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In short, I don't believe in Calvinism because I see free will is taught in the Bible.
We are given commands, and men have disobeyed them not because God wanted them to, but because they chose to disobey. Also, why have a judgment if God was the one who placed them there and they had no choice to be there?

In a wave of fresh new sanctions against Iran (in retaliation for downing an armed US drone over international waters) the Treasury department has targeted Iran's Ayatollah and his office. The foreign minister of Iran will be sanctioned soon. The Ayatollah's have long been suspected of aiding and abetting Hamas, Hezbollah, PLO and the likes. Given that the Ayatollah of Iran is their Supreme Leader, is this a good move? I think it is. Immediate outrage not withstanding, it'll weaken the religious zealots who're probably robbing the Iranian people of a genuine democratic republic. How should we Christians pray about this? Your comments are welcome. Peace in Christ.

Here's a link:
New US sanctions on ayatollah mean the end of...

Just heard about this a moment ago

Mexico deploys 15,000 troops to US border

for discussion
Is there anything in us or about us that make us deserving of the Father’s love?

I am at a Church where I have many peers and it has a good Sunday school for my children. I have few friends outside Church and no relatives.

I liked my Church because it was a Bible preaching church. I liked the way that preaching was based on the Bible and not on what others make of it.. eg Calvin.

I have in recent weeks been aware of Calvinistic teachings being uttered more than once. I've read a book on Calvinism and fail to see how Calvin concluded what he did. I look at the same verses and see it differently. Should I ignore this? I'm a huge fan of Proverbs 3:5-6 and trust more what the Lord teaches than any doctrine of man. I also don't want to have itchy ears and seek out preachers who say what I want them too.

Please...

Survey up and you can multiple selections as there may be multiple reasons. In the Current events section on another thread one poster astutely mentioned some Christians do not attend church with other Christians due to various factors. I would like to record and discuss those factors here. Please no judgmental posts.

Some of the factors mentioned were Christian churches were too politically motivated, judgmental and hypocritical. There are others and I will add to the survey as in medical, mental or social disorders which make attendance at a physical church either impossible or very difficult.

If I miss a category someone else deems important I will add it to the survey.

Thank you all in advance. I would like discussion so...

From Barna Research:

Over the past year, Barna research has unpacked faith trends in the U.S. including a general reluctance to engage in spiritual conversations, an aversion to evangelism and the erosion of religious belief and practice. These stories and more continue to point to an increasingly secularized nation made up of increasingly secularized cities. Based on data compiled from FaithView, Barna’s new subscription-based online database of city, state and national spiritual profiles, let’s take a look at the changing religious makeup of American cities using our “post-Christian” metric.

Learn more about the capabilities and subscription options for Barna’s new FaithView tool.

To qualify as “post-Christian,” individuals must...

A bit of background on us... We are a Christian family (wife and I have been Christians since childhood) and have been married for over two decades with kids now in the mid teens.
For about the last decade now, we have found ourselves to just be treading water and going through the motions with life. Kind of like ground hog day, over and over and over and over again. There is no real sense of purpose (other than serving God as best we can, providing for the family and witnessing to people we come in contact with) and there is no real sense of challenge or joy or contentment. It gets me down, but Wife is extremely bored with life seems semi depressed about our situation. I feel like the wind is no longer in my sails either. Financially...

Can anyone here help me to understand what is going on with people and friendships? It seems that more and more, people are just not interested and do not reciprocate.

Old friendships - I have some friends that I grew up with over 30 years ago and to me the history there is gold and I value them a lot, but I do not seem to matter much to them anymore. For years and years I have put in massive effort with keeping the friendship alive with visiting them (on the other side of the world), emailing, phone calls, Facebook, sending gifts... They just do not reciprocate and the whole thing is one-sided. Why is this? I just cannot get my head around it and it hurts a lot.

Trying to develop new friendships - I have made effort over the years...

Hello everyone, I have a story that I want to share with you and I want your input on it because I don't know what to think.

To start off with, I'd like to tell you about my cousin and how he has anything to do with this situation. To give you a little background information, he was my best friend. I went to his house and me and him would Play Halo together. We would always play games together and do a lot of stuff together outside as well as inside. This lasted for some years while I lived close to him. Well, when I moved away from Ohio to North Carolina (due to personal situations that were not in my control), I lost contact with him and we didn't speak for about 2 years. Well, upon visiting him again back in Ohio after getting a...