Where’s purgatory in the Bible? Protestants ask this all the time.​

“Where’s purgatory in the Bible?” Protestants ask this all the time.

Any Catholic who is familiar with apologetics knows to answer with 1 Corinthians 3:11-15:

For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any one builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— each man’s work will become manifest; for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work which any man has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.

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Paul is talking about the Day of Judgment, which comes after death (see Hebrews 9:27). And in light of the “fire” that tests the quality of a person’s works, Catholics argue that the person is being purified. Fire is used metaphorically in Scripture as a purifying agent—in Matthew 3:2-3,11 and Mark 9:49—and as that which consumes: Matthew 3:12; 2 Thessalonians 1:7-8). This state of existence can’t be heaven because the individual has the defilement of bad works and is suffering loss. Nor can it be hell because Paul says the person “will be saved.” A state of purification in the afterlife that is neither heaven nor hell—that’s purgatory!

But for Protestants it’s not so clear. They offer a few reasons why they think this doesn’t refer to purgatory.

One is that Paul says these things will only happen at the Final Judgment—“for the Day will disclose it” (v.13; emphasis added). For this text to support the Catholic doctrine of purgatory, so the argument goes, it would need to speak of an intermediate judgment before the Second Coming. Since it doesn’t, a Catholic can’t use it to support purgatory.

What should we make of this Protestant counter? Is it a precious stone that would survive the fire of scrutiny? Or is it more like straw? Let’s test it and find out.

Continued below.

If you stop reading right there, you might get the idea that God’s grace to us overlooks all our sins, that he does not correct, chastise, rebuke, discipline, warn, and judge us if we continue living in deliberate and habitual sin once we profess faith in Jesus Christ. For that is the picture of God’s grace which is commonly being taught today, here in America, anyway. Some people even go so far as to say that God no longer sees when we sin and so when he looks at us, all he sees is Jesus, regardless of our lifestyles of choice.


But here is where we learn who those words apply to, and they are not for everyone who professes faith in Jesus Christ with their lips. They are for those who fear the Lord (stated here 3 times), who keep his covenant, and who remember to do his commandments. We are those who have these promises, who walk in obedience to our Lord, and not in sin, in practice, and who take God’s words to us (us who believe in Jesus) in all seriousness, and who, by the Spirit, are putting them into daily practice, in the power of God.

And now I know that this is Old Testament teaching, but the New Testament teaches the same thing. For Jesus said that if anyone would come after him, he must deny self, take up his cross daily (die daily to sin and to self) and follow (obey) him. For if we hold on to our old lives of living in sin and for self, we will lose them for eternity. But if for Jesus’ sake we deny self, die daily to sin, and follow him in obedience to his commands, then we have the hope of eternal life with God (see Luke 9:23-26; cf. Ephesians 4:17-24).

And he said that not everyone who says to him, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one DOING the will of God the Father. For many will stand before him on the day of judgment proclaiming him as their Lord and claiming all they did in his name, and he will answer them, “I never knew you! Depart from me you workers of lawlessness.” Why? Because they did not fear (honor, revere, obey) him, they did not keep his covenant, and they were not obeying his New Covenant commands (Matthew 7:21-23).

And God’s grace, which is bringing us salvation, is training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives while we await our Lord’s return. For Jesus Christ gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works, the works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them, as his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works (Titus 2:11-14; Ephesians 2:8-10).

And to fear the Lord means to honor him, to revere him, to respect him, to do what pleases him, to believe him, and to take his words seriously (to heart), and to obey them. It is for us to do what is right in the eyes of the Lord, i.e. what is acceptable to him, in his power and strength. And it is for us to worship him by presenting our bodies to him as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to him. For it is also to cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.

[Matt 10:28; Luke 1:50; Acts 9:31; Acts 10:34-35; Rom 3:10-18; Rom 12:1-2; 2 Co 5:6-11; 2 Co 7:1; Php 2:12-13; Heb 5:7; Heb 12:28-29; Rev 11:18; Rev 14:7; Rev 15:4]

The whole purpose of Jesus giving his life up for us on that cross was so that we would be crucified with him in death to sin and raised with him to walk in newness of life in him, no longer as slaves to sin, but now as slaves to God and to his righteousness. So we are not to let sin reign in our mortal bodies to make us obey its desires, for if sin is what we obey, it leads to death. But if obedience to our Lord is what we obey, it leads to righteousness and to sanctification, and its end is eternal life (Romans 6:1-23; 1 Peter 2:24).

And his word teaches us that if sin is what we practice, and not righteousness, and not holy living, and not walks of obedience to our Lord and to his commands, that we do not know God. We are not in fellowship with God. And if we claim to be, we are liars. We are not born of God. But we are of the devil. And that is because we have not died with Christ to sin and we are not walking in obedience to his commands, so we don’t have forgiveness of sins, and we do not have salvation and eternal life with God.

[Matt 7:21-23; Lu 9:23-26; 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 Pet 2:24; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Heb 10:23-31; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15]

Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah

Hymn lyrics by William Williams, pub.1745
tr. by Peter Williams, pub.1771
Music by John Hughes, 1907

Guide me, O Thou great Jehovah,
Pilgrim through this barren land.
I am weak, but Thou art mighty;
Hold me with Thy powerful hand.
Bread of Heaven, Bread of Heaven,
Feed me till I want no more (2X).

Open now the crystal fountain,
Whence the healing stream doth flow;
Let the fire and cloudy pillar
Lead me all my journey through.
Strong Deliverer, strong Deliverer,
Be Thou still my Strength and Shield (2X).

Lord, I trust Thy mighty power,
Wondrous are Thy works of old;
Thou deliver’st thine from thralldom,
Who for naught themselves had sold.
Thou didst conquer, Thou didst conquer
Sin and Satan and the grave (2X).

When I tread the verge of Jordan,
Bid my anxious fears subside;
Death of deaths, and hell’s destruction,
Land me safe on Canaan’s side.
Songs of praises, songs of praises,
I will ever give to Thee. Amen (2X).

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Asking for prayer to find a suitable job. Because of my disabilities, I'm looking for a remote from home job.

I'm considering medical transcription. A friend of mine is going to try to contact someone they know who is in the medical field about how I could get hired by a company who would pay for the course/certification, because I can't afford to do that on my own.

If that falls through, then something like that would be good. Where I can work on my own and not have to use the phone. Thanks.

Why Does the Bible Say So Much about Widows?​

All Over Scripture​

Much earlier in my ministry, I began to include widows in the public prayers of the church where I was the pastor. I spoke at a gathering of ministers on public praying and mentioned widows among those who were often neglected in the prayers and ministry of the church. Called to care for widows in my own congregation, I began to study the Scriptures.

I soon discovered that there were very few books written about caring for widows but was taken aback by how much the Bible said about them. Whether you read Moses and the prophets, the Psalms and the Proverbs of Solomon, the four Gospels, or the book of Acts and the letters to the churches in the New Testament, you will not be able to read far without the subject of widows coming up. There are about eighty direct references to widows in the Scriptures. Why?

The Defender of Widows​

Fundamentally, God is the kind of God who keeps a careful eye on the widow. He is profoundly concerned for her, together with the stranger and the fatherless. He is righteous and protects them for he is “a father of the fatherless, a defender of widows . . . in his holy habitation,” (Psalm 68:5).

The incarnate Son of God is like him. He cared for his widowed mother (John 19:25-17), he raised from the dead the son of the widow of Nain and returned him to his mother (Luke 7:11-17), and, in the spirit of the prophets, condemned those who took advantage of widows (Matthew 23:24).

Called to Imitate God​

In line with this, God commanded that the nation of Israel care for widows, being diligent to not isolate them or take advantage of their vulnerability. Deuteronomy 16:11-14 shows how God provided for widows so that they were not excluded; instead, they enjoyed full participation in the Feast of Weeks and the Feast of Tabernacles.

However, when the nation of Israel turned away from serving God, they also turned away from his commandments. Who suffered when that happened? Widows were among the first casualties. The Old Testament prophets reproached those who wronged widows and called the nation back to its God-given responsibilities (e.g. Isaiah 10:1-3, Jeremiah 22:1-5, Ezekiel 22:6-7).

The church is called to be God-like, imitating his example and obeying his commandments. The early church cared for widows (Acts 6). In fact, the task was so important that seven men of good reputation, full of wisdom and the Holy Spirit, were selected to be responsible for the matter.

What's more, Paul laid out clear instructions in 1 Timothy 5 about how widows were to be regarded and treated. James did not mince his words in James 1:27. He said, in effect, “Let’s be clear about the nature of real religion. It must be visible and practical. It visits widows and orphans in their trouble as well as maintains moral purity in an evil world.”

Pray that GOD will soften the hearts of Jake, Brandon and Daniel. Remove the spiritual blindness from their eyes, and help them to understand the truth about Jesus. Bring them to repentance and salvation. Help me to let my light shine before men that they may see my good deeds and glorify my Father in heaven. Pray that a friendship will develop. A specific need would be Jakes marijuana usage. Please pray that he will be sent free from it. Thank you.

The temporary pier constructed by the US military to transport aid into Gaza broke apart and sustained damage in heavy seas on Tuesday in a major blow to the American-led effort to create a maritime corridor for humanitarian supplies into the war-torn enclave, the Pentagon said.

The pier was “damaged and sections of the pier need rebuilding and repairing,” Pentagon deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh said on Tuesday. The pier will be removed from its location on the Gaza coast over the next 48 hours and taken to the Israeli port of Ashdod, where US Central Command will carry out repairs, Singh said. The repairs will take more than a week, further delaying the effort to get the maritime corridor fully operating.

Earlier, four US officials told CNN the pier broke apart in heavy seas.

Part of the pier, which consists of a narrow causeway to drive aid into Gaza and a wider parking area to drop off supplies transported by ship, disconnected on Sunday, the officials said. The parking area will have to be reconnected to the causeway before the pier can be used again.

The damage, first reported by NBC News, occurred three days after heavy seas forced two small US Army vessels to beach in Israel, according to US Central Command, while another two vessels broke free of their moorings and were anchored near the pier.

“I believe most of our soldiers were able to remain on the vessels and still are currently on them,” Singh said during Tuesday’s Pentagon press briefing. “And … within the next 24 or 48 hours, the Israeli Navy will be helping push those vessels back and hopefully they’ll be fully operational by then.”

I must say... Keeping up with SpaceX has been exciting for me...

One adviser to major Democratic donors keeps a running list of reasons Biden could lose.
A pervasive sense of fear has settled in at the highest levels of the Democratic Party over President Joe Biden’s reelection prospects, even among officeholders and strategists who had previously expressed confidence about the coming battle with Donald Trump.

All year, Democrats had been on a joyless and exhausting grind through the 2024 election. But now, nearly five months from the election, anxiety has morphed into palpable trepidation, according to more than a dozen party leaders and operatives. And the gap between what Democrats will say on TV or in print, and what they’ll text their friends, has only grown as worries have surged about Biden’s prospects.
“You don’t want to be that guy who is on the record saying we’re doomed, or the campaign’s bad or Biden’s making mistakes. Nobody wants to be that guy,” said a Democratic operative in close touch with the White House and granted anonymity to speak freely.
But Biden’s stubbornly poor polling and the stakes of the election “are creating the freakout,” he said.
“This isn’t, ‘Oh my God, Mitt Romney might become president.’ It’s ‘Oh my God, the democracy might end.’”
Despite everything, Trump is running ahead of Biden in most battleground states. He raised far more money in April, and the landscape may only become worse for Democrats, with Trump’s hush-money trial concluding and another — this one involving the president’s son — set to begin in Delaware.
The concern has metastasized in recent days as Trump jaunted to some of the country’s most liberal territories, including New Jersey and New York, to woo Hispanic and Black voters as he boasted, improbably, that he would win in those areas.

While he’s long lagged Biden in cash on hand, Trump’s fundraising outpaced the president’s by $25 million last month, and included a record-setting $50.5 million haul from an event in Palm Beach, Florida. One adviser to major Democratic Party donors provided a running list that has been shared with funders of nearly two dozen reasons why Biden could lose, ranging from immigration and high inflation to the president’s age, the unpopularity of Vice President Kamala Harris and the presence of third-party candidates like Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

If I started to read NT Wright, where should I begin?

Blessings

Expert says the Chinese military could seize Taiwan’s government buildings in under an hour​

Images of Chinese warships seen off the coast of Taiwan served as a dire warning of a potential invasion that could disrupt the technology supply chain, plunge the world into an economic catastrophe, and start a hot war between the U.S. and China. NBC News’ Ken Dilanian speaks with a geopolitics expert who believes an actual invasion could be over before the U.S. even has a chance to respond.

Video:

Hi, I don't know why this is happening, but I hope it doesn't devolve into another spiritual mess.

Before I came into the church, I had been exploring a different denomination which seemed very close to the full truth at the time. There were things that turned me off by the denomination, so I abandoned the idea, but now I'm feeling tempted again. There must be something that caused this. I'll try to think.

A particular stumbling block occurred yesterday when I was watching a video (came up as a suggested one). It was in regard to Matthew 5:23-24. The narrator of the video (who I have to admit, does have a magnetic quality about the way he preaches) was saying that the altar was something referring to Old Testament Law, and that while Jesus was making that statement, we were still under OT Law and that verse was referring to OT Law. It confused me because there are some Christians who separate some of Jesus' teachings for OT Law and some for NT Law. The preacher was trying to give a quote by Origen, the latter who said that the earliest Christians didn't have altars, and the preacher was trying to say that altars are an invention by the Catholic Church (sigh). I'm like, now what?

It seems there is a faction of people who hold the Founding Fathers up to be almost gods (but certainly some kind of divine representative). So much so that they figure a 240ish yr old legal document is as applicable in today's culture as in one from that long ago.


I'm curious, is there anything you think that Founding Fathers really should have thought a bit harder on. So I'm thinking problems that they REALLY should have been able to foresee and not empowered.

For example (and I am NOT a historian so please feel free to eviscerate and enlighten me)....I don't understand how a judge appointed by a president would be permitted to try that same president in their court room. How is it that this did not have some kind of stop gap measure?

Thoughts? Other examples? Keeping in mind it I'm looking MOSTLY for examples that are not explicitly from our times but are problems that could have arisen back then (ie..nothing about AI...that kinda thing)

The book of Hebrews. Several facts about the book of Hebrews...​

Hebrews is broken up into 13 chapters (Functional Table of Contents)​

Chapter 1 tends to be Headed as (God’s Final Word: His Son, The Son Superior to Angels)
Chapter 2 tends to be Headed as (Warning to Pay Attention, Jesus Made Fully Human)
Chapter 3 tends to be Headed as (Jesus Greater Than Moses, Warning Against Unbelief)
Chapter 4 tends to be Headed as (A Sabbath-Rest for the People of God, Jesus the Great High Priest)
Chapter 5 tends to be Headed as (Warning Against Falling Away)
Chapter 6 tends to be Headed as (The Certainty of God’s Promise)
Chapter 7 tends to be Headed as (Melchizedek the Priest, Jesus Like Melchizedek)
Chapter 8 tends to be Headed as (The High Priest of a New Covenant)
Chapter 9 tends to be Headed as (Worship in the Earthly Tabernacle, The Blood of Christ)
Chapter 10 tends to be Headed as (Christ’s Sacrifice Once for All, A Call to Persevere in Faith)
Chapter 11 tends to be Headed as (Faith in Action)
Chapter 12 tends to be Headed as (Warning and Encouragement, The Mountain of Fear and the Mountain of Joy)
Chapter 13 tends to be Headed as (Concluding Exhortations, Benediction and Final Greetings)

Things to mentally prepare for while going into a study like Hebrews...

1- Headings are not scripture. They are scholarly ideas of what it is believed that scripture is saying. They tend to be correct. There are some instances where they don't quite line up. However, they do help assist with the flow of passages.

2- Books as complex as Hebrews are best approached by exploiting the combination of a Literal Translation and a Paraphrase.

So, with these matters of difficulty in mind, how do we make it through Hebrews with clarity, understanding of the full intent of each word, sentence, passage and overarching message?

See Why did God favor Abel's offering over Cain's?

Hey does the flag of the European Union give you the creeps? I find something about it disturbing. The scripture says that the 1-World government of the antichrist will emerge from a revived roman empire, I think this could be the European Union!

Almost all European nations are post-Christian societies, many of them are athiest states. Sweden is an especially bad one, there is a microchip that may be the mark of the beast and many people in Sweden are taking the chip voluntarily! They are excited about it, they like it! The chip is designed to replace credit cards, the chip would be implanted in your hand and you would just swipe your hand at the check-out at the store rather than a credit card. If this ever became mandatory it would agree with the scripture that you could not buy and sell in the marketplace without the mark (the chip)!

Also:

ETA: 172 is not new; it's retained from their 2022 platform.

When Noah sent the dove out of the ark, how did it find an olive tree that didn't drown in the flood?

The tree was underwater.

Wouldn't all trees have died in the flood?

No, not necessarily. Gen 7:

19 And the waters prevailed so mightily on the earth that all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered. 20 The waters prevailed above the mountains, covering them fifteen cubits deep. 21 And all flesh died that moved on the earth, birds, livestock, beasts, all swarming creatures that swarm on the earth, and all mankind. 22 Everything on the dry land in whose nostrils was the breath of life died.

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The flood killed land animals. Some trees survived the flood. The flood reached the maximum in Gen 8 and started to recede:

5 And the waters continued to abate until the tenth month; in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were seen.

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Some trees came back to life and started growing again.

A few months later:

10b [Noah] sent forth the dove out of the ark. 11 And the dove came back to him in the evening, and behold, in her mouth was a freshly plucked olive leaf. So Noah knew that the waters had subsided from the earth.

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Not all trees died during the flood. Some revived when the water receded.

See also How long did Noah's family stay in the ark?

How to be saved and go to Heaven: Believe on Jesus Christ(who is God and Lord). Believe(accept it is true) that Jesus Christ alone will save you(save means eternal life in Heaven). Have faith(Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see) and trust(confidently rely on/depend on something being true) in Jesus alone to save you. You can also be saved if you believe and trust that Jesus died for our sins, was buried and rose again the third day according to the scriptures for the justification(to make right/forgive) of all your sins.

How would you define trust and faith in terms of how to be saved? Believe, faith and trust are similar terms. Believe means to accept that is true or to be persuaded something is true.

Trust: Confidently(quality of being certain) rely on (Rely: To need someone or something for help. To depend on someone or something)/depend.

Faith: Hebrews 11:1: NIV: Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. Hebrews 11:1: KJV: Faith is the substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not seen. My version of the definition of faith is confidence in what we hope for and certainty about what we do not see.

What does that mean?

Sourced from the Instagram account of a humanitarian activist in Indonesia.

A Christian family who was singing Christian spiritual songs in their house was approached and shouted at by a pair of Muslim women and men. This incident occurred at PCI Cerme Indah Housing, Gresik Regency, East Java, Indonesia.

In Indonesia, there are many cases of discrimination against minorities, including Christians, Buddhists and Catholics, regarding worship and daily activities which are not always featured in the news. Generally, the news media will only report it if it has gone viral on social media.

Source: Permadi Arya on Instagram: "belom kering mulut ini bahas pembubaran ibadah mahasiswa katolik di tangsel.. sudah terjadi lagi pembubaran doa di rumah di PCI perumahan cerme indah kab. gresik kayak gini mau protes penindasan zionis.. sementara di negeri sendiri jadi zionis nindas ke umat kristen.. umat kristen tidak boleh ibadah nyanyi di rumah, tapi umat islam boleh ibadah solat di rumah.. ini pemahaman zionis syariah yang harus kita lawan bersama! selama pemerintah belum ada itikad baik untuk mitigasi fobia kristen yang semakin menjadi jadi.. kalian umat kristen harus bangkit lawan pemahaman zionis syariah yang melarang kalian ibadah di rumah! ibadah di rumah adalah hak yang dilindungi undang undang. LAWAN ZIONIS SYARIAH "

Has God failed in Asia?

I sometimes feel like God has failed on the Asian battlefield. Asia has become a continent of spiritual darkness. I almost want to surrender to Satan.

The events which were spoken of here occur during the Messianic age, not under the Old Covenant. Thus, the temple being spoken of here is not the physical temple of God of the Old Covenant, but it is us, the people of God today who believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of our lives. We are that temple. God/Jesus Christ lives within us in the person of the Holy Spirit. For the temple is no longer a physical building but is a spiritual building with us who believe in Jesus as its living stones, with Christ as the cornerstone.

And so the measurement being spoken of here is not a physical but a spiritual measurement (examination). So, we are to be examined (judged) spiritually by God’s spiritual measurements, which are his Word and his commands. We the church are to come under the examination of God with regard to the spiritual condition of his temple, the church, the body of Christ, in our present day and time. And we have biblical examples of this kind of judgment written down for us in Revelation 2:1-29 and Revelation 3:1-22.

And what is the altar of God today? It is also not a physical place but a spiritual place of worship of God where we surrender our lives to him as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to him, which is our acceptable worship of him. It is us spending time with him in his word each day, drinking in its truths, taking them to heart, and then obeying the commands of our Lord under the New Covenant in our daily lives. For this is our walks of faith and obedience and service to our Lord as living sacrifices, pleasing to him.

And worship of God is not just singing a bunch of “praise and worship” songs in a “worship service.” It is giving our lives to the Lord as living sacrifices to be lived for God and according to his word. We who believe in Jesus Christ are to be crucified with Christ in death to sin and raised with him to walk in newness of life in him, no longer as slaves to sin, but now as slaves to God and to his righteousness. Thus sin is no longer to reign in our mortal bodies to make us obey its desires, for if sin is what we obey, it will lead to death.

[1 Peter 2:4-10; Romans 12:1-2; Romans 6:1-23; Luke 9:23-26]

And the outer court is the world which is comprised of all who deny Jesus Christ as Lord and who refuse to obey his commands. They are the ungodly, and they include both Jew and Gentile by physical birth, and even many of those who make professions of faith in Jesus Christ, but not in truth, and not in righteousness, because sin is still their practice. For their practice is also not righteousness, and not obedience to our Lord and to his commands. These are the “Gentiles,” i.e. the unholy and the ungodly of this world.

And what and where is the “holy city” now? It is not physical Jerusalem, for Paul made it quite clear that physical Jerusalem, representing the Jews who deny Christ as their Messiah, is of Hagar, the slave woman, because she is still in slavery with her children. For the physical nation of Israel, as a unit, has not accepted Jesus Christ as their Messiah (Savior), but they deny Christ as Lord, just as do many Gentiles and many who profess Jesus’ name, too. So they are the same as their Arab neighbors in relationship to salvation.

So the “holy city” today is comprised of all who believe in Jesus Christ in truth and in righteousness, who have died with him to sin, and who are denying self, dying daily to sin, and who are following the Lord Jesus in obedience to his commands, in practice. We are his holy nation, his people, set apart from the world and unto God, who are being conformed by God to the likeness of Christ, by the grace of God, in his power and strength, and as we cooperate fully with his work of grace in our lives.

[Genesis 17:7-9; Genesis 18:19; Matthew 12:15-21; John 8:18-19,38-47; Acts 8:34-35; Romans 2:28-29; Romans 9:4-8,25-26; Romans 11:17-25; 1 Corinthians 3:16-17; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; 2 Corinthians 6:14-18; Galatians 3:7-9,16,26-29; Galatians 4:22-31; Galatians 6:16; Ephesians 2:11-22; Ephesians 3:6; Philippians 3:2-3; Colossians 3:12-15; Titus 2:14; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-16; Hebrews 8:6-13; 1 Peter 2:9-10; 1 John 2:22; Jude 1:5; Revelation 2:9; Revelation 3:9]

And the nations [all people who do not believe in and who do not worship the one true God – Father, Son (Jesus Christ), and Holy Spirit] will trample on us who are walking in obedience to our Lord in holy living. They will persecute and they are persecuting those of us who deny self, and who daily die to sin, and who walk in obedience to our Lord, and who are his servants and messengers in taking the true message of the gospel to the people on planet earth, and who are refuting the lies of the enemy.

For we are his witnesses in these last days before our Lord’s return, and what we witness is what is taught us both in the Old and in the New Testaments (the two witnesses, possibly). And we are dressed in humility, for it takes humility to be willing to be hated and persecuted in order to stand on the truth of God’s word in a day and age when the truth is largely being cast aside in favor of the popularity of the lies which ease people’s consciences and which do not demand of them obedience to the Lord.

And the Lord is sending us forth in these last days to prepare people’s hearts for a time of judgment to come which is beyond what many of us have known before, not to this degree, although many have suffered much in the past nearly 2,000 years for their walks of faith in the Lord Jesus. But our job is to prepare people’s hearts to surrender their lives to Christ before the day of judgment, and to forsake the lies, and to obey the truth so that they will not hear Jesus say, “I never knew you. Depart from me you workers of lawlessness” (see Matthew 7:21-23), because they would not obey God.

[Matt 7:21-23; Lu 9:23-26; Jn 6:35-58; Jn 15:1-11; Rom 1:18-32; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; Gal 5:16-21; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-24; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:5-11; Titus 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Heb 10:23-31; 1 Co 10:1-22; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15]

Full Release

An Original Work / April 15, 2012

Walking daily with my Savior
brings me joy.
Loving Father; precious Jesus;
He’s my Savior and my Lord.
Gently leads me; follow Him.
I’ve invited Him within.
Now abiding in His presence,
oh, what peace.
From my self-life
He has brought me,
By His mercy, full release.

Hope and comfort,
peace and safety Jesus brings
When I daily bow before Him;
Obey freely; do His will.
Follow Him where’er He leads.
Listen to Him; His words heed.
Now obeying his words fully,
oh, what love
That He gives me
through salvation,
By His Spirit, from above.

Loving Father; precious Jesus,
He’s my friend.
With my Savior, by His Spirit,
I will endure to the end.
Share the gospel, tell what’s true.
Witness daily; His will do.
Tell the world of how their Savior
bled and died.
On a cruel cross He suffered
So that we might be alive.

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This is a hypothesis and probably fits more into the ‘Non-Mainstream Science and Controversial Science’ forum but given some of the outrageous threads there this is far more mainstream like by comparison.

First of all some preliminaries, when a seismic event occurs such as an earthquake seismic waves are produced.
Seismic waves which travel through the earth’s interior are called body waves and can either be P- waves (Primary waves) or S-waves (Secondary waves) which travel in different trajectories in the interior.


Seismic events can also be triggered by impact events, the most well known is the Chicxulub crater caused by an asteroid impact which led to the Cretaceous mass extinction 66 million years ago.
The Permian mass extinction which occurred nearly 200 million years earlier was far worse, the scientific consensus is the extinction was caused by extensive volcanism that formed the Siberian Traps which released large volumes of sulfur dioxide and carbon dioxide into the atmosphere resulting in oxygen starvation, elevating global temperatures, and acidification of the oceans.

Volcanism is easily explained when it occurs at tectonic plate boundaries but the Siberian Traps are nowhere near a plate boundary, volcanism must have been triggered by some interior hotspot but what caused this hotspot in the first place?
There is evidence of an enormous impact crater in Wilkes Land Antarctica, direct evidence is difficult to obtain as the crater lies beneath the ice sheet.
If it is a crater the impactor is 4-5 times wider than the asteroid which created the Chicxulub crater.


The location of this suspect crater puts the Siberian Traps antipodal to the crater.
This supports the hypothesis seismic energy from a major meteorite impact would disrupt the surface on the opposite side of the Earth. The different types of wave phases are shown below. In a perfectly spherically symmetrical structure, waves arrive simultaneously from all directions and focus exactly at the antipode.


The disruption would cause the formation of a mantle plume hotspot and resulting volcanism.


A further consequence of the impact event was the separation of Australia from Antarctica.
The paper for antipodal hotspots is found here.

A criticism of this hypothesis is whether it is even possible to focus enough energy at the antipode to form hotspots.

The verse could be read as a comment by saint John reflecting his own interpretation of events or as a comment about how Jesus Jewish enemies interpreted events.