God is apolitical. "Render to Caesar..., etc." and any attempt to argue that God is for any particular candidate or party in a democratic system is merely trying to justify one's own support of that candidate and manipulate others into doing likewise.

Valletta said:

House passes Republican health care bill that does not include extension of Obamacare subsidies

The bill, dubbed the Lower Health Care Premiums for All Americans Act, was passed in a 216-211 vote, with just Kentucky GOP Rep. Thomas Massie voting with Democrats against the legislation.

justthenews.com

Finally a bill that will actually cut costs for patients instead of making insurance companies wealthier.

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I’ll believe it when I see it.

I don’t particularly struggle with weight, though I can gain a bit from time to time for various reasons (inactivity due to injury, winter, stress).

I find restricting carbs sheds the weight again almost effortlessly. I don't go as far as full keto, just avoid filling up on empty carbs. I find high protein, moderate fat, and avoiding processed foods very satisfying and it feels like I'm nourishing myself more. Moderate exercise helps, but that's a given.

Michie said:

What’s funny about it is that people are doing exactly what people were doing to Biden and shamed for it. I guess this is different. Shameful either way. Hypocrisy abounds in partisan politics.

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Agreed.

Who was in charge of the federal government at the time?

BobRyan said:

ALL MANKIND Mark 2:27
ALL MANKIND Is 66;23
The Sabbath given as a promise to gentiles

Matt 4 MANKIND shall not live by bread alone... same word "mankind"

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Hentenza said:

Nope. None of these verses say that.

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So then the problem is your ability to read?

If so, than I think we are getting some place. This is why the easy part keeps getting missed.
Instead of just "not getting it" lets have you stop and show how you are able to dismiss this point without any support at all for your speculation above.

durangodawood said:

Its horrible. I know one person who's died from this. Others here perhaps know several.

But that doesnt make it a WMD. Is anything so bad that we have to lose our minds over it, and surrender our ability to think clearly? We can fight fentanyl without doing that - Id hope.

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Folks are already losing their minds over things like a ballroom.

Hentenza said:

You don’t have any comments about the article itself? Is it true? What do you consider to not be true and why?

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My comments on the article and its source and its sister publication "Spectrum" were posted

BobRyan said:

The group that publishes AToday and Sepectrum are well known long time left fringe

I used to run down their rabbit trails a lot only to end up with nothing but a hand full of their sand and circular arguments and endless nickles and dimes.

I prefer actual substance

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The SDA church went from 50 people in the 1840's to over 24 Million recently, that's 47,999,900% increase. That goes against everything that AToday stands for.

Spectrum and AToday are all about failing to evangelize and spending time shooting at their own, eroding foundations, navel gazing, putting their worst foot forward, almost zero Bible study, and then getting that foot into their mouth as if always failing to function is how to get people to join in.

I would love to discover that a day occurs when they come to life.

I don't find any of that "interesting".

jas3 said:

Please try not to take it so personally when people point out basic errors in your claims.

The fact remains that, although it is not inspired Scripture, the Didascalia Apostolorum is an authentic testament to what early Christians believed and how they conducted themselves in their daily lives and at church.

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You're still at it.

My claim, The Holy Spirit's claim, is that it is not inspired, and nothing more than a forgery since it claims to be written by the apostles.

Is any of that wrong? nope. But if you think so, then prove it instead of making baseless accusations against me.

peter2 said:

Thank you concretecamper
You probably think Mary was well informed of what is written in scriptures. As for me, i have no certitude

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I believes that through the Sacrifice of her Son, she was preserved from Original Sin. (This is confirmed by many early Church Fathers).

And as a result, she possessed preternatural gifts. So yes, she was well informed of Scripture.

lismore said:

There's a passage in Tacitus about the Germans revering trees, this would be referring to 9AD.

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You'll have to cite the exact passage so we can have confirmation, but that seems about a century early, as Tacitus wrote around the year 100 AD, unless he was specifically referring to things a century ago.

However, this is where we run into a major problem with the whole "this thing in Christmas is like this thing pagans did way back when" arguments. If the claim is it comes from paganism, then we need evidence that:
1) Pagans actually did engage in this practice (you'd be surprised how people just make up; this is why it is critical to cite primary sources)
2) They did so in close enough proximity to Christians that Christians could have been influenced
3) Pagans did so close enough to the beginning of the applicable Christian practice that influence was possible

What a lot of people don't realize is that a lot, perhaps even the majority, of Christmas customs we have are actually recent developments of the last few centuries. By that point, paganism had gone extinct in Europe and had been so for centuries upon centuries. So whatever ancient people did that might have resembled Christmas customs (if they did do them, again a whole lot of false claims get made), it couldn't have influenced the development of those Christmas customs because there's far too big a gap of time between them.

So let's analyze this claim of yours according to these 3 requirements. You haven't demonstrated #1 because all you've done is given a vague reference to Tacitus. #2 is not clear either; Germans were outside of the Roman Empire. Were Germans, if they were doing this in the days of Tacitus, still doing it at the time when there was stronger Christian contact? And #3 is flat out; Christmas trees started around the 16th century AD, by which point those pagan practices had completely ceased long ago. Even then, I don't think Christmas trees actually got popular until several centuries later. All three of these need to be true for the "pagan influence" idea to even be possible, so failure to meet any of them means the whole thing collapses. Since #3 fails irrespective of #1 and #2, this argument is therefore without merit.

A far more plausible origin of the Christmas tree, as the Oxford Handbook of Christmas says in chapter 22, is:

“The Christmas tree tradition most likely developed from a combination of medieval liturgical traditions and guild patronage to local communities, which over time were transformed into a private practice beginning in the sixteenth century. In the medieval period, many people could not read and write, so plays were a way to communicate biblical stories. In that time, a Paradise Tree was set up for plays to represent the Tree of the Knowledge mentioned in Genesis 2:9. The actor playing Adam would later parade through the streets of the town with the tree. The tree symbolized humanity’s downfall but also represented the tree of the cross, which would become the salvation of all people. Medieval tradition even claimed that Adam had taken a branch from the Tree of Knowledge and Jesus’ cross was made from that tree. The trees were decorated with apples, representing the Fall of humankind, while round pastry wafers on the tree symbolized the Eucharistic host as the path to salvation. The plays were performed on 24 December, which was the feast day for Adam and Eve. The display of the Paradise Tree was meant to symbolize the Garden of Eden where they lived. The liturgical calendar placed their feast day here to remind Christians that Jesus’ birth was a conduit of salvation allowing humanity to return to its perfect state in the Garden.”

It went into some more detail, but this was the only portion I have easily available to post (it was so useful I made sure to jot it down for future use). Still, it is fairly easy to see how a practice of decorating a tree on December 24 could easily have caused tree decoration to spread to the very next day. However, this custom emerged from a biblical story, and while earlier than Christmas trees, again comes too late to have had plausible influence from ancient paganism.

lismore said:

The Druids also decorated trees and put up Miseltoe, in the centuries BC. Ancient Pagan customs.

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Unlike before, where you at least cited a vague source, here you offer none (thus we cannot say that requirement #1 has been proven). But let us suppose this is indeed the case. As noted above, we run into the major problem that tree decoration on Christmas developed far too late for this to have had any impact (failing requirement #3). As for mistletoe, the "kissing under the mistletoe" tradition cannot, as far as I can tell, be traced back any farther than the 18th century, so we run afoul of #3 again by citing a tradition that developed so long after any pagans might have done it that no connection is really possible.

perplexed said:

pretty depressing that people tolerated someone clearly predatory
I have taken
Clinton, Trump, Bannon, Chomsky
off my Christmas list

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Sounds like Krampus is going to be busy this year.

Kjelete said:

I grew up in Norway, the opposite of the life for me in every way. I never complained.

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My ancestors came from Norway to the US And I went back for a visit as part of a job I had in the US

Kjelete said:

But I always wanted to live like jews or muslims for example, have girls on my lap and watch people sing.

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What does that have to to with Jews, Muslims, or Norway??

Kjelete said:

I realise I can`t fake believing in a god, so my dream can never be. When my niece was very young, she wanted us to watch a movie together, which we did, but the entire time I felt strongly pain. I think she didn`t give closeness, and her mother`s brother came in during the movie with a sexual undertone. God knows why, but it`s how Norwegians are, kinda ruined the entire thing. I know the world is slowly turning bad, so I shouldn`t expect to watch a movie together like that in peace.

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Culture outside the Bible tends to have a lot of bad ideas. That is the world that we live in since the fall of Adam. The Gospel lifts fallen humanity above our sinful nature, above defective culture. 2 Cor 5 "If any is in Christ Jesus he is turned into a new creation"

Kjelete said:

Is it depressing to think that nothing good will ever happen in real life, and there`s no heaven no matter how much you pray?

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Yes that is like being a pilot of an airplane and choosing to nose dive into the ground.

Better to look up.

The Bible , Christianity is NOT about failing in a more happy way. It is about eternal life, streets of gold,

Heaven is like a great big potluck with lots of friends (a poor approximation on my part I know)

Jesus does not just "offer" eternal life, He suffered , was tortured and died -- willingly so the conditions for your full and free salvation can be given to you as a gift.

It does not get any easier than that.

peter2 said:

Ask a muslim allah worshipper whether he believes or not Samuel Paty deserved being beheaded.

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I have not seen any signs of violence from any of my Muslim students or colleagues. I will not insult them by asking a question like this.

Oompa Loompa said:

His autopsy report suggest Floyd died of s fentynal overdose.

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That is untrue.
I always heard that The official Hennepin County medical examiner's classify Floyd's death cause as cardiopulmonary arrest complicating law enforcement subdual, restraint, and neck compression ...and deemed as a homicide.
This essentially means Derek's knee = fentanyl

Kjelete said:

No, only the brain-stem. Maybe 1 % of a brain in addition

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Doesn't look like this is accurate.

His brain was compressed not missing.

Hans Blaster said:

... Absolutely.

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What if... you and your 'posse' start using that same philosophy onto all threads I create?
It might be a beautiful thing... just saying

The hole in the dike of deceit, duplicity, and likely dementia. Let the floodwaters surge.

I am impressed by Smith's sterling character, continuing to proclaim the truth boldly while under attack and likely indictment by the very criminal he gathered compelling evidence against.
God bless him.

d taylor said:

Understand God's Creation Story | Genesis 1 Commentary Video

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We understand it just fine.

Oompa Loompa said:

Yeah. I, as a MAGA conservative, disavow and reject these conspiracy theories.

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I am not sure there is a MAGA without the conspiracy theories.

Pommer said:

Now, now.

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Under any circumstances, what is the point of the wallet?

BCP1928 said:

Actually, it's alledgedly Peter who said it. Paul just thought he was writing letters of advice to his various congregations. What Peter actually said was, "...just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him" which actually undercuts the notion that Paul's words were actually God's words. It doesn't help that while Peter's authorship of 1 Peter is regarded as established, the authorship of 2 Peter in which that quote occurs has been debated since antiquity.

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Galatians 1:11–13

The mythical archetype of the dream relegation. Apply one large grain of salt. Just like the authorship of the Peter letters.

Strong in Him said:

Jesus was speaking about his return.

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That is your mistake.
Matthew 24:42-44, is not referring to the Return of Jesus, It is a Prophecy about the Lords Day of vengeance and wrath.
Proved by the context prior to it, comparing it to Noah's Flood. A worldwide disaster!

Also take note of Isaiah 61:1-2, what Jesus quoted at the commencement of His Ministry. He ended that quote before -and a day of the vengeance of our God. Then it goes on to tell about how His faithful peoples will be rewarded.
Therefore; we know the next Prophesied event we can expect will be the Sixth Seal.

Valletta said:

Predictably they used it to deflect from the real causes and push gun control. Devine nailed it in her article. "Unchecked antisemitism, cowardly appeasement, lax policing and foolish immigration decisions half a century in gestation have coalesced in multicultural southwestern Sydney, an hour’s drive from Bondi.
Add to the mix strict gun control — for law-abiding Australians, but not for the homegrown Islamist terrorists and gangbangers who only last month were shooting 50 rounds from an AK-47 at a house in the suburb of Casula, just 6 miles down Cowpasture Road from Bonnyrigg, where the alleged gunmen lived. ... It was the perfect recipe for violence to erupt."

Remaining silent against bigotry and hatred is not the answer. We need to discuss, not shut down discussions. You'll find these words at the Holocaust museum:

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

—Martin Niemöller

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Yep, standard post shooting excrement.