Apple Sky said:

This always makes me laugh when I hear this, as the 144,000 are;

These are the ones who have not been defiled with women, for they are virgins. They follow the Lamb wherever He goes. They have been redeemed from among men as first fruits to God and to the Lamb. And no lie was found in their mouths; they are blameless
Revelation 14:1-5

And must belong to the twelve tribes of Israel.

'Do not harm the land or sea or trees until we have sealed the foreheads of the servants of our God.' And I heard the number of those who were sealed, 144,000 from all the tribes of Israel: From the tribe of Judah 12,000 were sealed, from the tribe of Reuben 12,000, from the tribe of Gad 12,000, from the tribe of Asher 12,000, from the tribe of Naphtali 12,000, from the tribe of Manasseh 12,000, from the tribe of Simeon 12,000, from the tribe of Levi 12,000, from the tribe of Issachar 12,000, from the tribe of Zebulun 12,000, from the tribe of Joseph 12,000, from the tribe of Benjamin 12,000." (Revelation 7:1-8)

But no mention of the tribe of Dan, I wonder why this is ?

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I did a whole deep dive into this recently. The tribes that aren't listed all had idolatry issues and it's replaced with Joseph which is... weird since he is the father of Manasseh, and his brother Ephraim isn't listed (also idolatry) but the Father is. So Dan + Ephraim were changed for Levi (usually not listed) and Joseph. This goes against lineage rules for other lists of the tribes. This makes me think Spiritual Israel as a whole (which includes us gentiles grafted in as we would be part of the tribe of Judah due to our covenant with Jesus) and not just biological lineage since it seems to be a perfect list. However, it still doesn't make the JW's correct as they exclude biological Jews which makes NO sense what so ever.... (because they think they are the "true" church)

But also what I think people miss is that the 144,000 are protected. They aren't just "saved" when it comes to salvation, they are protected to live through the tribulation period to be the ones that go into the millennium as a remnant. You have to have sheep at the end of the trib to even separate from. This parallels what happened in (Ezekiel 9:1–7) where God marked and physically protected people as part of the remnant. So it's not even a saved vs unsaved argument... People who aren't protected doesn't mean they aren't saved, it just means they'll die where the protected won't. So Calvinists are wrong if they use the 144,000 as an argument too.

ThatRobGuy said:

Framing in ones own words and being able to articulate things in a certain "convincing" style are/were the bread & butter of the likes of Ben Shapiro, Steven Crowder, and the late Charlie Kirk.

I would presume that you'd agree that just because they all can "beat" a random 22 year old college liberal in a debate, that doesn't mean they actually have the right answer, correct?

AI levels that playing field. (Leveling the playing field is a liberal virtue, is it not?)

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You arent even on the playing field when you just do an AI dump. Thats more like sending in an autonomous drone you bought off the shelf.

As for public intellectuals (real or pretend), I find zero inherent value in leveling the playing field by any other method than study and practice. It should be human mind vs human mind. Study could well include AI help. But on "the playing field" I want a sense you are there, and not some surrogate whos methods you may not even grasp.

ThatRobGuy said:

If I had to debate Ben Shapiro on the topic of the Gaza conflict in a public setting, strictly based on the facts that we both had committed to memory and could rattle off quickly, he'd own me. (A - Because he has something of an identic memory, and B - because he has more practice at public speaking in front of large crowds -- less nervous, able to project confidence, etc...)

If he and I had a text-based debate where I could leverage AI as a tool for retrieving valid, cited information, I can beat him, because on the Gaza conflict topic, the actual facts are on my side.

That should really be the goal of any debate that's substantive (and not purely performative), right? Finding the right answer.

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Im fine with you using AI as a study tool to direct you to various sources you can examine and assimilate.

But just a dump of AI generated text has no interest for me. Theres no sense Im arguing with you there.

essentialsaltes said:

Authorities ruled Hodgson’s death to be accidental and found three plastic bindles, which are normally used to hold drugs, in his stomach,

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So he was trafficking? If he just wanted to kill himself, why eat the plastic?

d taylor said:

-
​

Again here is your writing

without the Spirit of Christ, we cannot receive eternal life.

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Romans 8:9 KJV
But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.

John 3:5 KJV
Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

durangodawood said:

Those two definitely need to be in the mix, along with cost side items like housing and health care.

I also wonder how many people are in the right bargaining position to discover the real value of their work.

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As far as the "real value of work", I think that goes hand in hand with the higher ed attitudes I talked about as I think one drives the other to a substantial degree.

The value assigned to many jobs is precisely because of the manufactured association of "this job should pay more because it requires college in order to be able to do"

Which, if being applied properly and pragmatically, would make perfect sense. Nobody's going to question why an orthopedic surgeon makes more money than the check-out clerk at the grocery store. Obviously that surgeon did need years of advanced education to do that job.

However, with where we're at now...

We (as a society) try to post-hoc inject that rationale into things where it really doesn't make sense.

For instance, a car salesman vs. an ad exec for a marketing firm. Those two skillsets (in terms of scarcity and education required to do the job) actually aren't all that different, and a "people person" with good verbal and presentation skills can do either without a college degree.

However, the average car salesman (with a few years under their belt and steady sales record) will earn about $70k/year. Whereas, an ad account exec is often north of six figures, and we justify that based on "well, the latter should be worth more because you need to have a college degree to do it"

And it even happens at a micro level...where we (as a society, not us personally) assign arbitrary "value" to the work if it's one college degree over another. Where a person with a "fancy degree" is seen as having more valuable work output than the person with the "lesser" degree.

The company I've worked for scrapped the college requirement in favor of certs and on-the-job training (unfortunately long after I started working there), but speaking as a person who was part of hiring decisions.

You'd get the kids with a computer science degree from a Case Western or Baldwin Wallace, and they would get better starting offer that the kids from Akron U or Stark State...when in reality, there's wasn't any noticeable difference between them, as they were all extremely green and neither was as good as a person who'd been actually doing the job for a few years.

How can a nation protect it's borders without law enforcement?

Even the Vatican prohibits illegal entry.

Nachos and Tacos on Salsa

SOONO

Jerry N. said:

I had to look it up because I mix Hindu and Chinese mythology in my mind. In Hindu mythologies, the earth is supported by four elephants or a turtle. The elephants represent steadfastness and support. The turtle represents Earth's stability over time. When God talks about the foundations of the Earth in Job 38:4-7, He is giving insight into who He is, just like what Moses was doing. It is a construction metaphor to show steadfastness, support, and the earth’s stability over time. That is the concept human beings needed. It doesn’t help this thread, but I wanted to share it with somebody. I hope you don’t mind.

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This is exactly what God is saying. Scripture is all about Him, who He is and His plan and provision for our salvation. It’s not about how He created or how the universe works.

Anyone who tries to work out how His creation works by reading ideas into Scripture needs to go back to basics and learn about Him.

BPPLEE said:

If there was something really bad about Trump in the files do you really think Maxwell's appeals would have stopped them from releasing them?

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I'd like to think so.

For the record, I've never expected there to be much incriminating evidence against Trump in there. When Patel and Bongino said there was nothing to the files, my reaction was "welcome to reality, guys." The only thing that's made me think there might really be something there is the bizarre amount of resistance he and his administration have put up against releasing the files. It would hardly be the first time that I'd given him the benefit of the doubt only to realize that he really is that bad and the worry-warts were right all along.

So, the witnesses and victims of the Hamas attack on October 7, don't count?

Mark Quayle said:

Then, by that statement, free will is not 'libertarian' (uncaused) choice.

The will need not be uncaused, nor the inclination of the will uncaused, nor the decisions uncaused, for the choices to indeed be genuine.

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No! we are talking about the same person making some "autonomous free will" (uncaused by outside influences) choices and that same person making choices that are the result of outside influences.
Are you not defining a "genuine" choice as being a God caused choice which individual is responsible for making?
Humans are certainly set up to make mental choices which they personally can be held responsible for making, without physically being able to carry the actions of their choice out.

Mark Quayle said:

Now what would cause that man to want to lust after that woman?

Nothing happens in a void.

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All mature adults have a God given needed survival instinct, which results in some degree of selfishness, that selfishness is the motivation behind the lust.
A Christian having eternal life has their survival instinct satisfied, and they have been showed unbelievable wonderful gifts including Godly type Love, so no need to lust.

Truth7t7 said:

The liberals will be out in the cold, the "Ten Commandments" will win!

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Not in court. Wherever else they may win is not the business of We The People.

Must be a problem with the music:

Skillet Lyrics​

"O Come, O Come Emmanuel"

O come, O come, Emmanuel
And ransom captive Israel
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel

O come, Thou Rod of Jesse, free Jesse free
Thine own from Satan's tyranny Tyranny
From depths of hell Thy people save
And give them victory o'er the grave

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel

God is with us
He's with us now
O come, o come Emmanuel
O come, Thou Dayspring, come and cheer
Our spirits by Thine advent here
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night
And death's dark shadows put to flight

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel

God is with us
He's with us now
Oh, our God is Emmanuel

essentialsaltes said:

House failed its censure vote of Plaskett.

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Too bad!

Delvianna said:

If you preach that salvation is works based, both you and everyone else who agrees with that, is not apart of his flock, that is part of knowing their heart. So no, not within "all" denominations are his flock. There are denominations as a whole based on their teaching, that none will be saved due to it contradicting what scripture says about salvation.

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From what I understand about works is that the works can’t be our works, the works must be GODS works in HIS people. Philippians 2:13 Ephesians 2:10 The works Paul spoke against were those of the law. The works James wrote about are GODS works in HIS people. James 2:17 These GODLY works are “agape” or GODS love in us by HIS Spirit, Romans 5:5 This GODLY love is what will fulfill the law, Romans 13:10 This is how Jesus fulfilled the law. The law as given by Moses could not have had this GODLY love if it requires GODLY love to fulfill it. The two greatest of all commandments Jesus gave are of the spirit of GOD who is love. GODLY love cannot sin. In his letter James mentions the “royal law” and it is love your neighbor as yourself. James 2:8 This information should end the confusion some have about law and grace.

Robban said:

I have none, because I do not acknowledge referring to the Word of God as commandments, it would be like having a gun to your head,
obey or else.

What was freeing for me was realizing that the Word of God is instructions.

As in, when all else fails, follow the instructions.

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I would say it's commandments also. It's not like we're just here living a Christian life casually and reading the Bible, no, we're supposed to have a mission. Christianity is all about a mission and the mission is to get souls saved.

Singing a hymn out loud, could be any hymn

When I hear the Agnus Dei in Latin, I still have to try and translate it mentally
to English in my mind. Latin is the official language of the Church having to do
with documents. However, it's not the mandate in Mass celebrate as the ordinary
throughout the Church.

Gene2memE said:

This is disgraceful (changed earlier this month), but what else should have been expected with an anti-vaxxer in charge of HHS?

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Key point: Ya can't prove a negative! Checkmate!

rambot said:

All I was commenting on was your mischaraterization of his plan around policing.

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And you didn't listen to the critics, which is fine. However, the commission of
civilians he says he'll recreate, will take roles that the police no do. Will the
members of this commission have guns and authority to make arrests when
necessary? Those are the questions being asked that are not answered by
Mamdani.

Dikaioumenoi said:

This sentence presupposes exactly what you need to prove. A "refusal to act on it" is only meaningful after a genuine capacity exists. You cannot refuse to act on a capacity you do not possess. So by framing it this way, you are presupposing the very thing at issue: that the enablement has succeeded.

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Ok, and that's actually the point I've been trying to make. By "resist and thwart the enablement" I meant only that, even though enabled, I can nonetheless refuse to act on it. I could've worded it better. In any case, at this point this would still be consistent with Catholic thought- allowing room for grace and God's intent to be resisited.

Dikaioumenoi said:

1. Semantics. ἑλκύω describes the decisive transition from inability to ability. It does not speak to whether someone later exercises that ability, and therefore the question of resistance is not relevant here. The claim "someone can be drawn but refuse to come" is not a semantic point; it is a category mistake. ἑλκύω addresses only whether the Father has successfully generated the necessary capacity to act, which is something that must be in place before the very question of resistance even becomes meaningful.
2. Grammar of the whole verse. The final clause ("and I will raise him up on the last day") identifies the one raised as the same one who has been given the ability. That is the only place where the text links ability with actual coming. That syntactical linkage -- not the semantics of ἑλκύω -- is what yields the argument for irresistible grace. If the resurrection clause were absent, no argument for irresistible grace could be constructed from verse 44 alone.

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1. Ok, again, having been given the ability-to come to Christ- only by grace, is completely consistent with Catholic and historic Christian teaching.
2. 6:44 says nothing about whether or not the enabled one necessarily comes to Christ, only that those who are enabled and come will be raised up. 'No one can come to me unless they are drawn...' simply does not insist that all who are drawn will come. The verse only maintains that those who come will be raised up.

But the bottom line is that this single isolated verse of Scripture which is being fixated on here simply addresses a basic principle of the faith, that the only way to God is through Christ. As we turn to Him in faith we’ve now come to Him. The whole counsel of Scripture informs us that we must first open that door when He knocks, respond when He calls, that we must then remain in Him and He in us; we must cooperate, we must pick up our cross daily, we must persevere, we must produce good fruit, we must love. And not that we necessarily will do so, but that we must, and can, by embracing and not resisting His grace, the action of His life within us.

We must end up being good soil; we cannot know or predict our own election with perfect certainty, IOW, which is why Scripture also exhorts us to make that calling and election sure.

FBI intercepted communications of Newsom administration officials, California political players​

Current and former members of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration were among the dozens of Sacramento insiders who received FBI letters in recent days notifying them that their phone calls, texts or other electronic communications had been intercepted as part of the federal corruption case tied to Dana Williamson and two additional longtime Democratic operatives.

Williamson, known as one of California’s toughest political insiders who previously worked as chief of staff to Newsom, was arrested last week on federal charges that allege she siphoned $225,000 out of 2026 gubernatorial hopeful Xavier Becerra’s dormant state campaign account. She also was accused of spending $1 million on luxury handbags and highflying travel and illegally declaring them as business expenses on her tax returns.

The notifications are routine in wiretap investigations once surveillance ends, but the letters set off a wave of panic across California’s political power structure. The letters are signed by Sacramento Field Office Special Agent in Charge Siddhartha Patel and began arriving in mailboxes from Sacramento to Washington, D.C., last week, according to copies of the communications shared with The Times.

The legal notifications, under the terms of the 1968 Federal Wiretap Act, are sent out routinely to people whose private communications have been captured on federal wiretaps.

A Newsom spokesperson said the governor's office is aware that a limited number of the letters were sent to current and former members of the administration. The spokesperson said that the letters were expected given federal law requires parties to be notified. Newsom's office said the governor did not receive a letter.

Which is worse, control via physical force, or control via psychological manipulation?

NxNW said:

The joke was your claim that immigration was a problem. We know that's impossible with Trump's wall.

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Illegal immigration’s is not a problem? You know that what you are actually proposing is in fact a joke. The door that I was referring to was the Biden administration liberal catch and release program as well as the incursions through parts of the border without a wall yet. Here are the AI estimates.

AI Overview

“Since President Biden took office in January 2021, there have been more than
10.8 million border encounters nationwide through the end of fiscal year 2024. It is estimated that a net total of 4.5 to 6 million unauthorized immigrants have entered and remained in the U.S. during this time, with some estimates placing the total unauthorized population at a record 14 million in 2023.“