Some complain when the idea of the Christian Church being the True Israel of God is brought up; they complain that it is replacement theology, but I ask even if it is derided as replacement theology is it also biblical theology?

Galatians 6:11-18 NET See what big letters I make as I write to you with my own hand! (12) Those who want to make a good showing in external matters are trying to force you to be circumcised. They do so only to avoid being persecuted for the cross of Christ. (13) For those who are circumcised do not obey the law themselves, but they want you to be circumcised so that they can boast about your flesh. (14) But may I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. (15) For neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything; the only thing that matters is a new creation! (16) And all who will behave in accordance with this rule, peace and mercy be on them, and on the Israel of God. (17) From now on let no one cause me trouble, for I bear the marks of Jesus on my body. (18) The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers and sisters. Amen.

People talk about guardian angels, and angels are mentioned in the holy scriptures so I wonder do we really have guardian angels and if so how many?

One song suggests that we have fourteen.

What is the Granville Sharp Rule?​

The Granville Sharp Rule is a linguistic principle often used in biblical exegesis to establish the meaning of Greek texts. It is named after Granville Sharp, an 18th-century English scholar and social activist who first identified and formulated this rule. The Granville Sharp Rule helps to determine whether two nouns in a Greek sentence are referring to the same person or thing, based on the grammatical construction and the use of definite articles. This rule has significant implications for the interpretation of biblical passages, particularly those related to the deity of Christ and the nature of the Trinity.

At its core, the Granville Sharp Rule states that when two nouns in the Greek New Testament are connected by the conjunction “and” (usually the Greek word “kai”) and the first noun lacks a definite article but the second one has a definite article, both nouns refer to the same person or thing. This construction implies a qualitative relationship rather than just a simple conjunction. For instance, in Titus 2:13, the phrase “Our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ” follows the Granville Sharp Rule, indicating that both “God” and “Saviour” refer to the same person, namely Jesus Christ.

Source

Some say that the rule is overly complicated and that it was never applied before Mr Sharp "invented" it. What do you think of it and should it be used for constructing proof-texts for the Holy Trinity and the Deity of Christ?

"Donald Trump claims he loves America, but does he really? "
-Will Saletan of the Bulwark.

Saletan highlights Trump's pattern of praising our enemies (China, Russia, N Korea) while trashing our own country. He makes the point quite effectively using video clips from recent Trump interviews and rally speeches. Trump even suggested that if he were to lose, Trump supporters would have to travel to Venezuela to speak freely.....

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Saint Paul wrote a letter to the church in Philippi in which he speaks of the bishops and deacons in that church.
If you subscribe the KJV only theology I'd be interested to hear about your church's ecclesiology and what bishops you have. For those wo come from independent churches and free churches that do not have bishops I am curious to know how you see this passage. It is, of course, not the only passage mentioning bishops.

Former President Donald Trump appears to have made remarkable gains of about 14 points among independents and 19 points with Latino voters relative to Vice President Kamala Harris in a new poll.

This is just a thread to discuss the Sept 10th presidential debate between Trump and Harris. The debate begins at 8:30 pm eastern time. Information as to how to watch it can be found at the link below.



I have also provided a poll to view debate performance. You can change your vote anytime. The intent is to see how their performance changes throughout the debate.

Edit: I know I misspelled "losing" in the poll question. I am unfortunately unable to change it. My apologies.

The vice president made an unsuccessful push to have Donald Trump’s microphone left on when it wasn’t the former president’s turn to speak.

Vice President Kamala Harris agreed to ABC News’ rules, relenting on her campaign’s demand that both candidates’ microphones be unmuted for all 90 minutes they are on stage.

In a letter to the network, Harris’ senior adviser for communications Brian Fallon wrote that he believed the format “fundamentally disadvantaged” the vice president, denying the former prosecutor the opportunity to fully cross-examine the GOP nominee, according to a person familiar with the missive.

The muted mic, Fallon wrote, “will serve to shield Donald Trump from direct exchanges with the Vice President. We suspect this is the primary reason for his campaign’s insistence on muted microphones.”


It's an odd turn of events. The reason they went to muted mics before was because of Trump's non-stop interruptions in the 2020 debates and Biden's team was asking for it, while Trump's team was criticizing the muted mic rule claiming it was "tilting it in favor of Biden"

Now they seem to have switched positions, Trump wants them muted, and Kamala wants them unmuted.


Perhaps I'm a tad cynical, but am I the only one who thinks that the argument and party-switch on the "muted vs. unmuted mics" has nothing to do with decorum (pertaining to interruptions) and/or "being able to cross-examine the opponent", and has everything to do with Kamala wanting to make sure there's ample opportunities to use her "I'm speaking" catchphrase that people are wearing on t-shirts now (and Trump not wanting her to be able to use it).

That right wing news outlet, CNN, did some digging.

In a 2019 questionnaire that she filled out for the American Civil Liberties Union when she was running for president, Vice-President Kamala Harris espoused hard-left positions, such as decreasing funding for ICE, ending detention for illegal immigrants, funding gender transition surgeries for illegal immigrants and federal prisoners, and even decriminalization of hard drugs.

CNN’s investigative reporter Andrew Kaczynski revealed his findings on the questionnaire, which can be read here, speaking to CNN host Erin Burnett.

The Struggle


When Jesus Christ died on that cross, taking upon himself the sins of the entire world, he put our sins to death with him in order that, by faith in him, we will die with him to sin and live to him and to his righteousness in walks of obedience to his commands. For Jesus Christ died on that cross to deliver us out of our slavery to sin so what we will obey his commands and live for him, and not just to forgive us our sins, and not so that we can go on living in sin now guilt free. (Romans 6:1-23; Titus 2:11-14; Luke 9:23-26)

We are, thus, as followers of Jesus Christ, to throw off those weights of sin so that we can run with endurance the Christian race that God has set before us, keeping our eyes on Jesus and not on the flesh (Hebrews 12:1-2). And we must resist the devil and flee temptation to sin. And we must accept the Lord’s discipline in our lives and his chastisements of us as that of a loving parent who wants to keep us from doing evil and to train us to do what is good and righteous and godly and morally pure and upright.

For Discipline


In what ways does our Lord discipline us so that we share in his holiness? He corrects us when we are going the wrong way. And he may allow sickness or injury or rejection or mistreatment to come into our lives to humble us and to discipline us in the ways of the Lord so that we follow in his pathways, and so that we do not stray from him and go our own way, instead. And just because we are disciplined, it doesn’t mean we have necessarily done something wrong, for discipline is also training in righteousness.

But those lacking in this discipline continue on in their sins because they are resistant to such discipline and will not accept it in their lives. For they are still lord over their own lives, charting their own course, living according to their own sinful and selfish desires. And so they leave a trail of sin behind them rather than a trail of self-discipline and walks of holiness and righteousness and obedience to our Lord, in practice. For they live for self and for the flesh and not for the glory of God, doing what pleases him.

So, for the ones who are disciplined by the Lord, and who accept that discipline, and who grow to maturity in Christ because of it, they share in Christ’s holiness and yield the peaceful fruit of righteousness, because they have been trained by such disciplines in godliness and in holy living. But the ones who reject the disciplines of the Lord and choose to go their own way, instead, they end up continuing on a sinful path and are regarded by God as illegitimate children of God, giving lip service, but not in action and truth.

Lift Your Drooping Hands


Drooping hands are those which are limp, slumped, sinking, slouching, or lounging (idling, lazing, loafing). And hands are what we use to do work, so they represent our deeds (works). So if someone has drooping hands, this is someone who is being slothful, lazy, and idle, who is not living under the disciplines of the Lord, but who is living for self and for self-pleasure. And it could be that they find the disciplines of God too painful, so they give up. It is just easier for them to yield to sin than to resist it and to flee from it.

When I think of knees I think of prayer but also of bowing the knee to the Lord in humble submission and in obedience to him and to his commands. So if our knees are weak, then our submission to God and to his will and purposes for our lives is also weak (limp, shaky, flimsy, insubstantial). We are not those who are living in surrender of our lives to the will of God, but we are those who live by our emotions and what makes us feel good, because that is easier than enduring the disciplines of the Lord Jesus.

So, if that is where we are, the counsel for us then is to stop being lazy and slothful and to stop resisting the Lord and his disciplines in our lives, and to now obey the Lord and his commands, in practice, and to walk in holiness and righteousness and in godly living in the power of God, doing the will of God. And we are to now surrender our lives to the Lord and to submit to his will for our lives and to do what he says we are to do as his followers. And we are now to live holy lives pleasing to our Lord.

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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English Baptist minister, Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834 - 1892). | Getty Images/Hulton Archive

Without a doubt, Charles Spurgeon (1834-1892) and Billy Graham (1918-2018) were Gospel preachers rather than social justice warriors. Yet both of them addressed some of the greatest social evils of their day without for a moment diluting their Jesus-centered messages. To be sure, they lost some of their audiences because of the stands they took. But they never took their eyes off the ultimate goal: lifting up the risen Savior and pointing all people to Him.

As for Spurgeon, slavery and the slave trade had already been abolished in 1807 in England, more than a quarter of a century before he was born. So when he spoke out against slavery, he was addressing America rather than his homeland.

An article on the Spurgeon.org website gives the background, along with one of Spurgeon’s best-known anti-slavery quotes:

Continued below.

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Just a couple weeks ago, Senator Tom Cotton stood his ground and masterfully exposed ABC's Jonathan Karl for the "This Week" host's shameless propaganda disguised as a news interview.

On Sunday, Cotton did it again in this on CNN's "State of the Union" show with host Dana Bash, turning the standard post-school shooting narrative around on a bewildered and unsuspecting Bash.

Hi jest wondering is it unChristian to forbid unbelievers to take part in discussions after all is it not our duty to spread Gods word among unbelievers in the hope they will be saved.

Love and Peace
Dave

This article mentions Trump's language about global warming.
But it goes into the common misuse of language about global warming.
And, it underlines that this misdirection from reality, is not new, and many
politicians engage in it.

We are discovering that the systematic pollution of our environment,
and the destruction of natural systems, is having a MUCH FASTER
negative effect on out lives, than the scientists who try tomodel these
changes, expected.

It's time for politicians to stop mocking concerns about how we are destroying
our good earth.

HI EVERYONE

I am looking for Chinese fronds, I am a Christian teacher living in Nanjing China. I wish to meet up with Chinese speaking believers either on here or by email. I also need translators to translate my englis devotions into chinese, if you are able to help with either of these things, please email me at keitherichobkirk@hotmail.com

Thanks so much

keith

CNN —

As Kamala Harris pivots to the political center in her campaign for president, a 2019 questionnaire from a leading civil rights organization spotlights her past support for left-wing causes such as taxpayer-funded gender transition surgeries for detained immigrants and federal prisoners.

In an American Civil Liberties Union questionnaire then-Sen. Harris filled out as a candidate for president in 2020, she also expressed support for decriminalizing federal drug possession for personal use, and for sweeping reductions to Immigration and Custom Enforcement operations, including drastic cuts in ICE funding and an open-ended pledge to “end” immigration detention.

Camala News Network

I wanted to pose a possible interpretation on Daniel 9:24-26, which describes the amount of time Jerusalem and the Jews would be under Gentile control. The proposed interpretation is that Daniel was not told about the amount of time the Hasmonean Dynasty would rule (103 years) but only the amount of time foreigners would rule Jerusalem before the city was destroyed. I propose that from the second year of Darius the Great (520 BC, Haggai 1:1), 483 years of occupation in addition to the 103 years of Jewish sovereignty brings us to the year 66 AD, the year the war in Judea against the Roman Empire began. During this year, the Jewish people threw off their procurators and puppet priests. That was when the Jewish high priest Ananus ben Ananus was deposed by the Jews, cut off from his prestigious role as chief leader of the Jewish people. In this case, the messiah mentioned in Daniel 9:25-26 was the high priest, the only Jewish leader among the Jews under Roman procuratorship. This paused the weeks of years until the time of the end.

If I am understanding this correctly, the last week of years shown in Daniel 9:27 begins when the high priesthood is restored. That would match what Daniel 9:27 suggests, that sacrifice and oblation would cease because of an abomination that causes desolation. That being the corruption of the office of high priest and the consequent apostasy throughout the land.

Looking forward to your thoughts.

"What do you want to do with your life?"

There was an old man in Whiting, IN, who asked me this question. I talked with him for maybe three minutes. But in that one question, I had to re-examine myself, and my response to what otherwise would've been small talk, suddenly became a conversation about my deepest desires...more specifically, it became a conversation about the kind of person I wanted to be.

Looking back in it, a few years later, I've come to see this question as the best way I know of to get to know someone deeply, in one question. But as much as it pains me to admit such a thing...my knowledge can be limited. "The best way I know of" isn't always the best way.

So I propose the above question as my contribution to the conversation...but I want to ask all ye strangers on the Internet: What do you think is the best 1 question to get to know someone?

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R.F.K. Jr. reveals how thew CIA unleashed toxins, poisons, and bioweapons on the American people. He also speaks of the mind control experiments that are being conducted.

I won't go into long detail about why I feel this way, but I have been feeling this way for a long time. I still believe in God of course, but I don't think He's with me all the time like the church loves to preach. If anyone can prove me wrong, I'm open to alternate viewpoints.

i just learned today that my cousin (actually she was a 3rd cousin or something), died Saturday of uterine cancer and while I hardly knew her, she was a good lady and I am really bummed out. Especially since I had a uterine cancer scare about 6 or 7 years ago. Thank God mine was benign. I thought she was doing well after surgery and treatment. Please pray for her family and for her, too. She lost her husband to suicide 20-25 years ago and now I pray she is once again joined with her beloved husband and mother, whom she missed terribly.
Her and her sister stood up for my hubby and I when we had our marriage convalidated about 18 or 19 years ago and I don’t think I’ve seen her since then. We exchanged Christmas cards but thats about it.
I’m going to always regret not making an effort to see her occasionally. I couldn’t drive to where she lived but my hubby couldve gotten me there.

John MacArthur, author and pastor of Grace Community Church of Sun Valley, California, speaks at the Shepherds' Conference on Wednesday, March 9, 2022. | Screengrab: shepherdsconference.org

A woman has accused the John MacArthur-led Grace Community Church of Sun Valley, California, of disciplining her when she sought separation from her husband, who has reportedly been abusive to her.

Lorraine Zielinski had her name publicly announced in July during a Grace communion service as someone who has been put under church discipline concerning issues regarding the separation from her husband.

Last month, she said Grace approved her to undergo the fourth step of church discipline, which is "to be ostracized from the fellowship," according to Grace's website.

Continued below.

He will be missed: https://apnews.com/article/james-earl-jones-dies-19ea259ff3f44b91b2ed8730b702c23f

What do Bubbles signify in icons? I was watching an Orthodox video on YouTube and there were many icons with skulls and bubbles present.

Is it significant?

Blessings