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Hans Blaster · 2025-11-05T21:46:07-0600

Chesterton said:
How so?

If you can't see it, I can't help you. Time for some introspective, Chesterton.

chevyontheriver · 2025-11-05T21:28:05-0600

BNR32FAN said:
1031. "The Church gives the name Purgatory to this final purification of the elect, which is entirely different from the punishment of the damned. [Cf. Council of Florence (1439): DS 1304; Council of Trent (1563): DS 1820; (1547): 1580; see also Benedict XII, Benedictus Deus (1336): DS 1000.] The Church formulated her doctrine of faith on Purgatory especially at the Councils of Florence and Trent. The tradition of the Church, by reference to certain texts of Scripture, speaks of a cleansing fire. [Cf. 1 Cor 3:15; 1 Pet 1:7.] As for certain lesser faults, we must believe that, before the Final Judgment, there is a purifying fire. He who is truth says that whoever utters blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will be pardoned neither in this age nor in the age to come. From this sentence we understand that certain offenses can be forgiven in this age, but certain others in the age to come. [St. Gregory the Great, Dial. 4, 39: PL 77, 396; cf. Mt 12:32-36.]"

1472. "To understand this doctrine and practice of the Church, it is necessary to understand that sin has a double consequence. Grave sin deprives us of communion with God and therefore makes us incapable of eternal life, the privation of which is called the 'eternal punishment' of sin. On the other hand every sin, even venial, entails an unhealthy attachment to creatures, which must be purified either here on earth, or after death in the state called Purgatory. This purification frees one from what is called the 'temporal punishment' of sin. These two punishments must not be conceived of as a kind of vengeance inflicted by God from without, but as following from the very nature of sin. A conversion which proceeds from a fervent charity can attain the complete purification of the sinner in such a way that no punishment would remain. [Cf. Council of Trent (1551): DS 1712-1713; (1563): 1820.]"

In reality Jesus never said that any offenses would be forgiven in the age to come, He actually said the exact opposite.

Do you see 1472 as dealing with the atonement or not? I don’t.

Basil the Great · 2025-11-05T21:15:19-0600

I am not Orthodox, but have done much research about Orthodoxy. Based upon what I have read, some Orthodox believe that the dead receive a conditional sentence when they die, but that no sentence is final until the second coming of Jesus. Based upon this assumption then, some Orthodox believe that it is possible for at least some of those who are destined now to go to Hell, may eventually have their sentences changed and that they at least have a chance to still end up in Heaven. How common said belief is in Orthodoxy I was unable to discern. I did run across though an interesting discussion once between an EO and an OO. The Oriental Orthodox person explained that they do not hold to such a belief. Army Matt, can you tell us how common the belief is within Eastern Orthodoxy that it might be possible for souls now destined for Hell, to have their sentences changed, up to the point of the second coming, as at that point sentences are considered final? Is this view a minority or majority position within Eastern Orthodoxy? Is it true that the Oriental Orthodox do not consider such a position to be valid?

Reluctant Theologian · 2025-11-05T21:14:53-0600

rachelrising said:
Hi everyone, this post is intended for those who God is calling back.

The Son of God, the Son of Man (Psalm 80), Jesus Christ is God's Son and he is with us, seek him to find him. He is also known as the Son of Elias that resides in Heaven with God the Father, the Holy Spirit and his hosts of angels and Saints.

His word is found in the New Testament and he is the only bridge to God the Father that leads to eternal life to be saved from spiritual death at the end of time.

Through his precious Son's blood we are made to be fit alone through him for the forgiveness and remission of our sins. His Eucharist again joins us to his Body as members of Christ which he is the Head of that Body (Ephesians 1:22-23).

God the Father awaits to meet you to. God’s arms always extends to you. He wants us all to be grafted back onto his Olive tree which he loves with a passion (Romans 11) "Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in" those who are not joined yet who are not Christian he wants you and you need to be grafted in back onto the Olive tree to be saved.

God has many faces as (Psalm 18) tell us, he has the capacity to show divine love and mercy to those who give him their love and who are obedient towards him as Jeremiah showed us (Jeremiah 31:3l). God can be compassionate, but shrewd when he wants to be to the enemy He is GOD, the same GOD as always.

We are all the same before God as (Galatians 3:28) tells us and he wants us all to be grafted back onto his Olive tree from all nations including where he was most passionate and stood as their God of the Israelites-why not come back to the Olive tree...you are being gently called in the wind, his spirit will reach you. I know God will do what he said he will do he will come through and he will establish his people in the New Jerusalem which people of Christ will be invited to join him and where peace and love will abound with sweet Solomon songs.

The unbeliving Jews will be grafted back in when they meet and accept the Son of Man Yeshua, Jesus Christ who is our Saviour as God's Son and they will. The Holy Spirit and more signs of Christ will instigate leading them back and people will be being baptised in the street and which were empty will soon be filled and God’s spirit will be poured out on the earth as the Prophet Joel said (Joel 2:28) till the Perfect One comes again which is only Jesus Christ (Hebrews 12) who has the keys to Heaven and who is God's only Beloved Son (Matthew 3:17).

The Jews were God's chosen people.
The Christian Gentiles are now grafted into their Olive tree.
The Jews who are now Gentile's will be grafted back in, when they come back to God, which they will.

It is God who sends us water from his chambers which gives us water to drink and water that provides food for the grass (Psalm 104). This is the same God which gave us Manna from Heaven.

Peace to you till that day.

Keep working in the field till he comes-"Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left."
" (Matthew 24:20).

Amen ... Your Christology is carefully worded and uncommon but I agree to that.

Personally I would refrain from calling Jews 'Gentiles' now .. I don't think there is NT support for that description. And you're overlooking the many Messianic Jews, who are larger in numbers than at any time before in history AFAIK.

Be blessed .. !

zippy2006 · 2025-11-05T21:12:34-0600

ArmyMatt said:
I think he’ll be more of an obnoxious fad.

I hope so.

Paidiske · 2025-11-05T21:11:14-0600

It seemed to me that your post was very much doing that, but perhaps I misunderstood.

iluvatar5150 · 2025-11-05T20:42:20-0600

JSRG said:
Is there any practical difference between them having a supermajority and a majority?

The big difference would that you need a supermajority to override a governor's veto. But given the fact the governor is Republican too, that doesn't seem like it matters much for now. So is there any practical difference that has been achieved here?

It could matter for things like redistricting and constitutional amendments.

Paidiske · 2025-11-05T20:39:08-0600

I believe I promised, some time ago, that when my new role was public I would let folks know.

I can now share that I have been appointed to the dual role of healthcare chaplain, and sub-dean of the Cathedral, in Bendigo.

fhansen · 2025-11-05T20:36:01-0600

Clare73 said:
My text states that "he believed God and it (his belief/faith) was credited (imputed) to him as righteousness." (Ro 4:1-5. 22, 2 Co 5:21, Php 3:9).

The word ellogao (impute) does not mean "declared."

Most whose theology resembles your own have no problem with "declared" as they believe it refers to a legal change in status only in God's eyes. But I listed two other words there: "reckoned" and "credited". There are two Greek words used in Rom 4 for these concepts (and neither are used in the other passages you mentioned). The words are: elogisthē, used 5 times by my count, and logizetai, also 5 times.

elogisthē: reckon, account, charge, numbered
logizetai: count, reckon, credit, calculate

The only translation offhand where I could find "impute" was the KJV and NKJV, 5 times out of 10, sometimes used for elogisthē, sometimes for logizetai. "Reckon" was used more often than not in all translations, with "counted" or "credited" following.

But the real question here is, why does God reckon us righteous when we believe? Is it because He counts/reckons faith as righteousness, or is it because He merely now sees us as righteous because we believe? And what does impute mean here? How is it used?

concretecamper · 2025-11-05T20:31:38-0600

JSRG said:
Because Mary is the prototype of the Church as such and is, so to say, the Church in person, this being "with" is realized in her in exemplary fashion. But this "with" must not lead us to forget the "first" of Christ: Everything comes from him, as the Letter to the Ephesians and the Letter to the Colossians, in particular, tell us; Mary, too is everything that she is through him.

So insightful.

As an example, at Ephasus I, Mary's title of "Mother of God" was made dogma because of her Son.

MarkSB · 2025-11-05T20:25:31-0600

jmldn2 said:
A great America is following a duly presentation and following of the Constitutional Republic of the USA. Putting America first as that Republic and following the letter of the law(s).

Following the letter of the law... something which Trump so obviously doesn't do.

Isaac the Recluse · 2025-11-05T20:23:08-0600

Ordinarily binmen should take everything.

BINEV

BPPLEE · 2025-11-05T20:09:30-0600

Hans Blaster said:
You keep adding relevant items to your story.

Huh?

I would be ill advised to argue with you about science.

keras · 2025-11-05T20:05:52-0600

Strong in Him said:
Right.

Is Iran - still under the leadership of the Israel hating Islamic Shi-ites; not going to retaliate for all what has happened to their military and nuclear facilities?
RIGHT

Jeremiah 49:35 says the Lord will destroy the main weapon of Elam's might.
It is a known fact that Iran is pursuing nuke weapons. They have the technology and the materials.
Just a matter of time now; Gods timing that is!

Ed Parenteau said:
When have the dead ever inhabited the earth?

Spiritual people will inhabit the new earth forever. Revelation 21 to 22: 1-5

Ed Parenteau said:
You didn't answer where Christ went to prepare a place for the believer.

Jesus is in heaven now and the place for all the righteous peoples; those whose names are found in the Book of Life, is in the new Jerusalem, that will come down from heaven - AFTER the Judgment; Rev 20:11-15

It is sheer pretentious nonsense to think any human can go to heaven to live, before all of what is Prophesied takes place.

mark46 · 2025-11-05T19:57:39-0600

Say it aint so said:
Now, the Democrats, are yes, holding out for ACA funding. Funding that Nearly 80% Of Americans And 57% Of MAGA wishes that funding continue as well.

Shutdowns happen all the time, and yes, it is the only tool the minority in congress often uses to force "X" to happen. So to me it comes down to what that "X" is. This time it's to make sure people have healthcare and hospitals that may be the only hospital in rural areas stay open. The time before that was a hold out for money for a wall that Trump said a gazillion times Mexico was going to pay for.

We need to entirely change the rules of the game.

The federal government has chosen to reimburse the states with more and more money. If the feds choose to slow down the rate of INCREASE in federal support for the STATES, somehow it is the federal government who is closing the hospitals. NONSENSE!

Each year, the Congress should decide how much money each state should get each year for public welfare spending. The states should then CHOOSE how to use these funds. Instead, the feds make decisions on exactly how the money spend. But even now, the feds don't really decide how the states spend the money. This system would result in a huge reduction in federal administration costs (and federal jobs) and would probably allow for the unreasonable increase in federal spending percentages to continue, or not.
========
JUST BY THE WAY
This process is called "revenue sharing". The federal government decides first how much to collect for public welfare and then how much to allocate to each of the states. There should be a minimum of admin costs. For some federal programs the admin (overhead) costs are very low (e.g. Social Security). For others, it is very large.

Chesterton · 2025-11-05T19:47:18-0600

Tom D said:
How Good Is AI at reading and understanding narratives?

How well can AI read and comprehend stories and novels? Not many people have tested this.

It's time to find out the answer.

Ask an AI software to rate a story on a scale from 0 to 10. It gave a score—let's call it X.

Now it's your turn. Read the same story and give it a rating. Then compare your score with the AI's.

How close is the AI score X to YOURS?

You want it to comprehend a story. Yesterday I asked it the best way to store unhusked corn on the cob. It said: "To keep unhusked corn on the cob fresh, place it in the refrigerator with the husks still on."

rebornfree · 2025-11-05T19:43:27-0600

Hammster said:
There has been many owners. And of the four of us who oversee the site, only one is Catholic.

May we know who the other three are?

To all four of you - thank you to those of you who oversee the site. I've been on it for 20 years. I joined when I was going through a very difficult time which the Lord has changed into a much better one. That is partly due to those who have prayed and also due to having fellowship here, particularly during a time when I was unable to go to church in person. Thank you so much and God bless you.

Job 33:6 · 2025-11-05T19:42:46-0600

Amo2 said:
Yes, I understand your presumptions according to your faith in the theory of Evolution and deep time scenarios required to support such.

It's not faith, it's just a demonstrable reality. Hence why no scientist who studies paleontology, anywhere on planet earth, has ever demonstrated otherwise.

And on that note, I'll give you the last word. If creationists ever find a bird fossils in the Cambrian, please let me know. Otherwise, all the best.

gzt · 2025-11-05T19:34:03-0600

Dorothea said:
The Saints' and Elders' visions of what they foresaw are indeed true. However, our prayers can alter and even change them. That's the key.

Okay, but, this kind of eliminates their usefulness outside their immediate temporal context -- it's one thing if the elder tells it directly to you, but, like, at decades remove... There's a reason these sorts of things don't get published and preserved for ages, historically, and it's not because they weren't ever said. And this also explains why, generally, people are told not to pay much attention to these sorts of things.

Chesterton · 2025-11-05T19:30:54-0600

Gene2memE said:
Post WW2 labour to rebuild Europe mostly came from within Europe.

Migration into Europe from other regions was minor in the immediate post WW2 decades. Migration grew only very slowly through the late 1940s and 1950s and hardly accelerated until the mid 1960s.

For instance, UK migrant growth in the 1940s and 1950s was slower than it was in the 1920s and 1930s. The 'guest worker' programmes of Germany and the Low Countries didn't start until the second half of the 1950s and weren't expanded to countries outside of Western Europe until the 1960s and 1970s.

France was a major exception to this, with large numbers of Vietnamese and Algerian refugees started arriving in the 1940s. This was followed by waves of migration from France's colonial holdings in West Africa in the 1950s and 1960s.

Migration into Western Europe accelerated mildly though the early 1970 to the end of the 1980s. The big change in migration rates really occurs in the early to mid 1990s.

This is primarily related to the end of the Cold War, the formation of the EU and the unwinding of regulatory, practical and economic impediments to migration (on both sides). Put another way, it became cheaper, easier and above all legal for people to move across borders to seek opportunities.

You are correct, but UK/Europe had to "catch up" with the two superpowers (yes I know Stalingrad was nearly a ruins). If you lose 50% of your money, you have to make 100% just to get back to where you were. Hence the urgency beginning in the 1960's.

Plus there's the emotional fact that, Europe learned a lesson from WWII, but it learned the wrong lesson.

probinson · 2025-11-05T19:28:30-0600

JSRG said:
If anyone's to blame here, it's Congress. Congress has had, since the day the Constitution was ratified, the ability to fix the issue:

If current events have shown us anything, it's that there are precious few people ANYWHERE that want to "fix" this issue. As much as people complain about "fair" elections, it's pretty obvious that most people don't really want that. They want whatever favors them.

HARK! · 2025-11-05T19:10:20-0600

I will present my understanding of the Ancient Hebrew.

YSRAL

Y(Yod) S(Shin) R(Resh) A(Aleph) L(Lamed)

First off, there were no spaces between the otiot (letters) in Ancient Hebrew. The otiot were all written in a single string or word. The spaces to make separate words within the string were added later; thereby those divisions reflect a specific interpretation. Numerous interpretations can be derived from the unbroken string.

Second, Ancient Hebrew is a concrete (as opposed to abstract) language, built on concrete thought. Concrete thought is built on what can be experienced though the senses, and opposed to abstract philosophy.

Third, each ote (letter), in Ancient Hebrew, is a pictograph; and each has it's own meanings, which can be interpreted in different ways.

Fourth, Ancient Hebrew words are built on two ote (letter) roots.

Let's start with the root SH-R (Shin Resh).

The Shin depicts teeth. The Resh depicts a man's head.

The teeth can be interpreted as pressure. The man's head can be interpreted as a beginning.

SH-R is the Hebrew word for cord. To make ancient cords, one would start at the beginning with the fibers, and tightly (pressure) weave them into a cord.

Now lets build a word on SH-R by adding the Y.

Y (Yod) is a pictograph of a hand and arm.

If one holds a cord tight; it becomes straight; just as the righteous one makes a straight path.

YaSHaR means straight in concrete Ancient Hebrew. It is often translated as righteous in abstract Greek thought.

Now let's look at the AL in YSRAL

The A (Aleph) depicts an ox's head. It can be interpreted as headship or strength,

The Greeks took the Ancient Hebrew Aleph-Beyt, and turned the letters upside down and backwards. Then they wrote it from left to right, instead of right to left. Seems like witchcraft to me. The modern English Alphabet evolved from the Ancient Hebrew Aleph-Beyt, through the Ancient Greek alphabet.

If you turn the letter A upside down; you can still see the ox's head, with his horns.

Anyway, I digress.

The L (Lamed) depicts a shepherd's staff. It can be interpreted as guidance or being yoked.

Many people call God El; but if you look at the Ancient Hebrew, you will see that the word is AL (Aleph Lamed)

One interpretation is that your AL (God) is the headship that you are yoked to.

So YSR (YaShaR) AL (AL) can be interpreted as the straight (righteous) headship that you are yoked to (God).

rebornfree · 2025-11-05T19:08:42-0600

ChubbyCherub said:
Another update: the sermon on Sunday was built around my email to the elders and subsequent discussion. I was amazed that I was in the presence of God answering my prayers!

I prayed for months about what to do because I wasn't sure if the church was where I should be

I prayed months before sending my email to the church

I came here for advice

I prayed after sending my email re: how to handle the meeting e.g. how to communicate, how to respond, how to show that all my feedback and questions were Christ led

Then, I watched in real time, as the church listened and honored God by delivering a sermon which was biblical, powerful and wholesome

Praise God!

Praise God indeed, and your trust in Him was rewarded.

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