stevevw said:

I am very self aware. You underestimate me. How do you think say a scientist can also be a Christian or believe in some transcedent reality. Cannot they reconcile them both.

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Belief in transcendent reality is not at issue in this discussion or even in this forum. There is no need for a Christian or a scientist to reconcile such beliefs with science.

eleos1954 said:

The "rapture" is the first resurrection .... there is no "secrete rapture" ... personally I don't like or use the term. There are two resurrections.

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You seem incapable of addressing all rebuttals to your theological theories above. Why is that?

childeye 2 said:

Yeah, I don't believe in that. I believe were either serving righteousness or unrighteousness.

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Okay. Thank you.
What you don't believe is what is.

I will freely love them / I will love them freely​

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For if I do this willingly, I have a reward; but if unwillingly, I am entrusted with a stewardship.​

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But I did not want to do anything without your consent, so that your goodness will not be out of compulsion, but by your own free will (Berean Standard Bible; NASB; Amplified Bible; Christian Standard Bible; Holman Christian Standard Bible; American Standard Version; English Revised Version; New Heart English Bible; Majority Standard Bible; World English Bible; Smith's Literal Translation; Anderson New Testament; Godbey New Testament) / according to willingness / willingly / voluntary / not something forced.​

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These works are not beliefs. There are facts - works of academia.
The definition of the words here, are not subject to change based on one's belief.
They describe free will, voluntary, willful, deliberate, and intentional action.
You cannot accept them... so you claim, but at the same time do not believe them.

I cannot continue this conversation with you, as it would be similar to talking with someone who says they don't believe seas and oceans exist, simply because of their beliefs., and opening works of academia and showing that person that what they are denting is actually proven knowledge makes no difference to them.

So, thank you for the discussion, and you do have an enjoyable day sir.
Good day.

Well I hope it’s better than this:

Thank you, Mark, for your helpful and encouraging reply. As an update, I decided to remove the time limits for texting, not wanting to be in a situation again where I am glued to my phone feeling severely restricted in what I can do. The result is that the only reliable strategy I have to try to control my smartphone use is to turn the phone’s power off when/before I get home. One of the inconveniences is two step verification where I have to get a code texted to my phone for certain websites/accounts I have to use. In the future I am thinking of getting an authenticator app or password manager on another device for this purpose, but for now, if I have to receive the 2FA code, I could power my phone on only for a few seconds and power it off immediately after inputting the code. However, needing to have the phone for 2FA makes the next phase of my plan a hassle. In the future, I want to obtain a special time lock safe (or use a safe with the combination saved in the timelock online lockbox) to lock myself out from the phone for certain periods of time. One of the timelock safes I researched is bypassable by removing the batteries I think, so it might not be an option.

So because I disabled the time limits for texting in the Lock Me Out app, and I may not consistently turn my smartphone’s power off, I am back in the situation where I could waste entire evenings after work spending time on my phone, which seems like a problem to me, but I do not want to be on a smartphone where I am severely restricted. If the phone is powered off, and not locked up in a safe, if I really want to text, I can just get the phone and power it back on.

I also struggle with the inconvenience of powering my smartphone off. It is really convenient to listen to the relaxing music stations on my phone with my bluetooth earphones to block out outside sound in the apartment I live in. With turning off my phone, if I wanted to listen to music with my wireless earphones, I would have more of a hassle of having to turn my laptop on to stream the music, and I think if I run the laptop all the time when I am at home that it wears on the battery so that the laptop gets more worn down sooner in time. I may want to get an iPad or alternate device locked down with restrictions in the future where I can stream music. And there is also an inconvenience where if the laptop connects to the bluetooth earphones, it will always take precedence over connection to the phone, meaning I will have to remove the earphones in settings on the computer if I want to connect them to the phone.

Another inconvenience with powering off the phone is I cannot easily look up phone numbers and make calls, so if I want to call with my landline, I have to use the laptop to look up phone numbers. This inconvenience has sometimes resulted in me deciding to keep the smartphone turned on when I get home to make the call.

soldier of light said:

Jesus can teach anyone. That's what my eyes see in scripture

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The only teacher is GOD through Jesus Christ the mediator. We are taught of GOD. If anyone learns from the FATHER they must go through Christ. This eliminates deception, GOD cannot lie, neither can Jesus.

Akita Suggagaki said:

Our responsibility lies in working for the Lord, whether it is in “looking after orphans or widows in distress” (James 1:27), giving to the hungry, the naked, visiting those in prison (Matthew 25:35-36), serving in our workplace (Colossians 3:22), or doing whatever we do (Colossians 3:23). And our motivation is that we have God’s own promise that our work “is not in vain” in the Lord “since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving” (Colossians 3:24).

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What you have listed has nothing to do with politics. I do agree with them but I don’t do these things through government, I do them personally when I see a need and am able to help. These works cannot be ours but GODS work of love in us. Ephesians 2:10 Philippians 2:13 We do not earn salvation by any works of our own we are GODS workmanship. GOD planned our works in advance. Just as Jesus said his FATHER did the works, John 10:14 John 5:19,30 Jesus here sets the example for us that we also do no works, the FATHER does them. In this way GOD receives all the glory.

zoidar said:

I appreciate your respons, but that's a theological conclusion. Dikaiouminoi believes that conclusion can be made from the grammar. It's a bit annoying I can do nothing with his statements. Kind of kills the discussion.

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Grammatical arguments like that tend to be fallacious because they treat the text as if it were a technical document when it is not. Your approach of reading further on in the passage is the more appropriate exegetical move, because it deals with the narrative context rather than being deconstructive and creating a foreign context through linguistic games. Language simply doesn't function in the way that is necessary for the technical grammatical arguments to be anything more than puffery.

Sam266 said:

What do you think NDEs are about if not the afterlife and the survival of the self? I've studied this subject for the past 20 years. It includes reading more than 5000 accounts from around the world.

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Failing brains doing weird stuff. Some people recover, most don't. They are also not universal in the "ND" conditions that sometimes induce them.

ThatRobGuy said:

Censorship is only politically expedient if one's own house "is in order" regards to to the Overton Window.

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But suppose the right's house is not "in order" as regards the Overton Window, and therefore they rely on censorship to remedy that problem. Suppose, for example, the the right successfully censors the far right. Wouldn't that make them appear more moderate? And wouldn't this be expedient even on our premise that their house is not "in order" as regards the Overton Window?

timf said:

A question arises as to when the "church" begin.

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At Caesarea Philippi when Jesus said it was truth from the Father, and not man,

timf said:

Many consider that all of the promises for Israel

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This was the entire House of Israel, all 12 tribes, not just the Jews or Judaea. When Jesus said go first to all nations he meant of the House of Israel, reunite the original kingdom under the Kingdom/governance of the Father.

There is a point where people lose focus of the Lord by becoming obsessed with their sin, but if your relationship with Christ doesn't result in your abhorring your sin and seeking to be free of it then I can only wonder who it is you are having a relationship with.

Nithavela said:

Good news, everyone.

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We were always at war with eastasia.

boughtwithaprice said:

Then why did you take until 1860 to start preaching? No one, not even Ellen White taught as you did before that

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I wasn't around in the 1860 so I wasn't preaching anything in the 1800's. If you mean the SDA church, we were not the first ones to keep the Ten Commandments including the Sabbath either, that we can find right in our Bibles. God has always had a remnant people all throughout the centuries who kept God's commandments the way He said including the Sabbath. You keep looking at people as if that is our authority when we need to be looking at God. God's people will always be a remnant compared to the majority Rev12:17 Mat7:13-14. Not because God does not call on everyone Heb3:7-19, sadly few hear.

Whenever God's people would go away from the word of God, He would always raise up a messenger to bring people back to His word (until there is no more remedy) 2 Chro 36:16 God does not change. God never ordained Sunday, that is a commandment of the Catholic church. They even admit so that they changed God's Sabbath commandment (as we were foretold it would be changed not by God Dan7:25), based on their authority over God's.

It is well to remind the Presbyterians, Baptists, Methodists, and all other Christians, that the Bible does not support them anywhere in their observance of Sunday. Sunday is an institution of the Roman Catholic Church, and those who observe the day observe a commandment of the Catholic Church.
—Priest Brady, in an address, reported in the Elizabeth, NJ ‘News’ on March 18, 1903.

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Question: Which is the Sabbath day?
Answer: Saturday is the Sabbath day.

Question: Why do we observe Sunday instead of Saturday?
Answer: We observe Sunday instead of Saturday because the Catholic Church transferred the solemnity from Saturday to Sunday.
—Rev. Peter Geiermann C.SS.R., The Convert’s Catechism of Catholic Doctrine, p. 50

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Deny the authority of the Church and you have no adequate or reasonable explanation or justification for the substitution of Sunday for Saturday in the Third - Protestant Fourth - Commandment of God... The Church is above the Bible, and this transference of Sabbath observance is proof of that fact.'
—Catholic Record, September 1, 1923.

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Of course the Catholic Church claims that the change was her act. And the act is a mark of her ecclesiastical power and authority in religious matters.
—C. F. Thomas, Chancellor of Cardinal Gibbons, in answer to a letter regarding the change of the Sabbath, November 11, 1895.

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The whole nonsense that the CC are the succession from the apostles, if that were true they would have continued on what the apostles did and that was to keep God's Sabbath and obey God and stay faithful to Him. The apostles warned us what would happen after their departure Acts 20:29 which sadly is exactly what happened- men turned to fables instead of staying faithful to God. 2Tim4:3-4

You point back to Catholic doctrine to support your doctrine. You allow the catholic church to define what things mean, instead of allowing God to. God never said we needed a mediator or an earthy priesthood, He did away with both and we can go directly to Him. I would hate to place my faith in my church instead of with Jesus Christ, when Jesus said He is the way John14:6 not the catholic church, that's a lot of trust built on man-made traditions instead of building on our Rock which is Jesus by doing what He says.

Luke 6:46 “But why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do the things which I say? 47 Whoever comes to Me, and hears My sayings and does them, I will show you whom he is like: 48 He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently against that house, and could not shake it, for it was [j]founded on the rock. 49 But he who heard and did nothing is like a man who built a house on the earth without a foundation, against which the stream beat vehemently; and immediately it [k]fell. And the ruin of that house was great.”

Col 2:8 Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.

Christ is the one speaking the Ten Commandments. Christ is the one who put them under His mercy seat. Christ is the one who sanctified the seventh day Gen2:3 Exo20:11 and told us to keep it holy Exo20:8-11 that He made it for us Mat2:27 Isa59:2 Isa56:6 and sanctifies us when we follow what He asks Eze20:12. Christ is the one who blesses us when we obey Him Isa56:2 Rev22:14 Keeping the Sabbath comes with the power of Christ- the only God who can create heaven and earth Exo20:11 Rev14:7 the only God who can sanctify Exo20:11 Eze20:12 and without His blessings Isa59:2 Exo20:11 Rev22:14 sadly, we really are nothing, we need Him for everything Eze20:20 I would not trade all the promises God gives us through His Sabbath for something that Jesus warned about following mans traditions over the commandments of God, laying them aside as to tell Him No Lord, these are not for me, making His word of no effect, I will seek out my own sanctification, just as those who came before us Eze 20:12-13 Eze20:16 and what that does to Him. Mark7:7-13 Mat15:3-14 Eze22:26


Guess it will get sorted out at His soon return.

stevevw said:

What do you think of the Billy Graham crusades. I think this was a time of religious revival. At least in the US. But I think also in my country Australia. Possible across the west.

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The Billy Graham crusades seem different from street preaching, to me, because they were held in a stadium or convention hall, and people chose to attend them. When I think of a street preacher, I think of a guy standing on a sidewalk or street corner holding a sign, or walking up to strangers to interrogate them. Those feel like different activities.

I thought Billy Graham was an excellent preacher, in the classic Southern Baptist tradition. I heard him preach in person several times, and on TV many times.

Benaiah468 said:

This prayer movement will culminate in the return of Jesus, the salvation of all Israel, and the completion of G-d's Kingdom ‘on earth as it is in heaven.’

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The House of Israel, all 12

SabbathBlessings said:

it was his own disobedience that killed him, doing something that God told them not to

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As it does all of us, ever since it was unleashed in the Garden

ChubbyCherub said:

You've explained it well here but still..................I have to pray about it. It's a hard thing to understand

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Yes, it can be difficult!

God is a uniplural word
Man is a uniplural word

The whole creation of Man with its billions, upon billions of lives, is still one.

The same as looking at God with Three in the Godhead is still One

A uniplural noun is a word that appears in the plural form but is used for singular and plural subjects alike.

May the Holy Spirit guide your understanding’

Palmfever said:

Yes.
He drew "ALL MEN.'

He did not pick and choose.
'For God so loved the 'world.'

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So it's not about their freewill. It's Christ will and power

Hentenza said:

The site has a total of 442,000 posts site wide not 140 million,

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Sorry I posted the number wrong.

So you've read through 140,600,000 posts already

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Wow….

Login to view embedded media
26 minutes

BCP1928 said:

What about the enlisted men who followed Calley's orders?

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Some of them faced court-martial, but none of them was convicted.

The Calley case was the specific issue that caused the DoD to greatly enhance its Law of Armed Conflict training as I knew it (and taught it) during my career. Immense emphasis was placed on the soldiers understanding what an "illegal order" specifically is, what an "illegal order" would look like in their specific military specialties, and that they had a duty to disobey an illegal order.

For instance, the specific kinds of things that would be criminal in my task of targeting nuclear weapons in a major command headquarters are different from the kinds of things that would be criminal for an infantry soldier in the field.

The military judicial system has some interesting differences from the civilian judicial system, and one of them is that justifiable ignorance of the law is a defense. That's why military leadership advises troops of their duties "nine ways from Sunday and on every Monday," because if the troop can prove his ignorance or confusion was reasonable, he may walk.

In the case of Calley's soldiers, the military courts realized that there was too much confusion of who did what and who knew what in that moment of "fog of war" to convict anyone else.

BCP1928 said:

I don't think that philosophical judgements are being called for and that for most soldiers the problem does not even arise, but it might, and it puts the soldiers themselves in a difficult position. It's not merely a "philosophical position" that a National Guard soldier should not shoot his own unarmed fellow citizens, even they they have gotten away with it in the past.

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I keep saying: You are posting things for which specific laws already exist. There are already specific laws covering "shooting his own unarmed fellow citizens." So, no, that would call for philosophical judgments. Y'all keep doing that. Everything you think of is already covered by existing laws and would be "illegal orders."

My point continues to be: Trump is never going to issue a clearly "illegal order." His lawyers are smarter than that. They are going to nuance the hell out of his orders, so that they will call for philosophical judgments from Corporal Snuffy Smith.

ChubbyCherub said:

My church really endorses NIV which is contrary to their guest speakers. It is non-denominational.

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Could the guest speakers have been trying to sell other versions of the Bible? If some people at your church might have bought one, that is fine activity, but you do not need to let it prevent you from just using the best one for you.

NIV Bible - New International Version - they have a fine looking website there, with a blog that looks especially helpful for articles about application to life.

What is the New International Version (NIV)? | GotQuestions.org - and here is Got Questions? website on the NIV.

This is an easy summary of different translation styles:

• Formal Translation: A very word-for-word translation that often uses formal, more archaic language (example: the King James Version or NASB);
• Dynamic Translation: A thought-for-thought translation (example: NIV or NLT);
• Paraphrase Translation: An idea-for-idea translation that involves much more interpretation from the translator (example: The Message);

from here.

NIV is a Dynamic translation, so it is formed in English to blend easy readability with what the original languages said. Here is the NIV websites' own answer about which original texts were used "The translators of the NIV have used the Old Testament and New Testament texts that are widely accepted among modern scholars as giving the committee the best possible access to what God inspired in the original documents.

For the Old Testament the Masoretic Text, the standard Hebrew text as published in the latest edition of Biblia Hebraica, has been used throughout. The NIV translators have sometimes used variants of the Hebrew Masoretic tradition or other ancient versions, where these seemed to provide a superior text than the Masoretic tradition. These are all noted in the NIV translator footnotes that appear at the bottom of the page of the text that they reference.

For the New Testament, the translators have used the accepted Greek New Testament text as printed in the Nestle-Aland and United Bible Societies’ Greek New Testaments. Here also the translators have occasionally accepted a variant printed in these editions. Footnotes usually indicate the options in each case."

Michie said:

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., said Friday night she would resign from Congress in early January. The announcement followed a public breakdown in her relationship with President Donald Trump over issues including the release of Jeffrey Epstein-related files.

In a statement posted to X, Greene said her final day as representative of Georgia’s 14th District will be Jan. 5, 2026, citing Trump’s alleged recent attacks on her as a key reason for her decision.

Trump had called Greene a “traitor” and a “lunatic” after she supported a bill requiring the Department of Justice to disclose its Epstein investigation records, The Christian Post reported earlier this week.

Continued below.

Marjorie Taylor Greene announces resignation after Trump spat

Rep Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga , said Friday night she would resign from Congress in early January The announcement followed a public breakdown in her relationship with President Donald Trump over

www.christianpost.com

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Trump sees it as a distraction away from what he considers more important matters ... maybe ... but people want to know about it regardless. No doubt it will dominate the news cycle .... people just need to stay on top of the other things going on as well. Focus on all the issues.