will likely wind up back before the justices in short order.

A class action begins when lead plaintiffs file a complaint in court on behalf of a larger group. This document outlines the facts, names the defendant, defines the proposed class, and details the legal claims. This filing pauses the statute of limitations, or the legal deadline for filing a claim, for all potential class members.

Following the initial filing, the plaintiffs’ attorneys file a motion for class certification. The defendant has the opportunity to oppose this motion, leading to a hearing where both sides present arguments. The judge then issues an order either granting or denying certification.

If the class is certified, a formal notice is sent to all potential class members explaining the lawsuit and their rights. The case then proceeds through discovery, where both sides exchange evidence, and moves toward either a settlement or a trial.
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Pastoral approach to ...

It obviously depends on the context.
I've related this before but when I was still a new Christian and getting to know the pastor, he told me about an episode in his own church. This would be 40 or so years ago now.

There was a young parishioner who was riding his motorbike dangerously, stupidly. I know the pastor rode a motor bike himself in his own younger years.

So with due pastoral responsibility he warned the young bloke about his riding. He said it was obvious to everyone. I don't think I ever met this young fellow as I suspect it was about the same time I joined the church.

But the pastor said he felt a bit guilty about the way he warned him. He said he found that what he said happened and I can vouch that several of his predictions have occurred. I'm still waiting for a couple more.

What he said was "If you don't smarten up and start riding more carefully, you won't last two weeks!" He told me he buried the bike rider two weeks later to the day from warning him. He didn't last two weeks. Like he said, he found his words tended to happen.

He said he wished he'd used different terminology. He was correct in giving a pastoral warning, but unintentionally and prophetically predicted the result.

That's one case I can think of where a pastor regretted the exact wording.

That's not to say the pastor caused the chap's death. That was his own responsibility and the chances are he would have taken no notice either way.

It's a bit like the bloke sitting by the pool of Siloam for 38 years. He went around spreading word about his healing. Christ caught up with him and said ... “See, you have been made well. Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you. The man departed and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well."

There's an inference here that the chap may have "sinned" more and a worse thing came upon him, but Scripture is silent on the issue. Yet I think it's inferred. Otherwise why would the writer put it in there?

Christ healed him as part of His pastoral care, but he also warned him in His pastoral role.
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Anyone have good arguments against Calvinism.

You have surety because God's promises are true.

It's just that. Are God's promises true? Yes...

If a person is drawn and believes then they're also chosen and since the choosing belongs to God you don't have the question why me and not the person to my right or left, you just are grateful you were chosen in unmerited Grace.

It's about having full faith and trust in God and not in yourself.
That only works in a general sense, but doesn't live up to scrutiny. Perseverance of the saints doesn't hold if you don't know whether you were one of the elect until after all is said and done. So the only way to have assurance is to not question your own election, and by that I don't mean "why me?" But "Am I?" As there is nothing that separates the elect from the non-elect except God's "inscrutable" will there is no way that one can know they truly are part of the elect, or if tomorrow they're going to wake up and find that God was only allowing them to fool themselves.

That is not even to begin talking about the issue of God becoming the author of sin under Calvinism and what that says about the trustworthiness of God's promises to begin with.
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