I'm Gary, and I enjoy responsible and contextual biblical text study, discussion, and interchange. Supportive Engagement is especially helpful when studying the Bible. I've done some writing in this area, and I'm looking forward to conversations about biblical texts with other interested parties. Blessings to all.

Carter turns 100 on Oct. 1st. That is quite the milestone. My grandma made it to almost 101. Maybe he will live long enough to vote this election.

We are all Trinitarians here, united in our love for the Lord and in our joy to praise His name. We find delight in the scriptures, especially when the apostles bear witness to the deity of our Lord, Jesus Christ, teaching us that He is indeed God incarnate, and we rejoice. However, there are some who claim that our English Bible translations exhibit bias in certain passages. I would like to enumerate these passages, the so-called "proof texts."
It is evident that the ESV consistently opts for Trinitarian translations, the ASV often selects them, whereas the NWT invariably avoids interpretations that could be perceived as attributing divinity to Jesus. It might be argued that the ESV exhibits a bias towards evangelical doctrine, the ASV maintains a more balanced approach, and the NWT displays a pronounced bias in favor of Jehovah's Witnesses' teachings.

Wow! Lots of enthusiasm with this.

For the full quote….

From July to August...native born workers lost 1.3 Million jobs while foreign born workers gained 635K jobs! (from the Bureau of Labor Statistics). manufacturing lost 24K jobs in August! Stocks are tanking today...

In the recent thread on heretics a common claim was something like, "Christian churches used to charge people with heresy and impose penalties, but they don't anymore." I think this is factually accurate, but I want to raise the question of why heresy no longer has much of a function within Christian churches. Why are formal charges of heresy "old hat," and relatively uncommon in our day and age?*

For example, from what I can find, the last two times the Catholic Church charged anyone with heresy were 2004 and 1997 (link - Reidy was eventually convicted).

(Although this thread is about charging heretics with heresy, I will still link to my thread on propositional heresy, which is related. ViaCrucis' post on heresy is also useful.)


* A formal charge of heresy is a charge of heresy leveled by a church authority in their official capacity.

Regardless of what your political part affiliation is, if any,
this sort of opinion by Tucker Carlson OUGHT TO BE POINTED OUT AS
A CRUDE IGNORANCE OF HISTORICAL FACTS.

By the way, the IBM company sold Hitler its punch card inventory control
machines, so that the Nazies could keep track of what was in every rolling
box car in Germany. And THAT, included people headed to slave camps,
and extermination camps. The Holocaust was PLANNED.


Go read the book.

Obviously, Tucker Carlson hasn't.

Pushback against the concept of diversity, equity and inclusion has led several major companies to cease efforts to embrace the progressive ideology that encourages a focus on race, gender and sexual orientation in hiring practices and business relationships in the workforce.

The trend began earlier this summer when Tractor Supply Co., a major retailer in the United States, announced it was working to "eliminate DEI roles and retire our current DEI goals while still ensuring a respectful environment," in addition to vowing to "no longer submit data to the Human Rights Campaign," an LGBT activist organization.

The move by Tractor Supply followed an effort by conservative influencer Robby Starbuck to boycott the chain over its "DEI council" and "DEI hiring practices," as well as its support of other progressive priorities.

Continued below.

Novelist JD Vance makes a strong point against day care for normal people; it's simply class war. ‘Universal child care’ is a massive subsidy to the lifestyle preferences of the affluent over the preferences of the middle and working class” he opined.

Can it be that the secret to having affordable day care for struggling families is simply to not have it because it only benefits those who can a afford it? The millionaire venture capitalist gives single parents and households where both parents work to make ends meet sound advice that they need to be more 'normal' to avoid the trap of needing childcare.

J.D. Vance, author of “Hillbilly Elegy,” the book that poor-splained Appalachia to a certain segment of well-off society makes his point clearly and with a no nonsence manner including such advice as having grand parents look after the kids but are they an effective way of helping low income families of any generation afford day care for their kids?

Thoughts?

J.D. Vance commented on the recent Appallachee school shooting, with the
response that this sort of shooting by this sort of "psycho" shooter was just
"a fact of life".

Trying to be the least critical of this response to ANOTHER school shooting,

I WANT TO POINT OUT THAT ABOUT 2 DECADES AGO, THE ISRAELIS
SUGGESTED THAT AMERICA SHOUD "HARDEN" ITS SCHOOLS, BY
INSTALLING METAL DETECTORS.

The American Congress has not bothered to pass legislation, requiring the
hardening of schools, by installing metal detectors. It has been years and
years of inaction and apathy by the Congress, whose 2 big political parties
have paid more attention to reviling each other publicly, and invoking
conspiracy theories that supposedly explain why everything is as it is
(for example Alex Jones, ranting that the Sandy Hook shooting never
happened, and was just a Deep State fake event).

It does not help that BOTH of the big political parties have refused to take
a first step to harden the "soft target" of our public schools, and continue
to resort to speeches about "hardening our schools", after about 2 decades
of expicilty DOING NOTHING to practically guard our school children.

Both political parties can go through the MEANINGLESS public "weeping" rhetoric
of "How could this happen", and "how could we stop this from ever happening
again?" Our lawmakers have known what they could do, and THEY HAVE DONE
NOTHING, for a couple of decades, while we have had dozens of school shootings.

[Staff Edit]

What we really need is to harden our voting, at the voting booths, and THROW OUT
Senators and Congressmen who have NOT BOTHERED to take the first step of
safety, that the Israelis suggested to us, about 20 years ago.

Maybe Alex Jones can make up some new conspiracy theories, that explain why this
most recent school shooting is really a non-event, and is a Deep State fake, meant to
manipulate the American public....

...a question posed to Donald Trump at the Economic Club of New York on Sept 5th.

What specific legislation will you commit to to make child care affordable?

Trump: Well, I would do that and we're sitting down, you know, I was, somebody, we had Marco Rubio and my daughter, Ivanka… But I think when you talk about the kind of numbers that I'm talking about that because the child care is, child care couldn't, you know, there's something you have to have it in this country, you have to have it... I want to stay with child care… So we'll take care of it. Thank you

Jesus told a story about a father with two sons. One of the sons said he would do what the father asked of him, but he didn't do a thing. The other son refused to do as his father asked but later, he thought about it and decided he would do as his father asked. Which was justified? Jesus asked. Who do you say it was that was justified?

Matthew 21:28-32 GNB "Now, what do you think? There was once a man who had two sons. He went to the older one and said, 'Son, go and work in the vineyard today.' (29) 'I don't want to,' he answered, but later he changed his mind and went. (30) Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. 'Yes, sir,' he answered, but he did not go. (31) Which one of the two did what his father wanted?" "The older one," they answered. So Jesus said to them, "I tell you: the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going into the Kingdom of God ahead of you. (32) For John the Baptist came to you showing you the right path to take, and you would not believe him; but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him. Even when you saw this, you did not later change your minds and believe him.

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It's no secret a large majority of big tech in the US favor one side of the political spectrum. This can be observed from services they provide. Which content to censor and which to push. Facebook came clean recently.

Here you have Alexa Amazon's premier AI being bias in it's response. It was an "error" claimed Amazon and apparently now it is "fixed". Yes "fixed" or more correctly "adjusted". For those who are not in the know about AI. Generative AI which Alexa is using, needs to be trained with a large dataset. It is through iterative training that the AI learns context. The AI itself doesn't have a bias because it is just learning from the dataset provided. But you can make an AI bias if you feed it only a certain type of dataset or put "training filters" to the AI.

What Alexa did wasn't a mistake in the typical sense of it. It is not a glitch or bug (programming error). It was the filters and settings Amazon put on the AI that made it bias.

Now, this was all in a letter which Paul wrote to the beloved of God in Rome, although there were parts of it which took a much different tone than this, and those words were addressed to those who were not following the Lord Jesus with their lives. But these words were obviously expressed to those who were following Jesus with their lives, but even there Paul was having to correct them in some areas, which is what he meant when he said that on some points he wrote to them very boldly by way of reminder as to where they were going wrong and as to how they needed to make that right.

Now, from the beginning of this letter he commended the Christians for their faith in the Lord Jesus. But then he moved from that to talking about how there were those among them, or in the same city, who by their ungodliness and unrighteousness were suppressing the truth about God which God had revealed to them via his created works. And they were worshiping the created and not the Creator, and they were engaged in sexual immorality and all sorts of evils, plus they were acting hypocritically towards others. So Paul told them they would all be judged according to their works.

Then, for several chapters, he spoke on the issue of law and grace and he explained that they were not under the Old Covenant liturgical and ceremonial laws nor were they required any longer to circumcise all males, but they were now under the law of grace. But he made clear that grace was not free license to keep on in deliberate and habitual sin against the Lord, and if they obeyed sin, and not obedience to God, that for them it would end in death, not in life eternal. So, they still had to obey God and his commandments under the New Covenant, and they still had to forsake sin.

And then Paul spent chapters 9-11 talking mainly about his fellow Jews who had not yet believed in Jesus Christ and who had not yet surrendered their hearts and lives to the Lord to follow him in obedience to his commands. And he corrected some faulty thinking about the Gentile Christians with regard to where the Jewish people stood before God. For all who rejected Jesus Christ as their Messiah, were cut out of Israel. They were cut out of a relationship with God. And the believing Gentiles were grafted into Israel, the Israel of God and are now heirs to the promise God made with Abraham.

And then in chapter 12 were instructions in what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ and how we are to live if our faith in Jesus Christ is genuine faith which is of God, and is gifted to us by God. We are to present our bodies to the Lord as living sacrifices, and we are no longer to be conformed to the ways of this sinful world. And we are to love one another and do good to each other, and we are even to bless those who persecute us. And we are not to get even with our enemies, for that is God’s job.

Then we had lessons in submission to those who are in authority over us within our governments, and I shared how there are exceptions to that rule, such as Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, Jesus Christ, and his NT apostles, who all resisted those in authority over them if those in authority over them were demanding that they disobey the Lord. And then we were taught to love one another and not sin against each other. And we were warned of the nearness of our Lord’s return and the importance that we cease from all sinful practices and that we obey our Lord in practice.

And then they had the issue that some of them accepted the New Covenant and the removal of the Old Covenant with all its liturgical and ceremonial and dietary laws, but others were still holding on to some of those. And so they were all being instructed in not judging one another and living at peace with each other, for these were not matters of sin or not sin. What they ate or didn’t eat, or what days in the week were more special to them than others were a matter of personal conscience, and so they were to get along with one another and not fight over such things as this.

So, this is a brief summation of the “points” that Paul wrote to them about very boldly, by way of reminder. For, no matter who we are, or how long we have been Christians, we always need reminders. For we can easily get caught up in what is going on with our lives and our families and our activities, and with what is going on in the world, and we can sometimes lose sight of the importance of why we are alive and on this earth. For Jesus died that we might die with him to sin and that we might surrender our lives to him and now walk in obedience to his commands.

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

Just a Closer Walk with Thee

Hymn lyrics by Anonymous/Unknown
Music by American Melody

“For indeed He was crucified because of weakness, yet He lives because of the power of God. For we also are weak in Him, yet we will live with Him because of the power of God directed toward you” (2 Co. 13:4 NASB).

I am weak, but Thou art strong;
Jesus, keep me from all wrong;
I’ll be satisfied as long
As I walk, let me walk close to Thee.

Through this world of toil and snares,
If I falter, Lord, who cares?
Who with me my burden shares?
None but Thee, dear Lord, none but Thee.

When my feeble life is o’er,
Time for me will be no more;
Guide me gently, safely o’er
To Thy kingdom shore, to Thy shore.

Just a closer walk with Thee,
Grant it, Jesus, is my plea,
Daily walking close to Thee,
Let it be, dear Lord, let it be.

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Are ALL True Christians persecuted? My Granddad is a strong Christian who seems to be loved by all the people around him believer or not so I just wanna know

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the most
painful the most painful suffering the
Lord endured until this moment was not
the crown of thorns was not the nails in
his hands and his feet was not the the
the the whipping and the shredding of
his of his pure body was not that spear
that when in his side all these wounds
after a little while can heal and the
pain can disappear but there is one
wound cannot heal ever the wound of the
one you love the most and then he
returns that love with a a knife in the
heart when the one you love the most
turns around and hurts you the most that
wound cannot
heal Jesus loves us and we are loving s
Satan Jesus calling us and we are going
to Satan Jesus begging us and we are
begging Satan Jesus saying come to my
holy church and we're going to Satan's
house Jesus says come to the light and
we're going to Darkness Jesus says come
and praise me and we go and swear and
use foul language Jesus comes and says
let me hug you instead we hug Satan and
the
world it's extremely painful
unbearable when you love the
most and the one you love misunderstand
you completely and totally this is
unbearable

When she became vice president in 2021, her liberal voting streak continued. She cast the Senate’s tiebreaking vote a record 33 times to confirm some of the most liberal executive branch appointees and federal judges and to pass nearly $2 trillion in federal spending that many economists blame for driving inflation to near 40-year highs.

The website voteview.com, operated by the University of California, Los Angeles, scored Ms. Harris as more liberal than 99% of the Senate during her tenure from 2017 to 2021.

In 2018, she voted to the left of Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat. She opposed his bipartisan bill to spend $25 billion on securing the border in exchange for providing a pathway to citizenship for 1.8 million “Dreamers” who came to the U.S. illegally as children.

The Harris campaign did not respond to a media inquiry about her voting record.

In 2023, the Democratic vice presidential nominee’s office shelled out $448,904 to Saint Paul-based Gender Justice, one year after the nonprofit filed a sex discrimination complaint against Minnesota’s Department of Corrections (DOC), according to a review of public records shared with The Post by the taxpayer watchdog group OpenTheBooks.com.

Though the DOC initially moved to dismiss the suit and touted efforts to defend “some of the most progressive transgender policies in the nation,” the agency agreed to a whopping $495,000 settlement in May 2023 that entitled Lusk to $245,903 in cash and Gender Justice to $198,000 in attorneys’ fees and costs.

Attorneys at Minneapolis-based Robins Kaplan LLP, which partnered with Gender Justice on the lawsuit and got $51,096 in return for costs, had donated more than $22,000 to Walz’s 2022 gubernatorial campaign, state campaign finance records show.

The Minnesota Department of Corrections and “facility gender identity committees will promptly respond to incarcerated persons’ requests,” according to other policy revisions in the settlement, and inmates may change their legal names whenever they wish.


Those changes matched an executive order that Walz signed in March 2023 enshrining the right of all Minnesotans to receive “gender-affirming care,” a state Department of Corrections spokesman told the Star Tribune newspaper in the wake of the Lusk settlement.

Frank LaRose wants Ohio to pass a law requiring people to prove their citizenship when registering to vote. This seems like a common sense approach to the voting issues regarding requiring citizen ship.proof when voting. This way it's done ahead of time and you don't have to bring proof to the polling place. Just bring an ID to prove who you are and your good to go. You've already provided proof of citizenship.

We previously said Biden was our preferred candidate. So now we will do as he said, we will support her,” Putin went on, referencing public remarks he made in February

“Second, she laughs so expressively and infectiously,” Putin said of Harris. “That means that she is doing well. Trump has imposed more sanctions on Russia than any president has imposed before, and if Harris is doing well, then perhaps she will refrain from doing this kind of thing.”

It's an obsolete, archaic relic of 18th century thinking. I suspect the US is the only democratic country in the world where a candidate getting more total votes can still lose the election. We are now living in the 21st century. The EC is absolute idiocy.

Why Is Trump Finally Admitting He Lost the 2020 Election?​

In the past few days, we’ve seen something of a seismic shift in the rhetoric of former President Donald Trump: He has admitted on three separate occasions to losing the 2020 election. The very same race Trump’s been committed to baselessly claiming for years he actually won.

The latest instance of Trump’s brief encounter with reality came in an interview with podcaster Lex Fridman, who asked a rather anodyne question: “How do you think you’ll do in the debate coming up?”

It may have something to do with the upcoming debate and being honest with the general voting public. If the question is asked about Trump losing the election in 2020, he can now say I admitted I lost, appearing to be honest and able to handle the truth.