I know this guy. We're not really friends, but we're very friendly with each other. We see each other fairly often in social settings, but in about 10 years there's only been 5 or 6 times when we were alone together.

Five or six years ago, in conversation I happened to mention to him that I enjoy watching the Little League World Series. I told him that I like youth sports better than professional or college, because there's no money involved, and I feel like kids are playing a game for fun as you should. He then mentioned that his young son had started playing (American) football. I said something to the effect of "I'd love to see that" or "can I watch him play sometime?" I don't recall what was said next, but nothing came of it for over five years.

Fast forward to last week. We were talking about whatever, and I asked him if his son was still playing. The son is in the 8 to 12 age range, I estimate. He said yes, he's got a game coming up. I asked "Could I come watch?", and he gave me what I felt was a very strange and insulting response.

He just said no. I asked why not. He said "you're not family" and then added "but you can hang around us here" (here meaning where we often socialize with others usually including his wife and kids).

I should also mention that years ago, I was riding in his car when we needed to go to his house to pick some things up. He parked on a crossroad near his street, and had his petite wife walk down the sidewalk carrying the items. I thought that was strange. Did he not want me to know which house he lives in?

Am I being weird or is he? I have zero interest in "hanging around" his family, and have never said or done anything to indicate that I do, other than asking about watching his son play ball. I've spoken very briefly with his wife a couple of times, but I've never said a single word to any of his children, not even a "hi". I don't even remember his two girls' names.

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?

I listen to Hillsong now and again, and my conclusion, for the most part their stuff doesn't seem a lot better or worse than older songs and choruses. I think most of it fits into the songs and chorus category rather than Hymns. But on the whole I think many of these contemporary songs are not a lot different from older ones lyrically in what they express.

Here's an example

From Hillsong: Jesus, I need you

Jesus, I need you
Every moment I need you
Hear now this grace bought heart sing out your praise forever
...

Remember Love, Remember Mercy
Christ before me, Christ behind me
Your loving kindness has never failed me
Christ before me, Christ behind me

There's a couple of verses, but these are the lines that often are repeated.



Now an oldie: I Need Thee Every Hour


There's five verses, but as you can see theres a lot of similiarity between it and Hillsong's: Jesus, I need you, in some of the lyrics

I need Thee ev'ry hour,
most gracious Lord;
no tender voice like Thine
can peace afford.

Refrain:
I need Thee, O I need Thee;
ev'ry hour I need Thee;
O bless me now, my Savior,
I come to Thee.





I think Hillsong worship and a lot of contemporary worship songs can be a bit derivative at times of older songs.

The other thing I have heard some ministers criticising Hillsong Church, and even calling it a false church (which is quite strong language), and saying churches should not use their songs, cause they have to pay for that and would be giving money to a false church.

I've never been to Hillsongs Church, but churches in any denomination and none, can be in various spiritual conditions right?, varying degrees of doctrinal correctness or incorrectness, and maturity or immaturity? So I think this "false church" language needs to be used with care.

Having watched some Hillsong stuff on Youtube however I am wondering if there are sermons or preaching at their services, or is it all singing? It seems to revolve a lot around singing, with the worship leaders sometimes sharing a few words in between songs, and sometimes a verse or two of scripture, but is there ever a sermon, or homily or anything more? Do they have communion services?

Trump loses cool as he's grilled on '60 Minutes' — but CBS cuts it from broadcast​

The question, asked by CBS News' Norah O'Donnell, related to clemency for Binance cryptocurrency exchange founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, who pleaded guilty to money laundering violations before being let out of jail, at the same time the Trump family was expanding its business ventures into cryptocurrency and after they made a deal with C.Z. himself.

"This is a question about pardons," said O'Donnell. "The Trump family is now perhaps more associated with cryptocurrency than real estate. You and your son, your sons, Don Jr. and Eric, have formed World Liberty Financial with the Witkoff family, helping to make your family millions of dollars. It's in that context that I do want to ask you about crypto's richest man, a billionaire known as C.Z. He pled guilty in 2023 to violating anti-money laundering laws."

Key portions of this questioning, The Beast reported, did not make it into either the 28-minute TV edit or the 73-minute "extended" cut of the interview

The comments were found in a transcript on the 60 Minutes Overtimesite, the Beast reported.

I hope Harris can get a few million dollars out of this.

To Tip or Not to Tip.... That is the question.... It used to be that full service restaurants would provide the little place on the receipt for a tip. In which I have no problem with. These days people are asking for tips in basic fast food restaurants where you have to wait in a line for food and then seat yourself. At what point should one tip?

Jews are already inherently unique. We don’t need to prove it by naming our kids Cinnamon, Aqua, or Afternoon.​

A clip from the second season of the Netflix series Nobody Wants This recently made the rounds in the parent-verse. In it, interfaith couple Joanne and Noah (Kristen Bell and Adam Brody) attend a baby-naming party and submit to only the most L.A. experience: pretending you didn’t just hear something completely, utterly, and offensively dumb.

Joanne asks the Jewish mom, played by a peppy Leighton Meester, an innocent enough question: “What’s [your daughter’s] name?”

“Afternoon,” replies the mom.

“That’s not a,” starts Joanne, before catching herself mid-snicker. She quickly reverts course: “That is … my favorite time of day.”

I know this routine all too well, the one in which we swallow our tongues, nod, and reflexively exclaim “beautiful!” while simultaneously relishing new fodder for group texts. “You won’t believe the name I just heard” has grown all the more frequent and yet all the more competitive: No longer does Republic, Churchill (for a girl), or even Quinoa raise an eyebrow. I recently overheard Farro (or Pharaoh—unclear!) at the playground, and my group chat pals were unimpressed: “I dunno, I could see a President Farro/Pharaoh.”

It used to be that faddish progeny trends were more prevalent within our gentile neighbors, but not us–we who name after our beloved Bubbes and Zaydes and a long lineage of Jewish leaders, Biblical characters, and that one female Israeli prime minister. I come from a generation in which every other Jewish kid was named Talia, Ilana, or Rachel. Now I see those very same peers opting for Coyote, Striker, and Roxstar.

It’s sometimes hard to square away these peculiar pairings—an unorthodox first name with an often Jewish surname. Gravity Cohen? Aqua Levenstein? Cinnamon Goldberg?

Continued below.

President Donald Trump is taking action against Nigeria to combat the ongoing Islamist persecution of Christians in the west African country.

Trump announced Friday he is designating Nigeria a “country of particular concern” and urged Republican lawmakers to take further action to address the mass slaughter of Christians in Nigeria.

“Christianity is facing an existential threat in Nigeria. Thousands of Christians are being killed. Radical Islamists are responsible for this mass slaughter. I am hereby making Nigeria a ‘COUNTRY OF PARTICULAR CONCERN,'” Trump posted on Truth Social.

Continued below.

Ask literally anyone to describe Jesus, and I’ll bet a year’s pay that “scary” doesn’t come out of their mouth.

That isn’t surprising because in Scripture’s one place that has Jesus describing Himself, we read: “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matt. 11:29–30, my emphasis). That being the case, it’s certainly understandable why most people won’t connect the words “scary” and “Jesus” together.

But the fact is, there are more places in the Bible than you might think where Jesus says things that should cause us all to stand up straight. Let me give you just three off the top of my head.

Burned branches

The postmodern and post-truth philosophies that are lived out by the vast majority of people today are the antithesis of what you see Christ teaching in His four biblical biographies. Instead, they show Him stating that “true truth”, as Francis Schaeffer used to call it, exists and He’s it. Follow anything or anyone else, and you’ll be making a career decision.

Life apart from Him leads only to a terrible conclusion, which He begins to explain in a fairly famous section of John’s gospel: “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing” (John 15:4–5).

Before we get to the foreboding part, let me add a quick aside and ask you to notice that in the above, you see anything but a self-effacing claim from Christ (“apart from Me you can do nothing”). Instead, you find a statement that helped fuel C. S. Lewis’ famous quote about Jesus: “A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse.”

But immediately after that comes the real kicker: “If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them and cast them into the fire and they are burned” (John 15:6).

I'm not sure anyone reading this needs that imagery explained, but just in case, He’s saying, Me or Hell — you choose.

Continued below.

A United Kingdom-based developer has created a website that purportedly demonstrates how the Bible can be used to support two contradictory views on moral issues.

Created by developer Jon James, the "Bible Both Ways" website, which launched mid-October, gives users the chance to submit a moral or ethical question and then, according to the site's premise, generates two contradictory responses found in the pages of Scripture.

It works like any standard online search engine: type in your prompt, click the "Get Both Sides" button, and find out how, according to the site, "Scripture can be interpreted to support different perspectives on moral questions."

Continued below.

She's got more than enough money for the Betty Ford clinic.

with the whole mess with SNAP benefits should there be anything food wise that cannot be purchased? How strict should it be?

I feel that no soft drinks nor pure junk food cookies, snack cakes ECT should be able to be purchased I do not believe, as I have seen at least one person say that everything boxed and certainly not everything canned should be off limits which if we really wanted to get super strict about junk food they would be.

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.

The Expansion of Slavery or States’ Rights?

Lincoln’s Confusion Over Slavery and States’ Rights

Dear Mr. Vice President,

Last week, Archbishop Atallah Hanna of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate in Jerusalem sent you an open letter, claiming to speak in “the language of love, faith, and humanity.” In truth, his letter was filled with distortion, resentment, and theological hypocrisy. It had little to do with the love of the One who conquered death by His resurrection, and everything to do with the political fear that has long governed dhimmi Christianity in the Islamic world.

As someone who left Islam and served Christ across the Middle East for 15 years, I must respond.

In 2008, after leaving Islam, I tried to contact a church in my hometown, Amman, Jordan. The first church I reached out to was the Greek Orthodox Church in Abdali, the very same institution under Archbishop Hanna’s jurisdiction. One hour before I arrived, Jordanian intelligence warned me not to approach any church. But I went anyway, longing to meet brothers and sisters in Christ, to feel that I was finally home. Instead, the priest publicly expelled me. He had been ordered by authorities not to welcome converts. That was my first encounter with the fearful, state-controlled Christianity that the Archbishop represents, a Christianity that bends its knees to tyranny instead of to Christ.

The Archbishop began his letter saying, “You will visit the Church of the Resurrection tomorrow and you will see doors open.”

Continued below.

Because I vacillate between thinking I am a Christian and thinking I am not a Christian, I sometimes post in “Struggles by Non-Christians” and sometimes post elsewhere, such as under “New Christians.”

One verse that at least used to screen out non-true believers is John 6:53, where Jesus says “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.” John 6:66 (wow!) says “From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more.” I once heard a Christian speaker say that, here, Jesus “put the pedal to the metal” and left superficial believers in the dust. Modern day understanding realizes that Jesus was talking about the Lord’s Supper and so the statement is not as challenging to us as it was to them.

But there are one or more verses that are just as challenging today as ever. A key one is Galations 2:20: “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life that I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself for me.”

Certainly, at least at first glance, this verse screens me out of the kingdom of heaven. I do not want to be crucified; I want to still live and not have someone else take my place. This concept goes against my self-preservation instinct and my self-identity. Therefore, I am left in the dust.

There are other verses that relate, like Jesus’ statements that one must deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow Him. As I contemplate converting to Christ, I see that Jesus did not explicitly issue this same challenge to all people that He talked to. And the concept is not explicitly mentioned when the New Testament talks about some people’s conversions. For instance, Jesus said to the woman at the well, “If you knew the gift of God, and Who it is that says to you, ‘give Me a drink’, you would have asked Him and He would have given you living water.” More than once, including yesterday at church, I have explicitly asked Jesus for living water. And in other places, the NT simply says things like a person or group of people “believed.” For instance, in Acts, after Paul had preached to people in a particular city, it says, “as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed.” Thinking of this verse, I have on one or more occasions asked the Lord that I be one of the people “appointed to eternal life.”

So, I am thinking that, possibly, one can have a real conversion while concentrating on such a not-as-challenging verse.

Also, because I have both wavering faith and OCD, I tend to be in the “perfect storm” of doubt. As to my wavering faith, I tend to try to sincerely turn to Christ at moments, saying “Take me!”, but then the next moment I figure my attention to and my faith in Him wavers away. Just today, I have begun wondering if such a wavering-faith conversion can be a real conversion, brief as it is. Because Jesus saves in a moment and He does not waver. But I realize that such a conversion might be a superficial conversion.

This thread is for sharing your favourite satires.
Feel free to post any satirical piece you've enjoyed.

It doesn't have to be your own work----it can be written by others, or told by others, as in my case.
(Provided that there is no copyright violation)

There are many people professing to be Christians who are not willing to lay aside the deeds of darkness and to put on the armor of light. They are not willing, by genuine biblical faith in the Lord Jesus, to forsake (to put to death) their sinful lifestyles and to be made new in the Spirit of God to now walk (in conduct) in newness of life in Christ, no longer to walk in sin, but to now walk in obedience to our Lord’s commands, in surrender to his will. For they are full of pride, so they will not humble themselves in repentance.

Even if they might express a desire to be free from their slavery (addiction) to sin, their pride is what keeps them from humbly bowing before the Lord in submission to his will in the putting of their sins to death so that they can live for the Lord in walks of purity, honesty, holiness, faithfulness, and righteous living, and in obedience to our Lord and to his commands. Even though they know the truth of the Scriptures, they will keep running away from that truth, and they will escape back into their moral deterioration.

For many of them are not of genuine faith in the Lord, for they have taken the broad road which leads to destruction, instead of the narrow way which leads to life. For they are the liars, deceivers, manipulators, opportunists, and egocentrics who are malicious, morally unclean, and untrustworthy, who fake their Christianity, either to try to make themselves appear better than they are, and/or that they might gain the trust of Christians so that they can deceive them and trick them into following after them and after their lies.

And these are not all just ordinary everyday people we are speaking of here. But we are speaking also of people in high up positions within the church (or in what is falsely being called “the church”), or within church denominations, or within the governments of nations or any political or non-political religious organizations. And they can be pastors and elders of church congregations, or church denominational heads, or they can be presidents or kings of nations or anyone who has political and religious influence over others.

And if that is where you are, because you are still living in sin, because you refused to die to sin and to obey God with your life, or because you have retreated back into a sinful lifestyle after living for the Lord for a while, and so you are having trouble letting go of your sinful self in order to obey God, please know that none of us are promised tomorrow. And no one who professes faith in Jesus, but who continues to live a sinful lifestyle, and who refuses to repent of sin and to obey God, will inherit eternal life with God.

So, please turn from your sins, die to that sinful character that lives within you and which refuses to depart out of pride. Stop living in your lusts and in sexual immorality and in adultery against God and against your spouses. Lay aside those deeds of darkness (sin) and put on Christ and his righteousness in holy living in submission to him as Lord (King) of your life. And make no provisions for the flesh. Put away not only your sins but all which tempts you and leads you into sin, too. For if you play with fire, you will get burned.

For Our Nation

An Original Work / September 11, 2012
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love
Recording Via Gerry Peters, music producer and arranger

Bombs are bursting. Night is falling.
Jesus Christ is gently calling
You to follow Him in all ways.
Trust Him with your life today.
Make Him your Lord and your Savior.
Turn from your sin. Follow Jesus.
He will forgive you of your sin;
Cleanse your heart, made new within.

Men betraying: Our trust fraying.
On our knees to God we’re praying,
Seeking God to give us answers
That are only found in Him.
God is sovereign over all things.
Nothing from His mind escaping.
He has all things under His command,
And will work all for good.

Jesus Christ is gently calling
You to follow Him in all ways.

Men deceiving: We’re believing
In our Lord, and interceding
For our nation and its people
To obey their God today.
He is our hope for our future.
For our wounds He offers suture.
He is all we need for this life.
Trust Him with your life today.

Login to view embedded media
Put On The Armor of Light
An Original Work / November 3, 2025
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

I always live in hope of seeing the world's power imbalances resolved, so we can normalise a bit more diversity, but this article seems to do a good job of covering the difficulties that start to emerge. Whole article linked underneath my selected quote, and I added the bolding.

Sarah Mullally breaks the Anglican Communion’s glass ceiling

"In stable times, these credentials would be more than enough to earn the confidence of the faithful. But this is not a particularly stable time...

Mullally’s expertise as a nurse and a pastoral theologian gives her a unique set of qualifications to address such a situation. Yet her appointment also follows a pattern seen in the secular world: When the identity of “man” becomes too problematic, bring in a woman. Indeed, of more than 200 male leaders who lost jobs due to involvement in Me Too scandals, an impressive number of their replacements were women. (This number is especially notable given the small number of women in secular leadership roles.)

There are evidence-based reasons to bring in a woman leader in times of crisis. Research shows that women are more likely to promote a collaborative work environment, to treat others fairly, and to exercise transformational leadership. In the wake of scandals, such qualities become even more desirable.

That said, the secular world’s pattern of appointing women after a sexual abuse crisis reflects a wider phenomenon called the glass cliff, in which women and people of color are appointed to leadership roles following any kind of debacle. This means that they’re more likely to assume such positions in precarious times. It also means they have a higher risk of failure—and if they don’t succeed, their identity can be blamed instead of the circumstances. (Fun fact: White men tend to be brought in after such occurrences, a phenomenon researchers call the savior effect.)"

Sarah Mullally breaks the Anglican Communion’s glass ceiling

All who can manage to respect the Egalitarian Christians SOP are welcome to share thoughts, experiences and opinions.

The thought occured to me with all the moral outrage and Culture wars over peoples behaviour and even what they believe and think as being wrong.

How its all focused on virtual signalling, being asociated with the right side of history. Identity politics which divides people into groups that moralise each other about wrong speak and behaviour and preaching how it should be. How everyone must think, believe and behave.

These seem to me the traits of the Pharisees. Who formed a group who looked down on other groups and even within their own religion. An early form of identity politics. But now we have political ideologies filling the void as well as religious ones. We see this in how even the church itself is divided into groups who claim to be the pious ones reflecting the wider society.

We have seen the rise of cancel culture and Wokism which is a form of religious dogma that pushes a certain moral code of behaviour but also thinking and demands that people bow the knee to it.

So the Pharisee mindset has been cultivated or has been allowed to flourish in a postmodernist world where there is no God and truth in Christ. .

If you consider this was one thing Jesus dispised which was the hypocracy of using religion or politics and rules to force people to conform to what was really the desires of a corrupt heart to be the gods of this world. Its another sign of how much the worlds hearts have turned away from God. From Christs truth.

Hello!
I want to share my gratitude and prasie God asking for prayer in thankfullness as I'm getting married this january.
Me and my soon to be husband will start going to church after years of not going for various reasons.
I wish to say God has been good to me as he provided me with a good partner after 8 years of singleness I used to think I would never find a partner after all those lonely years. I now can shed tears of joy as I recieve this great blessing.

And I wish to pray God may touch our hearts and stir our souls into following Him and build our lives together with Him as the center in this last days.

Also I want to remember my brothers and sisters persecuted in Nigeria, Sudan, Africa and the world. I pray God can comfort and bless them as He comforted me.
In Jesus name! Amen!!

I feel like my situation is a bit unique. I am taking class at a community college and I'm struggling with the classes.

I've gone to this same school several times before and can never seem to finish. I've lost count at this point.

The only reason I have gone back this time was because I was miserable at my last job and wanted a reason to quit. Yet, I worry I will be back at the kind of job again if I fail.

Like, I know it's not unusual for people to flunk university, but this is a community college. It's supposed to be easier and more manageable.

What do I do?

Hello, my name is Ivanova. I've been a christian for 8 years.
I went through a rough patch in my life where I faced some issues for several years (unenployment, health problems, family problems, betrayals, heartbreak, some attempts of abuse by men against me in the church).
My faith has been in the dumps because of that for years, I experienced a lot of anger, frustration, loneliness and sometimes I thought God had forgotten me. My so called "christian friends" start telling me my life was cursed, that I had surely sinned secretly and more nonsense that sincerely made me decide to not be their friends anymore and eventually I changed church.

In spite of all this, today I'm engaged to a good man who wants to go with me to church and start a family, my health has improved, I had friends grant me medical treatment for free, my needs have been met, I'm unenployed again but I'm about to start a new career in hopes that my work environment is better in this new field.

I know that my tears were not in vain and I feel in my heart God has comforted me. I now want to reconnect with my faith and start over. I feel deeply like I failed God, my faith failed me through it all since I walked away from God in anger because of the lack of answer to my prayers years ago.

I'm definetly struggling to come close to God again, I would appreciate any adivce and words of encouragement from anyone willing to help and share with me.
Thanks for reading.

They go from believing to unbelieving. Is this possible.

And can they go back to believing, or once they go back to unbelieving its permanent? I am curious to what each major denomination thinks on this topic, Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Protestant

In all my years of being a Christian, something has become glaringly clear.
There are two kinds of Christianity. The first is the religious version—the one most people have come to know. The second is the Christianity revealed in the Bible itself, which, sadly, few ever come to recognize.

We’ve all been taught that our behavior—our sin—is what separates us from God. That sin directly caused death, and that getting our sins forgiven equals salvation. But that’s not what Scripture actually teaches.

Yes, if you only read the Bible at surface level, that’s exactly what it seems to say. But Scripture can’t just be read at surface level. It wasn’t written recently, nor was it written to us. It was written to a people who lived in a completely different culture and time. Their understanding of words, life, and God was shaped by their world. Ours is shaped by ours. To read Scripture as though its meaning automatically transfers across time and culture is not only naive—it’s a mistake.
Let’s start with the belief that sin caused death. This is a perfect example of why surface-level reading will only lead to confusion.

Sin didn’t directly cause death. In fact, sin has no power at all to cause any kind of death. Physical death has always been a natural part of being human. If it were caused by sin, then what God says in Genesis 3 wouldn’t make sense. There, God says the tree of life can give everlasting life even to sinful people. That would be impossible if sin eventually leads to death. The only way that statement makes sense is if physical death was already a natural part of human life.

Sin doesn’t cause soul death either—that would be no different than physical death. The soul is what gives life to the body. So that leaves spiritual death.

But, if spiritual death were automatically caused by sin—if sin had built-in power to destroy spiritual life—then salvation would be impossible. No amount of grace or forgiveness could stop such an automatic effect. The moment someone received new spiritual life, their very next sin would simply kill that life again.

So while spiritual death entered the world through sin, it wasn’t automatically caused by sin. There’s more going on than that.


We are all born spiritually dead. That’s our condition. We inherited it—passed down from generation to generation—all the way back to Adam and Eve, who received it from God as a consequence of disobedience. When they ate from the tree, God separated Himself from them. That separation was spiritual death.

From that point on, humanity bore a new image. Genesis 5:3 says Adam had a son “in his own likeness, after his image.” Humanity was created in God’s image, but now we are born in Adam’s. Spiritually dead plus spiritually dead will always equal spiritually dead. That’s why Romans 5:12 says we all share in Adam’s condition.

Our behavior—our sin—is simply the natural result of being separated from God. It’s the symptom of our spiritual condition.

Even though we’re born spiritually dead, we aren’t guilty of sin until we choose to sin. A newborn infant, for example, hasn’t wilfully sinned. If that child dies, it has the grace of God upon which it will be saved. But given enough time, however, that child will eventually sin.
Forgiveness was accomplished more than 2,000 years ago and applied to all humanity. Every person born since the cross has entered the world already forgiven. There isn’t a soul alive today who isn’t already forgiven.

Imagine you’ve committed a crime deserving life in prison. A friend—completely innocent—offers to take your punishment in your place. The judge agrees. The moment your friend takes your penalty, you’re considered innocent and free to go. Do you need to ask for a pardon? Of course not. The price was paid, and justice was satisfied.

That’s exactly what happened at the cross. The moment Christ paid the penalty, the world was forgiven. And it’s because we’re forgiven that salvation is even possible.

This is why God tore the temple curtain—to show that anyone can now enter His presence for salvation. If forgiveness only happened at the moment of salvation, then no one could approach God to receive it, because they’d still be guilty. But since forgiveness was already given, salvation became possible for all.
In modern Christianity, the focus is too often on behavior. But every major religion in the world is about behavior—about doing better, trying harder, sinning less. It’s easy to judge others when we measure faith by conduct.

It’s like judging someone with Alzheimer’s for forgetting things—then scolding them to “try harder” to remember. The problem isn’t their behavior. It’s their condition.

We’re all born in the same condition: spiritually dead. Do you have the right to judge another based on that? Of course not. You were no different. The true question is, can you love someone regardless of their symptoms?

That’s what true Christianity is about.

There are two main evidences to this. The Bible and history or nature. We’ll start with what is the easy way to learn it. The Bible. After the time of martial law during Moses and Joshua. They established Ancient Israel as a free republic. Although it may seem a little odd, this due to God’s purpose in separating the nation from others to bring the world his word and the Messiah though it. The Mosaic law was Ancient Israel’s constitution. There was no provision in it for imposed central government. It had 12 states, and each was to be self-governing. Their constitution said to choose or elect wise leaders to lead each state in keeping the law. Then there was the Levitical tribe of priests who had parcels in each state who were the pastors of their day. Tithes which were in essence voluntary taxes were to be given to them for their support since they were not given enough land to support themselves. But the taxes were not collected. They were voluntarily given, and the priesthood had no physical authority. They could only influence the public. Their military was 100% militia each state controlled its own militia. To show how loose or free to choose their own way this confederation of tribes was in relation to the nation. The tribe of Benjamin went total Sodom and Gomorrah at one point. This was hardly a theocracy as some would mistakenly compare it to theocratic monarchies.

Within this structure God would supernaturally ordain judges to influence or lead the tribes in time of war or oppression by foreign armies and bring them back to God when they went astray. The republic lasted 400 years. Then they decided they no longer wanted the personal responsibility necessary to maintain a free republic and voted God out and a king in. They said they wanted a king to fight their battles for them. God warned them sternly that their kings would enslave them, but they refused to listen. Take heed to this you Christian nationalists who desire a “Christian prince” to fight your spiritual and physical battles for your nation. This is the pattern upon which the United States was founded but adjusted to fit its circumstances. 13 independent states with their own constitutions, that like the mosaic law laid out the people’s religious responsibilities necessary for remaining free republics. You can see these religious responsibilities highlighted in each state constitution on this web page- The Original State Constitutions. Like Ancient Israel these responsibilities relied on personal religious devotion and also like ancient Israel’ s Levitical priesthood, pastors were to help this along. In fact some states required towns to hire a pastor of their denominational choice and build a meeting house for religious instruction. Public education was religious in nature, including university level and required by the states but run by churches. Almost every state had a favored Christian denomination, but all allowed complete religious freedom for all Christians. This freedom extended to super minorities of other religions but generally they were not allowed to hold law making offices.

Finally, just like Ancient Israel's republic had supernaturally ordained judges to bring revival, awaking or divine truth that had grown dim to light. The USA operated on the same level. America’s judges were the George Whitfield’s, the Wesley’s, the Jonathon Edwards and Charles Finney’s. Just to name a few. This is so important in understanding the difference between biblically ordained republics versus progressive government. Our government in the states or federally were never given the power to determine truth. In fact, the founders argued prolifically against government ever being able to have that power. Self-evident truth as stated in the Declaration of Independence was already determined in the Bible. It was to be ascertained by the people themselves, and government was ordained to do nothing more than to protect the process though which people could ascertain the truth themselves. This is precisely what Jesus meant when he stated his kingdom was not of this world. Truth cannot be imposed from the top down the way the world kingdoms operated. This was due to human beings being so easily corrupted by the love of money and Government is the easiest way for people to get their hands on other folks money. If government is given that kind of power it will not be truth they are imposing upon the population anyway. It will be lies that empower rulers and give them access to the fruits of the labor of the people. Progressive government turns a biblically based republic on its head. Government determines truth and imposes it. Its tendency is towards corruption exists simply because government now has the power to do so.
After this, these 13 states formed central government for two specific purposes. National defense and keeping peace between the states regarding trade, currency and other interstate relations. Before the states signed on to this a Bill of Rights was added to the federal constitution that greatly restricted its power over the states. First and foremost was the 1st amendment that deals with the most important part of what would be a successful republic. It’s religion, the religion of and about Jesus Christ and its relation to human government which really needs contextualized into the time 1st amendment was written rather than within the context of today’s popular thought. In the world the colonies just fought a war against. The state controlled religion through state run churches. It was not a matter of “the church” running the state which is how it is portrayed in modern education as propaganda. These state-run churches were created to control Christianity. A witness to this fact is that up until Northern Europe won the right in war for the general population to posses and own Bibles. The personal possession of the Bible without the specific permission of the authorities in supposedly Christian theocratic monarchies was illegal. It led to unauthorized preaching that if caught often led to the death penalty. It did not matter what the hierarchies in these state-run churches wanted because some of those hierarchies wanted the people to own Bibles. The state did not. The rulers had read it. They, just like every communist dictatorship that arose in the modern world understood the Bible in the hands of the general public was a threat to their rule. They were correct about this and history sure bears witness to it. Due to the commercial printing press that arose right when the Roman Empire finally fell in 1453 AD. Bibles began to be illegally mass produced making it far to difficult for the authorities to keep up with it. A Bible reading public led to the Dutch Republic where Bible ownership and reading along with the personal possession of a firearm was required for political participation. Yet right across the border you could still get burned at the stake for getting caught with an unauthorized Bible. The thinking that developed due to a Bible reading public led to the development and establishment of a free world and while that thinking was still developing, it migrated north America.

In North America the Bible was the basis of all public education. It was the main course of study and everything else surrounded it. It remained like this until progressivism began to get a foothold in the early 20th century. At that point the progressive movement started to chip away at public educations use of the Bible in non-sectarian public education. Their crowning achievement came in the 1960’s when in defiance of the 1st amendment a bastardized reading of the 14th amendment was used by a progressive supreme court declared itself, actually declare the state ruler, over the religious views of the people and their states. Republican led states should have immediately defied this ruling, and still should today. However, my assumption is since the courts had after one hundred years of effort by the Republican party to pass civil rights laws finally started to rule in favor of those efforts. Republicans did not want to upset the apple cart of actually being able to enforce the 14th and 15th amendments on states who were violating them. So, in my opinion, settled for allowing judicial supremacy over the religious\political views of the people. But as we can now all see, this came with a horrendous cost. You see, the progressive ideology, no matter how it is presented, as democracy or whatever. makes the state supreme. State supremacy is simply not possible when a population is intimately aware of the contents of the Bible. Hence the reason for all dictatorships, kings, emperors to keep it from the public. Progressive government which is by its very nature is corrupt due to its violation of the laws of nature and natures God has and will continue to try to keep the public an ignorant as possible about an accurate understanding of the Bibles teachings. And by the way will quote it extensively in a nation where it has influence for purely political advantageous reasons. They all have. So now we'll look at the 1st amendment within the context it was written rather than the context a progressive supreme court gave it that has now been popularized by progressive dominated public education systems.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.


Continued in the next comment or go to link.

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I have read thread titles on online Christian threads that begin like this… “How to beat the boredom in heaven…” Started apparently by a young person who have deduced that since his church is boring, heaven must be boring.

In my younger days as a Christian nothing about the Pentecostal Holiness church I belonged to was “boring.” Our pastor started out as an evangelist and then accepted the pastorate at our church. We went to church Sunday morning, Sunday evening, Wednesday night, and Saturday night prayer service. We also had an active young persons ministry who would take us places. We also had many revivals during the year. When the evangelist came to preach they all had remarkable testimonies. It was also exciting to hear the testimonies of those in attendance on what was happening in their own life.

Fearing that this type of revival was coming to an end. And fearing likewise we were going to follow the same paths as the Methodist 100 years before us, I created a web site called youtube.com/rockytopva as a forward pass to the next generation. In hopes they would enjoy the type revivals I was used to growing up. At the time of this posting this website is at 4,001,315 views. I do not promote any kind of denomination, only the kind of exciting services I was use to coming up. The closest thing to this type revival was the Asbury Revival a couple of years back.

I had dreams the whole time I was sleeping about being in those type revivals. I had in my hand revivals identified in their Latin names. And feeling the second revival was the one I had experienced. The evangelists impressed me with their earnestness and there were many amens to it in the audience. I do not remember their text, but those were typical revival sermons, full of unction and power. While preaching an evangelist snatched the paperwork out of my hand and began to preach over it. And began to identify the churches I had written down in Latin. I was going to speak up and say something but the choir kicked in and with it appropriate praise and worship music. The feeling was that these people really had it together worship wise.

I then woke up feeling… Wow! What a wonderful dream! And that… Even though I was not going to get any credit for it…. The material I posted on the youtube.com/rockytopva site was going to be used well by others.