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  • CF has always been a site that welcomes people from different backgrounds and beliefs to participate in discussion and even debate. That is the nature of its ministry. In view of recent events emotions are running very high. We need to remind people of some basic principles in debating on this site. We need to be civil when we express differences in opinion. No personal attacks. Avoid you, your statements. Don't characterize an entire political party with comparisons to Fascism or Communism or other extreme movements that committed atrocities. CF is not the place for broad brush or blanket statements about groups and political parties. Put the broad brushes and blankets away when you come to CF, better yet, put them in the incinerator. Debate had no place for them. We need to remember that people that commit acts of violence represent themselves or a small extreme faction.

PTSD, TBI, Anxiety/Depression, Alcohol Abuse...

Prolonged Exposure started to work but then it became more harmful than good. It made every emotion associated with my trauma inaccessible except for the really intense ones (I'm guessing it was just too much to bury). Not only do I have multiple traumas, but each with a unique dynamic, and very different from each other. I've done (takes a deep breath in): prolonged exposure, CPT, CBT, EMDR, talk therapy, equine therapy, and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, as well as substance treatment. Psychedelic treatment is likely not an option due to the use of psychedelics during my worst trauma (witnessing a murder). Somatic Experiencing is literally my last option. I know nothing about it except what I've read online.
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What Jesus Said About Adam and Eve

He literally did:

Tell me, you who want to be under the law, do you not understand the law? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman. But one, the son by the slave woman, was born by natural descent, while the other, the son by the free woman, was born through the promise. These things may be treated as an allegory, for these women represent two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai bearing children for slavery; this is Hagar. Now Hagar represents Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother. For it is written: "Rejoice, O barren woman who does not bear children; break forth and shout, you who have no birth pains, because the children of the desolate woman are more numerous than those of the woman who has a husband." But you, brothers and sisters, are children of the promise like Isaac. But just as at that time the one born by natural descent persecuted the one born according to the Spirit, so it is now. But what does the scripture say? "Throw out the slave woman and her son, for the son of the slave woman will not share the inheritance with the son" of the free woman. Therefore, brothers and sisters, we are not children of the slave woman but of the free woman. (Galatians 4:21-31)​

What translation are you using?
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What is currently on your mind?

I can see how it would feel like that in America. I think, from Australia, it's easier to have a little more hope.
Hope is nice, but depends on what our hope is based. This week I saw evidence of an expression of bias that wouldn't be allowed in most businesses and government organizations because it makes it appear that this view or that view is officially endorsed. For that reason you don't put political stickers on company vehicles, and you sure don't on a government vehicle.

The problem comes from what's displayed beneath our avatars. We can alter it or let the CF software generate it, and in some cases it displays an administrative tie to DF. The latter is like wearing a company uniform. Those of us who wear/have worn uniforms know that what we say and do while in uniform can be seen as official positions of the company or organization.The opinions we have while out of uniform don't necessarily have that same overtone and we are more free to express ourselves.

Just pointing that out is likely to get me in trouble here. At the moment can't say that I care all that much. CF does lean in a particular direction, some political, some moral. As Overton windows go, the shrubbery seems to have grown over part of it.

The question is whether I want to be a part of that. I know someone who frequents an online comic / blog and then reports on what he finds objectionable there. My take is why bother? If you know they are going to take such and such positions on things and denigrate yours, what's the point? Just get up and go. Fretting over it isn't worth it.
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Prayers for the Departed

V Day within the Octave of All Saints

Editor’s note: reminder that anyone who devoutly visits a cemetery during the Octave (between November 1st and 8th), praying — even mentally — for the departed, may obtain one plenary indulgence per day, applicable only to the souls in Purgatory, under the usual conditions.

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God's Olive tree awaits all nations to rejoin and meet his Son

Thank you for your thoughts, it was a sonnet a call back to God's people to. I got that line about the Gentile's from Romans 11. I will paste more of it here, what capacity do you think it is written as the scripture is about calling people back to God's Olive tree. I have liked that one for decades. I have changed it though and thank you for pointing it out.

Romans 11- which be the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree? For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.
Great; Romans 11 (and the rest of Romans also actually) only makes sense if we understand 'Israel' and 'Jews' to actually refer to the physical Israel and the Jews living there or abroad. Spiritualising the term 'Israel' and basically redefining as referring to the whole church causes nonsensical readings in both NT and TNK/OT. But has happened since at least the 4th century AD in the history of the Church - only in the last 100 years or so do we see a change in that perspective.

Of course I'm aware there are multiple ways of 'reading'/interpreting Romans 11, but for me the most natural one is that Gentile believers are grafted into the tree of God's people - but Israel as a nation/people still do exist (Paul says 'theirs are the covenants' ..) - they're temporarily blinded as Paul says; but eventually all of Israel will come to the truth about their Messiah. Israel is not some kind of failed and abandoned experiment by God. The TNK/OT successively speaks of a remnant .. God's plan continues. The name of Yeshua as God's Messiah is spread online throughout Israel these days - that's a massive development.

Modern and orthodox Judaism now is quite different from Judaism as it existed in the days of Yeshua on earth. Talmud and many, many traditions have emerged later. I have learned a lot from looking at the Bible and my faith from a Jewish perspective - basically trying to understand the Gospel, Yeshua's words and Paul through the lens of those 1st century Jewish believers. At the same time Judaism in the 21st century reminds me also of the Roman Catholic or Orthodox churches - lots of traditions where the tradition itself seems to have become a purpose in itself.

Man-made tradition can be useful (~ best practices solidified in time) but should not be a law in itself.

My journey of discovery is still ongoing - yet my faith/leaning on God is not dependent on knowing it all with a precision of three decimals digits.

Be blessed !
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Embryo Jewelry? Catholics React to Frozen Children Encased in Necklaces and Rings

I know of a professor who's SIL had her brother's ashes in a necklace, IIRC.

It's not my personal preference. Maybe it helped her grieve?
Well,

I'm willing to roll with it, it just seems odd.

Sort of like when (a thousand years ago) Billy Bob Thornton and Angelia Jolie had small vials of each other blood on necklaces.

Romantic? Well, I can see it.

But odd?

Definitely.

(Upon reflection - that whole marriage was a little off)
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The Thing Most Sabbath Keepers Do not Talk About.

No it is what is written. 3 questions were asked in verse 3, when shall these things be in regard to the destruction of the Temple. When shall be the sign of Jesus' coming and when shall be the end of the world. What follows is an answer to all three. The audience is any and all throughout the ages until He comes in His glory. How do we know?

Because Grammatically speaking the context is continuous from verse 1 to at least 31 when it speaks of Christ coming with His angels to gather the elect at the end of this world.

How do we know? By His use of words like and, but, then, when wherefore, and so forth. These words connect what is about to be said to what is already said. And they are in the Greek also. So that means up to Christ's coming in the clouds of glory with His angels he expects His followers to still be keeping the Sabbath.


Matt 24:1 And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and his disciples came to [him] for to shew him the buildings of the temple.
Matt 24:2 And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.
Matt 24:3 And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what [shall be] the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?
Matt 24:4 And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you.
Matt 24:5 For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.
Matt 24:6 And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all [these things] must come to pass, but the end is not yet.
Matt 24:7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
Matt 24:8 All these [are] the beginning of sorrows.
Matt 24:9 Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake.
Matt 24:10 And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another.
Matt 24:11 And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.
Matt 24:12 And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.
Matt 24:13 But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.
Matt 24:14 And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.
Matt 24:15 When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand)
Matt 24:16 Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains:
Matt 24:17 Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house:
Matt 24:18 Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes.
Matt 24:19 And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days!
Matt 24:20 But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day:
Matt 24:21 For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.
Matt 24:22 And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened.
Matt 24:23 Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here [is] Christ, or there; believe [it] not.
Matt 24:24 For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if [it were] possible, they shall deceive the very elect.
Matt 24:25 Behold, I have told you before.
Matt 24:26 Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, [he is] in the secret chambers; believe [it] not.
Matt 24:27 For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
Matt 24:28 For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together.
Matt 24:29 Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:
Matt 24:30 And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
Matt 24:31 And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
Yes, Mathew 24 is the only place these predictions are in chronological order. Dan/Rev etc are formatted in repeat and enlarge.

So that means up to Christ's coming in the clouds of glory with His angels he expects His followers to still be keeping the Sabbath.

Yes and will continue on...


Isa 66:22 “For as the new heavens and the new earth
Which I will make shall remain before Me,” says the Lord,

“So shall your descendants and your name remain.
23 And it shall come to pass
That from one New Moon to another,
And from one Sabbath to another,
All flesh shall come to worship before Me,” says the Lord.


I can't imagine what it will be like to worship before Christ on the Sabbath. He tells us people will still do things during the week Isa 65:21 They shall build houses and inhabit them; They shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit.

The Sabbath continues for worship but now instead of in spirit, everyone will come before Him.
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Weekly homilies

Homily Friday, November 7 2025

31st OT



Rm 15:14-21

"I have reason to boast in what pertains to God."



It's wonderful. The service God gives us allows us to observe Him serving others.



Lk 16:1-8

Even if we are not perfect, let us allow the blessing of Love to flow into each heart: joy and peace.



We can read today's Gospel. NAB-RE



Biblical texts: NAB-RE

Normand Thomas.

Normand Thomas.
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WHY LAW OF MOSES. AND THE NEW COVENANT IS NOT TODAY V?

And since you did quote from the book of Hebrew. , and who was the Book of Hebrews WRITTEN. to TOO. ??

WAS it written to the BODY of CHRIST ??

Or was it written to HEBREWS

DAN P
All the promises of God were written in the book of Moses to the children of Israel, God fulfilled those promises to the world, so all the world requires those books for their fulfilment, including the book to the Hebrews.
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BUSTED - 12 False theories refuted:

Why do people Spiritualise scriptures which can literally happen? Where do you stop with doing that?
The Word is living and active.

Do we see that physically? Not directly. We see the results but not the Word living and active.

We have very real adverse spirit adversaries. Do we see them physically? Not directly. We see the results but not the adverse spirits.

The most basic lesson on these subjects is this: People are NOT God's enemies.

You lost sight of that.

You look at people and countries and bombs and think that's what the scriptures are about.

Scriptures engage unseen things. Agencies if you will:

Ephesians 6:12
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

Not flesh and blood. Not missles.

Revelation is in fact a very HOPEFUL writing. It's a time when the tables are turned on the DEVILS.

It is THEY who will have GREAT TRIBULATION

It is also THEY who piloted your sights into a train wreck
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Hell As Purgative?

I am not Orthodox, but have done much research about Orthodoxy. Based upon what I have read, some Orthodox believe that the dead receive a conditional sentence when they die, but that no sentence is final until the second coming of Jesus. Based upon this assumption then, some Orthodox believe that it is possible for at least some of those who are destined now to go to Hell, may eventually have their sentences changed and that they at least have a chance to still end up in Heaven. How common said belief is in Orthodoxy I was unable to discern. I did run across though an interesting discussion once between an EO and an OO. The Oriental Orthodox person explained that they do not hold to such a belief. Army Matt, can you tell us how common the belief is within Eastern Orthodoxy that it might be possible for souls now destined for Hell, to have their sentences changed, up to the point of the second coming, as at that point sentences are considered final? Is this view a minority or majority position within Eastern Orthodoxy? Is it true that the Oriental Orthodox do not consider such a position to be valid?
I don’t know how common a belief it is, and I am not non-Chalcedonian so I don’t know their position. what I can say is that it is taught by St Mark of Ephesus, St Joseph the hesychast, St Xenia of St Petersburg, Fr Seraphim Rose, Fr Stephen De Young, etc.
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The Saving results of the Death of Christ !

The word ἑλκύω explains decisive movement. Any failure of the act would be on the part of the subject's weakness, not the object's resistance.
ChatGpt:

"Greek (like English) can still describe an attempted but unsuccessful act of ἑλκύω through context:​

> “They were not able to ἑλκύσαι the net” (John 21:6).

Here:

ἑλκύσαι still means “to draw (so as to move).”

οὐκ ἴσχυον (“were not able”) tells you they failed to accomplish it.

That failure does not redefine the verb’s meaning — the action type is still “drawing that would cause motion.”


ἑλκύω itself doesn’t specify who or what causes failure.

The sentence “He failed to ἑλκύω” merely says the drawing did not occur; it doesn’t tell you if that was because

the subject was too weak, or

the object was too resistant.

Those are interpretive possibilities, not grammatical facts."​
What I'm arguing is that the Father's drawing does not fail. It can't.
I don't think you can get this strictly from grammer, rather you need to look at the context.
Again, notice what the drawing is: the operative verb is δύναται ("is able"). It's negated by the substantive οὐδεὶς ("no one"). No one is able. That is what the drawing of the Father is a remedy for: man's inability. So to say that the Father can fail to draw a person is to say that the Father can fail to make it possible for them to come. Man's resistibility is not a factor in this because the whole point of the drawing is that man has no capacity to come anyway. To say that man can successfully resist the Father's drawing would be to say that the Father can try to make it possible for someone to come to Christ, and the recipient say, "no, I refuse to allow that possibility." Man has no say in whether he is able to do something. Ability/inability is a function of our nature.

In other words, saying that man can resist the Father's drawing misunderstands what the Father's drawing is in John 6:44. What would that resistance look like? If we say that someone could reply, "I refuse to act on God's enablement by coming to Christ," that's not a resistance of the Father's drawing. Rather, it presupposes that the Father's drawing has already succeeded: they are able to come.

Now... as a separate issue, beyond the semantics of ἑλκύω, I would argue from the grammar of John 6:44 that the Father's drawing (enabling) leads necessarily to coming, because the "him" drawn is grammatically the same individual as the "him" raised. Thus, the Father's drawing is effectual in not only enabling sinners to come to Christ, but ensuring that they will do so. However, that is an implication of pronouns of the verse, not of ἑλκύω's meaning or function itself.
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Failing community college

Well, it was fine until I got to loop statements, especially the for loops and nested links loops. Like, I understand them in theory, but have a hard time parsing what I am seeing and the code ends up not turning out right regardless of what I try.

I'm trying to learn programming on my own, and I've also hit a bit of a brick wall with loop statements. My main textbook keeps throwing different kinds of loops at me, when it should probably stick to one or two kinds for a while.

I might mess around with different books and tutorials, as well as my own experimentation for a while. I also think I have ADHD or something similar
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Why we Christians still have to struggle with sins?

Here is the gospel:


Jeremiah 4:22 For my people is foolish, they have not known me; they are sottish children, and they have none understanding: they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.

Romans 16:17 Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them.
18 For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple.
19 For your obedience is come abroad unto all men. I am glad therefore on your behalf: but yet I would have you wise unto that which is good, and simple concerning evil.
20 And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.
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Do the Ten Commandments still apply under the new covenant today?

We live by the scriptures, by believing in what they testify, when we do not have the Spirit of Christ we are dead, not living.

Also when questions and contentions and strivings about the law are all that replaces the scriptures they reject, we are instructed what to bring to them



Titus 3:9 But avoid foolish questions, and genealogies, and contentions, and strivings about the law; for they are unprofitable and vain.
10 A man that is an heretick after the first and second admonition reject;
11 Knowing that he that is such is subverted, and sinneth, being condemned of himself.
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