"Acts, the Mikveh & the Blood: How the Bible Defines Remission"

Scripture Study Principles

Myles Coverdale; a Bible theologian & translator from the 1500’s. He wrote the Coverdale Bible. Say's don't judge Scripture by what is spoken, or written only.

When dissecting any verse of scripture. Ask yourself, of whom, to whom, with what words, what time, where, to what intent, with what circumstances, considering what is written before and what follows any single verse context.

Romans 15:4 For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.
(NOTE: ALL scripture is written for our LEARNING. ALL scripture isn't written for our DOCTRINE.)
Example: Are NT believers required to bring an animal sacrifice to the Temple?

All Scripture is written for us, but not all Scripture is written to us.

Acts: A Transition Book
Acts maps the shift from the dispensation of Law to the dispensation of Grace. John the Baptist never baptized a Gentile in the Judean wilderness & no Gentile receives the Holy Spirit at Pentecost on the Temple Mount (Acts 2). The categories are 100% Jewish from start to finish.

Understanding Baptism Through Jewish Eyes
(NOTE: Source: Jewish Virtual Library, Topical Bible, Sefaria & Hirsch)

Under the Mosaic Law, Israel practiced many ceremonial water‑purification immersions (Ex 30; Lev 6, 13–16, 22).

Every Israelite understood the pattern:
Unclean > immerse > clean.

Impure > immerse > pure.

Out of fellowship > immerse > restored.

These immersions never removed sin. They restored ritual purity, not forgiveness.

A full Mikveh (precursor to NT baptism) immersion purification ritual expressed: I acknowledge I've been in an unclean state, I'm turning away from that state, I'm returning to covenant faithfulness, I'm restoring my ritual status before God & community

John, Jesus, & Peter all spoke Aramaic & Hebrew, where repent meant > return to God. See Strong's Hebrew repent: h7725. שׁוּב (shub) -- Return, turn back, restore

Category Is Purification:
Jn 3:25 records a dispute between John's disciples about purification. Not forgiveness. Not salvation. PURIFICATION! This is exactly how Jews interpreted immersion.
(NOTE: John the Baptist, his disciples, & Jesus' disciples all performed the baptism of repentance.)

Acts 19:4 confirms John's baptism was a baptism of repentance, preparing Israel to believe in the coming Messiah. It was not a remission ritual.

John the Baptist's mission was to prepare the way of the Lord (Mal 3:1 & Matt 3:3). His "baptism of repentance" was preparatory, not remissive.
Confession of sins = acknowledging they had turned away > Immersion = becoming ceremonially clean > This is Mosaic purification, not atonement.

Acts & the Purification Pattern

Acts 2:38
Repent, and be baptized every one of you "in the name of Jesus Christ" "for" "the remission of sins", and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.”
(NOTE: Repent = return to God. Be baptized = purify yourself (unclean > clean). Remission comes by calling on the Messiah, not by water. Peter is speaking to Israel, using the same purification categories they ALL knew)

Acts 22:16 “Be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord.”
(NOTE: The washing is symbolic > the calling is effective.)

Acts 8:12 “But when they believed Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God, and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women.”
(NOTE: They believed Philip's preaching, then were baptized. Faith precedes water. Remission is tied to Christ, not immersion.)

"Nothing external removes sin."

Faith in the NAME saves, Faith in the BLOOD removes sin & the Jesus HOLY SPIRIT Baptism Forever seals the believers salvation. Water is a obedience response.

Scripture is clear:
"Without shedding of blood there is no remission" (Heb 9:22).

Jesus said, “This is My blood > shed for many for the remission of sins” (Matt 26:28).

He washed us from our sins in His own blood (Rev 1:5).

High Priest Foreshadow

Lev 16:21, Aaron laid both hands on the substitute, confessed the sins of the nation & imputes/transfers the sins onto the innocent victim. That was the foreshadow.

Jesus is the fulfillment.

Heb identifies Jesus as our great High Priest (Heb 4:14), called by God after the order of Melchizedek (Heb 5:10) & Mediator of the New Covenant (Heb 9:15; 12:24)

Under the Old Covenant, the priest transferred sin. Under the New Covenant, Christ performs the real sin‑transfer.

When we call on the name of the Lord (Acts 2:21 & Rom 10:13) & place our faith in Jesus' sin-atoning death & resurrection, He forgives all our sins (Heb 10:10–18) & imputes our sins onto Himself (Heb 10:10; 2 Cor 5:19; Rom 4:8, 11, 22–24). At that same moment, He baptizes the believer with His forever (Jn 14:16), salvation‑sealing (Eph 1:13, 2 Cor 1:22, 2 Cor 5:5) indwelling Holy Spirit you.

Anyone can immerse someone into water. Only Jesus, who knows the true heart, can baptize with/in/by the Holy Spirit. Jesus then imputes His righteousness to us (2 Cor 5:21 & Ja 2:23) & the believer becomes the righteousness of God, thru faith placed in Christ.)

Salvation Across the Ages

Before the incarnation, God required FAITH in the promised Messiah who would come (Gen 15:6 & Isa 53). During Jesus' earthly ministry, people were called to BELIEVE that He was the Messiah (Jn 20:31). After His death & resurrection, salvation is accessed through FAITH (Rom 5:1-2) in His finished, sin‑atoning work (Rom 3:25–26 & 1 Cor 15:1–4). In every era, salvation has always been by FAITH in God's Messiah & never by ritual, never by water, never by external acts.

The Gentile Timeline
The categories remained Jewish long after Pentecost. Acts shows a deliberate 7–10 year gap between:
Gentile inclusion (Cornelius, Acts 10), Gentile evangelism (Paul, Acts 13). Years after Cornelius, the Jerusalem church was still preaching "to Jews only" (Acts 11:19).

Why This Matters:
Neither John's water baptism nor early Acts water baptisms were ever the mechanism of remission. Water purified the ceremonially unclean. Only Faith in Jesus saves, His perpetually cleansing blood removes sin (Lev 17:11) & His Spirit baptism gives eternal life.

Two Sacraments every Believer should Partake in:

Water Baptism, a public identification with Jesus death & resurrection. An act of obedience/a gateway to discipleship. This undertaking is an outward physical expression, of the inner spiritual transformation activated, when Christ baptized you with His eternal life giving Holy Spirit.

Communion, both these actions are commanded acts are commanded by the Lord Himself. Neither action is the doorway leading to eternal salvation. These events follow the salvation sealing Holy Spirit baptism, performed by Christ alone. See Matt 3:11, Lk 3:16, Mk 1:8, Jn 1:33, Acts 1:4-5, 2:38, 10:45, 11:16)

Conclusion
Faith in Jesus sacrificial sin atoning work SAVES, His BLOOD washes away sin & Jesus baptism in/of/with His FOREVER (Jn 14:16) indwelling Holy Spirit SEALS (Eph 1:13-14, 4:30, 2 Cor 1:22, 5:5, 2 Tim 1:14) the believers eternal life. AMEN & Amen

Two things here: Context and Wording

Context is critical to correct biblical interpretation. So, I recommend that you read the entire book of 1 John to get the full context before you start interpreting what you read only from select sections of the Scriptures. Why? Because Scriptures taught outside of their original context may present a completely different message from what is being taught and presented in the book, as a whole. This is not always the case, but many times it is. And this is one of those that needs the whole context to get the right message.

It is important that we understand the wording, too. And I obviously speak American English, and the Bible translation I am reading is also written in American English. But our English words don’t always capture well the true meaning of the original Greek words. So, in this case, many people will read this, and they will assume that if they make a verbal profession of faith in Jesus Christ, believing that he is the Son of God, and that he is God, that God now abides in them, they are saved, and are on their way to heaven.

But is that what this is teaching? No, it isn’t. How do I know that? I read the whole book. And the first three chapters tell us that if we say that we have fellowship with God/Christ, yet we walk in darkness (sin), we are liars who do not practice the truth. And if we claim that we know him, but we do not obey his commandments, we are liars, and the truth is not in us. And no one born of God makes a practice of sinning. But the ones who die to sin and who obey God, in practice, are those who abide in God, and God in them.

So, why does chapter four, then, appear to give the impression that we can just confess that Jesus is the Son of God and now God abides in us and us in him? It has to do with the wording and how it is understood in the English versus its original meaning in the Greek. For the word essentially means to agree with God and with what God says, to speak the same thing as God, to voice the same conclusion as God, and to align (cooperate) with God. And if we align with what God says about Jesus, this is not just words we speak.

And let’s move on. “God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.” So, what is this love being spoken of here? Well first of all God is love, so if we abide in (comply with, obey, follow, conform to, remain in) God, then God abides in us. And the word “love” centers in moral preference, and it prefers what God prefers, which is all that is holy, morally pure, upright, honest, faithful and obedient to our Lord and to his commands, which is described for us in the first three chapters.

And then it says, “By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world.” So if we are as He is, as he was when he lived in the world, then our lives should reflect the life of Jesus Christ. Now we won’t be perfect as he was, but lack of perfection is never to be used as an excuse for deliberate and habitual sin. We should aim to please our Lord in every way, following him wherever he leads us in doing all that he commands that we must do.

For Jesus Christ taught that to come to him we must deny self, take up our cross daily (die daily to sin), and follow (obey) him. For if we hold on to living in sin and for self, we will lose our lives for eternity. But if we deny self, die daily to sin, by the Spirit, and we walk in obedience to our Lord and to his commands, in his power, then we have eternal life with God. For not everyone who calls him “Lord” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one DOING (obeying) the will of God (see Luke 9:23-26; Matthew 7:21-23).

So, we must take this to heart if we want to abide in Christ and him in us, and if we want to have the assurance of salvation and eternal life with God.

[Matthew 7:13-14,21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Romans 1:18-32; Romans 2:5-10; Romans 3:23; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; Romans 12:1-2; 1 Corinthians 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; 2 Corinthians 5:10,15,21; Galatians 5:16-24; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-13; Hebrews 10:19-39; Hebrews 12:1-2; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 1:1-10; 1 John 2:3-6; 1 John 3:4-10; Revelation 2:1-29; Revelation 3:1-22]

Abide in Him

Based off Psalm 27:14; Isaiah 40:31; John 14-15
An Original Work / July 31, 2013
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

If you wait for the Lord, put your hope now in Him,
He will give you His strength and endurance within.
He will renew your strength, so you will not lose heart.
You will soar on wings like eagles, never depart.

“If you abide in Me, and My words live in you,
You will walk with Me daily and follow what’s true.
I will live now in you; give you peace now within,
If you obey My teachings and turn from your sin.”

“If you listen to Me, and do all that I say,
I will give you My comfort; be with you always.
I will heal all your pain; life with Me now you’ll gain,
If in fellowship with Me you always remain.”

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Abiding in God
An Original Work / January 14, 2026
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

I was raised in a Lutheran Protestant household that lacked all of the contemporary interest in future prophecy. Nevertheless, we as a family noticed something significant, prophetically, in 1967 with the 7 Days War. And I began to study biblical prophecy and the book of Revelation.

When I became engaged with the Jesus People and young Christian revival movements in the early 70s, there was a focus on Dispensationalism, and I pursued an interest in Futurist eschatology with a Dispensationalist slant. But it wasn't long before a number of inconsistencies became obvious to me, and I had trouble harmonizing all of the beliefs.

I then turned to a systematic approach to prophetic interpretation, looking for significant markers in biblical history where certain truths became determinative in all that followed. For example, important prophetic markers would be Abraham's Covenant promises and Daniel's Dream. What resides in these events provide an important backdrop for the rest of biblical prophecy.

And instead of following a particular prophetic school I became convinced that even if one school is better than another it was likely that other schools were held together by a few strands of important prophetic truths. I wasn't going to let a flawed school keep me from accepting something they saw and others rejected strictly because their truths came from another, flawed school.

Dispensationalism has carried most of the weight in building assumptions surrounding various interpretations of relevant passages of the Bible. It views the 70th Week of Daniel 9 as future and disconnected from the previous 69 Weeks mentioned there. And it views the "Abomination of Desolation," mentioned in both Dan 9 and Matt 24, as a reference to the Antichrist.

The Book of Revelation was looked at by Dispensationalists as separated into two parts, the present Church Age and the final 7 years of Antichristian rule. The Church would be Raptured just before the rise of Antichrist, coinciding with John's Rapture to Heaven to see his visions. What followed would be 7 years of Antichristian rule prior to the Battle of Armageddon and Christ's 2nd Coming.

Dispensationalists typically view Postribulationists as anachronistic to Futurist belief, even though many of them are Futurists. And they view Preterists as antithetical to Futurism, even though some of their beliefs can be held to by Futurists. For example, the belief by Preterists that much of the Olivet Discourse is about the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD can be held to along with Futurist beliefs.

So, this is where I've come out. I believe the 70th Week of Daniel was fulfilled at the death of Christ. And I believe the Abomination of Desolation was fulfilled when the Roman Army defeated Jerusalem in 70 AD. I'm also a Postribulationist who believes in a future 3.5 year Reign of Antichrist with the Church being Raptured at the end of this period. And I believe the Olivet Discourse was focused primarily on the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD, with the Roman Army being the Abomination of Desolation, and this event taking place literally in Jesus' generation, followed by a long age of Jewish exile, also called the "Great Tribulation."

I believe though discussion of the various issues sometimes leads to "bad blood," approaching the differences in a friendly way can have a positive effect. After all, we are pursuing Scriptural truth, which God gave to us for our edification. So I invite any and all takers on the issues I've raised?

(posting in fellowship)

What foods are forbidden in Adventism or are avoided?

Meat? (Pork, Chicken, Beef, other poultry)
Seafood? Shrimp? Crab? Lobster?
Coffee or Tea?
Alcohol? Beer and Wine permitted? Hard liquor forbidden?
Eggs?

I'm only asking out of curiosity.

Peace

Hi all.

I've prayed for salvation, "accepted" Jesus as my savior in my head, asked to be changed, asked to be saved from sin, etc, almost each day for the past 21 years. Not much has changed over 21 years.

What am I doing wrong?

Thanks in advance.

The woman killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in Minneapolis last week served on the board of her son’s school, which linked to documents encouraging parents to monitor ICE

The documents shed new light on Renee Good’s connection to efforts to monitor and potentially disrupt ICE operations – an association that federal officials have made clear is at the center of their review into the deadly incident that occurred as she partially blocked ICE agents in the street with her SUV.

Another guide linked to in the training document stresses nonviolent responses to ICE agents, while also encouraging a refusal to “comply with demands, requests, and orders.” It suggests “creative tactics,” noting that “Crowds, props, traffic, and noise can make detentions difficult, sometimes ICE vehicles can’t move (‘whoops!’).”

Now, I will tell you upfront that I am going to use this passage of Scripture slightly out of context to make a point in a slightly different direction, but with the same general message. For “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work." (2 Timothy 3:16-17 ESV)

Okay, so the different situation is my present health status, and my test results, and the plan of action for my well-being from this moment forward. Now, I believe the Lord did have me go to the ER on September 17, 2025, when I was having severe chest pain and pressure, difficulty breathing, and nerve pains shooting throughout my body, primarily on my left side. And I do believe he had me have a follow-up visit with my doctor, and that he had me go through a series of about 19 medical tests and/or procedures.

For, they did give us a good picture of my present health status and of what is broken and needs to be fixed, essentially. And I believe this was for my good, that we identify the areas in my body which need work/help. And that is the first step. So, I am appreciative of the medical profession and the doctors for their diligence in trying to find the source of my pain. Yet, it appears that most (not all) of the treatments recommended to solve these issues involve the use of drugs which largely mask (not heal) symptoms.

But it isn’t just that they mask symptoms, but often they cause more issues and pain and suffering with all the possible side effects from the medications themselves. And so, not only are they sometimes counterproductive, but they can actually do more harm than good. So, although the testing was for my good, and produced good in that we now know what is wrong with my body, so many (not all) of the recommendations were not for my good, but could actually do me more harm, as I have experienced in years past.

Now, if you are still with me, there is a spiritual message contained in all of this. For if/when we examine our spiritual lives against the truth of the Scriptures, and God reveals to us the areas of our lives where there are issues, where there are areas that need fixing on a spiritual and perhaps moral level, then we need to seek God for the solutions. For some (or many) humans are going to recommend to us solutions which are not of God, and which may even be contrary to God’s will and purpose for our lives, for they are looking to humans to resolve their issues, and not to their creator God.

And, on a physical level, I am certainly not accusing any of my doctors of deliberately suggesting anything that they knew would cause me harm, but so many doctors are being trained in medications as the primary or only solution to our health issues, and that is a false narrative. And on a spiritual level there are many “false brethren” among us who are leading us in the wrong direction who are teaching that we can just “mask our symptoms” with the “blood of Christ” without actually putting sin to death in our lives.

And that really is the parallel message with my health situation. For there are many professing Christians whose lives are broken and in need of healing and deliverance who have, perhaps with the help of others, discovered what is broken and what needs healing and deliverance. Yet they are listening to these “false brethren” who are teaching them lies, who are “white washing” their sins and are convincing them that all their sins are forgiven, even though they are still living in deliberate and habitual sin.

But Jesus Christ taught that to come to him we must deny self, take up our cross daily (die daily to sin), and follow (obey) him. For if we hold on to living in sin and for self, we will lose our lives for eternity. But if we deny self, die daily to sin, by the Spirit, and we walk in obedience to our Lord and to his commands, in his power, then we have eternal life with God. For not everyone who calls him “Lord” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one DOING (obeying) the will of God (see Luke 9:23-26; Matthew 7:21-23).

So, we need to look to Jesus for the solution to sin issues, and not rely on the world and worldly preachers to make our decisions for us, and to lead us in the wrong direction, which will cause us more harm, and not good. And we should not consider that all doctors’ or pastors’ counsel is what we should follow, and that it is for our good, just because of who they are. For they are still humans. And they don’t get everything right. And some of them may even intentionally do or recommend what they know will cause more harm.

So, learn to go to God with your troubles, with your sicknesses, and definitely with any battles you might be having with sin. And rely on the Lord to give you the counsel that you need to know what to do and not to do, according to the Scriptures and what they teach, and according to the will and purpose of God for our lives. For the advice of human beings may not always be in line with the counsel of God, and some of it, as said, may be deliberately in opposition to God’s counsel, and to do you deliberate harm.

[Matthew 7:13-14,21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Romans 1:18-32; Romans 2:5-10; Romans 3:23; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; Romans 12:1-2; 1 Corinthians 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; 2 Corinthians 5:10,15,21; Galatians 5:16-24; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-13; Hebrews 10:19-39; Hebrews 12:1-2; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 1:1-10; 1 John 2:3-6; 1 John 3:4-10; Revelation 2:1-29; Revelation 3:1-22]

Lead Me Gently Home, Father

By Will L. Thompson, 1879

Lead me gently home, Father,
Lead me gently home;
When life’s toils are ended,
And parting days have come,
Sin no more shall tempt me,
Ne’er from Thee I’ll roam,
If Thou’ll only lead me, Father,
Lead me gently home.

Lead me gently home, Father,
Lead me gently home;
In life’s darkest hours, Father,
When life’s troubles come,
Keep my feet from wand’ring,
Lest from Thee I roam,
Lest I fall upon the wayside,
Lead me gently home.

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In Order to Bring Us Into Bondage
An Original Work / January 13, 2026
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

A wave of federal prosecutors in Minnesota and Washington DC have resigned in protest over the justice department’s decision not to hold a civil rights investigation into the fatal shooting of an unarmed US citizen by a federal immigration agent in Minneapolis.

Six lawyers from the US attorney’s office in Minnesota quit on Tuesday over the department’s reluctance to investigate the shooter of Renee Nicole Good, the New York Times reported.

Among them is Joseph H Thompson, who was second in command at the office and led a large-scale fraud inquiry last year that led in part to the Trump administration sending a surge of immigration agents into the state.

Thompson and his colleagues, the Times said, were upset at senior justice department officials demanding a criminal inquiry into any ties between Good and her widow, Becca, into activist groups; and the refusal of the FBI to allow state investigators to join its investigation of the shooting.

Separately, four leaders of a crucial division in the US justice department have also resigned. The lawyers left the civil rights division, which has a criminal investigations unit that investigates the use of force by police officers, according to MS Now, citing three people it said were briefed about the departures.

The resignations follow a decision by Harmeet Dhillon, the Trump administration-aligned assistant attorney general for civil rights, not to investigate the 7 January killing of Good

Multiple career prosecutors in Dhillon’s office offered to lead an inquiry into the shooting but were told not to do so, CBS News reported on Friday.

--

Whistleblower drops 'largest ever' ICE leak to unmask agents​

A Department of Homeland Security whistleblower has released the identities of about 4,500 ICE and Border Patrol employees Tuesday in what has been called potentially the largest agency data breach for the department.

The killing of 37-year-old mother Renee Nicole Good by ICE agent Jonathan Ross last week in Minneapolis has prompted the leak of personnel data to the ICE List, an online database created to promote accountability by the masked federal agents, according to a report from The Daily Beast.

“It is a sign that people aren’t happy within the U.S. government, clearly. The shooting [of Good] was the last straw for many people," Dominick Skinner, ICE list founder, told The Beast.

I read a lot about Michael Heiser's studies about the divine council and related interpretations. To those that have read of him, what do you as Orthodox think of his studies? In what do you disagree? Thanks.

A counterprotester briefly faces off with protesters as crowd diminishes​

A counterprotester antagonized some of the demonstrators near the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building on Thursday morning.

“We executed one of you yesterday,” the counterprotester said.

The protesters’ response: “Don’t feed the trolls.”

‘We executed one of you yesterday’: Michigan CEO steps down after protest​

A Bay City man seen in a viral video shouting at protesters in Minneapolis in the aftermath of the death of Renee Nicole Good has since resigned as CEO from a southeast-Michigan company.

Jayden Scott announced on his LinkedIn account Saturday, Jan. 10, that he was resigning as CEO of Harmony Investment Group, a Troy-based private health care firm.

“With recent developments in America, the board and I have decided, we have different views of the future of America."

Also in the video, Scott referred to the protesters as terrorists, and called for more “patriots.”

“We need the backup,” he said.

Hello, I have a question. I've read a lot about the late Michael Heiser's work, especially the divine council, plus other things like itnerpretation. To those that have heard of him, what do you as Catholics think of his views?

The End is (Very) Nigh.

Pentagon clarifies Hegseth’s ‘putting hands on recruits’ statement​

“Yes, they can shark attack, they can toss bunks, they can swear, and yes, they can put their hands on recruits,” he said. “This does not mean they can be reckless or violate the law, but they can use tried and true methods to motivate new recruits, to make them the warriors they need to be.”

“Of course, you can’t do, like, nasty bullying and hazing. We’re talking about words like bullying and hazing and toxic. They’ve been weaponized ... inside our formations, undercutting commanders and NCOs. No more. Setting, achieving and maintaining high standards is what you all do. And if that makes me toxic, then so be it.”

[So bullying and hazing are wrong, but we can't talk about 'bullying' or 'hazing'? Well, how bad is this problem, anyway?]

The most recently compiled report on military hazing, from 2024, shows that about one in five hazing and bullying complaints is substantiated, and that reporting numbers, while on a recent upswing, are relatively low, with 138 hazing complaints for that year. The Marine Corps has accounted for a disproportionately high share of hazing allegations since congressionally mandated reporting began in 2020.

--
Also, I can't wait for Hegseth to say "I was hazed, but I turned out okay."

As someone who has never been involved in Christian communities where "means of grace" has been used, I'm trying to understand what people mean by this "expression". It seems to be usually (maybe always) tied to the purpose of the sacraments, but I'm clear what it actually means.

Perhaps it's because different communities use it differently?

So, please, explain like I'm 5, what you mean when use the expression "it's a means of grace"?

And please, let's not let this become a debate - there's a enough of that around. We all know different Christians view the sacraments differently. No need to debate their meaning or anything else in this tread. Feel free to ask clarifying questions, but let's leave disagreeing for somewhere else.

An Arizona pastor has taken to social media to question the wisdom of interracial marriage, characterizing his own marriage to a Latina woman as less than “ideal.”

Partridge is an author and pastor of King’s Way Reformed Church in Prescott, Arizona. He is known for posting provocative content regarding a variety of issues. In October, Partridge was at the center of online controversy after criticizing the “crack-sucking leggings” worn by a waitress where his family ate a meal.

Dale Partridge: Interracial Marriage Is Not the ‘Ideal’​

“As a Christian man happily married to a Mexican/Spanish/American woman, I actually agree with @JoelWebbon,” Partridge said in a social media post on Saturday (Jan. 10). “Interracial marriage is not the ‘ideal.’”

Continued below.

Jeri Rees said her 21-year-old nephew underwent six hours of surgery and that doctors found shards of plastic, glass and metal embedded in his eyes and around his face, including a metal piece lodged 7 mm from a carotid artery.

She said doctors did not want to remove the shrapnel near the artery out of fear that it could kill him.

Several videos of Friday’s incident were shared on social media. One video shows demonstrators, who were protesting the fatal shooting in Minnesota of Renee Good, throwing orange safety cones at the agents, who were standing guard outside of the Santa Ana federal building.

In the video, at least one agent appears to fire nonlethal rounds at the crowd, hitting one woman in the leg before aiming and striking the victim in the face.

The video shows the victim dropping to the ground after being shot, holding their face as the crowd retreats. The same agent then drags the victim by the hood of their jacket; they appear to be choking, grasping at the jacket binding their neck as blood pours from their left eye.

“The other officers were mocking him, saying, ‘You’re going to lose your eye,’” she said, recalling what her nephew told her.

“This constitutes as deadly force as far as the law is concerned,” said Ed Obayashi of the video. The Modoc County sheriff’s deputy and legal advisor to police agencies, who has testified in similar cases, said that “all the training manuals and [legal] cases say you don’t aim at the face because these projectiles can cause serious injury [or] death.”

Obayashi said, based on law enforcement use-of-force standards, an officer can deploy deadly force if they feel their life is in imminent danger, or that they are in danger of great bodily harm. “I just don’t see that here,” he said.

A spokesperson for the Santa Ana Police Department said the only violence they were aware of that night were demonstrators tossing orange cones at the agents.

In an email response to The Times, Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary with the Department of Homeland Security, said a “mob of 60 rioters threw rocks, bottles and fireworks at law enforcement officers outside of the federal building.”

ETA:

Read in ABC News: Trump says 'HELP IS ON ITS WAY' for Iran as protest death toll tops 2,000 — ABC News


I wish Trump would stop inserting himself into everybody’s business

I remember growing up when I was a kid there was this one church me and my family attended in Longview, WA, where among the youth there, there were 4 teenagers who seemed to have formed a little clique amongst themselves. They acted snobby and didn't talk to anyone else but themselves. They excluded other people from their little circle all the time. I was a 9-year-old girl at the time and I was struggling with my autism and making new friends. They didn't treat me nicely. I guess they thought I was strange? I did actually try to get to know them and hang around them, but I guess I wasn't cool enough for them because they excluded me too!

Of course this angered my mom. She told me she thought they weren't nice kids and that I should stay away from them. She told me she thought one of the girls had a mean streak. So I did stay away from them.

What do you think about young people in churches forming cliques among themselves and excluding others from their little circle? Do you think that is not very Christian-like behavior?

Nothing would exist without the quantum fields. Not life, not math, not even reality! Absolutely nothing.

A scientist would argue, mathematics forbid the absence of quantum fields or Zero point energy......

But without the quantum fields, even math and physics would not exist!!

We argue about life but nothing would exist in the first place without the quantum field / zero point energy

And nobody knows how the quantum field came to be. Even religion have no answer. Nothing says that God created the quantum field. It is already there when God started working!!

The importance of the quantum field is such it makes everything else a distraction.

We are closer to Jesus’s time than to the Pyramid’s earliest acknowledged construction dates, yet this monument and man, millennia apart, connect. No way our most important monument and most influential man should connect, but they do. In August 2025, building on a 2003 spiritual awakening, a 2011 prayer answered and 2013 geometric explorations, I proved this stunning link. Taking the Pyramid’s entrance passage slope at 26.445°, and projecting that angle eastward, towards the rising Sun, bisects Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity with 99.98% accuracy (26.445°/26.45°, within Petrie’s ±0.0055° margin). This ‘True Christ Angle,’ is revealed here for the first time.


People may say coincidence, hard to justify given the precision, but they may. They will have a harder time justifying their position, however, once they learn this precision extends beyond the angle to the distance. The Great Pyramid does not merely point to Jesus, it pinpoints Him. In 2024, I discovered that the 434.02-kilometer distance from the Great Pyramid apex to Bethlehem’s Silver star fits into the Moon’s diameter 8 times (3474.8 / 434.02 is 8.006, a 99.92% match to a perfect 8, and matches precisely when accounting for His life), a discovery I call ‘Moon Proof 8’ (these coincidences alone imply odds ~1 in 2 million, 1/2000 for the Angle and 1/1000 for the distance Appendix 2).

No other single digit number (0 to 9) so clearly represents Jesus. 8 brings to mind His resurrection on the 8th day, the Good News He preached: Eternal life (mathematical ∞, representing infinity across cultures), 888, Christian architecture, including baptismal fonts and so on. 8 as opposed to any other single digit, can be said to encapsulate Jesus. Those wary of what they may judge to be tenuous numerical associations, may look to the 8-sided Great Pyramid’s construction, unique to Giza, compared to the hundreds of other ancient Pyramids. Or to what another researcher found in 2012: that the Entrance passage positioning on the Great Pyramid’s face, encodes the lunar month, from Full Moon to Full Moon. So not only does the Entrance passage give us the ‘True Christ Angle’, which led us to find the importance of the Moon in the distance calculation, it encodes the Lunar month further tightening the relationship between, what should be, ‘random’ places. Additionally, the Giza plateau is widely acknowledged to flag the Spring Equinox. We celebrate Easter based on the first Full Moon after the Spring Equinox. Hence, Giza signalled the Spring Equinox triggering a countdown to His big moment: His death and Resurrection under the first Full Moon following this. These alignments and coincidences defy chance. They support a divine design hypothesis for the Great Pyramid, outshining speculative theories like alien or power plant origins. They point to a design originating with God, to pinpoint His Son.

Geometry, the study of shapes and measurements, is a branch emanating directly from Math's arithmetic trunk, and a universal language that offers, some argue, the most robust proofs in Maths after simple arithmetic. Accessible to all, it is my contention, God used it here, making this proof easily communicable to the whole human race, so that all of humanity can be in little doubt of Jesus’s divinity.

Geometry ties Jesus’s birth and resurrection to the Pyramid’s design through the entrance passage’s ‘True Christ Angle’, Moon Proof 8, the lunar calendar’s encoding, 8-sided structure, the spring equinox and more. Only a being with mastery over time, distance, space, life, and death could forge these reinforcing connections: that’s God. Supported by biblical prophecies and cosmic constants like Pi, the Golden ratio, the speed of light, Euler and numerical patterns like YHWH’s Gematria, this book unveils geometric proof to awaken humanity, with additional chapters—several detailing other evidence, biblical exegesis, prophecies fulfilled, global renewal, and my spiritual journey—inviting readers to explore the extent of God’s plan, crafted by our Creator for us to decipher.

Home | The Great Jesus Pyramid

The Rev. Franklin Graham is calling on Americans to join him in a “time of prayer and repentance” this week, warning that “our nation is in trouble” amid a volatile political climate.

In a social media post on Monday, Graham, the CEO of Samaritan’s Purse and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, announced what he called "a time of prayer and repentance" scheduled for Wednesday at noon ET.


“If you think our nation is in trouble now, just wait," Graham, the 73-year-old son of legendary evangelist Billy Graham, asked. “As our streets boil over with hate, anger, crime, drugs, and just sheer hopelessness, is there something we can do?”

“You bet there is,” he responded. “As a nation, our sins are so great. We have increasingly turned our backs on God and His commands, embracing godless secularism. We need to ask His forgiveness and seek His face.”

Amid protests in the aftermath of the shooting of Renee Good by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent last week, Graham urged Americans to “pray for our leaders, and pray that God would bring calm to our streets."

Continued below.

I am not comfortable with it. I have never judged anyone a day in my life. Call it a personal preference, I don't know. But I am not accustomed to pointing my finger at people and judging them. Seems mean and cruel to me.

My mom is a born-again Bible believing Christian (she is an Independent Baptist and I was raised in her denomination because she always took me to church when I was a baby), and she tells me it is OK to sometimes judge people because its in the Bible!

I don't know what to make of it honestly. I had always heard that God is love, He loves people unconditionally and as His followers we should too.

She and I got into a huge argument about the Bible. We were quoting Scriptures at each other! I have some knowledge of Bible Scripture (that I learned in church all those years I attended it), but its nowhere near on the level that Billy Graham's was. People called him The Walking Bible.

I guess I don't know a lot about this subject, what the Bible really says about judging people versus loving them. Is she right, or am I right?

I guess someone who is experienced in Bible Scripture should tell me...

In the verses prior to these, Paul spoke against being people who look to other humans for our answers to life’s mysteries and who seek the favor of other humans in order to please them, rather than looking for our answers in God and in his word, and to please God. He did not get his gospel message from other humans, but he got it by divine revelation, which for us is written down for us in the Scriptures. And we need to get our gospel message directly from the Scriptures, too, taught in their correct biblical context.

Now, this is not to say that we cannot do research or that we should never seek the counsel of another human being in any matter whatsoever, for Paul was speaking with regard to spiritual matters. He was not living to please other humans, and he did not get his gospel truth from other humans, but from God. Now he was a tent maker, I believe, so we don’t know if he sought the counsel of other humans in his tent making. He may have. But in spiritual matters we need to get the counsel of God directly from his word.

But what about our health issues? I don’t believe we should look to other humans to be our primary and foundational source to guide us in what to do or in what not to do with regard to our health, for there are many people in the medical profession who are beholding to big pharma and/or to corporate, and so they don’t really have our best interest at heart. So many are just prescribing drugs as the solution for everything, and many of these drugs end up doing bodily harm to their patients. So we must pray for guidance.

I do believe the medical profession can be helpful to us in diagnosing some things which can be seen in imaging tests, for example, but we should never look to doctors to be our gods in determining what course of action we should take. We should pray through every examination result to make certain that we are following the will of God and not the will of humans who may or may not be working for our good, for not all of them do work for our good, but many of them may work for the good of their own selves.

And, yes, this is speaking to me personally with regard to my health issues that I should not rely on the counsel of doctors to make my decisions for me. But in all things I must seek the counsel of the Lord in knowing what direction he would have me go. The doctors have definitely been helpful in getting me tests to diagnose what is going on inside my body, and I am certainly grateful for that technology. But where to proceed from there with the information has to come from the Lord and from his counsel.

And the same truth applies with any area of our lives where we are getting counsel from other humans. We, as followers of Christ are never to make other humans our gods to where we rely on them for truth and guidance, no matter who those humans may be. We should test the counsel that we receive from other humans against other information on the same subject, from other sources, for not all of them agree, but to always do so in prayer, seeking the will of God for our lives. For we now belong to Christ.

And so this includes testing the words of preachers who proclaim that what they are teaching is the “gospel” according to Jesus Christ. No matter who they are, or if they have a good reputation and are well respected, they are all still human. And many of them, sadly so, have compromised the message of the gospel to be acceptable to human flesh, because they want to draw in large crowds of people from the world into their gatherings. So they say what tickles itching ears rather than speak the plain truth of the gospel.

But Jesus Christ taught that to come to him we must deny self, take up our cross daily (die daily to sin), and follow (obey) him. For if we hold on to living in sin and for self, we will lose our lives for eternity. But if we deny self, die daily to sin, by the Spirit, and we walk in obedience to our Lord and to his commands, in his power, then we have eternal life with God. For not everyone who calls him “Lord” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one DOING (obeying) the will of God (see Luke 9:23-26; Matthew 7:21-23).

So, believe God, trust in his counsel, and follow in his ways always.

[Matthew 7:13-14,21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Romans 1:18-32; Romans 2:5-10; Romans 3:23; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; Romans 12:1-2; 1 Corinthians 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; 2 Corinthians 5:10,15,21; Galatians 5:16-24; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-13; Hebrews 10:19-39; Hebrews 12:1-2; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 1:1-10; 1 John 2:3-6; 1 John 3:4-10; Revelation 2:1-29; Revelation 3:1-22]

As the Deer

By Martin J. Nystrom
Based off Psalm 42:1

As the deer panteth for the water
So my soul longeth after You
You alone are my heart's desire
And I long to worship You

You alone are my strength, my shield
To You alone may my spirit yield
You alone are my heart's desire
And I long to worship You

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Getting Our Counsel From God
An Original Work / January 13, 2026
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

# 1. SHALL //. YALAO. is a verb in. the NIPHAL in. the IMPERECT TENSE.

# 2. A NATION // GOY in. the SINGULAR ABSOLOTE

# 3. BE BORN AT ONCE. ///. in. the SINGULAR ABSOLUTE

# 4 AT ONCE ///. PA AM is and SINGULAR ABSOLTE


#A. FOR one it is not PAUL SPEAKING

# B. IT has to be a NATION in. the OLD TESAMENT ?

# C It has n to be ISRAEL !!

# D AND Matt 10:5. and 6. do not go to the GENTILES or to. the SAMARITANS

# E. BUT go to the bUT GO RATHER. to the LOST SHEEP of ISRAEL who will be BORN AGAIN

# F And EZE. 36 and EZE 37 explains it all to us !!

dan p