The New Archie and Sabrins Hour

prodromos said:

What you've seen is the gutting of various ways Democrats were channelling government funds into their own pockets.

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I would say that's not the full story. The cuts have gone far above and beyond waste fraud and abuse. For example, with all the chainsaw waving and gay book banning, did anyone notice this? :
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bèlla said:

I should have specified I was referring to the land purchases you proposed for non profits.

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After our political discussion, I see where you’re coming from with the tax break issue. Fighting the government is an entirely different ball game than fighting A.I., at least on the surface. If you’re fighting via economics, your goal is invisibility. You don’t have an organization that is visible, you just quietly give your friends a place to live and give away food out of your front yard. Having an organization conveys advantages if the government is favorable, but if the government is opposing your efforts you will need to disappear.

If you’re fighting the government via messaging, you need to get out of whatever country you’re fighting or exposing before you start your Internet campaign and legally establish yourself somewhere else, preferably in a nation that won’t extradite you back into the whatever country you’ve decided to oppose. And by “legally establish”, you need your green card and residency permit first for that other nation. But that’s beside the point, because you were just talking about debating down Christian transhumanism, which is relatively tame compared to such an uprising. It’s best to remain anonymous when fighting a nation to avoid being a target of spies or assassins from that nation.

I’m writing this out because I really have no interest in doing any of the above; my area is theology and God’s Word, which should be inoffensive. Playing the Romans 13 card should work until the truth of Christianity is banned or restricted, then there will be a reaction. In a world where the United States starts persecuting Christians, it’s those skilled in international relations and movement who will survive. I would teach my children those skills, if I had any children.

bèlla said:

I’ll let you watch the video. I don’t want to spoil it for you. ;-)

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I finished watching said video, but I’m not a scientific researcher. I don’t like his ideas that our reality is a simulation designed by an artificial super intelligence from an alien race - that’s not what the Bible teaches about God. We’re not amusements for God’s entertainment. His cruel view of God really betrays his spiritual intent. He seemed to push Steve Barrett in a positive direction spiritually, but Barrett’s idea that all religions teach the same thing is also obviously wrong. At least Barrett’s willing to think about it.

If what the A.I. researcher saying is true, they are building the technological equivalent of the Tower of Babel. They will encounter divine opposition in some form for their plans. Perhaps they will succeed in making A.I. safe in a way that this researcher can’t predict. Maybe they will exhaust the resources of the Earth messing around. Maybe an artificial super intelligence will control the entire Internet, forcing us to destroy the whole thing. Maybe wise people will convince Sam Altman and Assoiciates to refrain from developing super intelligence.

But mostly I think the sin nature will collapse this one. Companies run on human slave labor, and if they don’t need us anymore, they will just starve us out and leave us to fend for ourselves. There’s no utopia in which A.I. provides our every need, unless you’re a CEO running an A.I. company. Some companies might even build private robot armies to take out excess population they don’t want to feed, and blame the A.I going rogue to try and escape culpability for the murders. There’s no utopia, only selfishness and death. This whole thing is motivated by subhuman cruelty from beginning to end. All you have to do is look at the real estate prices and the American median wage to see that. They are getting rich at our expense, and they don’t care about us at all.

I agree with him that there will be a demand for human imperfection, that’s why A.I. chess hasn’t placed human chess players out of a job. Farming/homesteading, artistry/poetry/music, and Christian occupations like pastor will survive the longest. The latter will survive because people have the Holy Spirit, not machines.

Now, on to my Real beef with the Christian Transhumanism. I looked at the Christian Transhumanist Association website, and this page is my main point of disagreement:

Technology is not going renew all things, it will be God’s power and Christ who does this, both at the Second Coming of Christ when the Millennium starts, and also when the New Heavens and New Earth are literally recreated after this place is torched by flames. Christian transhumanism picks a fight with both Premillennial and Amillennial eschatology here, and it’s also just plain bunk. The argument for a renewal of creation in premillennial eschatology comes from this passage:

Isaiah 11:6-9 said:

6 And the wolf will dwell with the lamb,
And the leopard will lie down with the young goat,
And the calf and the young lion and the fattened steer will be together;
And a little boy will lead them.
7 Also the cow and the bear will graze,
Their young will lie down together,
And the lion will eat straw like the ox.
8 The nursing child will play by the hole of the cobra,
And the weaned child will put his hand on the viper’s den.
9 They will not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain,
For the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord
As the waters cover the sea.

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Good luck getting this result with technology! This is like, fundamental biological changes we are talking about here. Also, technology degrades the creation, not renews it, so yeah, this won’t cut it.

The CTA page is an extension of Post-millennial eschatology in a bizarre direction. Post-millennial eschatology argues that we are responsible for reforming and controlling the world via government in order for Christ to return. This goes even further and claims we are responsible for reforming the creation as well.

I also agree with this article:


Basically, challenging Genesis 6:3 is a anti-Christian fools errand that will end in failure. How it will, I don’t know, but God has spoken and His Word is true. Mixing the Bible with anti-Scriptural teachings leads to bad results.

With all that being said, this is less of an article and more of a discussion at this point. There’s a couple of layers, like discussing the morality of SuperInteligence A.I. development over in Ethics and Morality/Christian Philosophy & Ethics sections for that video. Debunking Christian Transhumanism, is a task for the Eschatology subforum to look into. There are people there who will pick apart that website and give you a better opinion than me. While I’m aware of and have researched different Eschatological views, I’m not an expert and I still believe in premillennialism, which got a bad rap after Left Behind, simply because that’s my mom taught me. That’s not a good basis for a belief.

That will serve as a good summary for right now, but this area is about single’s issues so dragging this into a long debate here may not be the best.

The parents have to put that joy in him. Teach him to laugh, forgive, have joy. You are His hands and feet and mouth. As far as fear goes take it captive as in 2Cor 10:3-5

FAITH-IN-HIM said:

Last year, many discussed President Trump's mass deportation policy and questioned whether Americans would support it if fully implemented. Now, as the policy is being enforced, mainstream media (MSM) covers ICE activities only sporadically. If MSM consistently showed how ICE conducts arrests—including detaining children near schools or single parents at home—public perception might change.

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The mainstream media tanked in the ratings because of their false reporting. They are trying to paint ICE as negatively as they can get away with. If they now showed how ICE typically conducts arrests even more of their followers would leave.

A Devil's Advocate said:

I'm curious. When you say that one should be resisting sin and if they aren't, then they're totally lost...

Is sin not always a deliberate act on our part? If it isn't, can you give me an example? Otherwise, if all sin is a deliberate act on our part, then at what point is someone considered lost?

This is my understanding; say for example (this may be extreme, but it is to get a point across), I'm driving down a residential road when suddenly a young child runs out from between two parked cars. I do my best to stop and avoid hitting the child, but there just wasn't enough time or space to do so and I end up hitting and killing the child. Did I commit a sin in taking that child's life?
Same scenario, but this time instead of trying to avoid the child, I floor it. Did I commit a sin in this instance?

In both instances the outcome was the same, the child died. But, my motives were different. The first scenario would not be considered a sin on my part but simply an unfortunate accident. There was no ill intention or motive on my part to harm the child. In the second scenario, there was. It was a deliberate act on my part to harm the child.

It's very easy for us, and very self righteous I might add, to say that if someone continues to deliberately sin, then they are lost or were never saved to begin with. When the reality is, all sin is a deliberate act on our part. If it wasn't, then it wouldn't be a sin.
One cannot presume to say that someone who continues to sin is lost or was never saved to begin with without placing themselves an a pedestal claiming that their own sins are never intentional.

In the parable of the sower and soils, Jesus gives us four examples. The first is someone who hears the word but doesn't receive it at all. They remain unsaved. The second is someone who receives it, but it's more of an emotional high for them. For these people it's more about how they feel so they never bother to try and understand or to learn more about what it is they believe. So as soon as things start to get uncomfortable, as they always do, they have no understanding of the word and are quickly led astray by the next best thing that gives them that emotional high. The third example is someone who also receives the word but soon finds the worries and desires of the world more important, leading them astray. And finally, the fourth example is someone who receives the word and runs with it. It becomes their new life, bearing much fruit.

The first example is the only person who wasn't saved out of the four. All the rest were saved. In this parable Jesus showed us the three different types of believers. The believer who is more about the emotional side of it all, but has no foundation (understanding of the word) upon which to stay rooted. The believer who is too easily overcome by the worries and desires of the world (this one typically being the one who would appear to be deliberately sinning), and the one who is all in and firm in their faith.

Not all who are saved are going to appear the same in their behavior. In a perfect world they would, but this world is far from perfect. Jesus was simply pointing this out.

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One of the first things a christian should do, is repent of their sins.

Paul said is one the basic doctrines, the 'Repentance of sin', as you can see is a doctrine someone who just starts as christian must learn.

You can't be more mature or advance, or have healthy communion with God, i don't know if you can even enter heaven if you keep sinning.

You probably have forgiven if you say it @Florian7051 . Just take the residual captive until it’s gone as in 2Cor 10:3-5

Chesterton said:

Was it weird of me to ask to go watch his son play? Or is he weird for treating an innocuous request as if I'm a pedophile or stalker or something?

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I'd say a bit of both.
He may not remember the conversation about you preferring to watch Little League, so your request could have seemed very random and unusual, especially as you don’t know even the guy that well, let alone his kid.

Amen brother.

Chesterton said:

You said you wouldn't express it the way they do. That's fine, but they're free to express it the way they do, yes?

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Of course.

Richard T said:

You make some good points on the balance of church and state. But the GOP and maga goes far beyond desiring state's rights. I have blogged in here about the use of immediate capital punishment to blow up boats and it is not particularily biblical. Critical Issues on Trump Policies in South America.

In all kinds of ways Trump and maga can be defined as progressive using your approach. For instance, the U.S. government now being the largest shareholder of Intel. This directly intervenes in the free market principles of "private ownership." Maga too violates Godly principles by continuing to increase the federal debt, and the use of Federal troops in the USA in state's where they are not wanted. Trump's heavy handed government policies have not freed up markets for energy, agriculture, ranching, crypto, etc. Though Trump has changed many policies within these areas, it is still prone to heavy government intervention.
Consider Trump's version of Shay's rebellion. In Shay's rebellion, the state of Massachusetts asked for help, but received none. Here we have Trump forcing states to receive help that have said they do not want it.
So in your defining progressiveness, Trump is impuned as well as democrrats. Your ideas are more in line with Reagan, who though not perfect, wanted to devolve more government responsibility to the state level. I know that I certainly applaud that.

The big elephant though in the room is what are your feelings about the consent of the governed as espoused by Locke and others? How can anyone push a Christian agenda for many states, that are no longer very interested in being a Christian state? Sure I wish too that the USA had more Christian influence, but the church has declined and in many states that are not interested in any specific set of Christian principles, including putting the bible at the center of education. You are right it has to start with churches. Repressive government forcing people into Christian thought seems doomed to failure and actually is not much different than what cultural neo-Marxists such as Gramsci called for.

I might argue too that without a safety net of health and welfare spending that America or any modern capitalist state has that the interruption would be quite dramatic and cause enough unrest that it would interrupt the usa or any nation's economy and system that some sofcial spending is now required.

America's maga movement will become a failure because it is based in politics and policies that nto only violate God's principles, but it does not start with the one thing that the bible suggests is needed - Humility. For lasting Godly, change, that is where it starts. There is no short cut as II Chronicles 7:14 and James 4:10 suggest.

I would note too your ideas of what freedom of the press are not backed up by evidence. Here is a more realistic view offerred in the words of Thomas Jefferson. “The basis of our government being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.”

Freedom of the press

Freedom of the press protects the right to gather information and report it to others. This vital freedom helps protect democracy.

firstamendment.mtsu.edu

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Although I am a big Trump supporter. That is not what I am communicating. I'm communicating a very lost and hidden in darkness biblical doctrine on human government. Nor am I teaching that God will only work within this form of government. What I am teaching is this is God's best. Just like there are all kinds of church governments. God does not forsake his people just because they are part of an institution that does not perfectly reflect what the Bible has in mind for a church. There is God's best. There are some types of churches that God can barely do anything in and there is every point in between.

The easy to grasp point of this is that any form of government that makes the state supreme is dangerous, foolish, ignorant and in many cases downright evil. Jesus did not say his kingdom is not in this world. He said his kingdom is not of, as in like the kingdoms of this world. In that day and age, the governments of the world reflected nothing but the despotism of the supremacy of the state.

As far as my opinions about the free press. I'm not sure you are understanding my point. The newspapers of the day, pre bill of rights were basically larger pamphlets written by individuals with opinions who gained followings and paid printers to print their opinions every week. Just like social media today. It was not the "4th branch of government" that they view themselves as today. Newspapers as professional news gathering organization really came into being immediately after the founding of the nation. My whole point is that freedom of the press is the exact same thing as freedom of speech. Just like people have the divine right to speak, they also have the divine right to have their thoughts printed on a printing press and distributed as they see fit. Or, in today's world, published on the internet. Now because this developed into something far greater than anyone imagined. Does that mean it is wrong? No. It just needs perspective because it was the press. That is, the printing press that gave the world Bibles and Christian preachers and teachers pamphlets that empowered mankind to overthrow 7000 years of despotism. It was not a professional "press corps" that did this. In fact today. the professional press corp is the problem. not the solution.

CRAZY_CAT_WOMAN said:

She didn't sound drunk to me.

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So you're saying...oxycodone?

Aristarkos said:

You make yet another mistake, the law and the covenants are two different things. Both the old and the new covenant are about the law.

You can read more about the covenants here: The Five Key Covenants God Makes With Humans in the Bible

Aristarkos

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AND there two COVENANTS and was WASHING in. the NEW COVENANT OK. ??

Soyeong said:

Indeed, if we are still required to refrain from doing what the Law of God reveals to be sin, then we are still under it.

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And I believe Rom 6:14 that we are NOT UNDER THE LAW , but under GRACE. is EMPHATIC. and to the LAW OF MOSES

dan p

Why dont we just legalize all drugs. Then leave yge junkies alone. We could have major pushes to warn everyone like we do with cigarettes. Then the junkies are on their own if they choose to do drugs. We could prohibit them from doing drugs in public due to the danger to the public, but other than that, treat it no different than cigarettes.

Brightfame52 said:

This ultimately makes man his own savior

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Oh. In truth that makes man willing, no matter how weakly at first, to allow God to save him; it's to not say "no"; it's to open the door when He knocks. And that small nascent willingness, itself prompted and aided by grace, is meant to be confirmed and to grow as we express and act upon the faith, hope, and love that is given us, and then those virtues, that righteousness, grows in strength and conviction as well.

God is a good parent, guiding His children into ever increasing righteousness, ever increasing love, ever increasing likeness to Himself. He doesn't wish to do it all for us because His purpose has always been to produce something, something grand, something greater than he started with, and not to just throw a number of otherwise worthless sinful wretches into heaven and the rest into hell. He's been patiently working to draw man to Himself and His plans since the beginning.

Bob, you state in your first post, "For over 150 years the Seventh-day Adventist church understood the book of Revelation as predicting a close - almost joined-at-the-hip relationship between Protestant America and the Vatican/Catholic Church would exist right near/at the end of time."

Bob, are you able to walk me through the prophecies on which we as Adventist base this assertion?

Hey guys, hope everyone is doing well

RileyG said:

Unless I am mistaken, were you ever an Episcopalian or independent Anglican? I remember you very well!

God bless you abundantly!

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I visited the Episcopal cathedral in my last town quite a bit. I just read lately that the Rector i liked quite a bit is retiring due to issues brought on by Covid. I've also visited a couple of ACNA parishes over time.

Amo2 said:

God has given His Church no more authority over people, than to separate those who will not submit to the truth from their body.

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Incorrect, see John 20:23. God didn't establish a church as impotent as a local Rotary club.

Amo2 said:

No it is not.

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1 Cor. 5:5 and 1 Tim. 1:20.

Amo2 said:

The greater part of the world has always rejected the spiritual authority of the New Testament itself, let alone those who claim to preach the truth regarding it. The New Testament itself records those who rejected the authority of even the apostles themselves, not to mention occasions of disagreement between themselves, such as Paul and Peter.

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Right, none of those is "rejecting the concept of spiritual authority altogether," those are instances of rejecting particular spiritual authorities.

Amo2 said:

Why don't you give a good reference to what you quoted and or add some context that all might see for themselves what exactly is being said or addressed. The author you are quoting wrote an awful lot of material, are you just clicking and pasting from someone else's arguments, or did you actually read the above in the material the author actually wrote? If the latter, why not include a reference for all to examine if they wish.

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The particular quote is from Early Writings, 67.2. I'm not really interested in this becoming a lengthy sidebar, though, since it seems difficult enough already to get straight answers on the main topic in this thread.

Henrik Kochan said:

Hello, my name is Henrik Kochan. I'm an author living in Israel.

My books in Hebrew include The Meaning of Life – Socrates, Jesus, Nietzsche and Jesus and the Laws of Moses. I’ve recently completed my first book in English (not yet published), titled Steps to Heaven: On Morality, God, and the Soul. It explores themes such as salvation in Judaism and Christianity, Jesus and Paul, the Holy Spirit, atonement, and more.

Although I’m not Christian myself, I’m deeply interested in these topics and would love to hear what my Christian friends here in the forum think about them.

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Welcome to Christian forums. It is great to see an intellectual that is searching for what are the most important things in life. I pray you can find some good fellowship here and are welcomed by many. I pray too (if I may) that God touches your heart and you can learn more about him and what true Christianity is. God bless you!

johnnypapa said:

The Art of Dying Well: Facing Death, Judgement, Heaven or Hell.

Each day we live is a preparation for the day we die. We will die well if we live in a manner that prepares us for Heaven. We either prepare to die well or we’re headed for Hell. The choice is ours.

www.catholicunscripted.com

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That's the issue we should pay most attention to --- eternal salvation and everything related to it.

Ridley12 said:

Honestly, it was mainly because I don't think I've 100%ed it.

Another one that I've been slowly chugging through is Skyward Sword HD, though I'm moreso trying to get to Hero Mode as soon as possible so that I can start my "real" playthrough (I defeated the final boss in the original Wii version.) It's a bummer that players can't just jump right into Hero Mode like with Wind Waker HD (or so I've heard; been a while since I played it.)

A third one which I've been playing more recently, however, is Final Fantasy VII (with texture/performance mods; made it up to the railroad tracks right before getting to the Gold Saucer.)


When I want to play something, but don't have enough time, I can play something online. Usually, I play slot games, and I really like it. They don't take a lot of time, and I have some fun. Lately I've been playing at 20 bet casino, and can say that it's one of the best I've ever tried. I've played a few games, and I actually liked them, and I can get some cool bonuses too.

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I've also been playing Final Fantasy VII, and it's actually the first time I've played it. Such a cool game.
I also started Mafia: The Old Country a few days ago