...

Aaron and Christina had never attended school when they were children. Until a few days earlier, when Round Hill Elementary held a back-to-school open house, they had rarely set foot inside a school building. Both had been raised to believe that public schools were tools of a demonic social order, government “indoctrination camps” devoted to the propagation of lies and the subversion of Christian families.

Their decision to send Aimee to the neighborhood elementary school — a test run to see how it might work for their other kids — had contributed to a bitter rift with their own parents, who couldn’t understand their embrace of an education system they had been raised to abhor.

[After first catching on with the countercultural left, homeschooling caught on with conservative Christians.] Rightly educated, those children would grow into what HSLDA founder Michael Farris called a “Joshua Generation” that would seek the political power and cultural influence to reshape America according to biblical principles.

Over decades, they have eroded state regulations, ensuring that parents who home-school face little oversight in much of the country. More recently, they have inflamed the nation’s culture wars, fueling attacks on public-school lessons about race and gender with the politically potent language of “parental rights.”

[But there has been a backlash of sorts from within.]

Former home-schoolers have been at the forefront of those arguing for greater oversight of home schooling, forming the nonprofit Coalition for Responsible Home Education to make their case.

“As an adult I can say, ‘No. What happened to me as a child was wrong,’” said Samantha Field, the coalition’s government relations director.

Earlier this year, Jinger Duggar Vuolo — familiar to millions of TV viewers from the reality show “19 Kids and Counting” — published a memoir in which she harshly criticized Bill Gothard, a pivotal but nowdisgraced figure in conservative Christian home schooling whose teachings her parents followed.

“It’s specifically a system that is set up to hide the abuse, to make them invisible, to strip them of any capability of getting help. And not just in a physical way,” Christina said. “At some point, you become so mentally imprisoned you don’t even realize you need help.”

[But definitely in a physical way.] “The use of the rod is for the purpose of breaking the child’s will,” stated the handout that they bent over together in the church [in a marriage prep class].

“When it came time for me to hit my kids, that was the first independent thought I remember having: ‘This can’t be right. I think I’ll just skip this part,’” he says.

But if that seemingly inviolable dogma was false, what else might be? Aaron gradually began to feel adrift and depressed.

Now it was Christina’s turn to question her belief — not in Christianity, but in the conservative Christian approach to home schooling. She began to research spiritual abuse and the history of Christian nationalism. Ideas she had never questioned — such as the statement, in a book given to her by her dad, that it “would be a waste of her time and her life” for a woman to work outside the house — no longer made sense.

Her loss of faith in the biblical literalism and patriarchal values of her childhood was coming in the way the movement’s adherents had always warned it would: through exposure to people with different experiences and points of view.

Those people just happened to be her daughter and her husband.

[The couple has since put their 2 other school age children into the public schools. One more is stil too young.]

“People who think the public schools are indoctrinating don’t know what indoctrination is. We were indoctrinated,” Aaron says. “It’s not even comparable.”

See Also:

Naughty Princess and Ikkyu San （Part）

一休和玉蘭小公主

一休さんと玉蘭姫

I have heard it said by some Christians that salvation is simply belief on Jesus and I would agree with that, but can I claim true belief on Jesus and of zero tangible changes to my life?

Jesus did not say to the woman caught in adultery, "Go and sin as much as you desire." Now, we cannot stop sinning as a practice without the indwelling of Christ through the Spirit but can we go on sinning as a practice with the indwelling of Christ through the spirit.

If our faith does not produce tangible changes for the better in our lives, is it even real. Jesus said, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven." So can one simply "believe" with no change in their lives and be saved?

A toddler was sentenced to life imprisonment in North Korea after the child’s family was found in possession of a Bible, according to a new report by the US State Department.

Continued below.

I will be covering the book with the above title, because it probably is the best case for the Deity of Jesus Christ that you can get.


Here is brief description I got from a blog.


The authors are pedagogically and apologetically minded for they have structured the content in five categories of evidence for the deity of Christ with the acronym HANDS:

Honors: Jesus shares the honors due to God.
Attributes: Jesus shares the attributes of God.
Names: Jesus shares the names of God.
Deeds: Jesus shares in the deeds that God does.
Seat: Jesus shares the seat of God’s throne.

Click to expand...

Book Review: Putting Jesus In His Place: The Case for the Deity of Christ

Putting Jesus In His Place: The Case for the Deity of Christ by Robert M. Bowman Jr. and J. Ed Komoszewski is a book about the greatest human

www.aomin.org

I will be posting some category chapter summaries of the scripture bullet points probably later on in the week. I once had a link to a free online pdf of the book, but I think that disappeared with the Ukranian / Russian war (was a Russian person or web site). So I suppose I will be buying it on Kindle. The good news is I can probably copy and paste directly from book to the thread.

Video Talk

Romans 12:3-8 ESV


Now I am well aware that this is a very controversial subject and that many people have very strong beliefs and opinions with regard to the gifts. For some people are dismissing some of the gifts as foundational gifts, which they claim are no longer active today. But I see no solid biblical support for that stance. I believe what the Scriptures teach regarding the gifts, and that they are all alive and active today, and that they are all necessary to the proper working of the body of Christ.

Now, I also see these gifts on a pendulum or like on a see-saw (teeter-totter), and that on one end we have those who are denying the gifts of prophecy, tongues, miracles, and healings, while they support the gifts of mercy, generosity, teaching, and serving, etc., which are considered the more “safe” gifts of the Spirit. And on the other end we have those who are misusing and abusing the gifts of the Spirit, and they are doing all kinds of wild and crazy things claiming that they are of the Spirit of God.

So, we must be very discerning people. But we need to read what this says in 1 Thessalonians 5:19-22:


So, what is this saying? It is saying that we should not deny the gifts of the Spirit as though some of them no longer exist, for in doing so we may be quenching the Holy Spirit. Yet, we are not to just blindly accept any gift of the Spirit that someone says he has, but we are to test everything against the Scriptures, in context. And we should compare Scripture with Scripture because if we just pull out what one Scripture says on a subject without considering what the Scriptures teach on that subject, as a whole, we may misinterpret and misapply what the Scriptures are actually teaching.

Now with regard to the misuse of the gifts, we should be people who use the gifts biblically. So, if someone says he has a word from the Lord, that word should agree with the Scriptures, and that word must not be against (contrary to) what the Scriptures teach. So if your “word” is telling people that they are all going to be successful and wealthy and that nothing bad will happen to them, then you are teaching against the Scriptures which tell us that we are going to be afflicted, and that we will be hated and persecuted, and that we are going to suffer for the sake of the gospel of Christ.

Also, if your gift leads you to do what is out of control to where you lose control over your own body, then that is against the Scriptures, for they teach that the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and SELF-CONTROL. So if the spirit you are listening to is leading you to do what is lacking in self-control, that spirit is not of God, and it is not the Holy Spirit. And so it is likely a demonic spirit. And if your speaking in tongues is created by you babbling, which is self-produced, then that is not of the Spirit of God who gives gifts as He wills.

And then I want to touch lightly on the subject of women and the gift of prophecy, for it is clear in the Scriptures that the gift of prophecy is given both to men and to women. And I am not speaking here of future telling nor am I speaking of adding to the Scriptures additional words supposedly coming from the Lord. Biblically speaking, at least under the New Covenant, I see prophecy more in the category of preaching, and both men and women are to prophesy. So this is more about sharing the truth of the Scriptures in ways which are practical and applicable to our lives and our world today.

Now with regard to the silencing of women, as some Scriptures do teach, I believe that we have to look at those Scriptures in their context, and also we should compare them with other Scriptures to see how Jesus regarded women, and how women are gifted of the Spirit, and how all of us are to be used within the body of Christ, too, as “each part does its work.”

Now those passages that mention that women should be silent in the gatherings of the church also say that if they have questions that they should ask their husbands at home. So the idea there seems to be that these women were causing a disturbance and that is why they were being silenced. Anyway, the Lord has given me other writings dealing with the subject of women in ministry, so I will put the links to those writings at the end of this in case you are interested in reading them.

So, what’s the bottom line here? We should not quench the Spirit by denying the gifts of the Spirit, but we should test the spirits biblically to see if they are of God. And we should not tell other members in the body of Christ that we have no need of them and that they are to go “someplace else where they will be a better fit.” Now if they are out of line, biblically, then we don’t have to accept the abuse of the gifts, but we need to make certain that we know what the Scriptures teach on that subject so that we are not out of line by rejecting another Christian’s gifts and end up quenching the Spirit.

[Matt 5:13-16; Matt 28:18-20; Jn 4:31-38; Jn 13:13-17; Jn 14:12; Acts 1:8; Acts 2:14-18; Acts 26:18; Rom 10:14-15; Rom 12:1-8; Rom 15:14; 1 Co 12:1-31; 1 Co 14:1-5; Eph 4:1-16; Eph 5:17-27; Php 2:1-8; Col 3:16; Heb 3:13; Heb 10:23-25; 1 Pet 2:9,21; 1 Jn 2:6]

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Constantly Abiding

By Anne S. Murphy, 1908

There’s a peace in my heart that the world never gave,
A peace it cannot take away;
Though the trials of life may surround like a cloud,
I’ve a peace that has come here to stay!

All the world seemed to sing of a Savior and King,
When peace sweetly came to my heart;
Troubles all fled away and my night turned to day,
Blessèd Jesus, how glorious Thou art!

This treasure I have in a temple of clay,
While here on His footstool I roam;
But He’s coming to take me some glorious day,
Over there to my heavenly home!

Constantly abiding, Jesus is mine;
Constantly abiding, rapture divine;
He never leaves me lonely, whispers, O so kind:
“I will never leave thee,” Jesus is mine.

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Women in Ministry
Role of Women in the Church
The Silencing of Women

The three beasts that John saw in Revelation 17, 12, 13.

Mark 1:15 “The time is fulfilled,” He said, “and the kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe in the gospel!”

Repent "metanoiete”

How do we do that? 5 steps: Recognize, acknowledge, apologize, ask forgiveness, restitution

Recognize
And there are two errors we can make. 1) ignore our wrong doings. Quite often when we do wrong we rationalize, “What else could I do?” or minimize, “It really wasn’t that bad.” It is sometimes so easy for us to not recognize or fully acknowledge wrongs we have done. And the more we blow them off, the easier it becomes to ignore them and forget them. The first challenge is to recognize them for what they are. And yet there is also the danger of making too much of them, get scrupulous and fall into misplaced guilt.

Acknowledge publicly or at least to the person offended the wrong done. Without this we just carry guilt and it can be a heavy burden.

Apologize, saying , “I am sorry.” takes humility. But it is critical to an honest metanoia. It is not just about knowing and acknowledging but actually expressing sorrow for it.

Ask forgiveness. We put ourselves at the mercy of the other person. Often it is implied in the apology. "I am sorry." "Please forgive me."

Restitution or reparation, I might recognize that I offended you by denting your car, acknowledged to you that I have done so, apologized and asked forgiveness. But the dent is still there. I need to make it right.

Given these 5 steps of metanoia, where does the expiation of Jesus help us? When we offend each other we also offend God. Jesus makes us right with God but he doesn't fix the dent in the car. That is up to us, a form of penance maybe.

Question, does anyone know what % of Christians are Calvinists? Also, what percentage of Christians are Hard Determinists?

My main curiosity is around Hard Determinism: when did this belief really work its way into the church, and again, what percentage of Christians believe in this?

I have questions around omniscient and omnipotent. I do believe God is both of these, but I do not believe in hard determinism. I read a lot of articles from folks who know a lot about this stuff, and have beliefs on both sides. I also see folks writing formula looking explanations. I guess my issue is, it seems folks are really trying to figure this out and by doing so they tend to put God in a box. For instance I read that if God knows what you are going to do before you do it, then that negates free will. Can someone explain how this exactly negates free will? Couldn’t God just know exactly the decisions you freely were going to make before you made them? I just don’t understand how God knowing 100% all things you will ever do means that it is a requirement that He predetermined you would do those things…
A hypothetical example I have is if someone got into a Time Machine and went into the past. They would know exactly what their or someone else’s decisions would be at every moment. That in my eyes does not take away from their old self’s free will, just that they know what their old self would be freely choosing. They could also introduce themselves to their old self and then their old self would freely make different decisions altering their future. This is just an earthly example btw.

God can do anything, and everything, but we seem to try to define what is or isn’t possible by our own logic. For instance if we say something isn’t logical so that cannot have happened that way, what that person is technically saying is God couldn’t have done it that way.
So when someone says God is omniscient and omnipotent (which I believe as well) and then they say so that means we can’t have free will because He knows everything in advance. First I still don’t understand entirely the logic on that, but second if that person is saying God can’t be omnipotent, omniscient, and humans free will at the same time…then that person is technically saying God isn’t omnipotent and omniscient.

What are y’all’s thoughts here? I have OCD btw, so this stuff really messes with my head most likely more than others and I am actually kind of struggling. I am not looking for a debate but answers. How does our God being omniscient and omnipotent allow for us to have free will?

Hello my name is David
I am 30yrs old
and I'm happy to have finally found this forum away from all the other ones

Proverbs 5:2. My son, attend unto my wisdom, and bow thine ear to my understanding. 5:3. For the lips of a strange woman drop as honey comb, and her mouth is smoother than oil; Zur in Hebrew means =stranger, apostate. NAKAR is similar to Zur. Get the picture. This is religious idolatry. These apostates are those who once knew the truth and turned their backs on God. These apostates formed denominations. Its broken down into fragmentation. They allow or insert heathen traditions and customs into true worship of God. 5:4. But her end is as Wormwood, sharp as two edged sword. Her feet go down to death; Her steps take hold on hell. Bitterness and Wormwood is of satan. Traditions of men and false doctrine is indoctrination from satan. Its contrary to sound doctrine, the truth. A church or denominations ask, are you saved??. Big problem. These denominations don't get around to meat of God's word, it's always milk, milk. God will not bless and protect those engage in false doctrine. 5:13. And have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me. Ego trips, fleecing flocks, or they sellout for pension plan and salary. Apostates are also hirelings. If you go to well for water, its empty, Dry !!. 5:14. I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly. The heart of the wicked is worth little. The lips of the just is choice silver. Denominations won't nourish their flocks. After 20 or 40 years, the congregation is still in diapers. The apostates are feeding milk bottles to their flocks. Don't expect any spirtual growth. Bottom line, their spirtualty bankrupt. Psalm chapter 73:2. But as for me, my feet were almost gone; my steps had well nigh slipped. 73:3. For u was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. The apostates are after donations. Its body count. The pastor or reverend must teach from quarterly packet each month. Thier compromised. Get the picture. Were in time of famine, its hearing God's truth, amos chapter 8. Those who listen or teach tradition of men, are outside Gods sanctuary. They don't have His blessings or protection. Bethel is were sound doctrine is taught by man of God or woman of God. Denominations are not of God. But of the devil. Any where God has church, the devil builds chapel next to it. Do you understand what king Solomon taught in proverbs chapter 5. Get wisdom and understanding !!.

Each time someone brings up the topic of relationship, I start freaking out internally even when it's not directed towards me. Scripture says that God didn't give me a spirit of fear. How do I work in the authority that He has given me?

Okay so I have some major confusion here. It says Jesus did this in John 2:13-15, at the very beggining of the book, which i can only assume would be the very beggining of His ministry. but it also says in Matthew 21:12 that He chased out the money changers from the temple, presumably at the end of His ministry due to how close that story is to the end of Matthew. Did He do this twice? Like when he fed the crowds twice? Thanks

Pres. Biden and House Speaker McCarthy have agreed to a bill that will prevent a government default. Details in the link:

Debt ceiling deal: What's in, what's out of the bill to avert US default

Of course, it's a compromise. Neither side gets everything it wanted. That's as it should be. It will still have to pass both houses of Congress, but it should squeak by. No sane legislator wants the country to default. Of course, SS and Medicare are unchanged. Most all working people still have to pay FICA. So my sincere thanks go to all you guys out there for helping to fund my retirement.

If I was a child, the message I would get from ads for Hyper sexualized reality TV show is that it is really fun to sleep around and to fantasize about sleeping around.
Such ads are common,
My question is drag queen story time more of a problem or not ? Why ?

What are some tips on staying sober? How can I fill up my time and de-stress? I want to go 30 days without alcohol.

"A new study challenges the idea that marsupials are more 'primitive' than mammals by showing their development has changed more than mammals since they last shared an ancestor."

Marsupials Are 'Far More Evolved' Than Other Mammals, Even Humans

Mulvaney costing AB InBev billions?

Satanism and LGBT propaganda marketed to kids costing Target billions?

Pfffffft, Kohl's says, "hold my Bud Light," as they become the lastest retailer to market LGBT clothing for babies and toddlers.

I'm looking to do more posting on this board, and I found this point in the terms of service for the board very interesting.

• Although the Law of God is pleasing to a believer it is not a necessary requirement for salvation. (Psalms 119:174; Galatians 3:10, Galatians 5:18)

This I find interesting because this is my position as well. But I can think of certain prominent groups who believe we are saved through the 10 commandments. They believe we are in fact judged by them in a very literal way especially concerning the Sabbath. And this is much different than general Christianity where we are saved by being "in Christ". And our sanctification itself is a kind of external evidence from that, fruit if you will, and we will want to have lives that basically reflect the 10 commandments at least "According to the Spirit of the Law". My basic position is actually expressed well in this article that I recently discovered and will probably quote from later in this thread.

Now the following article was written largely from a Protestant perspective, I also got a much deeper perspective on the early Church from a historic perspective of Early Church history, Theology and Liturgy that comes from my background in Eastern and Oriental Christianity, and will probably cite that too.

As a non believer, how do I look to Jesus? I’ve literally just about tried everything. I know I can’t come to Him on my own. My mind doesn’t want to think about him when I try to think about him.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

How do you explain the violence in the OT? How is it interpreted today?

Thanks you

• “Judaism” is just that "a religion."
• Designed by G-d.
• To be precursor to weaning mankind off of all religions.
• And to have a relationship with G-d through his Son Yeshua Jesus the Branch.

Jeremiah 31:31–34 (KJV)
31 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:
32 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD:
33 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.
34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.

• Yeshua Jesus is Yahweh (John 1:3 / Colossians 1:16 / Isaiah 44:24)
• Also John 8:58 / Exodus 3:14–15
• Isaiah 7:14 G-d with us
• Isaiah 9:6 the everlasting Abba
• Isaiah 52:13 - 53:12
• Deuteronomy 18:15–18
• Micah 5:2
• Psalm 22 / Zechariah 12:10
• Genesis 3:15

351-old-testament-prophecies-fulfilled-in-jesus-christ/

Please pray for the recovery of these 2 pro lifers who were viciously attacked, pray that God will heal them speedily and help them recover from their injuries, especially for Mark.

Excerpts from the article:

Detailing the extent of the injuries, Roswell wrote that Crosby’s “plate bone in his upper right cheek is completely fractured,” and that he “is bleeding from some unidentified area behind his eye and the bone eye orbit is completely shattered and will have to be replaced with metal.”

“Please pray for my dear friend, Mark Crosby. He was viciously attacked yesterday, May 26, 2023 while he was praying in front of Planned Parenthood in Baltimore City. He and another prolifer were attacked from behind and the thug ran away. Mark is currently in the hospital being treated for the serious injuries he sustained. Please pray that Mark makes a full recovery and that the thug that did this to him is found and dealt with swiftly,” Walton said.