HTacianas said:

The answer to your question is no. And there is a very good example of it recorded in Acts.

Act 19:1 And it happened, while Apollos was at Corinth, that Paul, having passed through the upper regions, came to Ephesus. And finding some disciples
Act 19:2 he said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” So they said to him, “We have not so much as heard whether there is a Holy Spirit.”
Act 19:3 And he said to them, “Into what then were you baptized?” So they said, “Into John’s baptism.”
Act 19:4 Then Paul said, “John indeed baptized with a baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they should believe on Him who would come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus.”
Act 19:5 When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
Act 19:6 And when Paul had laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke with tongues and prophesied.

So we ask the question, when was Apollos saved? If Apollos was saved when he believed why did he then need to be baptized and have hands laid on him to receive the Holy Spirit?

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Would Paul have baptized the unsaved?

bèlla said:

Weston Price chronicled the impact the western diet had on various cultures around the globe as evidenced through dentistry. While it originally addressed the effects of sugar he went on to discover the correlation between diet, habitat and ethnicity. He believed our bodies had a natural preference for the foods related to our region and genetic makeup.

Or put more simply, that's why my Italian friend struggled to eat clean -- a Mediterranean diet -- and always had to reset (start again). The carb deficiency fostered cravings she satisfied with other foods (junk carbs). It's unnatural for her and she needs something more substantial.

I applied his ideology with positive results. My affinity for French culture and food wasn't happenstance. I aligned my eating habits with the French and never struggled with high blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes, etc. We settled on a whole foods approach with seasonality and growing conditions in mind. While many eat organic we consume the items when they're at their best taste wise and nutritionally.

We switched to ancient grains a couple years ago exclusively and increased our consumption of fermented foods and probiotics. The shift jump started our metabolisms and we began losing weight and burning fat without exercising. We eat nose to tail and make our own bone broths and medicines. We don't shy away from fat and prefer things in their natural state (dairy, sugar, etc.) Most of which Sally Fallon champions. I discovered Price's teachings through her.

~bella

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This only proves there's way more than just 1 way to live healthy.

In my mom's case, what causes her to have high blood pressure is drinking too much water.

There's too much hype in hydration by the media. It does make you spend more money, way more than just the water itself and mostly from the negative health consequences of drinking too much water.

iluvatar5150 said:

As I pointed out in another thread today, Trump’s platform also promises support to first time homebuyers. I wonder how Trump manages to avoid the inflationary pressures they fear will plague Harris’ plan.

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I wonder why the Democratic Party is now adopting Republican platforms?

Is it an admission of the dismal failure of the past 4 years?

Or are they so out of ideas they're literally stealing them from the competition?

Of course it's evil. It's a vehicle for mainstream Neoconservatism.

Xeno.of.athens said:

The psalms are a source of comfort for me, as well as a place to lay out my trials and cry out to God for help, to weep and to rejoice. But other places in the holy scriptures also provide comfort, wisdom, and what is needed in times of trouble. Where do you go for such things?

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The Psalms are my go-to book also.

Oompa Loompa said:

It would be difficult to transfer an unborn child to an artificial womb when it is torn into pieces and sucked out with a vacuum.

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Details, details.

DaveM said:

thanks everyone for the great feed back, I am much clearer on this subject now !!

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AND maybe not ??

All that Gal 3:28 are several things!!

That is the BODY of Christ there CANNOT // OV , ever beeeeeeeeeeeee, Jew nor Greek , as CANNOT // OV is a

DISJUNCATIVE PARTICIPLE NEGATIVE , meaning there will NEVERRRRRRRRRRRRRR be Jews or GENTILES in the BODY of Christ ,

Then in Col 3:11 reads differently , Where there CANNOT // OV is also a DISJUNCATIVE PARTICILE NEGATIVE , which also means

there will NEVERRRRRRRR be in the Body of Christ Greek , Jew , Circumcision and uncircumcision , Foreigner , Scythian , slave

( nor ) free, but Christ , is the all things and in all .

And verse 28 says we ARE // ESTE , is in the Greek Present tense , meaning OSAS .

Could say more , but have to go home .

dan p.

gzt said:

The Low Church segment is a very large segment of the ECUSA and was even more dominant then.

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They were much larger then, unfortunately now the Liberal Catholic and Liberal Broad Church segments are dominant. As far as traditional low church ECUSA parishes, that would be considered the most conventionally Protestant, as opposed to Broad Church parishes which represent what Anglicans like to call the via media, these have become quite rare in the Episcopal Church, and to a very large extent most low church or Evangelical Anglicans have left for ACNA, leaving behind more liberal broad church parishes. Likewise, conservative High Church and conservative Anglo Catholic parishes have become quite rare, although I am aware of one, St. John’s Episcopal Chuech in Detroit (which I thought was Continuing Anglican, indeed I was almost certain it was Continuing Anglican, and was genuinely shocked to discover it is still in the Episcopal Church).

gzt said:

We also don't have the most recent numbers for Orthodoxy, but they're not going to jump that much.

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I should expect they will show much more of a jump (the jump is due to the end of the pandemic which was adversely affecting us due to illegal restrictions on worship) and the recent influx of converts, whereas the Episcopal Church is continuing to lose members at a very high rate (if it continues, they will be gone by 2050, but I expect their membership will bottom out at some point, as happened with the UUA, which after alienating nearly everyone, now shows growth, albeit at the expense of the liberal, but less authentically or consistently liberal, mainline Protestants).

But I will say I am shocked our average attendance now equals that of the Episcopal Church, that is still very good for us, but also very sad, when you consider how many American cities have large, imposing Episcopal parishes - they must be mostly empty, and the much fewer and generally much smaller Orthodox parishes mostly full, to attain such a result.

I would particularly like to compare the statistical mode of attendance in Orthodox parishes with Episcopal parishes, because I figured on the basis of median average attendance, given how Episcopal parishes do tend to fill up for seasonal services like Christmas and Easter (for example, 9 Lessons and Carols), that it would throw the mean average in their favor to such an extent that they would be twice as large as us. Of course, since the statistics you refer to are average (presumably mean) Sunday attendance, that probably cancels out Christmas services except for in 2023, when Christmas Eve on the Gregorian Calendar fell on a Sunday, which, unless they compensate for it, will cause a huge bump in 2023, which would only be partially compensated for on our end since ROCOR, the Serbians, ACROD (at least their cathedral), the Georgians, and other jurisdictions (including if I recall the massive OCA Archdiocese of Sitka and Alaska) use the Julian calendar (although effective last Christmas some churches switched to the Revised Julian including the UOCNA, and Holy Virgin Mary Russian Orthodox Church in Los Angeles, which is under the OCA, broke with its normal tradition and celebrated Christmas on the Revised Julian calendar, at least in terms of streaming, although lately they appear to have returned to using the Julian Calendar except for the English language services they have in one of their chapels, which are on the RJC).

Nonetheless, a distortion can be expected in the raw 2023 data.

Grafted In said:

Thank you for your informative responce.
I understand very little of what you wrote, but it's nice to know it's a normal phenomena.
Is this directly connected to the practice of using a planet or moon to accelerate a satellite by swinging around it?

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Totally different scenario which involves gravity and the conservation of momentum.
A spacecraft approaching a planet from an opposite direction to the planet's orbit around the Sun is accelerated due to the planet's gravitational field.
It swings around the planet in a hyperbolic trajectory exiting the gravitational field, with a greater velocity.

The spacecraft takes some of the planet's orbital momentum, gaining energy in the process.
In the planet's frame of reference, the spacecraft's speed remains unchanged (since gravity is a conservative force), but from the Sun's frame of reference, the spacecraft gains velocity due to the motion of the planet.

In the solar (Sun's) frame of reference:
v₁ is the velocity of the spacecraft entering the planet’s gravitational field.
v₂ is the velocity of the spacecraft exiting the planet’s gravitational field.
U is the orbital velocity of the planet around the Sun.

RoBo1988 said:

The church is always looking for "God to move in the service. That's good, but I feel like a lot of people (and this individual in particular) are trying to force His movement.

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If there are no interpretations to that persons so-called messages, then they don't have a ministry with their gift. Just because any one of us who are filled with The Spirit can pray in tongues, it doesn't give us permission to think we can use that portion of our gift in the assembly.

Someone probably needs to talk to the leadership and they eventually get that person corrected.

RileyG said:

Thankfully i have a FSSP chapel near me that is thriving.

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What a great blessing that is!

Xeno.of.athens said:

Romans 9:5, Acts 20:28. and some more, but these are not Granville Sharp rule passages.

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True the ambiguity possible in places like Titus 2 - is not found in Rom 9:5

Acts 2:28 Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood.

Rom 9:3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my countrymen, my kinsmen according to the flesh, 4 who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons and daughters, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the Law, the temple service, and the promises; 5 whose are the fathers, and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen.

Neither of those passages present a problem where one has to choose between Christ being God or not being God.

synger said:

I think one of the best places to start with Luther is the Small Catechism. The Small Catechism He wrote it to help fathers teach their families basic Christian (Lutheran) principles. It's an easy read because it's designed for home use, and if you want more detail on any of what he says you can look up the same section (Ten Commandments, Creed, Baptism, etc.) in his Large Catechism, which goes into much more depth.

One of his early seminal works was "The Freedom of the Christian", (https://static1.squarespace.com/sta...+Martin+Luther+The+Freedom+of+a+Christian.pdf) which led to his much more involved "Bondage of the Will". I've read both, and Bondage is an amazing piece. there's a good reason it's considered his magnum opus. That said, it's a deep read. It's not something to dash off in a weekend.

The "95 Theses" are interesting primarily as a historical touchpoint to show the main issues that he had with current (at his time) Roman Catholic teaching. It was an invitation to discussion, not so much an exploration of the issues in detail. It gets pretty redundant after a while.

Probably the closest thing we have to a systematic theology from him is the Augsburg Confession. The Augsburg Confession He was asked by the Emperor to put in writing his beliefs so the Roman church could dispute them (very general description of the history there... it was a lot more complicated than that). So you have articles "of God", "of the Ministry", "of Justification", etc. Keep in mind when you read them the context here. He will say "this is what we believe, over against what the Romans or the Anabaptists believe".

If you're still reading and want more, the next one would be The Defense of the Augsburg Confession. (also available at bookofconcord.org) Basically, the Roman Catholics replied to his Augsburg Confession (above) and the Defense is his rebuttal. So you get more history within the theology as well.

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I could download it to the AI.

tonychanyt said:

Jesus' ministry after resurrection until ascension: A harmonized chronology
The descriptions in the gospels were rather confusing. This is my attempt to harmonize.
After the resurrection morning, Jesus met two disciples in Lk 24:

After spending some hours with them,

M2 decided to go back to Jerusalem to report to the Peter et al:

Thomas wasn't there (Jn 20:24).
Jn 20:

Some days later, 1Co 15:

More days later, Jesus told his disciples the great commission in Mt 28:

Galilee was 80 miles from Jerusalem, a 3-day walk.
Some days later, Jesus appeared to 7 disciples by the Sea of Galilee (Jn 21:2). They were fishing:

Another day, he appeared to James, his genetic half-brother (1Co 15:7).
Jesus ascended to heaven from Mount Olivet (Ac 1:12) near Bethany. Lk 24:

Bethany was 2 miles from Jerusalem.
From resurrection to ascension was about 40 days (Ac 1:3).
Chronology:

1. Resurrection morning at the tomb and in Jerusalem.
2. In the afternoon, Jesus broke bread with two disciples at Emmaus, 7 miles from Jerusalem.
3. In the evening, he appeared to Peter et al in Jerusalem. Thomas wasn't there.
4. 8 days later, he showed up again to his disciples. Thomas was there.
5. Some days later, over 500 brethren saw him in one gathering.
6. Some days later, the eleven met him at a mountain in Galilee, 80 miles from Jerusalem. He told them the great commission.
7. Some days later, he showed up while they were fishing in the Sea of Galilee.
8. Another day, he appeared to James, his half-brother.
9. About 40 days after resurrection, he ascended to heaven from Mount Olivet, 2 miles from Jerusalem.

Over 40 days, Jesus appeared in Jerusalem, Emmaus, Galilee, and Bethany.

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Interesting. Thanks for sharing. Yeah, it's a bit hard to visualize the chronology by going back and forth between the accounts unless you put it all together like this.

As for Galilee being a 3 day walk from Jerusalem....maybe He didn't walk? Obviously, He was able to just appear wherever He wanted at any time, as evidenced by the fact that He just suddenly appeared out of nowhere in a locked house.

Ignatius the Kiwi said:

Pornhub should not only be banned because of incidents like this, but because pornography and it's effects on society in general have been disastrous and evil.

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Amen

How very sad.

Lost4words said:

Yes there is.....

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Well, windows, computer and apple, the logo & gates were no coincidences.

statsphil said:

Today's date 19/08/2024 (Australian Date Order) has an 888 pattern and is the day of a full moon.
19 - 8th prime number
08 - 8th number
2024 - digits add to the number 8

Hence the date has an 888 pattern and 888 represents Jesus in Greek language. Today is also the day/night of the largest full moon of the year. I am investigating on whether this full moon could be considered as #TheJesusMoon that represents a turning point in the church in the world.

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Hey.. I know you probably get a lot of flack for posting this kind of stuff but I am going to add to it anyway...

Christ is not found in something that you have, your knowledge, your brain, Christ is found when you wake up, and stop using your ability your way to find secret hidden truths, that's not where the Truth lies.

That kind of stuff, it's not of Christ at all.

Wake up.


Revelation 3:17-18

xser88 said:

Media Grading Trump on Curve Again. Inarticulate Policy Rant.

Corporate media for years has held conservatives and Republicans to lower standards. Here is another blatant example. Trump was asked how he'd tackle childcare? Here is a transcript of his incoherent word salad response.


“Well, I would do that, and we’re sitting down. You know, I was somebody — we had, Senator Marco Rubio, and my daughter Ivanka, was so impactful on that issue. It’s a very important issue.

"But I think when you talk about the kind of numbers that I’m talking about — that, because look, childcare is childcare, couldn’t — you know, there’s something — you have to have it in this country. You have to have it. But when you talk about those numbers, compared to the kind of numbers that I’m talking about by taxing foreign nations at levels that they’re not used to. But they’ll get used to it very quickly. And it’s not going to stop them from doing business with us. But they’ll have a very substantial tax when they send product into our country. Those numbers are so much bigger than any numbers that we’re talking about, including childcare, that it’s going to take care. We’re going to have — I look forward to having no deficits within a fairly short period of time, coupled with the reductions that I told you about on waste and fraud and all of the other things that are going on in our country.

"Because I have to stay with childcare. I want to stay with childcare. But those numbers are small relative to the kind of economic numbers that I’m talking about, including growth, but growth also headed up by what the plan is that I just — that I just told you about. We’re going to be taking in trillions of dollars. And as much as childcare is talked about as being expensive, it’s, relatively speaking, not very expensive compared to the kind of numbers will be taking in.

"We’re going to make this into an incredible country that can afford to take care of its people. And then we’ll worry about the rest of the world. Let’s help other people. But we’re going to take care of our country first. This is about America first. It’s about make America great again. We have to do it because right now, we’re a failing nation. So we’ll take care of it. Thank you. Very good question. Thank you.”

There's a clear double standard in the way corporate media are covering Harris and Biden compared to Trump's coverage. When Biden bombed at the debate, all media spoke about his disaster for days. Trump has just given his wordy policy plan on an important issue for today: childcare. Why isn't mainstream media talking about what Trump presented? Let's talk about his policy. If Harris or Biden came unhinged like this, it would be discussed for days, and rightly so. But this is just one of many resent ramblings.

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The world is up against great evil ... in politics and government in general they are in the position to create and impose great evil because of their power ... no doubt evil is in both sides so as far as government goes .... we try and choose (vote) for what we believe is the "lesser evil"

We pick our "poison" (so to speak) ... knowing that it is all poison.

We do know ... right now there is great chaos in our country (and others) due to mass migration ... putting severe strain on many nations ... if the larger nations fall .... the whole world will fall. Migration needs to be a slow process else nations experience a "shock" to their systems. Likened to a great earthquake in a sense.

We live in uncertain times.

Jesse Dornfeld said:

I do not know if this was demonic deliverance or not, but I do have something to share.

I have a severe and fairly rare mental illness called Schizoaffective Disorder. It is like having Bipolar and Schizophrenia without enough symptoms in each mental illness to be a diagnosis. It occurs in roughly .3% of the population.

I moved out of my parent's house when I was 32 or 33 (I forget) which was almost 5 years ago.

Due to my mental illness, I have struggled with paranoia. These are either haunting visions of terrible scary things or paranoid delusions I have experienced for most of my adult life (I am currently 38 years old).

I have found shortly after moving out of my parent's house, that these fear-based symptoms started to be less frequent. It is now at the point that I rarely if ever experience these horrifying experiences.

What was it that changed things? Well, it was in 2018 that my faith was confirmed. I mean I had the most amazing experience I have had in my entire life and this confirmed the Bible as the Word of God in a single conversation with a man who I can only call a prophet, I went from being a pantheist to being willing to die for my faith (long story, but you can read about it here).

Since that time my faith has been confirmed, and I devoted myself to the Christian faith in a way I never had before then. I was raised in a Christian home and my parents are amazing people who tried to instill the faith in me since I came out of the womb. But I rebelled and became an atheist.

To make a long story short, as I devoted myself to prayer, reading the Bible more, studying theology and apologetics, and going to church, my paranoia started to dissipate. I have spent many sleepless nights awake due to this paranoia. Today, I cannot remember the last time I struggled with this paranoia. It is all due to the grace of God.

Is this spiritual deliverance from demons? IDK. What I do know is that God is healing my mind and I no longer struggle with these things as I did before.

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He got good deliverance videos definitely I mean mr Middleton, self deliverance. I believe mental illness is spiritual.

Unqualified said:

depends on we’re it’s from my friend, if you are struggling you go through that stuff and cannot wish it away. To have them will teach you how to deal with them. I know they should not be there. But in a better appreciated way God teaches us how to deal with them. And it furthers us along with our relationship with Him.

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Amen!!

Praying for eternal peace.

Good!

May she live and serve and glorify the Lord.