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Starting today August 7th, 2024, in order to post in the Married Couples, Courting Couples, or Singles forums, you will not be allowed to post if you have your Marital status designated as private. Announcements will be made in the respective forums as well but please note that if yours is currently listed as Private, you will need to submit a ticket in the Support Area to have yours changed.
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CF has always been a site that welcomes people from different backgrounds and beliefs to participate in discussion and even debate. That is the nature of its ministry. In view of recent events emotions are running very high. We need to remind people of some basic principles in debating on this site. We need to be civil when we express differences in opinion. No personal attacks. Avoid you, your statements. Don't characterize an entire political party with comparisons to Fascism or Communism or other extreme movements that committed atrocities. CF is not the place for broad brush or blanket statements about groups and political parties. Put the broad brushes and blankets away when you come to CF, better yet, put them in the incinerator. Debate had no place for them. We need to remember that people that commit acts of violence represent themselves or a small extreme faction.
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combined charts
- By Douggg
- Eschatology - Endtimes & Prophecy Forum
- 1 Replies
I expanded the chart to include the two witnesses activities down at the bottom. If you study this chart, you will have great overview of what is going to take place during the 7 year 70th week of Daniel 9:27.
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A - B - C - of Hymns
- By bbbbbbb
- Bible and Book Games
- 1003 Replies
All for Jesus
www.bing.com
all for jesus - Search Videos
Watch videos instantly on Bing—enjoy direct playback, discover related clips, and dive into trending content all in one place.
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Wake Up Dead Man
- The Box Office
- 2 Replies
Apart from the entertaining WHODUNIT aspect .. because the crime scene is a Church community, the movie made me think about what a church fellowship should look like, how to avoid the obvious caricatures of bad leadership, dysfunctional servitude, or even unhealthy motives to be there in the first place. It could be a therapeutic experience for any church attendant.I just finished watching "Wake Up Dead Man", the third movie in the Knives Out series. It's a complicated murder mystery, which I won't spoil by discussing any plot details here. But what caught my attention most about the movie is that, in the character of Father Jud (a Catholic priest), we see one of the most accurate portrayals of the Christian faith at its best that I've ever seen on screen.
Most often, movies don't even address religion. If they do, it's often generically bland; or, worse, the religious dialogue is clumsy, and the religious characters are flat caricatures. Only rarely have I seen Christian characters portrayed with a faith that resembles my own and dialogue that sounds like Christians I know in real life. This is one of those rare movies. I recommend it, for that reason.
Also, it's a good murder mystery.
Most of the characters seemed to be cultural/traditional church-goers stuck in a religious system not encouraging growth. I found it encouraging the main character was the good guy honestly trying to serve God despite his past failures and current weaknesses.
The writer/director grew up in an Evangelical environment; it seems the movie has strong autobiographical elements - yet in the end the movie doesn't bash faith - it criticises what's unhealthy in the way its practised. So it leaves believing viewers with the challenge: 'how not to become that church' ..
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Discussion 2: Adam...with some of Eve (God's Word to Women book)
- By Paidiske
- Egalitarian Christians
- 6 Replies
I don't know that I have answers to those questions, but I thought you might appreciate this artwork:
Virgin Mary and Eve
Crayon and pencil drawing by Sr Grace Remington, OCSO
© 2005, Sisters of the Mississippi Abbey.
Virgin Mary and Eve
Crayon and pencil drawing by Sr Grace Remington, OCSO
© 2005, Sisters of the Mississippi Abbey.
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There’s a Giant Flaw in Human History
- By sjastro
- Physical & Life Sciences
- 1558 Replies
Cut out the baloney, you did not even engage when responding to my posts by deliberately ignoring the content and then lying by omission by claiming there are no refutations of your pseudoscience using peer reviewed science or evidence which supports the Egyptians used rudimentary tooling and high levels of craftsmanship.
What I pointed out to you in my post is the pitfalls of using YouTube videos instead of peer reviewed science as it was riddled with errors.
Here is another monumental error from your video.
Here is a brief lesson for you in “material science” not your butchering of the term to reflect a philosophical outlook.
The pretty colours in the image are due to a phenomenon known as birefringence which is an optical property of crystalline materials in which a single incoming light ray is split into two rays that travel at different speeds and in different directions through the material.
When plane-polarized light from a polarizing filter enters a birefringent crystal, it splits into two rays vibrating at right angles and at different velocities.
They exit the crystal out of phase and when recombined with another polarizing filter in the microscope they interfere producing interference colours as shown in the video image.
If the rock was melted and as the video points out rapidly cooled the crystalline structure would be destroyed and you end up with an amorphous rock. If the rock a geopolymer to start with there would be no crystalline structure as the mouldability depends on the geopolymer being amorphous. Geopolymers remain largely amorphous even after aging.
This what you would expect to see from an amorphous rock (in this case obsidian) as a result of heating and softening, or a geopolymer using a thin sliced samples and imaged with a polarizing microscope.
The irony is the video has destroyed its own hypothesis by the evidence it has presented.
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Adventists at the Crossroads of Legalism and Righteousness by Faith
- By Hentenza
- General Theology
- 0 Replies
This is from an article published in Adventist Today. Many in the SDA church are realizing that their present state of doctrinal requirements, such as strict adherence to the sabbath, following the dietary laws, and life style requirements, are quite legalistic so the focus is on strict adherence to the 28 fundamental beliefs. This article speaks to this tension.
An uncomfortable tension
The Adventist Church has put itself in a bind. By codifying belief into a creed, it has essentially turned from the radical trust in Jesus that both Scripture and Ellen White proclaimed, and has shackled itself to a legalistic structure that cannot bring life. If it continues down this road, the church risks losing its soul even while clinging to its shell.
In practice, enforcement varies. In some parts of Europe and North America, pastors emphasize commitment to Christ and community more than box-checking all 28 beliefs. But in South America, Africa, and conservative regions of the U.S., enforcement is strict, and a member or employee who questions a belief risks discipline or dismissal. What Ellen White warned against has become official policy, though not always universally applied.
It leaves us with an uncomfortable tension. The prophet who declared “The Bible, and the Bible alone, is our creed” has been made the prophet of a denomination that demands assent to a creed. Depending on where you live, you may feel those iron bands more or less tightly.
A possible solution
What can save the Church from itself? The General Conference could begin by retiring the language of “28 Fundamental Beliefs” as a test of fellowship, and instead present them as a dynamic, growing “Statement of Faith in Progress,” open to re-examination in light of Scripture and the Spirit’s leading. Baptismal vows could be rewritten to center on faith in Christ alone, not assent to a creed. The Church Manual could be revised to explicitly affirm that no creed other than the Bible itself binds the conscience.
Such steps wouldn’t destroy Adventism’s identity—they would rescue it. They would return the movement to its original DNA, when early Adventists rejected creeds as “the mark of the beast” and proclaimed the Bible as sufficient for salvation. Unless Adventism rediscovers this heartbeat, it may survive as an institution—but not as a Spirit-filled movement.
The church stands at a crossroads. One road leads deeper into legalism, where creeds harden, enforcement grows harsher, and grace is eclipsed by intellectual conformity. The other leads back to its origins: a bold trust in the love of Christ, righteousness by faith, and the Bible alone as the rule of faith and practice.
A return to righteousness by faith is the church’s only salvation. By it we preach the true Gospel to all the world and prepare for the return of Jesus Christ.
Has the SDA fallen into legalism as the article implies?
An uncomfortable tension
The Adventist Church has put itself in a bind. By codifying belief into a creed, it has essentially turned from the radical trust in Jesus that both Scripture and Ellen White proclaimed, and has shackled itself to a legalistic structure that cannot bring life. If it continues down this road, the church risks losing its soul even while clinging to its shell.
In practice, enforcement varies. In some parts of Europe and North America, pastors emphasize commitment to Christ and community more than box-checking all 28 beliefs. But in South America, Africa, and conservative regions of the U.S., enforcement is strict, and a member or employee who questions a belief risks discipline or dismissal. What Ellen White warned against has become official policy, though not always universally applied.
It leaves us with an uncomfortable tension. The prophet who declared “The Bible, and the Bible alone, is our creed” has been made the prophet of a denomination that demands assent to a creed. Depending on where you live, you may feel those iron bands more or less tightly.
A possible solution
What can save the Church from itself? The General Conference could begin by retiring the language of “28 Fundamental Beliefs” as a test of fellowship, and instead present them as a dynamic, growing “Statement of Faith in Progress,” open to re-examination in light of Scripture and the Spirit’s leading. Baptismal vows could be rewritten to center on faith in Christ alone, not assent to a creed. The Church Manual could be revised to explicitly affirm that no creed other than the Bible itself binds the conscience.
Such steps wouldn’t destroy Adventism’s identity—they would rescue it. They would return the movement to its original DNA, when early Adventists rejected creeds as “the mark of the beast” and proclaimed the Bible as sufficient for salvation. Unless Adventism rediscovers this heartbeat, it may survive as an institution—but not as a Spirit-filled movement.
The church stands at a crossroads. One road leads deeper into legalism, where creeds harden, enforcement grows harsher, and grace is eclipsed by intellectual conformity. The other leads back to its origins: a bold trust in the love of Christ, righteousness by faith, and the Bible alone as the rule of faith and practice.
A return to righteousness by faith is the church’s only salvation. By it we preach the true Gospel to all the world and prepare for the return of Jesus Christ.
Has the SDA fallen into legalism as the article implies?
