How can even the elect inoculate themselves from The Great Deception?

Mark 13:5 Jesus said to them: “Watch out that no one deceives you. 6 Many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am he,’ and will deceive many.

Matthew 24:24 For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. 25 See, I have told you ahead of time.



I think it will get harder and harder as we all lose our humility. Rather than being able to be self critical we are more likely dig our heels in and double down.

Scripter tells us that we can recognize the Spirit by fruits:

Galatians 5:22-23
​

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

Perhaps they can also then serve as indicators. or their opposites, hate, sadness, impatience, cruelty, evil, faithlessness, harshness and self-indulgence

Hi just thinking how well our Lord predicted these

Matthew 24:4-8 ESV
[4] And Jesus answered them, “See that no one leads you astray. [5] For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and they will lead many astray. [6] And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet. [7] For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. [8] All these are but the beginning of the birth pains.


Average good description of the times we live in shoul the news make us glad knowing that our Lords return is close at hand.

Love and Peace
Dave

At the Republican National Convention on Monday, Rose gave a nod to her past criticism of Trump. She said once she believed Trump was a racist. . .
"People have to do their research. I watched all the rallies. And I started meeting so many of you, his red-hat-wearing supporters," she said laughing to cheers.
"And that's when it hit me: These are my people. This is where I belong," she added.
"I put the red hat on too."
The most impressive speech of the evening. That's what I tell people--do the research for yourself.

Do you ever hear God speak to you in your mind with words that you can hear in your mind (not audibly)? I do sometimes. But I will add a word of caution right here at the beginning and say that Satan will plant words in our minds sometimes, too. So when we hear a voice in our head speaking to us, we must test that voice to make certain that we are hearing from God, or not, before we just presume it is God’s voice speaking to us, when it might not be. So I did that when I heard this phrase in my mind yesterday:

“Dear Sue, I just initiated a conversation with you to be read to the whole..."

I had been writing devotions throughout John 15:1-25, as led by the Holy Spirit, and I didn’t think that I would be writing on verses 26-27. So, as I prayed about this voice in my head, and what it said to me, I was led to go back to John 15 and to read verses 26-27, and there I realized that the voice in my head was talking with me about what was being said in these verses to the Lord’s disciples, of whom I am one of them in this present time.

Now these words were spoken to the Lord’s disciples prior to Jesus going to the cross to die for our sins. So the Holy Spirit had not yet come into the hearts of our Lord’s followers. But since the time that Jesus died on that cross, and he rose from the dead, and he ascended back to the Father in heaven, and he sent his Holy Spirit to indwell his followers, all those who have believed in Jesus have been given the Holy Spirit (the Helper) to live within them and to teach them all things about Jesus, and to guide, counsel, and empower us in our walks of faith.

And the Holy Spirit is indeed our helper who guides and directs us into all truth and who warns us of the lies of the enemy. And he speaks to us within our minds and hearts, which is not usually an audible voice, but an inner voice which helps us to discern right from wrong and truth from lies if we will listen to his voice, and if we will not shut him out. He also helps us as we are reading the Scriptures to discern what they are teaching us and to hear from the Lord what specifically he wants to say to us through his word.

So, as I thought about that role of the Holy Spirit in our lives, I went back to this phrase that I heard in my head:

“Dear Sue, I just initiated a conversation with you to be read to the whole..."

So, I looked up the individual words. To “initiate” something is “to cause (a process or action) to begin”. And a “conversation” is a talk between two or more people where information is exchanged. But in the Scriptures (KJV) the word “conversation” can be used to mean “one’s course of life, manners, and behavior, especially in respect to morals” (see Philippians 1:27; 1 Peter 1:15 KJV). And to “read” can mean to “look at and comprehend the meaning of or to discover information.” And “to” is “in the direction of” or “reaching.”

So, putting it all together, in relation to John 15:26-27, this is about Jesus sending us the Holy Spirit to bear witness to us about Jesus Christ – about his life and death and resurrection, and why he died on that cross, and about his gospel of salvation and how that is related to us regarding how we ought to live our lives. So we are not to leave the Holy Spirit out of this equation. We are to be listening for that voice within us teaching us the way in which we are to go and counseling us in making the right decisions, etc.

And then we are to be sharing with the world and with the body of Christ, i.e. with all who believe in Jesus, what we are learning from our times spent listening to the Holy Spirit teaching us from God’s word in regard to what this Christian life is to be all about and how it is to impact our daily lives, and what our relationships with God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – should look like in daily practice, too. And “to the whole” is to everyone. And we are all to be doing this if we are the Lord’s true disciples by genuine faith in him.

For the Holy Spirit is the one who interprets the Scriptures for us and who gives us understanding of what they are saying, but as to be applied to our daily walks of faith, too. So don’t shut him out as so many are doing these days. And please seek his counsel and wisdom with regard to all that is going on in the world around us. For so many “Christians” are following after men and are making men their gods, and not God, and who are looking to men to be their Saviors. But those men could be of the devil, in reality.

[Mk 13:11; Lu 2:26; Lu 4:18-19; Lu 10:21; Lu 12:11-12; Jn 14:26; Jn 15:26; Jn 16:13; Acts 1:8; Acts 2:17-18; Acts 11:12; Acts 13:2; Acts 20:23; Rom 8:9,14; 1 Co 2:14-16; 1 Co 6:19-20; 1 Co 12:1-31; Rom 12:1-8; Eph 4:1-16, etc.]

Teach Them

An Original Work / May 24, 2012
Based off various scriptures

Open up the blinded eyes of
Those who walk in sin’s darkness.
Turn them to the light of Christ
And to His righteousness.
Turn them from the pow’r of Satan.
Turn them to the peace of Christ,
So they may receive forgiveness
And eternal life.

Teach them to put off their old selves
And their former way of life,
And to put on their new self,
Reborn to be like Christ;
To not copy worldly customs;
Be transformed in life and mind;
Obey freely His word in them,
Pleasing unto God.

Teach them how to love their neighbors
Truly as they love themselves;
Be a witness; share the gospel;
Satan’s lies dispel;
Comfort all who mourn in sadness;
Share Christ’s love and joy today.
Do this through your life and witness
For your Lord always.

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I was watching a video on YouTube and noticed the Muslim end time isn't very different than the Christian end time in some respects. I know there are more differences than agreements between Christianity and Islam, but I was surprised to find what I did. For one, to start this thread, they believe in an anti-Christ figure called the Al-Masih ad-Dajjal - Wikipedia. I also saw a video that they believe Isa (Jesus) will return and defeat the Dajjal and set up His kingdom, though as a high prophet for Allah, not as the Son of God. But its far closer to the Christian belief than the Jewish events to come. I did not expect that. Has anyone else compared the Muslim prophecies to our Christian views?

Now I want to take a few minutes here to define what is meant by “the world.” Obviously it means the people of the world. And the word “hate” means to detest, denounce, renounce, or love less than, and only humans are capable of such hate. But in a sense, the world itself, by the values and thinking and culture that it has, is opposed to God/Christ and to his righteousness and holiness and moral purity and uprightness. But these values are put in place by human beings, not by nature itself.

But then when you think about who Jesus’ enemies were, who opposed him and fought against him, and who falsely accused him of wrongdoing, and who plotted his death, these were people of his own race, some from his own family, and they were the religious rulers in the temple of God. So they were those who professed faith in the one true God, and that they were worshipers of God, but while they denied the only begotten Son of God as their Lord and Messiah who had come to save them from their sins.

So, what is my point here? It is that “the world” is not just those who make no profession of faith in Jesus Christ, which is faith in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jabob. But they are all who are opposed to the Jesus of the Scriptures and to the gospel of salvation that he taught, and to the surrender of their lives to him, and to holy living, and to the forsaking of their sins, and to walks of obedience to the Lord and to his commands. For they oppose him by the choices they make in order to live for self and not for God.

So, “the world” includes all who reject genuine faith in Jesus Christ which results in us dying with Christ to sin and living to him and to his righteousness. So they can be professing Christians. And they can be pastors of “church” congregations. For they are all who oppose the gospel message that Jesus taught in favor of a more “friendly” gospel of the flesh of man which does not require that we die to sin daily and that we walk in obedience to our Lord for salvation from sin and eternal life with God.

[Matt 7:21-23; Lu 9:23-26; John 1:12-13; John 6:44; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; Rom 12:1-2; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Co 10:1-22; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; Gal 5:16-24; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:1-17; Titus 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; 1 Peter 1:15; 1 Pet 2:24; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15]

And so they will hate us and oppose us and ignore us and mock us and reject us because they hate, oppose, mock, ignore, and reject the truth of the gospel of our salvation and the idea that they must leave their lives of sin behind them and that they must follow Jesus in surrender to his will and in walks of obedience to his commands in order to have salvation from sin and eternal life with God. For they prefer either to not believe in Jesus at all or to believe in a diluted gospel which makes no demands of them.

Now when it says here that if we were of the world that the world would love us as its own, but Jesus chose us out of the world, this is speaking to those and about those who are his true disciples, who have come out of the world and who are no longer conformed to the ways of this sinful world. So if we are not hated and persecuted and opposed for our faith in the Lord Jesus, and for our testimonies for him, then something is wrong. It could be that we really haven’t come out of the world and so the world does accept us.

[Matt 5:10-12; Matt 10:16-25; Matt 24:9-14; Luke 6:22-23; Luke 12:49-53; Luke 21:12-19; John 15:1-21; John 16:33; John 17:14; Acts 14:22; Rom 5:3-5; Eph 6:10-20; Phil 3:7-11; 1 Pet 1:6-7; 1 Pet 4:12-17; 2 Tim 3:12; 1 Thess 3:1-5; Jas 1:2-4; 2 Co 1:3-11; Heb 12:3-12; 1 Jn 3:13; Rev 6:9-11; Rev 7:9-17; Rev 11:1-3; Rev 12:17; Rev 13:1-18; Rev 14:1-13]

To Be Like Him

An Original Work / March 16, 2014
Based off Scripture

Crucified you are with Jesus.
To be like Him, oh, you’ll be,
Because He died at Calv’ry,
So from sin you’d be free.
Oh, what joy He brings into your life,
Giving life with Him endlessly.

Oh, what plans He has for your life.
Share the gospel faithfully.
Show the people He loves them.
Now His witness you’ll be.
Tell the world of sin about Jesus,
How He died for them on a tree.

Purifying hearts, He saves them,
Who believe on Christ, God’s Son.
Turning now from their idols,
New lives they have begun.
Jesus saves from sin; we’re forgiven.
Over sin, the vict’ry He won!

When He comes again to take us
To be with Him evermore,
There will be no more crying.
Gladness will be in store.
Heavens joys will now overtake us:
We’ll be with our Lord evermore.

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Continued from (2- Looking in a mirror) By beholding we become changed (What is called Antinomianism is not Lawlessness) <- Active Link


There are 4 major spiritual concepts being discussed within this Pauline sentence.

1- Having an unveiled face
2- Looking in a mirror at Jesus Christ (Jesus is the very Glory of God / Effulgence or Visible Light)
3- Transformation (Conversion)
4a- The inner working of the Holy Spirit
4b- The inner working of the Holy Spirit

Does the response herein below not seem out of place on a surface text level?

Luke 13:14-22 ASV
14 And the ruler of the synagogue, being moved with indignation because Jesus had healed on the sabbath, answered and said to the multitude, There are six days in which men ought to work: in them therefore come and be healed, and not on the day of the sabbath.
15 But the Lord answered him, and said, Ye hypocrites, doth not each one of you on the sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead him away to watering?
16 And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan had bound, lo, these eighteen years, to have been loosed from this bond on the day of the sabbath?
17 And as he said these things, all his adversaries were put to shame: and all the multitude rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done by him.
18 He said therefore, Unto what is the kingdom of God like? and whereunto shall I liken it?
19 It is like unto a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and cast into his own garden; and it grew, and became a tree; and the birds of the heaven lodged in the branches thereof.
20 And again he said, Whereunto shall I liken the kingdom of God?
21 It is like unto leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till it was all leavened.
22 And he went on his way through cities and villages, teaching, and journeying on unto Jerusalem.

The understanding is fully expounded in Matthew 13. The grain of the mustard seed (faith) is planted in the third day. The three measures of meal are three days, (re: Gen 40:12, Gen 40:18, (typological axiom-exemplars, cf. Mrk 4:13)).

It seems this guy was a loner in high school and suffered a lot of bullying. Do you think he believed this would make him famous? Did he believe he would make some kind of friends from it? Gain some kind of respect?

It would take a lot for Trump to lose the election to Biden.

Recently, Trump has shown signs that show that he might understand how little he needs to do to win. For example, he has muddled the Republican view on abortion, making it a state by state issue. He decided to be gentle to Biden at the debate and in the week thereafter. Sure, he will continue to call the administration left wing criminals, but that is for his base, and to balance similar attacks from the Democrats. He will just get boring talking about inflation, gas prices, education and the border. He will continue to rave against the rich left-wing elite. And he will suggest that his administration was better without the US being strongly involved in two wars.

Sure, Biden's team could argue against all of this in the next few months. And just for a final issue, he will point out that a vote for Biden is a vote for Harris, since Biden is unlikely to serve out his term. And he will continue to challenge Biden to take medical tests. He doesn't need PROOF that he looks stronger and healthier to the average voters. He just needs to continue to put Biden snippets in ads.
==========
CONCLUSION
Once Biden accepted Trump's dare to debate, the race was in deep trouble.

Joe did the right thing by Kennedy. I am somewhat surprised. Now he needs to increase the number of Secret Service agents guarding Trump.

Thomas Matthew Crooks -- the assassin that killed one man, wounded two other people at the venue and also shot former President Trump - has been the subject of some inquiry.

Snopes did some research to find that the shooter in fact did make a contribution to a democratic political action group -


Snopes said that Crooks "donated money to a political action committee aligned with the Democratic Party"

Snopes research concludes this way --

"Considering that address match, and the fact that the location on the in-question FEC filing does not exist in Pittsburgh, evidence favors the conclusion that the shooter (Crooks) made the donation — not someone else with the same name."

So then Penn has closed primaries so you have to be registered as dem or rep to vote in the primary. If someone was a Democrat and felt that their nominee was going to be selected no-matter-what so their vote is not needed - and if they wanted to derail the Republican primary a bit - they might consider "registering as a Republican" to vote for a non-Trump candidate and hope to have some impact on the Primary outcome using that strategy.

But their "contribution" to the democratic political action pac would still be "noticed" ( so also their attempt to assassinate the former President - as it turns out)

====================

There is a criminal investigation as well as an independent investigation (or as part of) being sponsored by Mayorkus (DHS Secretary) . The question is "what went wrong" with secret service, FBI and local law enforcement that such a direct-line-of-sight threat so obvious at the venue -- had no coverage.

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A number of people were cited as saying that high levels of violent language regarding Trump being a "threat to democracy" and we all know of cases where they were calling Trump an "Existential threat" and key democratic sound bites saying they are "Terrified of a Trump presidency" - all fueling the fires for such a violent event.

Interesting that there is now general agreement that that sort of rhetoric is totally irresponsible. We need to do better as a nation.

====================

MSN: flashback-dems-pushed-bill-to-take-away-trump-s-secret-service-detail


How "odd" that the same congressman promoting that "remove security from Trump" bill - now has a staffer calling for the next shooter "not to miss -- next time".

MSN: bennie-thompson-staffer-no-longer-employed-after-trump-shooting-post

So yeah -- they fire that staffer.

But is it merely "a coincidence" that the same office that promotes a bill to revoke security for Trump - also has a staffer telling would be assassins "not to miss next time"??? Maybe there was a "culture of violent rhetoric and thinking" going on .. is that possible?

I see that as an example of the kind of thinking, the kind of actions - that everyone needs to avoid., It is horribly irresponsible.

All of the following will count against Biden. These do not mean that Biden or Harris can't win. It is just getting harder. IMO, next week folks need to convince biden to drop out and see what can still be saved by Harris (hopefully the House and 42% of the Senate)

1) all the recent court decisions

2) Biden's behind the scenes meetings with donors before the debate

3) The debate

4) the interview after the debate where Biden didn't know whether he had watched the debate. He also insisted that the election was all about him, and that he wouldn't drop out unless folks told him that he had no chance to win.

5) Trump's conduct during and after the debate (he just stood there and let Biden self-destruct, and then went home for a week)

4) the assassination attempt

5) Trump and his wife's speeches the night of the attempt

6) the choosing of Vance as his running mate (39 years old, born in poverty, a summa cum laude from Yale law school, a veteran, and a fine campaigner)

Are Catholics obligated to believe in a literal Noah’s Ark? Because I just saw a segment on our news that featured the zoo caretakers and how much they feed the animals. It would seem to me it would be impossible to have kept all the animals fed.

How does one accept Jesus as one's personal savior?

How do you deal with the embarrassment when you commit the same sin on the Sunday? I can never seem to let go of it. It's too powerful.

Will be going to confession (again) on this upcoming Sunday!

Any advice?

The judge found that U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, who named Smith in 2022 to oversee investigations involving Trump, did not have the authority "to appoint a federal officer with the kind of prosecutorial power wielded by Special Counsel Smith."
Cannon also found that Smith's investigation has been improperly funded through a permanent and unlimited fund Congress set aside in the 1980s for independent investigations.

It marked another blockbuster legal triumph for Trump.

J.D. Vance once compared Trump to Hitler. Now they are running mates​

Eight years ago, in the lead-up to the 2016 presidential election, J.D. Vance was a bitter critic of Donald Trump.

Publicly, he called the Republican presidential candidate an "idiot" and said he was "reprehensible." Privately, he compared him to Adolf Hitler.

But by the time the former president tapped Vance to be his running mate on Monday, the Ohio native had become one of Trump's most ardent defenders, standing by his side even when other high-profile Republicans declined to do so.

"I go back and forth between thinking Trump is a cynical [butthole] like Nixon who wouldn't be that bad (and might even prove useful) or that he's America's Hitler," he wrote privately to an associate on Facebook in 2016.

When his Hitler comment was first reported, in 2022, a spokesperson did not dispute it, but said it no longer represented Vance's views.

By the time Vance ran for Senate in 2022, his demonstrations of loyalty - which included downplaying the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump's supporters - were sufficient to score the former president's coveted endorsement. Trump's support helped put him over the top in a competitive primary.

ETA: cropped image of 2016 private message [Mr. Yale Law sees how Trump cracked the code of "lower-income lower-education white voters"]

Judge Aileen Cannon ruled that the entire case should be thrown out because the appointment of the special counsel who brought the case, Jack Smith, had violated the Constitution. Her decision is sure to be appealed.

A major legal threat against Trump is dismissed. Here’s the latest.​

A federal judge dismissed in its entirety the classified documents case against former President Donald J. Trump on Monday, ruling that the appointment of the special counsel, Jack Smith, had violated the Constitution.

In a stunning ruling, the judge, Aileen M. Cannon, found that because Mr. Smith had not been named to the post of special counsel by the president or confirmed by the Senate, his appointment was in violation of the appointments clause of the Constitution.

The source is my absolutely favorite news and culture analysis site on the interwebs. I'll just let the article speak for itself. It includes screenprints of now deleted account.

Great talk! So many great points.
Bad language warning
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I've pointed out for a long time that the appointment of Jack Smith was in violation of the U.S. Constitution.

“We noticed the guy bear-crawling up the roof of the building beside us, 50 feet away," rallygoer Greg Smith told the BBC at the scene. "He had a rifle, we could clearly see a rifle. ... We're pointing at him, the police are down there running around on the ground, we're like 'Hey man, there's a guy on the roof with a rifle'... and the police did not know what was going on."
"Why is there not Secret Service on all of these roofs here?" asked Smith, who described trying to alert authorities for three to four minutes. "This is not a big place. ... Security failure — 100 percent security failure."

Sadly the FBI cannot be trusted to properly investigate. What can be immediately fixed is adding to the number of Secret Service agents to protect Trump and providing Secret Service protection to Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Joe Biden needs to take action.

This attempted assassination could not have been closer. Another inch and Trump would have been dead. That smacks of Divine Providence but why would God save Trump?

He seems such a divisive figure somebody who would break the current world order jeopardizing the freedoms of countries all over the world. Ukraine and Taiwan are two examples. He is a proven liar, adulterer and fraudster so he has not earned any special grace, so why save the man? What does God want to do here?

Why would the Sovereign Lord permit Trump to survive?