In his article, “Roman Catholic Confusion on Contraception in the Bible” (3-15-12), anti-Catholic Reformed Protestant apologist James Swan observed:

You can’t make this stuff up:
Genesis 38 is about contraception:
Bottom line is that God killed Onan for some reason. The only plausible reason we have from the text itself is contraception. A straightforward reading of the text lends itself readily to that interpretation (though not absolutely of logical necessity).[source]

Click to expand...

Genesis 38 is not about contraception:
“In the case of Onan, you are right that the common Catholic reliance on this passage as a proof text against contraception or masturbation is a weak one and wrong-headed” [Source: Mark Shea. What Does it Mean to Say Jesus has Fulfilled the Old Covenant?].

Click to expand...

Continued below.

Dear Father Spitzer, the Jesus myth is almost entirely lifted from Horus, the Egyptian God of the sun.
Born of a virgin on Dec. 25, had 12 disciples, healed the blind, raised a man from the dead, crucified, rose again three days later, and was. . . savior. . . all thousands of years before the New Testament (and a larger part of the Old, as I recall) was written.
Although I have never doubted that a man named Jesus existed and taught, calling him the messiah seems extremely pretentious."

Click to expand...

—Brad (as commented on the Magis Center Facebook page)

Click to expand...

Dear Brad,

Thank you for your question.

I think you will eventually want to answer it in a much larger context taking into consideration some of the outstanding scholarly works of historical exegesis concerning Jesus Christ (see below).

Continued below.

What, then, are homosexual persons to do who seek to follow the Lord? Fundamentally, they are called to enact the will of God in their life by joining whatever sufferings and difficulties they experience in virtue of their condition to the sacrifice of the Lord’s Cross. That Cross, for the believer, is a fruitful sacrifice since from that death come life and redemption. While any call to carry the cross or to understand a Christian’s suffering in this way will predictably be met with bitter ridicule by some, it should be remembered that this is the way to eternal life for all who follow Christ.

It is, in effect, none other than the teaching of Paul the Apostle to the Galatians when he says that the Spirit produces in the lives of the faithful “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, trustfulness, gentleness and self-control” (5:22) and further (v. 24), “You cannot belong to Christ unless you crucify all self-indulgent passions and desires.”

It is easily misunderstood, however, if it is merely seen as a pointless effort at self-denial. The Cross is a denial of self, but in service to the will of God himself who makes life come from death and empowers those who trust in him to practice virtue in place of vice.

Continued below.

Former President Donald Trump discussed the importance of religion and his understanding of heaven during a recent interview with Fox News host Laura Ingraham.

Trump, whose personal pastor and spiritual advisor is Paula White, told Ingraham that one of the reasons America has “lost sort of everything” is because “we don’t have religion to the same extent” as we used to.

“It’s just going bad,” Trump said, blaming the Democratic party for the nation’s religious decline. “Democrats were violent and ruthless to religion during COVID.”

Continued below.

California Catholic bishops are launching a yearlong initiative to celebrate and encourage marriage and families through educational resources and parish-based resources, citing attacks on marriage and the decline of faith in the Eucharist as the reasons behind the initiative.

“Our culture has been wounded by the erosion of an authentic vision of love, sexuality, and marriage,” Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco said in a July 30 press release.

The “Radiate Love” initiative takes inspiration from the miracle of Jesus turning water into wine at the wedding feast at Cana, because Jesus “believes marriage is beautiful and worth celebrating,” the website says.

Continued below.

Novak Djokovic on Sunday became the first tennis player in a dozen years, male or female, to complete a tennis “Golden Slam,” winning all four major annual tournaments and an Olympic gold medal.

The 37-year-old Serb, considered by many the greatest male tennis player in history, defeated the young Spanish superstar Carlos Alcaraz to win the gold at the Paris Olympics.

Many Catholics took note of the fact that an elated Djokovic made the sign of the cross several times after winning the match — but you may also have noticed that he did the sign of the cross from right to left, rather than the typical Catholic left to right.

Continued below.

The president of the Vatican Court, Giuseppe Pignatone, is under investigation by the Italian judiciary for allegedly collaborating with the Mafia in the early 1990s.

Pignatone, 75, is known for his extensive career in the justice system. He was also deputy prosecutor for Palermo (Sicily) and Rome’s prosecutor. Since October 2019 he has been president of the Vatican Court.

On July 31, Pignatone was summoned to testify in court in Caltanissetta, Sicily, for alleged complicity and cover-up of the Italian Mafia organization La Cosa Nostra (“Our Thing”).

Continued below.

And in response, the King shall say to them, "Amen I say to you, whenever you did this for one of these, the least of my brothers, you did it for me."
(Matthew 25:40)

Art can provoke, how does the image above provoke you?

That Kamabla - she's a piece of work right? Kamabla this and Kamabla that.
Seriously - is Trump OK?
Does he think this is funny?
Clever?

I know he thinks he's a genius - but what are his advisors thinking?
Because this - right here - sounds like he's just pining for the days when he could imagine beating up on a tired old man in a debate.
This writing is not Presidential.
It's not even adult.
It sounds like a drunk teenager jilted at the Prom!
I read this and I'm hearing echoes of Romeo and Juliet.

"Oh Joe Joe - wherefore art thou Joe?"

I just watched a vid where the guy says that he asked his 90 yr old mother if she thought the earth was round or flat , and she said it was flat , said she learnt that in school.

So I asked an 80 yr old friend of mine the same question , and she said it's flat too , and that that's what they taught her in school. She said if it was round we would fall off you idiot...lol

So I said well when I went to school they taught us the earth was round , and we were both left scratching our heads....
So if there is anyone here aged around 80 plus , what did they teach you in school , round or flat earth?

Please let's not make this another flat earth thread , there is enough here already.
I'm more interested in what we were taught at school , and at what point did they cease teaching flat earth to teaching round earth.

My daughter works in aged care and said she would help by asking her elderly customers. Looking forward to the results of that , should be interesting.

Lead me, Lord, in Your direction,
Even if it means correction.
You have now my full attention,
Whate’er You will choose to mention.

Do I love You? Absolutely!
Will I serve You? Very truly!
Will I bow in full submission?
Yes, Lord, as You give me vision.

Do I care about the others
Who’re my sisters and my brothers?
Yes, Lord, I do love them truly,
Even those who are unruly.

“Feed them now with what I mention,
For this is My full intention
You should be My witness to them
Telling them My truth in wisdom.”

An Original Work / May 5, 2023

If we are to teach what accords with “sound doctrine,” how do we know what is “sound doctrine” and what is not? First of all we must be in genuine relationship with Jesus Christ by faith in him via dying with him to sin and now living to him and to his righteousness in walks of obedience to him. Then we must be listening for the Spirit’s voice guiding and directing us as we study the Scriptures (IN CONTEXT) in showing us what they are saying. And we must be testing everything we read and hear from others to make certain that what they are teaching is the truth and not the lies.

But as we read through the Scriptures, we should not read them with our minds already made up based on something we had learned previously from our parents or former preachers or others of influence in our lives who may or may not have taught the Scriptures to us correctly. So as we study the Scriptures fresh we must be willing to unlearn what we learned wrongly and to change our doctrinal beliefs if, as we study the Scriptures, and we compare Scripture with Scripture on the same subjects, we find that what we had believed all along is not really what the Scriptures teach in context.

And CONTEXT is always critical to correct biblical interpretation. So many people today are teaching certain Scriptures out of their context and they are making them say what they do not say if taught correctly in context. And when I was growing up that was done much in gospel presentations where we were taught to use certain Scriptures, one after another, to present the gospel of our salvation. But they were out of context and so they did not give a completely accurate picture of the gospel of Christ. And what many did then is to adopt a diluted and altered gospel message, instead.

Let me give you a few examples of what I am talking about here. Many people are teaching Ephesians 2:8-9 absent of verse 10 which is critical to the whole message. And so they are teaching people that God requires no works of us at all. And many of them are teaching that we don’t have to repent of (turn from) our sins, and that we do not have to obey our Lord’s commands (New Covenant) but all we have to do is “believe,” without really defining biblically what it means to believe. But verse 10 says that we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus “for good works” which God prepared in advance that we should “walk in them.”

But God’s grace is not free license to keep living in sin while claiming salvation from sin and eternal life with God. His grace, which is bringing us salvation, is training us to renounce (say ‘No’ to) ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives while we wait for our Lord’s return. And his grace, which sent Jesus to the cross, delivers us from our slavery (bondage, addiction) to sin so that we can now walk in obedience to our Lord and to his commands in holy living. And death to sin and walks of obedience to our Lord are required for salvation from sin.

[Matt 7:21-23; Lu 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; Rom 12:1-2; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Co 10:1-22; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; Gal 5:16-24; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:1-17; Titus 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; 1 Pet 2:24; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2]

Another example of this is John 10:28-30 which leaves out verse 27. Verse 28, which is most always quoted first, begins with “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish…” But verse 27 tells us who “they” are. So why is it so common to leave out who “they” are? Because they are using these promises broadly to include everyone who gives lip service to having faith in Jesus Christ. But verses 28-30 do not apply to everyone who professes the name of Jesus. Read verse 27. They apply only to those who are listening to the voice of the Lord and who are following him in obedience, in practice.

And another big one is Romans 10:9-10. Many are teaching this as “the gospel” message, but out of context of the whole of Romans. And so they are teaching that all we have to do is to confess with our mouths that Jesus is Lord and believe in our hearts that God raised him from the dead, and we will be saved. But Romans 6 and Romans 8, in particular, do not teach that. They teach that we must die with Christ to sin and that we must no longer let sin reign in our mortal bodies to make us obey its passions. For if sin is what we obey, it leads to death. But if obedience to our Lord is what we obey, its end is eternal life with Christ Jesus our Lord. (see Romans 6:1-23)

And they teach that the righteous requirement of the law is fulfilled in us who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For if we live according to the flesh, doing what our flesh desires, and we do not walk in obedience to the Lord, then the end result is death, not life eternal. “For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” “So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.” (see Romans 8:1-14)

So, don’t read the Scriptures out of context and then apply them broadly where they do not apply or in the wrong way. Study them IN CONTEXT.

Songs in the Night

An Original Work / December 18, 2013

“About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.” Acts 16:25 NIV ‘84

Lord, I praise You forevermore.
You, my Savior, I now adore.
Hope in heaven awaiting me,
Because You died at Calvary.

I have been forgiven,
And I’m bound for heaven.
Jesus set me free from
All my sin, I say.
I will praise Him always!

Lord, I love You for all You’ve done:
Overcame death, my vict’ry won!
Jesus saved me, and now I’m free!
I rejoice in His love for me.

I will walk in vict’ry!
My sin is but hist’ry!
I am free to please Him
With my life today.
I will love Him always!

Lord, I thank You for giving me
A new life bought at Calvary.
Loving Jesus, I meet with Him.
Tender mercies now flow within.

Lord, I am so thankful;
Through my Lord, I’m able
To sit at His table;
Fellowship with Him.
I will thank Him always!

Login to view embedded media

Your Salvation

An Original Work / May 29, 2011
Based off of Isaiah 30

In repentance is your salvation.
In quietness and trust is your strength.
The Lord longs to be gracious to you.
Blessed are all who wait for Him.

Pharaoh’s protection will be your shame.
Egypt’s shade will bring you to disgrace.
Ev’ryone will be put to their shame,
Because they trusted in man.

Woe to those who carry out their plans
Without consulting God their Savior.
God’s calling out for you to listen
And obey all He commands.

In repentance is your salvation.
In quietness and trust is your strength.
The Lord longs to be gracious to you.
Blessed are all who wait for Him.

Login to view embedded media

Sadly, this is speaking about what is going on within the gatherings of what are called “churches” today here in America. We have many professers of faith in Jesus Christ who are living in disobedience to the Lord in defiance of his commandments (New Covenant) in deliberate and habitual sin against the Lord and against other humans. For they are following after liars and deceivers who are teaching them a diluted and altered gospel message which makes no requirements of them for genuine repentance, walks of obedience to the Lord, and holy living, as required for true salvation.

And this is not teaching “works salvation.” This is teaching the true gospel of Christ which says that the righteous requirement of the law is fulfilled in us who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. And if anyone would come after Christ he must deny self, take up his cross daily (die daily to sin) and follow (obey) Jesus. For if we hold on to our old lives of sin, we will lose them for eternity. But if for Jesus’ sake we deny self, die daily to sin, and follow him in obedience, we have eternal life. For if sin is what we practice, and not obedience to God, we do not have life in Him.

So, these liars and deceivers need to be silenced, too, for they are leading the masses astray to follow after this altered gospel message which is telling the people that they can profess faith in Jesus Christ, have all their sins forgiven, have heaven guaranteed them when they die, but regardless of how they live. But Jesus died that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. He gave his life up for us, and he put our sins to death with him, so that we can now be crucified with him in death to sin and now walk with him in obedience to his commands in holy living, by his grace.

And a lot of these liars and deceivers are teaching what is false for shameful gain. And they have turned the gatherings of the church into marketplaces where they are marketing “the church” to the people of the world just like other businesses. And so they have compromised the truth of the gospel to make it more acceptable to the ungodly and to human flesh so as not to offend the people of the world who they are trying to attract to their gatherings. And so they have also altered the character of God and of his true church, the body of Christ, to blend Christianity in with the world.

So, there should be men of God in positions of leadership and authority within the universal body of Christ in various locations who will make it their responsibility to rebuke these liars and deceivers, that they may be sound in the faith. But sadly, so many of them are among the liars and deceivers who have bought into marketing “the church” to the world and who have embraced the “cheapened grace” gospel, that it appears that few are willing to speak out against the lies and to instruct the people in the truth of the gospel as taught by Jesus and by his NT apostles.

So many people today, thus, who are making professions of faith in Jesus Christ, do have both their minds and their consciences seared (defiled) by the lies which they are believing, and so they are continuing in deliberate and habitual sin against the Lord Jesus, and obedience to God and to his commandments is not their practice. So they profess to know God, but they deny him by their works (deeds, actions). And according to the Scriptures they are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work. And they will not inherit the kingdom of God regardless of what their lips profess.

[Matt 7:21-23; Lu 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; Rom 12:1-2; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Co 10:1-22; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; Gal 5:16-24; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:1-17; Titus 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; 1 Pet 2:24; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2]

Your Grace Divine

An Original Work / November 6, 2011

All I have is Yours, Lord.
You gave all to me,
When You died at Calv’ry
On that cruel tree.
Crucified for my sins;
You paid what I owe,
So I’d be forgiven;
My God come to know.
All I have is Yours, Lord.
You gave all to me,
When You died at Calv’ry
On that cruel tree.

Lord, I am so thankful
For Your grace divine.
I invited You, Lord,
In this heart of mine.
I have been forgiven
For all of my sins,
So I’d live with Jesus;
His grace flow within.
Lord, I am so thankful
For Your grace divine.
I invited You, Lord,
In this heart of mine.

Growing in Your grace, Lord;
Live for You each day;
How I love to worship
You throughout my day.
Sitting at Your feet, Lord,
List’ning to You speak,
Leads me to love You, Lord,
More throughout the week.
Growing in Your grace, Lord;
Live for You each day;
How I love to worship
You throughout my day.

Login to view embedded media

I had to see this myself because I thought my coworker was exaggerating.



There’s a section with glowing bios for her and her new VP....and a section for donations...and a section for volunteers.

And a giant merch store.

For all the guff they've given Trump about the MAGA hat....apparently, they're taking a page from his playbook. This is like the time they painted Joe orange.

Also....why is this campaign still begging for money? She has about 3 months. We've all heard about the record donations that she's gotten....how much of your money could she possibly need to run for 3 months?

I expected her to run on being a non-white, non-man for awhile until she could lay out policy positions....but it's starting to look like she has none. To be fair, Joe didn't really have any either....and I think that's possibly the new direction of the Democratic Party. No policies, no promises, no platform....just vote for whomever they trot out or you're a fascist, racist, misogynistic bigot.

Login to view embedded media
Swish. Nailed it.

I'm starting to wonder if the whole strategy of nominating Harris for VP was to pick someone who would make an aging and mentally deteriorating Biden look smart.

I mean...wow.

You get what you vote for people.

Artwork created through the use of artificial intelligence. Partially at least…

Blurb available here on the “Editorial Reviews” tab:

The word “fascist” gets thrown around a lot in politics, but it’s hard to find a more apt one for “Unhumans,” which came out last month. The book argues that leftists don’t deserve the status of human beings — that they are, as the title says, unhumans — and that they are waging a shadow war against all that is good and decent, which will end in apocalyptic slaughter if they are not stopped. “As they are opposed to humanity itself, they place themselves outside of the category completely, in an entirely new misery-driven subdivision, the unhuman,” write Posobiec and Lisec.

The piece goes on to describe the book’s adulation of Franco, Pinochet, and McCarthy; and quote Vance saying that the US needs a de-Baathafication-like purge to rid us of wokeness.


Other endorsements come from Tucker Carlson and Donald Trump Jr., a key figure in his father’s presidential campaign. The foreword is by Stephen Bannon, Donald Trump’s former chief strategist.

Walz’s history on born-alive abortions opens door for Trump, GOP to flip extremism argument​

At least eight infants were born alive after botched abortions in Minnesota on Walz's watch, none was given life-saving care, reports show.

In summer 2022 as Tim Walz was steaming toward reelection as Minnesota governor, his state health agency published a required abortion-statistics report with little fanfare. In it, though, was a secret that is certain to catapult to national prominence now that Walz has been selected to be Democrat Kamala Harris’s running mate.

In Walz’s state and on his watch, five infants were "born alive" in 2021 during failed abortions, and none was provided life-saving care though two got “comfort care,” the Minnesota Department of Health reported on July 1, 2022.

File
MNAbortionReportJuly2022.pdf
Three other infants were "born alive" during abortions in 2019, Walz’s first year as governor, and they too perished without life-saving care, according to a July 1, 2020 report from the same state agency.

File
MNAbortionReportJuly2020.pdf
Minnesota was the rare state to require such born-alive abortions to be publicly reported, creating a powerful statistic for pro-life and anti-abortion forces to draw upon.

But in 2023, Walz worked with his new Democrat-controlled Legislature to eliminate both the reporting requirement and the state’s legal obligation for doctors, nurses and medical professionals to administer life-saving care to infants born alive during an abortion procedure. The governor-turned-vice presidential nominee signed an omnibus bill known as SF2995 that closed one of the few statistical windows on late-term abortions and the possibility that babies born alive were left to die.

That’s just evil. But she’s the Left’s darling.

LINK

The Justice Department has charged a Pakistani man who has alleged ties to the Iranian government with seeking to carry out political assassinations, a case that prompted the US government to increase security for former President Donald Trump and other officials, according to court documents unsealed Tuesday.

FBI investigators believe that Trump and other current and former US government officials were the intended targets of the plot, a US official briefed on the matter said.

Asif Merchant, 46, is accused of traveling to New York City and working with a hit man to carry out the assassinations in late August or early September, according to charges filed by federal prosecutors in Brooklyn, New York.

[Stop me if you've heard this one: Hitman was a fed.]

Merchant said that he wanted to target individuals in the United States who are “hurting Pakistan and the world, [the] Muslim world,” according to court documents, adding that “these are not just normal people.”

But apparently he’s a moderate. This is disgusting. Yet the left will just fawn over him because they have to.

FBI agents executed a search warrant late last week on Tennessee Congressman Andy Ogles as the first-term Republican faces continuing scrutiny over fraudulent campaign financial reports that he filed, NewsChannel 5 has confirmed.

Following NewsChannel 5's revelation, Ogles posted a statement on social media admitting that his cell phone had been seized by the FBI.

"It has been widely reported for months that my campaign made mistakes in our initial financial filings. We have worked diligently with attorneys and reporting experts to correct the errors and ensure compliance going forward," Ogles said in the statement. "Last Friday, the FBI took possession of my cell phone. It is my understanding that they are investigating the same well-known facts surrounding these filings."

[Oh, all just some honest mistake.]

Back in May, Ogles filed a series of amended campaign financial reports, admitting he had not personally loaned his campaign $320,000 as he had reported back in 2022.

That development came several months after NewsChannel 5 Investigates raised questions about whether Ogles had the financial resources to make that personal loan. Despite having reported making the $320,000 personal loan, Ogles' personal financial disclosures did not show any substantial investments — not even a savings account.

[Hmmm. Three hundred large just fell off a turnip truck? That he then loaned to himself? (But didn't.)]

Can you guys please pray for my dad his name is Michael for complete healing and for him to be walking in his healing and being completely obedient to God and that he lives and not dies all the days of his life can you pray for my sister Micah that God will give her a raise in her job that she would get a significant raise and that God heals her and forces her to be obedient and righteous to God all the days of her Life and if you guys can pray for my mom that God heals her body all the days of her life and that she stays completely obedient to God and that she will be completely obedient and righteous and that she lives and not die all the days of her life and can you pray that whole entire prayer for my sister and brothers genesis,zaniah,justice,jolane, jabez,jp,billie, and me and can you pray for my brother zion that God heals him and forces him to be obedient and righteous all the days of his life and that God forces him to the Dr. And that God heals him completely all the days of his life and that God finishes his will in our lives and that God takes all our pain away all the days of our life