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MARK OF THE BEAST - REVELATION 13-14; 17; 18

I tell you plainly dear one, for the times are upon us, one day a person in that office will seam to die, and then..... An alien mother ship will come beam him up,
Oh.

OK.

I have yet to figure out the obsession that so many Christians have with Spacemen and Flying Saucers. And the apparent compulsion so many seem to have to include those Spacemen and Flying Saucers in the Christian Faith.
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Pope Leo instructions now is Jesus apparition not true.

"In November 2025, a Vatican decree approved by
Pope Leo XIV instructed Catholics not to refer to Mary as the "co-redeemer" of the world, a move aimed at curbing what the Vatican sees as exaggerated devotion that can embolden claims of apparitions, weeping statues, and self-styled prophets"

"Pope Leo XIV has officially rejected the title "co-redemptrix" for Mary, stating in a November 2025 Vatican doctrinal note that the title carries the risk of "eclipsing the exclusive role of Jesus Christ" as the Savior."

Catholic source for the latest news

This thread is about an apparition.
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Trump proposes 50-year mortgage

....In banking, much like other businesses we have large conglomerates that have a lot of control. Big banking. We do not have as many locally run and funded banks as we used to. Banks that would know their customers and would help them out. Now, like so much huge banks control a lot of the findings and loans.
That is capitalism right there. People seeking the means for the most aggressive wealth accumulation.

I'm all for private enterprise. But in the name of "free markets" so called conservatives have opened every possible door for unregulated consolidation AND for unregulated corporate and billionaire campaign funding. I do realize that other parties rarely say no when donors come knocking. But its the Rs and their partisan supreme court who insisted this should be the rules of the game.
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Who did the Reformers identify as the antichrist?

Simple objective experiment. Ask these two questions of your Google AI

1. Did Protestant reformers use the historicist method of interpretation for the prophecies in the book of Daniel?
2. Using the historicist model, please interpret the 2300 day prophecy of Daniel 8

As for this thread title, ask Google AI this question

"Did rival popes refer to each other as antichrist before Martin Luther did?"
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The trans reckoning has arrived

It needs to keep going, but darkness is winning and will continue to win until the Lord returns and sets everything right again. I don't see this trans thing ever going back to the way it was when it was classified as a mental disorder instead of acceptance. We might get barriers in place for children, but how long will that hold?
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The Saving results of the Death of Christ !

Because of what He does for man. God doesn't need man to exist at all, but obviously wants him to exist, and loves him intensely. Salvation is all about meeting man's needs, to the glory of God.
No because of what He did for God and His Glory
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What were your expectations as a new Christian?

I fully realized that my conscience is a flawed and limited guide for living. The Lord’s Gospel made me realize I needed His truth for everlasting life and daily living.

On a basic & sensible level, the Lord’s commandments, to me, confirm how I need to live life, treat others, & be law abiding ( see Matthew 22:36-40, Matthew 7:1-12, Matthew 19:16-19, Romans 13:1-14 etc.).

I understand that I am still deeply flawed & subject to sin ( 1 John 1:5-10 etc.). The Lord wants us to be charitable & pray for ourselves & others ( see Matthew 6:1-13, 1 Timothy 2:1-6). He wants us, in some way, to help spread the Gospel; at least as part of charity and prayer ( see Matthew 9:36-38). I don’t claim to be a worthy evangelist.

The Lord wants us to know Him as God and Savior & to live by faith in Him ( John 3:16-21, Ephesians 2:8-10 etc).He wants us to have a sound understanding of our faith. Christians have a lot of variances; personally I don’t know every precise truth but I believe cooperation is necessary. I believe careful reading for ex. of Philippians 2:1-30, Colossians 1:1-29 are helpful in this.
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Who then can be saved?

As it is you don't know the truth, at least not in its fullness, or else you'd recognize it in that post. You're locked into a handful of concepts developed by people strictly by reading a book, God's Word, centuries after the fact, divorced from its original historical context and recipients of its revelation, The concepts are plausible enough in some places, strained in others, often wooden and isolated interpretations in any case.

The alternative is that God is the author of sin.


"See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. For I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess."

"This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him."
Duet 30:15-16, 19-20

"Seek good, and not evil, that you may live" Amos 5:14

"Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." Rom 12:21

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Matt 22:37-40

There's a reason why we pray, "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven". And that reason is because of the fact that His will is not at all necessarily done on earth as it is in heaven. God allows evil here, for a time, for a season, for His purpose, after which the two: good and evil, will be eternally separated, no longer allowed to co-exist as His plans for His creation are fully consummated. All truth and beauty and goodness in this world come from God while evil is done by man, coming from those who oppose Him and His will. So tell the victims of abuse, of rape, of torture, of genocide, of the holocaust about how beautiful this world is. You may get a different opinion.

Geez! It was nothing but love-speech, calling man to God and the love He's shown us. But man preferred darkness. What else is new???? Are you saying the darkness is somehow preferable or superior to the light just because man rejected the light?
I’m still waiting for him to explain how free will is a “gnostic belief” after I already quoted Iranaeus refuting total depravity and unconditional election by explaining how God has given man the ability to choose either good or evil in Adversus Haereses. This is a clear example of just spewing out nonsense in complete ignorance for the sake of argument. I literally quoted a second century theologian refuting Gnosticism and two of Calvin’s doctrines and he didn’t pick up on why Iranaeus was refuting them. Absolutely incredible.
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Are the Jews Israel, or is the church Israel? Or does it depend on the context of the passage?

I think both.

The Church is referred to as the Israel of God,

To avoid misinterpretation of Galatians 6:16, avoid the NIV.

and Paul does say that not all who are ethnically Israel are true Israel. Yet, Romans 11 seems to use Israel to refer to ethnic Jews.

That is true, being ethnic Israel is not sufficient to be considered true Israel.

But that does not mean it is not a necessary condition, which rules us gentiles out, which explains your next point about Romans 11.
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Why Catholics Are Being Buried in Churches Again

Across the centuries, Church crypts — from Roman catacombs to American cathedrals — testify that death is not the end but the beginning of eternal life.

In the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist in downtown Cleveland, a chapel adjoins the north transept. There’s a wrought-iron gate with Requiescant in Pace fashioned above the entrance. It’s the cathedral’s burial crypt, containing the tombs of the deceased bishops of Cleveland.

While a “crypt” implies a place under or below a structure, Cleveland’s cathedral burial chamber on the ground floor, named the Resurrection Chapel, reflects that definition as well as the tradition of burial crypts throughout the history of Christianity. It is significant that figures of both St. Peter and St. Paul are prominent on the Resurrection Chapel’s upper half of the north wall, as both martyrs of the early Church were buried in crypts: St. Peter below the altar in the basilica that bears his name, and St. Paul, buried under what is now the papal altar of the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls.

“Every ordinary, that is, a bishop of a diocese, is a member of that diocese and has a right to be buried in the cathedral crypt,” Bishop Roger Gries, retired auxiliary bishop of Cleveland, explained to the Register.

A contemporary example of a burial crypt is below the apse of one of the most famous churches in the world, Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia, which began construction on the feast of St. Joseph, March 19, 1882, and is set to be completed in 2026. The visionary behind the mammoth basilica, Catalan architect Venerable Antoni Gaudí, is buried in the Sagrada Familia Crypt. The crypt, completed in 1889, is the oldest part of the basilica.

Continued below.

Baltimore Officer Suspended After Trying to Run Over Citizen

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The Book of Enoch?

This is tied to how history is legitimately written. Chinese history is also canonized, and as a necessity or else historical information cannot convey legitimately. The Jews often quote from difference sources, including common stories, common theologies which are usually Pharisaic in nature, just as Jesus put, "the Pharisees are on Moses' seat" (the significance is that Canon needs an authority to legitimize it).

Quotes from common stories include how archangel Michael had a dispute with Satan on the corpse of Moses. When this was quoted, at best it means the source is partially reliable, or more strictly speaking only this part of the source book is legitimate. The quote itself doesn't automatically legitimize the whole book. Canonization on the other hand, authenticate the whole book as being legitimate and can be regarded as the Word of God. That lies a fundamental difference.

The OT canonization started (as authorized by God) with King Hezekiah. It's said that 17 out of the 24 books of the Jewish OT Canon are with the mark or seal of King Hezekiah. The more critical authentication is through Ezra (authorized by God). It seems that 22 out of the 24 canonical books are the effort more or less from Ezra. These 22 books were written in Hebrew. 2 more books were added later, more likely they are the book of Ezra (naturally so) and the book of Daniel (there's a reason for this as well, by God's will). These two books were written in Aramaic as a later add-in. They are legitimized by the Pharisees (more likely involving Pharisee elites inside the Great Sanhedrin) near Jesus' days. Even Josephus only reckoned the 22 book version of the Jewish Canon (Josephus is an elite Pharisee but not one in the inner circle of the Great Sanhedrin, Paul is a closer candidate to the Great Sanhedrin).

That said, Daniel was added (as by God's will) to the Canon, more likely because Daniel actually encountered Jesus, if you compare the description of Jesus' appearance in Revelation with that in Daniel. The Jews didn't reckon Daniel as a formal prophet, but Jesus authenticated Daniel by calling him a prophet directly.

In a nutshell, whenever an outside source is referenced, whether it's from a common story, a common Pharisaic theology or even from the Septuagint, it only means that part of the book is reliable, no less no more. In contrast, only a canonical book can be deemed as the Scripture or Word of God. Only the Scripture is not broken, as Jesus put.

Alas, no, the Church, which possess the fullness of the truth, has the authority to make decisions on what is canonical, which is why for example the Eastern Orthodox in the Byzantine RIte read The Wisdom of Solomon in the Divine Liturgy, Western Christians read Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) among other texts, and these texts are in our bibles. The Eastern Orthodox don’t even call them Deuterocanonical; rather one can gauge the relative importance of a scriptural text by how often it is read in the liturgy, at least with regards to the Old Testament (since only the Coptic Orthodox read the Apocalypse of St. John in the liturgy; but its validity for Eastern Orthodox purposes I think is attested to by the fact that at the same time on Holy Saturday that the Copts read it in a formal liturgical setting, many Athonite monks read it in an informal, extra-liturgical group to prepare their minds for the Paschal Divine Liturgy at midnight, which the Copts are also doing by reading it - Coptic and Ethiopian laity do a number of things only monastics do in other rites, despite also being one of the churches that retains vestiges of what in the Byzantine Rite is called the “Cathedral Typikon” which in our church completely disappeared due to a fusion of monastic and cathedral praxis, as monasteries replaced the cathedrals especially after the Fourth Crusade and Turkocratia as the main centers of religious authority and also served not just the brethren and pilgrims but Orthodox communities in the surrounding area).

In the case of the Ethiopian church, they made the decision to put 1 Enoch in their canon, but it doesn’t affect their doctrine, presumably because they’re reading it as Christological prophecy rather than as a source of historical information, where it could cause the sort of problems my friend @Jipsah has pointed out.
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‘Miraculous touches of God’s presence’ in the most atheist nation in Europe

The Czech Republic, known for its historical heritage, fairytale castles, and medieval architecture, is considered the most atheist country in Europe.

Evangelization in this land — which still bears the scars of a past marked by communism and division — is a constant challenge but not an impossible goal. Czech missionaries say they perceive “miraculous touches of God’s presence” in a society increasingly thirsting for love and truth.

Approximately 80% of the Czech Republic’s more than 10.5 million inhabitants claim to have no religious affiliation. Although about a third of the population say they believe in God — in many cases without being linked to a specific denomination — only 9.4% identify as Catholic.

Nearly a quarter of Czechs declare themselves atheist, according to the 2017 Pew Survey on European Values, making the country one of the most secularized on the continent. Comparing census results since 1991 reveals a clear decline in church membership and an increase in personal belief in God without institutional affiliation.

Continued below.

What we need is an economy that works for most Americans.....

Yes but what’s worse for an independent voter like me is the lack of cooperation between the parties. The ideologies are so far apart that they can’t even talk. Everything has to be a fight. The important issues are ignored. The campaign promises or even the candidate’s independent views might not be what they end up doing if elected.
I don’t see either party working towards bridging the divide but maybe after enough establishment candidates on each side lose enough elections the party leadership will start to realize they don’t have the support they thought they had.

That’s my hope.
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‘Catholic American Bible’ gets green light from U.S. bishops

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) approved a new translation of the Bible, which will be used for personal Bibles, the lectionary at Mass, and the text in the Liturgy of the Hours.

Bishop Steven Lopes, chair of the Committee on Divine Worship, announced the translation will be called the “Catholic American Bible.” The translation for personal Bibles and the Liturgy of the Hours will be available on Ash Wednesday in 2027.

The bishops have not announced when the revised lectionaries will be available.

The USCCB also approved a Spanish-language translation of the New Testament, the Biblia de la Iglesia en América, which will be available on Ash Wednesday in 2026.

Continued below.

Vatican declares alleged apparitions of Jesus in France ‘not supernatural’

The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) has declared that the alleged apparitions of Jesus in Dozulé, France, do not have an authentic divine origin and are therefore “not supernatural.”

The prefect of the dicastery, Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez, confirmed the declaration based on the Norms for Discerning Alleged Supernatural Phenomena in a document released Nov. 12 and addressed to the bishop of Bayeux-Lisieux, Jacques Habert.

In 1972, Madeleine Aumont claimed that Jesus had appeared to her, asking the Church to build a giant “glorious cross” in Dozulé, next to a “shrine of reconciliation.” Furthermore, the alleged visionary claimed that Jesus had announced his “imminent” return.

In the document, the Vatican authority notes that the alleged apparitions in the Normandy town “have elicited spiritual interest” but also “not a few controversies and difficulties of a doctrinal and pastoral nature” that require clarification.

Continued below.

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