The best argument i read recently, by a baptist no less..

Is that jesus death was the exit clause of the abrahamic covenant.

FAITH-IN-HIM said:

Are you suggesting that the government is already covering the health care costs for these 27 million individuals who do not have health insurance?

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No - We the People do. Some via government subsidies (which are funded by your taxes), and some via increased costs for insured patients. If a medical procedure costs the hospital (let's say) $5,000 to perform, but they know that, on average, 10% of the people coming in for that procedure won't be able to pay for it, then the people who can pay all get charged $5500 instead to account for those who don't pay. And that translates into higher insurance premiums, because most of the people who can pay are also covered by insurance.

Moreover, people who lack insurance are less likely to go to the doctor at the first signs of an issue, or to have regular annual checkups. Thus, they are less likely to catch serious conditions early on when they are more treatable (and less expensive to treat), and only go to the hospital when the condition becomes an emergency. This increases the overall cost of care - someone who needs emergency surgery, multiple days in recovery, and has a permanent disability from, say, untreated diabetes costs significantly more than a glucose monitor and regular insulin shots.

The Barbarian said:

Republicans are outraged that democrats are now doing what the republicans are doing. The problem is, a complete ban on Gerrymandering would benefit the democrats. So the SCOTUS is not going to outlaw that particular form of corruption.

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Im waiting on the ruling stopping blue states from doing it but not Texas et all because reasons.

The true reason this year’s Christmas market has been cancelled in Overath is because of unaffordable expenses for mandatory anti-terror measures. Last year's deadly attack was carried out by someone who was anti-Islam.

Germany’s alleged Christmas market attacker was steeped in far-right ideology.

Al-Abdulmohsen consistently expressed views inspired by the counter-jihad movement, a loose network of bloggers, thinktanks and organisations promoting anti-Muslim and often far-right ideas. He considered Islam to be a dangerous, violent and totalitarian ideology, not a religion. He described Muslims and Arabs as intellectually primitive, promoted conspiracy theories about the “Islamisation” of Europe and justified discrimination against Muslims.

He also supported international far-right figures promoting counter-jihad ideology, including Dutch politician Geert Wilders. In April 2019, he retweeted a post in which Wilders justified revoking Muslims’ freedom of religion. In 2020, he shared multiple tweets by Wilders that said “Stop Islam” or “Stop Muhammadanism”. In August 2024, he shared a post calling Wilders a “hero”.

...indiscriminate attacks by far-right perpetrators on German festivals are not unprecedented. In 1980, a far-right extremist attacked the Oktoberfest, killing 13. And in recent years, the alleged attacker increasingly directed his anger towards Germany, accusing the German state of supporting Islamist extremism while persecuting ex-Muslim asylum seekers.

After confirming possible White House run, California's Newsom scores a win in fight for US House​

LOS ANGELES (AP) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom, eager to raise his national profile as a Democrat willing to aggressively confront President Donald Trump, scored a campaign victory that may help his party in the midterms as he moves toward a White House run.

With Proposition 50, Newsom successfully bet he could persuade California voters on Tuesday to throw out independently drawn U.S. House maps in favor of new districts designed to help Democrats win five more seats.


Ding ding ding - there ya go!

Studyman said:

What is Judaism?

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Judaism is a religion whose adherents follow the laws listed in the Pentateuch (Genesis through Deuteronomy) as an expression of their covenant with God. Christianity grew out of Judaism, but the two religions diverged in the first couple of centuries AD.

Jesus and most of his first disciples were Jewish. After his death and resurrection, large numbers of Gentiles also wanted to become followers of Jesus. One of the major questions the first-century church faced was whether these Gentiles needed to convert fully to Judaism in order to become part of the Christian community -- did their men have to be circumcised, did they have to follow the dietary rules, and so forth. We see this question being debated in Acts and in Paul's letters. In the end, the church's decision was that no, converts to Christianity did not have to follow the laws of the Jewish covenant.

Regarding the rest of your post: It looks like you and I have very different views of both Judaism and Christianity, so I'm inclined to quietly part ways rather than dive into an extended argument.

Valletta said:

Yes, we have:

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/16/us/defund-police-minneapolis.html

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You didn't read that article, did you?

A significant chunk of it is about how the movement failed to push through its policies and how the department wasn't defunded.

Bob Crowley said:

While I think Mary is the "man" of the hour in some ways, I have been a bit concerned about what seems to me to be an over-playing of her role.
My Presbyterian pastor wasn't anti-Catholic, although he obviously had differences of opinion with the Catholic Church.
In one discusssion about Marian apparitions he said "There's been a lot of them" and "I think they're a judgement on a divided church". When Mary calls for devotion to her sacred heart,

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If I'm not mistaken, I think the Sacred Heart is a nomer for Christ, not Mary.

Bob Crowley said:

what she's actually saying is that God wants HIS church back in one piece.
At the same time she is only who she is because of her divine Son.
I think this clarification is overdue.

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Job 33:6 said:

The beginning is when God created the heavens and the earth. But that's not about material origins. It's about the beginning of God's actions.

Example:
In the beginning when I made a pizza, the pizza was formless and empty.
Or
When I began to make a pizza, the pizza was formeless and empty.

These statements do not say anything about how long the pizza was formless before I began to create it. At the time of creation, the earth was formless. But nothing is said about how long the earth was formless before that time.




Genesis 1:1-2 NRSVUE
[1] When God began to create the heavens and the earth, [2] the earth was complete chaos, and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.

The Bible doesn't say how long the earth was formless before God began to create it by giving it form.

Genesis 1:1-2 NRSV
[1] In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, [2] the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.

The beginning is when God began to create the heavens and the earth. It is not about the beginning of the material origins of the universe. Just like, in the beginning when I made/created a pizza, the pizza was formless, doesn't say anything about how long the formless pizza was around before I put it in the oven.

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You're looking in the wrong place Try
Exodus 20:11 KJV — For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

Since we have specific names of "earth" and "heaven" in Gen 1 applied to the thing that is being made, and since all of that happened in 6 days in Gen 1 and Ex 20, Moses is consistent. And because he includes the phrase "and all that in them is", it must be talking about the universe as we know it, since stars and galaxies are things that are in the 'heavens" that God made.

JulieB67 said:

That's pretty funny coming from someone who believes that Sunday worship is the mark of the beast. No where in scripture states that. One could worship 7 days a week if one wanted to. But you don't seem to have a problem believing that because of your belief in a certain prophet. A failed prophet who obviously spoke from her own heart/imagination many times. The proof is there. So no offense, but it is kind of hard to take you seriously at times. Especially when you continue to judge others.

The verses about God resting on the 7th day after all his work is our example today that rest follows work. It's not that we continue to seek rest in that 7th day. No where is that stated in those verses. Sabbaton is not mentioned. But that after we enter into "his rest" our works cease just as God did rest from his. The verses "plainly" state which rest we are to enter in. And those who believe do enter in. Some could not because of unbelief, etc. Because of this -

Hebrews 4:1 "Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into His rest, any of you should seem to come short of it."

Hebrews 4:2 "For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it."

Hebrews 4:3 "For we which have believed do enter into rest, as He said, "As I have sworn in My wrath, if they shall enter into My rest:" although the works were finished from the foundation of the world."


Again, you are judging others for what you see is withholding or changing God's Word when you believe doctrines that are entirely unbiblical. So who's adding to God's Word with their beliefs?

You are believing in your church teachings just as I once did mine. I was indoctrinated with certain beliefs that were not biblical. And it's much harder to unlearn something than to learn something new with an open mind, only seeking truth. Which is where I'm at today. Me and the Word. Not man's word.

So again, I'll keep to mine and you can keep to yours.

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I think you are confusing worshipping with obedience to God's commandments.

Jesus in His own words relates to false worship as laying aside the commandments of God quoting from the Ten Commandments in lieu of the commandments of man. You can see this plainly in Mark 7:7-13 Mat 15:3-14


You still never addressed when God's rest is which the Scriptures plainly says, Just that we need to enter His rest, but for some reason you seem to think one can ignore the also in Heb4:10 which the Scriptures do not. Nor do they ignore the day God rested stated plainly Heb4:4 and what God spoke of Exo20:8-11

As far as the mark of the best its over worship Rev 14:11 you will see this in Rev 13 and 14 as well and worship is through our obedience as Jesus said plainly quoting from the Ten Commandments, which includes the 4th commandment just the way God wrote it. The beast who is the one who changed God's times and laws Dan7:25 and only the beast can tell us what their mark is and they did.

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

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

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“It could be said that present-day man does not think things through to the end.”1 Karol Cardinal Wojtyla delivered that fine bit of understatement in 1976, at the outset of the spiritual conferences he gave to the Roman Curia that Lent. At the time, his primary concern seems to have been the tendency of secular men and women to falter in the search for truth, for, as Archbishop of Krakow, he was daily confronted by the doctrinaire atheism of the Eastern bloc. Yet he was also aware of the typical dynamic of experimental science wherever practiced, for he asked whether “human knowledge [has] chosen to branch off laterally along a minor road” instead of choosing to look “for a foothold in knowledge of him whom the book of Wisdom proclaims as the Creator.”2

Two decades later, when as Pope John Paul II he wrote the prologue to Fides et Ratio, his stated concern had shifted in a subtle but important way. Although still troubled that “the search for ultimate truth seems often to be neglected” in favor of the useful knowledge that comes from experimental science and technological innovation, now he noted that the problem was not merely one of motive, but also one caused by the sheer volume of the knowledge produced:

It has happened therefore that reason, rather than voicing the human orientation towards truth, has wilted under the weight of so much knowledge and little by little has lost the capacity to lift its gaze to the heights, not daring to rise to the truth of being.3

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The pope’s central observation, captured by the phrase “the weight of so much knowledge,” has to do with the phenomenology of our knowing. Do we experience the use of our minds as a kind of freedom, as an experience of play, and, consequently, as a source of joy? Or, to the contrary, would we say that the time we spend thinking is mainly burdensome to us because made up of a series of tasks to complete under deadlines and other constraints?

Continued below.

Chesterton said:

My church is Antiochian, because technically we're headquartered in the city of Antioch (where believers were first called by the name "Christians"). Antioch is in Turkey, which back then was called Asia Minor. The city is nothing but a ruins today, but it was a big, important city when my church started.

But as to what I learned (but should have known) - when my Antiochian church first started, It had largely an Arab immigrant congregation. I kept meeting like, a guy from Bethlehem named George, a lady from Jordan named Veronica, a guy from Syria named Matthew. I had to stop and think "why do all these Arabs have Anglo names"? Because they're not Anglo names, they're Anglicized versions of much older Christian names. Duh.

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That's great!!! I love it

Maria Billingsley said:

The new Mayor of New York City, Zohran Mamdani, is a Democrat who won on a progressive platform focused on making the city more affordable. Hamas is a designated foreign terrorist group, not a political party that runs in American elections. Your statement is wildly inaccurate and basically political fear-mongering used to attack a candidate who is outspokenly pro-Palestinian.

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The results of this election really rattled republicans. We'll be seeing that kind of rhetoric until they start to realize that it's part of the reason they took such losses in the first place.

Reluctant Theologian said:

True, but the far majority of believers in God among those Israelites had no clear cut concept of a Messiah - let alone knowledge of Yeshua as that Messiah. God would rescue them somehow.

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Faith in the promise (Ge 15:5-6, Seed, Jesus Christ, Gal 3:16) was reckoned by God as salvific.

“In this video, I share my personal experience with a possible angel encounter while working as a hospice nurse. I'll discuss what research suggests about angels, including deathbed visions and common experiences.”

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10:13

Despite its enormous significance, skipping a funeral Mass and instead opting for a graveside service or ‘celebration of life’ for a loved one has become increasingly common among U.S. Catholics.

Death awaits at the end of every human life, and this profound event is also the entry point to the final judgment by Jesus that will determine the permanent destination of every human soul: heaven or hell.

The Catholic Church consequently has always emphasized the crucial importance of celebrating a funeral Mass, since it is the instrument through which recently departed souls can be commended to the care of God — and assisted by the prayers of their families and friends — on their final journey.

Yet despite its enormous significance, skipping a funeral Mass and instead opting for a graveside service or “celebration of life” for a loved one has become increasingly common among U.S. Catholics.

“There has been an overall steady decline in the number of Catholic funerals reported annually by dioceses in The Official Catholic Directory (OCD),” Father Thomas Gaunt, executive director of the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA), told the Register.

Continued below.

stevevw said:

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.

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I agree with you but I think it's more to it. You do have issues with people in leadership throwing their weight around or one group over another, but if you ask most people that if you read the bible, do you have faith that God will guide you to understand it, or do you hold to what you (man) were taught? 99% of people will tell you they trust their pastor/leader/modern scholar more and assume they just don't understand or aren't getting it right and fill in a bunch of excuses. People say a bunch of stuff that SOUNDS Christian like, "I follow God" or "Christ is King" but when it comes down to brass tax, their actions elevate man promoted ideals, theology and actions over actually putting Christ first and trusting God can do it. And this is why the world is at where it's at... The Pharisee's trusted their own wisdom in scripture as well as what man taught them (tradition) over God and so, they were blind to what God was really doing.

It looks like at work, my employer's insurance broker has kept the percentage increase in the low single-digits, but it will require going from 4 available plans to 3.

'It's insane': ACA policyholders say soaring health insurance premiums are jeopardizing lives​

Doug Butchart, whose wife, Shadene, is living with the neurological disorder amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) said he doesn't know how he's going to pay for her medications. A retired mechanic from Elgin, Illinois, Butchart said he's gotten a notice that the monthly premiums on his wife's ACA policy will climb to $2,000. Combined with an annual deductible of more than $8,000 and $10,000 in out-of-pocket expenses, he said his wife's health care costs will total more than his monthly Social Security check, which they both live on.

Nathan Boye of Orlando, Florida, has diabetes and said he's been informed the monthly premiums for his ACA policy would soar from $28 to more than $700. The married father-of-three said he is now considering foregoing health insurance altogether.

Boye said he qualified for the ACA tax credits after he was laid off earlier this year as an operations manager for a company that imported medical supplies from China.

"We had to close down because of the tariff. It made it impossible to import," Boye said.

Boye said he's already started researching discount drug companies and cash-pay programs on how he can purchase on his own the two primary medications he uses to control diabetes.

Boye said his current predicament has left him feeling like a "tiny fish that does not matter."

"Realistically, I have no control over any of this," he said. "I'm just a person who has to navigate the waters and find a solution."

durangodawood said:

Why would people think youre all not real Christians?

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What it boils down to is a rejection of the Protestant doctrine of Sola Scriptura. One of the reasons MAGA Christians reject the Nicene Creed as a statement of faith is that it doesn't mandate Sola Scriptura.

Always in His Presence said:

another wonderful AI search:

Billionaires who reportedly left NYC​

• Carl Icahn: The activist investor moved his firm to Florida in 2020, citing high taxes and a more favorable business climate.
• David Tepper: Hedge fund manager and Carolina Panthers owner, previously based in NYC, moved to Florida for tax reasons.
• Barry Sternlicht: CEO of Starwood Capital Group, relocated to Miami and has been vocal about NYC’s political and tax environment.
• Paul Singer: Founder of Elliott Management, moved his firm’s headquarters from NYC to Florida in 2020.
• Ken Griffin: While primarily associated with Chicago, Griffin’s Citadel Securities had a significant NYC presence before shifting operations to Miami.

The good mayor wants to increase their personal and business taxes.

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Now, how many moved into NYC over that same span of time?

A Devil's Advocate said:

I am not saying that the new creature, through spiritual birth, is corrupted by sin.

I think maybe you are misinterpreting what scripture is speaking about when it speaks of our two natures. We have a sinful nature (the old nature) which is found in the flesh. Then we are given a new nature which is found in the spirit, which we were without prior to salvation. The flesh does not change at salvation and therefore, the sinful nature (the old nature) remains. However, we now have a new nature (uncurruptable) in the spirit that is in opposition to the flesh. Hence the struggle Paul speaks of in Rom 7. Hence why we are told to walk according to the spirit and not the flesh.

Unfortunately, until our corrupted flesh (bodies) are replaced with our new uncorrupted bodies, this struggle will remain. To what degree we find this struggle will vary from person to person, depending on their walk with God.

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I am not interpreting the Scriptures incorrectly on this point. I was simply pointing to Scriptures which added depth to what you were saying about the flesh and the spirit. Nothing you said above about the old nature and the new nature contradicts my beliefs.

A Devil's Advocate said:

My whole point with my post is that much of Christianity today places too much focus on cleaning up the old nature.

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I agree with you that there is a great deal false doctrine that is built on the false premise that the flesh can be trained to be better, less sinful, etc. This finds particular support in the false doctrine of Progressive Sanctification.

A Devil's Advocate said:

It is more focused on our behavior (dealing with the flesh) than it is our relationship with the Father (which is found in the spirit).

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But behavior is at issue in living a successful Christian life because choosing to walk in the Spirit (Ga 5:16) and choosing to walk in lock step with the Spirit (Ga 5:25) is behavior that keeps the desires of the flesh from being gratified.

A Devil's Advocate said:

It seems that unless we clean up our behavior, this is going to somehow impact our relationship with God, which as I said, is in the spirit. God is the one who made this relationship possible. He did everything required so that we could confidently come to Him for a relationship. We had not part in it other than accepting it through faith. So its silly to think that we could somehow impact our relationship with God through our behavior. Yet that seems to be all people focus on, sin, sin, sin. Which, as I made clear in my post, is merely a symptom of our condition (spiritual death). Once our condition has been cured (new spiritual life), that is when the freedom and simplicity in Christ begins.

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While it is true that our relationship stands even when we sin, we can and should expect our heavenly father to chasten us when we sin and to continue to do it until we are corrected (Heb 12). Everyone who is His child experiences His correction, it is not joyful but painful when we go through it, but it does yield "the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it" (Heb 12:11).

So here's a thing that struck me that does need to be addressed:

All throughout it's history in the period we're talking about, Egypt was a very centralized kingdom. All the power was focused around the pharaoh, and it all boiled down to "If the pharaoh commands it, you jump to it, lickety-split!". This was also the same power setup in the Incan Empire and the Roman Empire, two cultures that unfortunately suffer from people very over-questioning "How did they do it?".

Because only in states with centralized power has the building force be so heavily and strongly commanded to build great works. We see it plain as day throughout history: Ur, Aztecs, Mayans, Chinese, Indian kingdoms; all the ones that had strong centralized power bases all had great works of architecture done. Let alone when we add in the religious aspects of a lot of these cultures too where the ruler was venerated as a deity on Earth.

Why? Because they had the man power and the upkeep and management skills necessary to command and wield that manpower to create such large works.

Some ancient Greek might have said "Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it and I can move the Earth", but everyone seems to ignore that if you get enough people to do what you say when you have the right political power and you can easily build the pyramids.

Landon Caeli said:

Is it safe to say then, that the climate change emergency, was science fiction? And that the scientists used biased models in their data sets?

...Or was this a political lever the whole time?

WHO LIED TO US..???? And WHY..??

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To be clear.
You now feel this is a legitimate question to be asked because a COMPUTER PROGRAMMER has shifted their outlook on man's resilience to withstand climate change increase.
At no point does he say it was a hoax or it's not happenning; nor does he say it doesn't deserve attention.


It's not safe to say; it's stupid to say. BOTH of those things are stupid to say. Actually, all 3 of those things are stupid to say.

Not safe.

Dumb.

Michie said:

Thanksgiving is still a few weeks away, but retailers have already rolled out their Christmas campaigns — hoping to capture more shoppers and a few more dollars. So, I feel justified in drawing from a Christmas classic as we reflect on this week’s elections and what they might reveal about the future.

Pundits are already declaring the handwriting is on the wall for Republicans heading into next year’s midterms, as Democrats and socialists celebrated victories in several off-year races. Many on the Right are asking, “What went wrong?” But perhaps a more important question is, “What does it mean?”

In A Christmas Carol, Ebenezer Scrooge meets the final spirit — the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come — and is terrified by the vision of his own lonely death. Realizing the horror of what he’s seeing, he pleads with the Spirit for hope as he asks the question that pierces through time:

“Are these the shadows of things that Will be, or are they shadows of things that May be only?”

Continued below.

Are the 2025 elections a shadows of things to come?

Tuesday s election results may be shadows of things to come, but they don t have to be

www.christianpost.com

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I think the now dominant Sanders/AOC/Mamdani/OccupyWashington wing of the Democratic Party will either destroy that party or turn it into a successful revolutionary party. They WILL turn it into a revolutionary party, but whether it is a powerless fringe party or an election winning party is the open question.

The Republicans are in abysmal shape, working at grasping a defeat out of the jaws of victory.

It’s really time for new parties in America.