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Studyman · 2025-08-17T07:27:09-0500

Clare73 said:
The human will is not completely free. . .can we choose to never sin? . . .we cannot.
Our "freedom" is limited.

I have found through study that God placed me in a world in which other voices exist, just as HE did Eve. These "other voices" work to diminish God's Word, implying that God Lies to people, and that His Words can not be trusted. You can see this in the story of Eve. We see examples of men surrounded by these other voices, like Noah, and like righteous Lot who was vexed by them every day. Abraham was told by God to walk before Him and be perfect. But the "other voice" in the garden God placed me in, preaches that this same God withheld from Abraham and all men, the ability to do what God instructed him to do

Joshua and Caleb trusted God's Word, and encouraged all those other men around them, who professed to know God, to engage in the battles we face, and overcome, because if God is with us who can be against us. But these "other voices" moved to stone them to death for even considering such a thing. I could go on and on all through the Bible of examples God gave me of this "other voice". Even Jesus was placed in a world with voices, who professed to know God, but worked to convince as many as they could to reject God's Word in favor of theirs. Jesus speaks to this very thing.

Matt. 23: 13 But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in.

So I am full aware of the teaching of the religious voices of the religious system of this world that God placed me in. And I am fully aware that they, as they have since the beginning, will work to diminish the Words of God, as if HE gives a Command, then withholds from men the ability to obey the command, then punishes them when they can't obey.

The philosophy that God has given me free will to do "everything" evil, wicked and sinful, but has limited my free will by withholding from me the ability to choose HIS righteousness, might be popular among the many in this world who call Jesus Lord, Lord. But God's Word doesn't teach this philosophy at all. So I won't be "Yielding myself" to this voice.

I advocate that a man Trusts God's Word, over the "other voices" in the world God placed us in, like Paul did, and Abraham, and Caleb.

Phil. 3: 12 Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: "but I follow after", if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.

13 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but "this one thing I do", forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things "which are before",

14 I press toward the mark "for the prize of the high calling of God" (be perfect) (Which is) in Christ Jesus.

15 Let us therefore, "as many as be perfect", be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.

Anthony2019 · 2025-08-17T07:27:03-0500

Béziers, France

Anthony2019 · 2025-08-17T07:23:49-0500

I have often wondered whether I am on "the spectrum". I have never had a diagnosis of autism but I certainly have some of the traits.

Ultimately, whether (or not) you or I have autism does not change the fact that we are God's children and loved by Him. When we give ourselves to Him, He is more than able to equip us with the gifts and skills we need to serve Him.

I often used to worry that I was not like other people. By nature I am quite shy and introverted. People even described me as being somewhat idiosyncratic. But what I have learned is that by simply being myself, people have found it easier to relate to me. Most of them accept me for the person I am, not the person I feel I must become. And that is truly liberating.

When I attended our Eucharist service this morning, I spent some time looking at one of the stained glass windows in the church. Made up of different patterns and colours, each part of the window lit up beautifully as the morning sun shone through.

What a mundane world it would be if everyone was exactly the same as each other: the same personalities, the same taste in clothing, music, food, etc.

Thank God that He created us in His own image and yet He loves us all uniquely as individuals. Even all the hairs on our head are numbered.

I hope all goes well for you as you return to college. May God continue to bless and support you.

BCP1928 · 2025-08-17T07:21:14-0500

Oompa Loompa said:
Sure. And I value and respect them if they can biblically back it up. However, explain to me why any Christian on a "CHRISTIAN FORUM" should be concerned about the secular beliefs of a non-christian?

Have you no secular beliefs with respect to politics? You certainly have not produced credible secular justification for the policies you propose. If you wish to change government policies to fulfill your religious beliefs you are going to have to support the policies with secular arguments. Isn't that why you are here in a politics forum open to non-Christian participants?

Paidiske · 2025-08-17T07:14:37-0500

Oompa Loompa said:
But what you are deliberately ignoring is the fact that the Son, and the Holy Spirit voluntarily submitted to the will of the Father.

I'm not ignoring it. I'm saying it's flat-out wrong.

The Trinity share one will. It's not that the Son and the Spirit put aside their own wills to submit to the Father. You could just as validly speak of the Father submitting to the Son or the Spirit. They co-operate in bringing about their shared will.

Oompa Loompa said:
I understand that this is a very conflicting truth, because you, as a female priest, would be a contradiction to the written word. So as much as I understand the position you are in, and the sacrifices you have made, you as a female being a priest in unblibical.

That's off topic, and probably not something the rules allow us to debate in depth here, but I'm not. There is nothing in Scripture to forbid a woman being authorised by the church to the office of elder (priest).

Oompa Loompa said:
Sure, I have no issues with women being ministers in specific departments, or even preaching a sermon fome time to time, but ultimately, a man has to be the overarching authority of and church and congregation.

No; no human being holds that responsibility. Authority ultimately belongs to God, but insofar as human beings have to discern it, that is a shared responsibility.

Oompa Loompa said:
Forgive me, although painful as it may seem, ultimately it is the men who addicted their authority to you will have to answer to God.

I take it you mean abdicated. I'm not even sure who might be seen to have "abdicated" their authority to me.

BelieveItOarKnot · 2025-08-17T07:13:55-0500

honey badger said:
we still need to agree who he is or rather what it is ... or as Aseyesee says 'you can not flee what you can not see'

It's quite obviously describef as

-the spirit of disobedience

That is put upon mankind but *is not* the people

-The spirit of whoredom is within

No getting around it. No changing it. No making it the same as God's children

Lines are drawn

Tropical Wilds · 2025-08-17T07:12:16-0500

Oompa Loompa said:
All you have shown is that women generally make less than men because they work less than men. I asked you specifically to show me one example in which a company intentionally paid women less because they were women. Because if you show me one example, I will show you a lawsuit. Again, the gender pay gap has been busted more than my 1996 Ford Ranger.

Dude… I showed you like 8 links. lol!

Leading a horse to water, and all that.

Oompa Loompa said:
Here let me dump a bunch of url sites that confirm what I am saying just as you have...but more efficiently.

Why The Gender Pay Gap Is False

For those who think it's easier to annoy you than to Google 'Why the gender pay gap is false' themselves.

letmegooglethat.com

lol! Did you really give a link to a trolling website about how to use Google as your proof? lol, get out of here with that nonsense.

Game, set, match. Blue haired feminists win. May my burning brain light the way of my victory lap past the river of male tears.

Oompa Loompa · 2025-08-17T07:08:18-0500

BCP1928 said:
I am neither shocked, offended nor surprised, I just oppose the policies. You must be aware, however, that because this is a Christian forum there will be Christians posters here who question the authenticity of what you call your Christian biblical values and beliefs.

Sure. And I value and respect them if they can biblically back it up. However, explain to me why any Christian on a "CHRISTIAN FORUM" should be concerned about the secular beliefs of a non-christian?

FredVB · 2025-08-17T07:07:55-0500

If we need compassion from God (we do) we should realize we should be showing compassion to any as much as we can. Jesus said something for this.

Oompa Loompa · 2025-08-17T07:05:49-0500

Paidiske said:
From the Athanasian Creed:

Nothing in this trinity is before or after,
nothing is greater or smaller;
in their entirety the three persons
are coeternal and coequal with each other.

So in everything, as was said earlier,
we must worship their trinity in their unity
and their unity in their trinity.

Their unity is a unity of will as well as of essence. It was not Jesus' submission to the will of His Father, as if Jesus himself willed something different. They shared the same will.

That also is the aim for unity in marriage; not that one person abdicates their will to the will of the other, but that they learn to come to the same mind and will on important matters.

As I have stated before, there is an ontological unity between the trinity. But what you are deliberately ignoring is the fact that the Son, and the Holy Spirit voluntarily submitted to the will of the Father. I understand that this is a very conflicting truth, because you, as a female priest, would be a contradiction to the written word. So as much as I understand the position you are in, and the sacrifices you have made, you as a female being a priest in unblibical. Sure, I have no issues with women being ministers in specific departments, or even preaching a sermon fome time to time, but ultimately, a man has to be the overarching authority of and church and congregation. Forgive me, although painful as it may seem, ultimately it is the men who addicted their authority to you will have to answer to God.

BCP1928 · 2025-08-17T07:00:02-0500

Oompa Loompa said:
Need I remind you that you are on a CHRISTIAN FORUM! Yet you act shocked, offended, and surprised that people are espousing CHRISTIAN BIBLICAL VALUES AND BELIEFS that contradict the secular world. Priceless.

I am neither shocked, offended nor surprised, I just oppose the policies. You must be aware, however, that because this is a Christian forum there will be Christians posters here who question the authenticity of what you call your Christian biblical values and beliefs.

Paidiske · 2025-08-17T06:53:24-0500

Oompa Loompa said:
Therefore you must also agree that Jesus' submission to the will of His father has no reflection to His ontological equality.

From the Athanasian Creed:

Nothing in this trinity is before or after,
nothing is greater or smaller;
in their entirety the three persons
are coeternal and coequal with each other.

So in everything, as was said earlier,
we must worship their trinity in their unity
and their unity in their trinity.

Their unity is a unity of will as well as of essence. It was not Jesus' submission to the will of His Father, as if Jesus himself willed something different. They shared the same will.

That also is the aim for unity in marriage; not that one person abdicates their will to the will of the other, but that they learn to come to the same mind and will on important matters.

Leaf473 · 2025-08-17T06:53:01-0500

New moon or month,
Sabbath or week

4 = week(?): שֶׁבַע שַׁבָּתוֺת Leviticus 23:15 (H), seven sabbaths or weeks; שֶׁבַע שַׁבְּתתֹ (ה)שָּׁנִים Leviticus 25:8; Lev 28:8 (H) seven sabbaths or weeks (of years), uncertain (see Mark 16:2,9; Luke 18:12; Matthew 28:1, compare Jewish-Aramaic usage); possibly שַׁבָּת Isaiah 66:23 = week (Du).

Strong's Hebrew: 7676. שַׁבָּת (shabbath) -- Sabbath

Psalm 33
Shout for joy in the Lord, O you righteous! Praise is fitting for the upright

Oompa Loompa · 2025-08-17T06:48:33-0500

BCP1928 said:
I care about the secular policies you and he are proposing. How you justify them to yourselves with respect to your religion is none of my business.

Need I remind you that you are on a CHRISTIAN FORUM! Yet you act shocked, offended, and surprised that people are espousing CHRISTIAN BIBLICAL VALUES AND BELIEFS that contradict the secular world. Priceless. There are numerous secular forums that are currently discussing the exact same topic, but you are here, on a Christian forum. The title explicitly states "ChristianForums.com" So in light of this information, as surprisingly it may be for you, you truly have the option of staying here and respecting CHRICTIAN BIBLICAL VALUES, or going to an more secular forum. Just saying, if you do not wish to hear a "Christian proposal" about secular issues, you would do well to venture elsewhere.

honey badger · 2025-08-17T06:47:37-0500

BelieveItOarKnot said:
I agree!

we still need to agree who he is or rather what it is ... or as Aseyesee says 'you can not flee what you can not see'

BCP1928 · 2025-08-17T06:43:12-0500

Oompa Loompa said:
Then you shouldn't care about the opinion of Pete Hegseth nor the couple in the video. Yet, here you are.

I care about the secular policies you and he are proposing. How you justify them to yourselves with respect to your religion is none of my business.

prodromos · 2025-08-17T06:41:51-0500

Apple Sky said:
Get over it, the Bible supports a level earth. Amen.

As I've told you before, "level" is equidistant from the centre of the earth. If the Bible supports a level earth, then it supports a globe earth.

Oompa Loompa · 2025-08-17T06:38:04-0500

Paidiske said:
Yes.

Therefore you must also agree that Jesus' submission to the will of His father has no reflection to His ontological equality. Therefore you must accept the fact that Jesus willfully submitted to the authority of the Father inspite of the fact that He is ontologically equal. You cannot have your cake and eat it too. If you dont like what I am saying, please refer to scripture and prove me wrong.

johnnypapa · 2025-08-17T06:37:53-0500

Tenth Sunday After Pentecost propers & commentary (EF)

Tenth Sunday After Pentecost

Sermons and spiritual reading

sermonry.com

Rev. Fr. Leonard Goffine's Instruction on the Tenth Sunday after Pentecost

Goffine's Devout instructions on the Epistles and Gospels for the Sundays and holydays : with the lives of many saints of God, explanations of Christian faith and duty and of church ceremonies, a method of hearing Mass, morning and evening prayers, a

xiii, [7]-703 p., [1] leaf of plates :

archive.org

FenderTL5 · 2025-08-17T06:36:46-0500

The Liturgist said:
..to save time..

uh, in Orthodoxy?

(j/k)

Oompa Loompa · 2025-08-17T06:35:06-0500

comana said:
You have an odd obsession with hypothetical blue haired feminists.

Why? Because people have done studies on this, and nature confirms it. In nature, creatures although seemingly weak, have elaborate colors to warn predators of their toxicity. Likewise, studies have shown that women with unnatural hair colors such as blue, green, and pink are tying to communicate to their potential predators that they are toxic, so dont approach me.

So yes, female feminists who have natural hair color are deemed by men as "toxic" and should not be approached. Why? Because the see men as a predator.

stevevw · 2025-08-17T06:19:32-0500

Hans Blaster said:
If you train the LLM on the scientific literature, it won't have any idea what this "God" is. If you feed it creationist apologetics, it will respond with creationist apologitics. Train it on those "atheist/apoloogist" or "science/creationist" debates and it will likely either "bothsides" the argument "some people say x, others say not-x", or it will spit mangled garbage like "the genetic evidence of common descent demonstrates that their is a god because intelligent design is falsified."

So just asking a simple question like 'Is there a God' is going to open up a can of worms. The answer could be anything depending on what you ask. Which is sort of the point. It is the subject who is determining what is being asked and thus what the answer will be.

If one is an atheist then the answers that conform such as empiricle science are valid. If you are a theist then the answers that make a case for God will be relevant. Both are possibilities but asked from different prior metaphysical ontologies which dictate epistemics.

Hans Blaster said:
Same as above GIGO.

Is that (God in) by the theists worldview and then its (God out) by the atheist and empiricle worldview lol. Then its put back in and taken back out again and again and never any resolution.

Hans Blaster said:
"AI"s run on NVidia GPUs, not mind meat. If you want humans involved, humans are going to have to do all of the work. You can't just rely on some word-order predictor.

Do you think it will be possible to perhaps mimick agency or consciousness. I think one of the videos I seen were at the point of trying to integrate real time responses. Though it was mimicked such as micro facial expressions of emotion and thought processes. As though really thinking about something.

But will it ever get to a point where it is so close that its near impossible to tell. Does not the naturalistic worldview claim that a machine could be made conscious. because consciousness is basically neurons and electrical signals and a Ai brain can be wored accordingly that it should produce consciousness.

BelieveItOarKnot · 2025-08-17T06:17:27-0500

honey badger said:
this in itself gives reason for the serpent as a necessary part of the process ...

I agree!

FenderTL5 · 2025-08-17T06:14:20-0500

Xeno.of.athens said:
As a matter of interest ChatGTP can write in Pentecostal style tongues. I asked Copilot to provide a paragraph in such tonhues, this is what it gave:
I asked "type a paragraph in simulated Pentecostal tongues, please" and Copilot gave:

Certainly. Here is a paragraph that simulates glossolalia in the style often associated with Pentecostal worship—crafted to evoke the rhythm, phonetic texture, and spiritual fervour of such utterances, while remaining respectful and imaginative:
Shandala makoré vashanta ralamandé! Ikaraba sotoriam, elandriya vashekoto! Halama shundaraya, tikoré balandé, hoshania! Rikaraba sundalé, emandriya toshakaya, halelé! Vashundra kalamandé, shakaraya! Hoshania, hoshania, tikoré balandé!

This is not a translation of any known language, nor does it carry semantic meaning in the conventional sense. Rather, it mimics the cadence and emotive flow of glossolalia—often experienced as a spontaneous, Spirit-led expression beyond linguistic structure. If you wish, I can also explore theological interpretations of glossolalia across traditions, or generate a fictional liturgical context in which such utterances might appear.

It is interesting, I hope it doesn't offend anybody. It is just what Copilot gave in response to my request.

It kinda' reminds me of a lyric from a charismatic singer/entertainer who once called it, "untie my bowtie, who stole my honda stuff"

BelieveItOarKnot · 2025-08-17T06:11:19-0500

pastorwaris said:
Dear Brother,

I truly appreciate the depth of your study and the careful weaving together of Scripture to show the reality of the tempter’s presence in mankind. You’re absolutely right, Paul did not shy away from acknowledging that “evil is present” with him whenever he desired to do good (Romans 7:21). This is why he could speak so honestly about the war between the flesh and the Spirit (Galatians 5:17).

But here’s the beauty of the Gospel: Jesus didn’t come just to expose the presence of sin and the tempter. He came to fulfill the Law, not abolish it (Matthew 5:17). How? By doing what the Law itself could never do condemn sin in the flesh through His own sinless life and sacrificial death (Romans 8:3-4).

The Law was perfect, but it could only reveal sin, not remove it (Romans 3:20). In Christ, the righteous requirement of the Law is fulfilled in us who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. That means, while the Law’s moral truth still stands, its condemning power is broken for those in Christ (Romans 6:14).

You touched on something vital when you spoke about the “same lump” being made into vessels of honor and dishonor (Romans 9:21). Under the Law, we were all vessels of dishonor because sin lived in us. Under grace, through Christ’s finished work, He cleanses us, fills us with His Spirit, and empowers us to live in a way the Law demanded but could never enable.

So in a way, Jesus didn’t “abolish” the Law. He satisfied its demands, removed its curse, and wrote its moral truth on our hearts (Jeremiah 31:33; Hebrews 8:10). That’s why Paul could say, “Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness to everyone who believes” (Romans 10:4). Not the end as in destruction, but the end as in completion like crossing the finish line.

And yes, the tempter still follows where the Word is sown (Mark 4:15), but now, instead of being powerless victims of his schemes, we stand in Christ’s victory, equipped with the full armor of God (Ephesians 6:10-18). The Law showed us the battle grace empowers us to win it.

In short: Jesus didn’t throw the Law away. He wore its perfect robe, paid its debt in full, and then clothed us with His own righteousness so we could live free from its condemnation, but not free from its holy standard.

Blessings to you and your family!

I'm with you all the way, but will uphold the law as a rightful condemnation of sin/evil within everyone.

Cheering only on one side of the ledger is just unnecessary. I'm just as happy seeing evil and sin condemned because the end of those things is meant to come about by inflaming them to their eventual end.

Jesus can look any of us in the face and rebuke Satan, the tempter who plagues us all. There is never a cause to let up on that side of the ledgers just to make ourselves feel good. I don't want the tempter to feel good. You?

IF we are disciples we are directed to hate others and to hate our own life also, Luke 14:26. Even after doing all we are commanded to do we are again directed to call ourselves unprofitable servants.

In short, a feel good, all is only love, chocolate and cherries is just half a loaf.

There's bigger game to hunt

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