Chesterton said:

I'm Antiochian and John was not our reading last Thursday. The readings were from 2nd Corinthians and Matthew. So I guess we don't all have the same readings on the same days?

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I do know that for much of the year, from the Apostle’s Fast to the Nativity, readings are out of whack between the New and Old Calendars.

Hvizsgyak said:

I still favor Enlil because he wanted to destroy the humans because they were too loud .

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Yeah, that really makes me wonder about you. Misanthropy is hardly going to attract anyone to your faith (apart from other misanthropists).

Always in His Presence said:

No - this is why Trump moved the National Guard into the DC area to help law enforcement.

Congrats to this brave young man.

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It’s simply yet another sign of the authoritarian decline of America. And now there is no one for Trump to blame any more because this is his folly and his alone.

Handmaiden Tale here we come.

FireDragon76 said:

Many of the Lutheran synods are distinguished as much by different cultural backgrounds, and not necessarily doctrine.

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This is one of the best points in the thread. I've been reading a book called "Pain in the Belly" by Pr. Thomas E. Jacobson. The subject of the book is Norwegian pietism in the US and Canada. Then, Laestadianism (Finnish pietism) is a related but distinct subject. Both have survived to the present day in a number of small synods or free churches. However, many of these pietists also trickled into various major synods and a fairly significant group ended up in ELCA.

Much of the Lutheran internal debate seems to me to be an attempt to define what pietism is, how the works that pietists value compare and contrast to works of supererogation, and how much pietism is acceptable in a confessional framework. It should be noted that pietist minded churches do not generally subscribe to the complete Book of Concord. Their worship also tends to simplicity or minimalism and might even disparage the Divine Service or Lutheran Mass.

There are some things we can learn from the pietists, such as a seriousness about our Christian life that is badly lacking in some of the synods that emphasize universal objective justification. In practice, much of the teaching on justification leads into anti-nomianism. We see different emphases emerge. ELCA likes to reflect on social justice and doing good to all mankind at the expense of dogma. The more conservative synods tend to reflect on dogma at the expense of teaching on practical living.

And of course, part of the reason pietism was mostly rejected in certain circles was probably cultural. It was a Nordic movement, rather than Germanic or Slavic. The ethnicity divisions have certainly mostly faded but you still see little vestiges in things like whether the congregation has a German heritage day, Danish heritage etc, or how they sing certain hymns. Also on how frequently communion is served and how the pastors dress for services.

Pommer said:

I must have missed where it was stated that Federal workers were doing the work of logging.

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Where did that come from?

Bible inspires brotherly love, everywhere

LTPCH

Sounds like he is going conservative and getting Jesus. The poor guy after. But Muslims get a gift that they would never let go of. Yes have mercy lord. And this is family? And a sword. Help him lord to recover, to find help. Increase his love for you and others and uthmans faith there in Uganda. Give him understanding of all things and bless him intensely forever. In Jesus Name.

Vambram said:

The President does respect the Constitution.

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Does he, though?

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-- A2SG, he's not a lawyer, ya know....

RileyG said:

Justin Bieber is approximately a year and a half older than me, and I remember when he first came out. Not a fan of his music, but I am happy to hear he's doing well spiritually and wants to grow in his relationship with Christ.

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I feel the same way….nota fan of his music but I do admire how he’s so vocal about his faith.

FaithT said:

We talked about this several weeks ago, but why are there so many gay clergy in Catholicism compared to clergy from other denominations?

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Does it have to do with them not being able to marry?

Vambram said:

I'm not surprised that you don't accept the facts in that article. After all, the facts made the Obama and Biden administration look bad for their wrong doings.

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The "facts" of the article are claims made by those in a GOP house hearing. The reality is yes, Obama et al were regulating banking actions given, not political opponents, but fraud.

ARBITER01 said:

Luk 21:36 Watch therefore and be constant in prayer, that ye may be counted worthy to escape all these things, which shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.

I'm more concerned about the marriage supper of the Lamb than I am with people's theological opinions otherwise.

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You say that the Marriage Feast of the Lamb is what matters. It seems to me that the Marriage Feast is only one of several ways that we are told of the saved entering Paradise, but we’ll take a look at it. Consider this passage.


Mt. 22:1Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying:
Mt. 22:2“The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a
wedding banquet for his son.
Mt. 22:3He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the
banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come.
Mt. 22:4“Then he sent some more servants and said, `Tell those who
have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen
and fattened cattle have been slaughtered, and everything is
ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’
Mt. 22:5“But they paid no attention and went off — one to his field,
another to his business.
Mt. 22:6The rest seized his servants, ill-treated them and killed them.
Mt. 22:7The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those
murderers and burned their city.
Mt. 22:8“Then he said to his servants, `The wedding banquet is ready,
but those I invited did not deserve to come.
Mt. 22:9Go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you
find.’
Mt. 22:10So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the
people they could find, both good and bad, and the wedding
hall was filled with guests.
Mt. 22:11“But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a
man there who was not wearing wedding clothes.
Mt. 22:12`Friend,’ he asked, `how did you get in here without wedding
clothes?’ The man was speechless.
Mt. 22:13“Then the king told the attendants, `Tie him hand and foot,
and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be
weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
Mt. 22:14“For many are invited, but few are chosen.”
Matthew 22:1-14 NIV

The King represents God the Father, and the Prince, His son, can only be Jesus Christ. The servants of the King are the Apostles, Disciples and later evangelists who bring God’s word to the world. The slaugtering of the oxen and cattle in verse 22:4 are are slightly veiled reference to the Crucifixion of Christ. The Crucifixion has already happened when the Apostles are sent out with God’s word. Verses 6 and 7 tell of God’s messengers being rejected, persecuted, and even killed. God will bring destruction on those who persecute His messengers. In verses 10-12, we are told of the man who is improperly dressed and is thrown “into the darkness.” Here Jesus warns us about hypocrisy. Those who join God’s Kingdom must do so whole-heartedly.

This parable tells us that some who are brought into the King’s great banquet were not thought to be good people before they listen to God’s servants.

There is no promise here that those who respond to God’s invitation will be free from persecution before they get to the wedding banquet. There is the promise of heaven in this passage but there is no promise that God will snatch Christians off the earth before the Second Coming.

Vambram said:

Who is polled and how the polling is done matters a lot. Remember when the polling said that Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris was going to win against Trump?

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That is a different kind of polling. Who you say you will vote for as juxtaposed to the action of actually voting is not the same as "how do you think Trump is doing on the issues."

Very good introduction and welcome to the forum @CerebralCherub .

Vambram said:

Who is polled and how the polling is done matters a lot. Remember when the polling said that Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris was going to win against Trump?

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Polling didn't say Kamala Harris was going to win against Trump. The polling repeatedly showed the election could go either way. Talking about 2016 makes more sense, but even there the polls, if properly looked at, showed Trump had a path to win, which he ended up making.

As was well explained here, commenting on people who got upset that the polls were "wrong" in Trump winning in 2024 (specifically, responding to Jon Stewart ranting about how he didn't want to hear from a pollster ever again):

In 2016, I could understand this reaction. Hillary had a genuine lead. Trump was only a normal polling error behind her, but only a few brave commentators were saying so. When Trump won anyway, it was easy to understand why people were shocked and angry at pollsters: a mixture of very bad work by amateurish election modelers (most of whom went out of business after 2016) combined with very human difficulties grasping probabilities. “You said Trump wasn’t going to win!” “No, I said he had about a 1-in-4 chance of winning.” “BOO!”

Election modelers launched into eight years of trying to add context to probabilistic forecasts, from JHKForecasts’ “equivalent poker odds” feature to FiveThirtyEight using the entire above-the-fold space to show plausible maps of plausible outcomes. (Also the dot plots! I miss the dot plots!)

In 2024, though, we see that maybe people never actually had a problem understanding probabilities at all. The forecasters could not have been clearer: it’s a coin toss! Could go either way! Yet I’ve seen so many people who are furious with them.

Maybe people just hate the messenger. Maybe the messenger who warns of possible bad news always gets shot when the bad news arrives. Maybe humans never learn anything, even things we’ve learned so well that we’ve literally embedded the aphorism, “Don’t shoot the messenger” into our lexicon.

azurite

prudent_commenter said:

Me personally, I spend a lot of time on preservation of the body and mind. It could be a directive from God, but that's what I do. No corruption, no poison, nothing beyond necessity.

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Ironically, I don't pay a lot of attention to my health. I exercise everyday but I still eat some junk foods. Not a lot, but still. Although the "junk food" I eat is mostly nuts, it might be too salty for many and probably had other toxic ingredients.

I barely drink water as well. Most of my fluid intake is from sweet milk beverages I made myself. In fact, drinking a glass of water in one sitting will literally make me sick. So my "water" is technically "hummingbird nectar" (1 part sugar and 5 parts water - tropical mix). Before I started eating salty nuts, I added more salt to sweet beverages. After a marathon, I'd add enough salt to my drinks, it's nearly as salty as sea water! Salt literally comes off my eyes!

I also work multiple shifts each day. afternoon, evening, and past midnight with some 1 to 2 hr naps in between and sometimes morning too. Stress levels is relatively high.

No food supplements, no meds. I also never visit the doctor because I'm not insured.

On top of this, I also live in one the most polluted cities in the world right next to a very busy street in an apartment where neighbors smoke so I breath 3rd hand cigarette smoke as well.

The Lord did tell me to exercise and limit my meals to just 2 each day, but it wasn't much because I'd do it anyway because it's fun. I skate, run, bike, and lift weights.

But honestly, I don't really desire to live long on Earth. I'd rather die in the next 10 years than live to over a hundred even if I managed to stay fit over the age of 100, I'd rather die sooner than later.

Say it aint so said:

It doesn't matter who. The Economist.

View attachment 368848

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Who is polled and how the polling is done matters a lot. Remember when the polling said that Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris was going to win against Trump?

Say it aint so said:

No, what I am saying is Obama was doing is, "root out fraud by banks and payment processors and to cut off the banking system from wrongdoing by merchants." Of course those enacting fraud are going to have issue with their ability to enact abuse for profit. There was nothing political about this. You do know that article is from one the the most disreputable news orgs out there. Their framing is disingenuous.

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I'm not surprised that you don't accept the facts in that article. After all, the facts made the Obama and Biden administration look bad for their wrong doings.

DaisyDay said:

Right, promise made, promise broken.

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So you don't ever allow for new information? Let's say you are married and promised to live honor etc til death do you part. Then you get married and find out your husband has two other wives and is a serial killer. Your just a promise breaker if you divorce him?

You say your going to do something and no new information should ever alter that? Do you we really live that way? I highly doubt it. Nobody does.

Valletta said:

Trump is eligible for a third term, he just cannot be elected for a third term.

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If he cannot be elected to the office, how is he eligible for it?

-- A2SG, seems fishy to me....