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Israel-Hamas Thread II

The bitter truth is that there is no independent journalism in Gaza. Every photographer, every cameraman, every reporter works under the thumb of Hamas. The terrorist organisation's Government Media Office controls filming permits, access and topics with an iron fist. Without Hamas' consent, no images from detention cellars, no recordings of looted aid supplies, no evidence of the recruitment of minors are ever made public.

International teams have not been granted entry permits for a long time. The few exceptions are closely supervised visits under military escort. In this way, Hamas determines which images the world gets to see and Western editorial offices willingly swallow this curated reality.
That is a deflection, and does not change what I said. I have little doubt that everybody involved is invested in telling a one sided story.
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Why do we do things not written in the Bible?

You may celebrate the Feast of the Nativity, or not, using whatever calendar you please. Romans 14 applies here. But I did want to object to one thing: the quote "Peace on Earth and Goodwill to all men" is a paraphrase of Luke 2:14, so it is actually in the Bible and is related to the birth of Jesus.
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Trump administration says sign language services ‘intrude’ on Trump’s ability to control his image


The Trump administration is arguing that requiring real-time American Sign Language interpretation of events like White House press briefings “would severely intrude on the President’s prerogative to control the image he presents to the public,” part of a lawsuit seeking to require the White House to provide the services.
Department of Justice attorneys haven’t elaborated on how doing so might hamper the portrayal President Donald Trump seeks to present to the public. But overturning policies encompassing diversity, equity and inclusion have become a hallmark of his second administration, starting with his very first week back in the White House.
The National Association for the Deaf sued the Trump administration in May, arguing that the cessation of American Sign Language interpretation — which the Biden administration had used regularly — represented “denying hundreds of thousands of deaf Americans meaningful access to the White House’s real-time communications on various issues of national and international import.” The group also sued during Trump’s first administration, seeking ASL interpretation for briefings related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
What image is that, Mr. President?
What an odd statement.
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Young earth vs Old earth?

If you apply all that science teaches us to scripture then you can’t believe half of what is written in it.
I'm not sure what you mean by this. Miraculous occurrences are by definition outside of the domain of science. The issue comes when rather than accepting that YEC is entirely based on faith, advocates push muddled "science" that isn't science at all.
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What Did You Get Last Sunday?

Probably. Christmas has been so thoroughly marketed as a family day and taken over by football and basketball that a lot of churches, even liturgical churches, cancel anyway. I haven't presided a Christmas Day service since I left Virginia; no one wants it. The last time Christmas fell on a Sunday there was some snow out but not a lot. I had a terrible time finding somewhere to take my kids. The Romans had pared down there usual 3 Mass schedule to only 1. I ended taking them to a Lessons & Carols service at the local Methodist Church.
It's interesting how different we are culturally. Australia is a much less churched culture, but cancelling Christmas would be unthinkable in churches here.

Now that I'm not "in charge" somewhere, it feels really strange to me to realise that I only need to do one Christmas service; normally, there's the carols, and the crib service, and the midnight (or as late in the evening as the congregation will tolerate), and probably two on Christmas morning...
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Is Hell Annihilationism or Eternal Torment

I have always understood the word “damnation” to be of an everlasting condemnation. What this involves I don’t claim to know. Although I believe the Lord’s forgiveness is wider than many of us may realize ( Matthew 12:31-33 etc.), it is not absolute. There is sound reason to fear as we are told in Matthew 10:28.

The word “damnation” appears 11 times in the King James Bible as per a word search on Biblegateway.


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A Conversion Journey

Around age 21 I came across a quote from C. S. Lewis from my office. It piqued my interest, and I checked out Mere Christianity from my local library. I had never understood my sin fully until near the end of the first section "...we know that if there does exist an absolute goodness it must hate most of what we do."

This hit me hard. I got up and knelt in front of my couch, remained silent, and I felt a presence in the room above me. I think it may have been the Holy Spirit, but I don't know for sure. That's why I made this thread in TAW.

Anyway, it was a powerful experience, but I soon forgot it, and the next two and a half decades were run of the mill debauchery. But I remained somehow weakly sympathetic to Christianity.

Later in life I was with a girl in the morning after a drugged-out weekend. We were sleepily surfing TV channels and stopped on some type of TBN televangelist channel. Just out of curiosity, I asked her "Do you think Christianity is true?" She scrunched up her nose, shook her head and said "No, the world's too weird." To this day I think that was a very interesting answer. I might have expected her to say that Christianity is too weird, but instead, she said the world was too weird. I think she, accidentally or not, hit the nail on the head.
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George Eldon Ladd

How do you understand verses that imply the kingdom is already here, like Colossians 1:13?
As I said God's Kingdom is eternal, past, present, and future. He is always "King" over all of His Creation. When the Prophets spoke of the coming Messianic Kingdom, they were referring to a particular application of God's eternal Kingdom. I call it the Eschatological Kingdom. That Kingdom is near, but not yet here.
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Denaturalization

I'm not sure the US government can effectively enforce that without having the power of revoking citizenship of a naturally born citizen. I don't think that's a road we want to step out on.
I think that's located down the road we're already on.
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Shootings at Bondi Beach

Ahmed, a Muslim, arrived in Australia in 2006 from Syria. The 44-year-old tobacco shop owner is the father of two daughters aged five and six.

Muslim extremists claim that all Christians are racist pedophiles, even as white supremacists professing to be Christian, claim all Muslims are terrorists.
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Ellen White on the mark of the beast for those that worship on Sunday

One has to take it in the context of the argument that Hebrews is makeing
Yes exactly, which is OT. This passage is telling us why those who came before us did not enter into their promise land of rest, due to disobedience Heb4:6 and we are told plainly what they disobeyed that kept them out Eze20:15-16 and not to harden our hearts Heb4:7 Heb3:7-19 Psa95:7-14 and follow in their same path of disobedience Heb4:11 why this is promoting Sabbath-keeping which remains for the people of God just as God spoke is on the seventh day Heb4:4,9,10, not Sabbath-breaking. God's people keep God's commandments the way God said Rev14:12
. At any rate, since you insist that Exodus 20:8-11 is spicifically calendric and must be observed as such and that those who rest in Christ as their sabbath are still disobedient to God then how can you dismiss Exodus 35:1-3. Any argument that you can think of for ignoring God's unchangeable law in this case can also be applied to Exodus 20:8-11. No one gets to have their cake and eat it too.
I think you might be confusing the law, with the judgment of the law- the wages of sin is death. We are no longer under a theocracy, Judgement is now on the last day. John12:48. There was a death penalty for murder and adultery as well, it doesn't mean we can do these things either, without repenting and expect not to hear these words on that Great Day Mat7:23 if we continue in that path Heb10:26-30, if we love Jesus why would we not want to do what He asks, that comes with the power of His blessings and sanctification.
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Pray The Holy Spirit spreads Jesus Christ's Gospel as the primary cure for mental health illness especially in light of the killing of Rob Reiner

Pray The Holy Spirit spreads Jesus Christ's Gospel as the primary cure in battling mental health illness especially in light of the killing of Hollywood director Rob Reiner & his wife by their mentally I'll son:

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ICE Prosecutor White Supremacist Website

The individual behind an anonymous X account rife with white supremacist and anti-immigration posts has been identified as an Immigration and Customs Enforcement prosecutor, according to a detailed new report by the Texas Observer.

The profile “GlomarResponder,” which boasts more than 17,000 followers, is run by 44-year-old James “Jim” Joseph Rodden, an assistant chief counsel for ICE in the Dallas area, who reportedly filled the X page with numerous hateful, racist, and xenophobic posts.

“America is a White nation, founded by Whites … Our country should favor us,” GlomarResponder wrote just last month.

“All blacks are foreign to my people, dumb (BLEEP),” the account posted last September.

In May 2024, GlomarResponder posted, “I’m not a commie, I’m a fascist. Fascists solve communist problems. Get your insults right, retard.”

And in August: “‘Migrants’ are all criminals.”

Last March: “Nobody is proposing feeding migrants into tree shredders. Yet. Give it a few more weeks at this level of invasion, and that will be the moderate position.”

And just last month: “My WWII vet grandfather didn’t get a chance to kill asians, so he volunteered for Korea. He’d be asking for a short term job with ICE kicking doors and swinging a baton.”

Rodden’s connection to the page was unearthed through a thorough investigation of the GlomarResponder’s social activity, which included posts suggesting that its operator was affiliated with an ICE office.


Warning.. slightly censored profanity at the site.

Is there another '1st World' country, where our darkskin-Black friends get arrested for having mental health crises?

You are incorrect here.
So a woman calls 911 and says a man forced his way into her house, assaulted her and he is armed with a knife and they send mental health counselors to respond?
Where does this happen at?
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combined charts

There are five critical days on the chart, highlighted each with a yellow box background.

day 1 - when the Antichrist makes a big speech from the temple mount - to begin the 7 years.

day 1185 - the statue image will be placed on the temple mount - to begin the great tribulation

day 1260 - the day when the two witness will be killed.

day 2475 - the day when the sing of the Son of man will appear in heaven

day 2520 - the day when Jesus returns to this earth - ending the 7 years.
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