Is this the beginning of the 7 year peace deal or the peace in the middle east that is broken mid way through lol.

David Lamb said:

and receive it reflected back again. That was what you asked for, I thought - perhaps I misunderstood your post.

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I didn't see the laser from the moon reflecting back.

essentialsaltes said:

BREAKING

Federal workers not entitled to back pay after shutdown, budget office claims​

The top lawyer at the White House Office of Management and Budget argued that the law Congress passed and Trump signed guaranteeing back pay to furloughed workers in 2019 does no such thing, according to a new draft memo obtained by The Post.

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President Trump says some furloughed federal workers ‘don’t deserve’ back pay​

Trump added: “For the most part, we're going to take care of our people. There are some people that really don't deserve to be taken care of, and we'll take care of them in a different way."

The Government Employee Fair Treatment Act of 2019, which was passed during the last shutdown, says that federal workers who are furloughed during a lapse in government funding “shall be paid for the period of the lapse.”

But the White House argues in a new legal memo that this law does not automatically cover all furloughed workers because of an amendment approved nine days after its original passage in January 2019, according to Axios, which first reported the White House's new opinion about back pay.

The amendment states that furloughed workers would be paid back "subject to the enactment of appropriations Acts ending the lapse."

Hans Blaster said:

Which they are free to do as a church. This is a hospital.

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Yes so therefore the charge is they breached State or federal laws. As far as I understand the Catholic hospital had a policy of not doing abortions. So in this case there was a ethical dilemma created as to whether this was an abortion or not.

It tuns out it was an health emergency rather than an abortion so the hospital should have provided help as this is law. As far as I can see this was not a straight out case and there was a conflict of belief. Something that has now caused the hospital to have to rethink their policy in this specific situation so as to abide by the legal requirements.

But the general idea that religious facilities have the right to say (not do abortions in the first place) or not adopt to say SSM couples if they run an adoption agency, or pray outside abortion clinics or pray and support those within the LGBTIQ+ community ect. These should be rights under the freedom of religion and following ones conscience. Which are human rights.

Servus said:

Trump wants to deploy the NG to Chicago to protect ICE.

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Was ICE afraid of the donuts being dangled in front of them?

Were they the wrong flavor?

I remember years ago my old pastor quoting Malcolm Muggeridge's colorful quote about the decline of Western man.

“So the final conclusion would surely be that whereas other civilizations have been brought down by attacks of barbarians from without, ours had the unique distinction of training its own destroyers at its own educational institutions, and then providing them with facilities for propagating their destructive ideology far and wide, all at the public expense. Thus did Western Man decide to abolish himself, creating his own boredom out of his own affluence, his own vulnerability out of his own strength, his own impotence out of his own erotomania, himself blowing the trumpet that brought the walls of his own city tumbling down, and having convinced himself that he was too numerous, labored with pill and scalpel and syringe to make himself fewer. Until at last, having educated himself into imbecility, and polluted and drugged himself into stupefaction, he keeled over--a weary, battered old brontosaurus--and became extinct.”

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Christianity in Africa will not be without its challenges. Our current priest is Nigerian and I remember that he said the biggest seminary in the wolrd is in Nigeria.

But they also have endemic violence against Christians in the northern parts of Nigeria by Fulani tribesman and Islamic fundamentalists.

I think a similar situation applies in some other African nations.

kinshasa19 said:

I am astounded by some of the comments by 'discerning' christians who support Israel's murderous slaughter of children, women and innocent men. I have never visited USA, but I have heard of your deluded zeal for the state of Israel.
Satan will tell you 10 facts, and 9 of them will be true. Let me tell you a secret, the true nation of Israel is not in the middle east, and Izra el are not God's chosen people. They are deluded.
2 Thessalonians 2:11
Isaiah 66:4

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Residing in the United States or any other country does not alter what the Bible states regarding the nation of Israel. Scripture states that descendants of Abraham are God's chosen people, no matter where they live—whether in the UK, USA, or Ramallah.

Prophet Elijah had similar questions about Israel as many Christians have today. Some Christians observe that the actions of Israel differ from the teachings of Christ, which emphasize mercy and compassion.

1 King 19:10

“He said, “I have been very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts. For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life, to take it away.”

And the God answer back to Elijah

“Yet I will leave seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.””


In the book of Romans, Paul elaborates the same event

Romans 11:1-6 “ I ask then: Did God reject his people? By no means! I am an Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin. 2 God did not reject his people, whom he foreknew. Don’t you know what Scripture says in the passage about Elijah—how he appealed to God against Israel: 3 “Lord, they have killed your prophets and torn down your altars; I am the only one left, and they are trying to kill me”[a]? 4 And what was God’s answer to him? “I have reserved for myself seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal.”[b] 5 So too, at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace. 6 And if by grace, then it cannot be based on works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace.”.


My question to you is this: If God is eager to forgive the transgressions of His chosen nation and people despite their actions, what reason do you have to accuse them?

jonojim1337 said:

I don’t think it’s a matter of corruption, but a matter of the imperial family using different images to convey the same thing, namely the history of their lineage, and in particular, God being born among them.

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I don’t know what “the imperial family” is. However, there are four things going on:

• History is naturally corrupted by people adding or taking away information in the retelling.
• In the case of religion, it is a spiritual battle and spirits of evil are actively corrupting the narrative.
• Religion is very useful to control populations, so leaders wanting power over their people will use religion to control them by adding lies. For example, being the representative of a god or a god themselves.
• There is an innate knowledge of certain concepts in almost all people: Someone has to die for the salvation of all, and we are sinful and need a way to mitigate the problem. These two examples helped prepare for the coming of Christ, but they can also be used to deceive.

I have mixed feeling about conspiracy theories, but there is a constant battle between the Kingdom of Babylon and the Kingdom of God. Satan and his minions ultimately control the Kingdom of Babylon on this little blue ball of ours, so lying, cheating, corrupting, controlling, and creating suffering should be expected. It is one great conspiracy against the Kingdom of God. The thousands of other conspiracies are just parts of the whole. The thing I don’t like about conspiracy theories is that it tends to make people think that some group is ultimately in control pulling the strings. It may be partially true, but God is still on the throne and their plans don’t always work and all of them will ultimately fail.

wing2000 said:

Sure, we'll get the 911 phone logs right over to you.

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Actually, I'd like to see an investigation, including the recording and a trace of where the call came from. If an ICE agent used his cell phone, that should be an easy arrest and mandatory jail time, hopefully.

essentialsaltes said:

More pain for US farmers as government shutdown halts payments​

Bessent: American farmers overwhelmingly voted for President Trump ... you should expect news on Tuesday on substantial support for our farmers."

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The shutdown is delaying Trump's farm bailout. Farmers say it won't be enough even when it happens.​

The shutdown is furloughing administration staffers needed to finalize and implement the farmer aid that had been promised to be unveiled on Tuesday, as well as putting on ice any additional money that lawmakers may need to provide.

For now, no new timing is imminent for an announcement, with a Department of Agriculture spokesperson telling Yahoo Finance on Wednesday that the agency "will continue to assess the farm economy and explore the need for further assistance."

"However, there is nothing new to share at this time."

American Soybean Association president Caleb Ragland recently appeared on Yahoo Finance and noted that proposed ideas for $10 billion to $14 billion in aid are akin to "putting a Band-Aid on an open wound."

"We are bleeding economically," he added, saying eventual relief will come "by not having tariffs that are in place," referring to both President Trump's tariffs and the countermeasures from foreign nations.

Farmer Blake Hurst, former president of the Missouri Farm Bureau, added in his own comments that Trump's tariff plans have, in his view, been "a complete bust."

More important to Hurst than a bailout is that he wants Trump to "drop the tariffs and resume normal trade relations."

rjs330 said:

Yeah thats what i thought. No evidence that any calls were fake. Just an accusation.

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You maybe misunderstood me. I asked "perpetrator of what?" because there was no evidence that anything had been damaged, and thus no justification for the fake 911 call from ICE.

rjs330 said:

Are we bowling

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No.

rjs330 said:

going to investigate every person who calls 911 for a crime or suspicious person and the perp is gone when cops get there?

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Perpetrator of what?

rjs330 said:

But I want some actual evidence of fakery before making a statement of fact like you are doing.

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I want some evidence that something was actually perpetrated before I believe the 911 call was real.

FredVB said:

There is biblical mention of election. If this means determined salvation it would make it an inconsequential meaning to us as it speaks of God's perspective, that we do not have. When could not tell anyone's election in that sense, we might just see who are Christians now, around us, apart from those who are not really. If we could have certainty with that. We have obligation to still be ready to share anything of the gospel with others in any case. Knowing there is any election makes no difference for us being responsible in these things.

But I do not see election mentioned in the Bible meaning that. Where it is mentioned it is applied to us as believers to be certain of being transformed to be more like Christ.

So I am not fully agreeing to those things. My best explanation is that just consequences to our sins is what Christ was bearing in the planned atonement. The more sins we had the more of the consequences he was bearing. God knew the just balance. So God knew who was coming in response to Christ with the needed repentant faith, while it was made available to any, that everyone had some opportunity, while we have responsibility to help increase the opportunity for any with being ready to share anything of the gospel. Those who will not come to Christ with the needed repentant faith to be restored to God, who knows all that happens, with having more opportunity that way will yet have greater responsibility for their failure to respond rightly.

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John 6. Check that out.

You are creating a dichotomy where none exists. Of course election is from God’s perspective. He has not given us a list of those HE elected for salvation, but that doesn’t mean that God hasn’t selected people of HIS choice for salvation. And to add to this, God selected (for his own reasons) that hearing the gospel preached is how HE chooses to work in those HE chose. So of course we must be ready to share our hope of salvation with others.

Do you have a problem with God choosing Israel as his people? If not, I am confused as to why you would be so upset that God is continuing to choose whom He will for salvation.

Apparently it was Gottfried Leibniz who coined the term "the best of all possible worlds" in his "Essays of Theodicy etc." Leibniz was also a central figure in the development of Calculus in mathematics and his dy/dx symbolism superseded that of Isaac Newton.

The phrase "the best of all possible worlds" (French: Le meilleur des mondes possibles; German: Die beste aller möglichen Welten) was coined by the German polymath and Enlightenment philosopher Gottfried Leibniz in his 1710 work Essais de Théodicée sur la bonté de Dieu, la liberté de l'homme et l'origine du mal (Essays of Theodicy on the Goodness of God, the Freedom of Man and the Origin of Evil),[1] more commonly known simply as the Theodicy. The claim that the actual world is the best of all possible worlds is the central argument in Leibniz's theodicy, or his attempt to solve the problem of evil.[1]

... In Leibniz's works, the argument about the best of all possible worlds appears in the context of his theodicy, a word that he coined by combining the Greek words Theos, 'God', and dikē, 'justice'.[2] Its object was to solve the problem of evil, that is, to reconcile the existence of evil and suffering in the world with the existence of a perfectly good, all-powerful and all-knowing God, who would seem required to prevent it; as such, the name comes from Leibniz's conceiving of the project as the vindication of God's justice, namely against the charges of injustice brought against him by such evils.[2] Proving that this is the best of all possible worlds would dispel such charges by showing that, no matter how it may intuitively appear to us from our limited point of view, any other world – such as, namely, one without the evils which trouble our lives – would, in fact, have been worse than the current one, all things considered.

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Apparently he also coined the term Theodicy which is the topic dealing with the problem of evil.

I think it is odds on that this is the best resourced of all worlds in this universe. Apart from the fact the physical constants are just the right mix to maintain this universe, we have the right chemicals for life, a thin but stable atmosphere, a Van Allen belt which shields us from Gamma rays, fossil fuels laid down in preparation to give industrial man a leg up when the time came; uranium so we could split the atom, large amounts of accessible iron and aluminium that we can use for construction of machinery, silicon for electronics, oceans to maintain a fairly steady temperature, a moon which stablilises our orbit, our position in the Milky Way so we are in a fairly dust free part which enables us to peer out into the universe and so on.

If we wreck this planet, I very much doubt that we're going to find another one anything like it no matter how technically advanced our civilisation might become. In that respect I think this will prove to be the "best (resourced) of all possible worlds" in this universe.

The problem of evil is harder to justify as one facet of "the best of all possible worlds".

FredVB said:

There is biblical mention of election. If this means determined salvation it would make it an inconsequential meaning to us as it speaks of God's perspective, that we do not have. When could not tell anyone's election in that sense, we might just see who are Christians now, around us, apart from those who are not really. If we could have certainty with that. We have obligation to still be ready to share anything of the gospel with others in any case. Knowing there is any election makes no difference for us being responsible in these things.

But I do not see election mentioned in the Bible meaning that. Where it is mentioned it is applied to us as believers to be certain of being transformed to be more like Christ.

So I am not fully agreeing to those things. My best explanation is that just consequences to our sins is what Christ was bearing in the planned atonement. The more sins we had the more of the consequences he was bearing. God knew the just balance. So God knew who was coming in response to Christ with the needed repentant faith, while it was made available to any, that everyone had some opportunity, while we have responsibility to help increase the opportunity for any with being ready to share anything of the gospel. Those who will not come to Christ with the needed repentant faith to be restored to God, who knows all that happens, with having more opportunity that way will yet have greater responsibility for their failure to respond rightly.

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I agree entirely that monergism can easily lead to various forms of fatalism in which Christians become indolent, sometimes even becoming Antinomian in their beliefs, which is a definite heresy. The fact that we do not, and cannot, know with any certainty the eternal fate of others ought to motivate us to joyfully sow the seeds of the gospel, as in the parable of the sower where the sower cast his precious seed on all sorts of ground and conditions. Jesus could have, just as easily, given the parable of the wise farmer who carefully cultivates his soil and plants his seeds personally so that the outcome would be guaranteed. An example would be that of the vinegrower.

When the seeds that are sown do find root in good ground and bear fruit we ought to rejoice in God's work and not take credit for causing the results. Likewise, when the seed fails to thrive and bear fruit we do not need to fall into despondency and say to ourselves that it is all obviously useless and a waste of time.

One of the classic examples in my experience has been door-to-door outreach, which is generally despised by most Christians as being cultish, associated with the Mormons and the JWs. However, these Christians willfully choose to ignore Jesus' command to go into all the world and preach the gospel, and the examples in Acts where they gospel was joyfully shared house to house. The curious thing, from my perspective, is that both monergists and synergists are united in their opposition to this form of outreach, having developed cunning theological rationales to support their unbelief.

Apple Sky said:

All this video proves is that they can beam a laser to the moon.

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and receive it reflected back again. That was what you asked for, I thought - perhaps I misunderstood your post.

*LILAC said:

The people who are calendar watching are getting mad. lol

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Well, its now the 9th lol If you catch a video or something where Joshua says anything, please let me know!

Servus said:

Trump wants to deploy the NG to Chicago to protect ICE.

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I'm aware. Again, I don't see the connection between asserting the right to deploy the National Guard anytime, anywhere, and for any reason and deportations. The President has some pretty clear guardrails on when, where, and why he can federalize the National Guard laid out in US law between the Constitution and various subsequent laws and amendments. Claiming that those can be ignored "cuz I said so" is not a good precedent to be setting, even if you agree with the reasons behind this particular case.

Unless, of course, the plan is for one-party rule moving forwards?

Michie said:

Will people never learn? All this rhetoric is exactly what’s fueling the violence. Lord have mercy.

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What violence? American crime has been dropping for several years.

David Lamb said:

Not sure what you mean by a work in progress. Do you mean the original setting up of the reflectors by the astronauts? There is a video here Bouncing Lasers off the Moon which shows the reflectors being set up, and also them being used after the moon landing. (There are probably plenty of other videos - this was just the first I came across.) The video is only 6 minutes 23 seconds long.

As for lasers going to the moon and back, this site has a video including that: Login to view embedded media (It's just 3 minutes 14 seconds long.)

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All this video proves is that they can beam a laser to the moon.

bbbbbbb said:

The simple reality is that all Christians believe in limited atonement unless they believe in universal salvation for all mankind, in which case, they would not be welcome on this board.

There are monergists who believe, as Augustine did, that God has chosen His elect from the foundation of the world such that the salvation of those elect was purchased by the blood of His son, Jesus Christ, on the cross of Calvary.

Then there are syncretists who believe, as the Catholic Church does, that the atonement of Jesus Christ is secured by any of a number of human responsibilities. The atonement is strictly limited to those who conform to God's requirements and cannot be applied in a universal sense to all of mankind.

Most folks, however, disagree with one or the other position, finding various faults with them. The crux of the argument is that it simply is not at all fair for God to show favoritism, either in choosing His people according to His own will, or by placing people in the untenable position of having to conform to some form of belief or behavior which will, in the process, leave the rest of humanity in a state of total and eternal damnation. Thus, the argument is attempted that the atonement of Jesus Christ is, indeed, for all of mankind, but . . . . . . the atonement will not result in the salvation of all mankind.

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There is biblical mention of election. If this means determined salvation it would make it an inconsequential meaning to us as it speaks of God's perspective, that we do not have. When could not tell anyone's election in that sense, we might just see who are Christians now, around us, apart from those who are not really. If we could have certainty with that. We have obligation to still be ready to share anything of the gospel with others in any case. Knowing there is any election makes no difference for us being responsible in these things.

But I do not see election mentioned in the Bible meaning that. Where it is mentioned it is applied to us as believers to be certain of being transformed to be more like Christ.

So I am not fully agreeing to those things. My best explanation is that just consequences to our sins is what Christ was bearing in the planned atonement. The more sins we had the more of the consequences he was bearing. God knew the just balance. So God knew who was coming in response to Christ with the needed repentant faith, while it was made available to any, that everyone had some opportunity, while we have responsibility to help increase the opportunity for any with being ready to share anything of the gospel. Those who will not come to Christ with the needed repentant faith to be restored to God, who knows all that happens, with having more opportunity that way will yet have greater responsibility for their failure to respond rightly.

The retroreflectors have been mentioned many times in this and other threads. Apple Sky either denies, ignores, or laughs at them.

o_mlly said:

So, as long as there is , for instance, a Genghis Khan, rape and pillage cannot be absolutely immoral.

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Not quite. It means that there is no objective morality.

David Lamb said:

I take those verses as truth. God had given some to be apostles, pastors, teachers etc. But apart from Matthias to replace Judas Iscariot, we don't read of the apostles appointing other apostles. We do read of them appointing elders, deacons etc.

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The Holy Spirit gives us the graces, the impression under the 13 apostles is that it finishes with them and unless one is a successor, there are no more. But with Martin Luther and the Moravians, then John Wesley and the awakenings, the Spirit can still reveal and appoint, create and make apostles.

In Acts 13:2-3 Barnabas is prayed for and "sent", on a mission.

The persecuted church slowed down in the early centuries but Jesus said He wanted the word preached to the ends of the Earth. How is that done, who is doing it? Who has been doing it? Acts 13:47,
For so the Lord has commanded us: ‘I have set you as a light to the Gentiles, That you should be for salvation to the ends of the earth

Ephesians 4:11-16 is partly about an ongoing work that is not said to end in the death of John the apostle or in persecution.

Where can you hear and believe, the missions are reaching the ends of the Earth and are actually and not theoretically in practice?