Tropical Wilds said:

I looked at my husband and said “they’re meeting in the pagan heaven of Norse warriors? Wasn’t he Christian? And not a warrior? Why would he be in Valhalla? Or is this a Marvel reference…? Was he a Marvel fan? Or is this an alpha male thing?”

I think he genuinely thought that would be his “that’s one small step for man” quote.

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...within a stones throw of BYU no less.

The Liturgist said:

It does not = particularly since the prayer to the saints is not really a prayer but a request for prayers. It does not deprive Christ of His role as our sole Mediator, since all traditional churches - Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Assyrians, Anglicans, Lutherans, liturgical Methodists and so on affirm that Christ is the sole Mediator - attempts to declare the Theotokos “co-Mediatrix” are a neo-Collyridian error and have been thus far rejected by the Roman Catholic Church. Collyridianism (worship of the Blessed Virgin Mary) and Antidicomarianism (refusal to venerate the Blessed Virgin Mary or acknowledge her virginity) were both identified by St. Epiphanios of Cyprus as errors of equal magnitude in the late fourth century (the same Epiphanios that some iconoclasts erroneously try to enlist as proof that the early church rejected icons, when rather, it was likely he was removing an Arian depiction of our Lord, for we know from archaeological evidence such as the Arian Baptistry in Ravenna that the Arians in rejecting the deity of Christ would depict him as a beardless youth).



That’s completely false - I pray the Hail Mary many times a day as did Martin Luther, among others, and it has not distracted from my focus on Christ our God as our only Savior - and as both our advocate and judge in the Eschaton. I know of no Orthodox Christians or Roman Catholics whose love for Christ is compromised by their Marian devotion; if anything, a strong Marian devotion increases love for Christ, because the Theotokos tells us in the Gospel according to John, of her son, “to do as he says.” Thus I do that by celebrating the Eucharist and pursuing prayer without ceasing, particularly the Jesus Prayer but also the Hail Mary, and the Divine Office. Nothing our Lord commanded precludes requesting other Christians, whether of the Church Militant or the Church Triumphant, for their prayers. In the Orthodox Church, we have certain knowledge of the presence of members of the Church Triumphant in our spiritual lives, because of their tendency to appear and do things for the benefit of the faithful, for example, the recent baptisms performed in Romania by St. Nektarios of Pentapolis.

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There are many Catholics that are not as knowledgeable as you, and they treat many Catholic rituals in the same way as pagans treat theirs. It is a superstitious ritual that pleases the gods. That is what I am referring to primarily. If you believe that Mary can pray for you and hear the prayers of millions of people in the world, have at it, but it is Christ who has mercy on your soul. Personally, I think Mary is sleeping in the grave waiting for the resurrection, but that is just me. I was trying to show that there is a big difference between orthodox Catholic doctrine and the superstitious Catholic. I don’t agree with much of the Roman doctrine, but I’m not in any way ready to condemn.

Hvizsgyak said:

What clicks in these people's brain to make them want to kill and/or injury people?

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Maybe if the trial ever starts, we'll find out. The incident was a year ago, but the defense has asked for more time and the feds didn't object.

[3 days ago]

Trial for Santa Maria man charged with courthouse bombing set for next year​

Nathaniel McGuire, who was 20 at the time of his arrest, has pleaded not guilty to charges of using a weapon of mass destruction, maliciously damaging a building using an explosive, and possessing unregistered destructive devices.

His trial date set for Tuesday in a federal courtroom in Los Angeles was continued after the defense requested additional time to prepare for the trial, according to a U.S. Department of Justice spokesperson, who tells KSBY the agency did not object to the request.

A new trial date has been set for April 7, 2026.

McGuire remains in federal custody.

DaisyDay said:

Not that that will deter Patel from claiming credit.

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Of course. Gotta take attention away from announcing falsely twice that they had the shooter.

iluvatar5150 said:

Yes, I was commenting on your Orwell reference about claims that run counter to the plain interpretation of a piece of text. My point is that, right now, when taken together, the messages on the shell casings are nonsensical. By themselves, two would appear to have a clear interpretation (“ciao” and “catch this”), but when put in context of the others that appear to reference online memes, their meaning becomes muddled.

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I was trying get the other poster to spell out what the "gay" inscription meant to her. Anyway I don't think any of the inscriptions are totally nonsensical. Especially the "fascist" one. A bit too on-the-nose. Anyone in the early 21st century calling out fascists when there are no fascists, is obviously a fascist. Especially when they engage in political violence.

Delvianna said:

You misunderstand me, I'm saying if you pray to anyone other than God and since Jesus IS God and our mediator, then we can pray to him but thats it. Mary and anyone else false out of that category. I Hope that clears up the confusion

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Well insofar as I ask the saints for their prayers but do not worship them and depend on Christ as my sole mediator, and direct my worship only to God the unoriginate Father, our Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ, begotten of the Father before all ages, and God the Holy Spirit, our Comforter and Paraclete, who eternally proceeds from the Father (and is the person of the Holy Trinity we primarily interact with in this life, along with the angels), I have benefitted greatly from God’s grace.

I would also note if seeking prayers from the saints is damnatory, then nearly all Christians of the first millenium, and all Christians from the start of the second millenium until some time between the 13th and 16th century, depending on whether or not the Waldensians were Christians before converting to Calvinism (I suspect they were, but we don’t know that much about them; but we do know they did not find Calvinism disagreeable so it is likely their views were along those lines) and the views of some of the Moravian movements outside of the mainstream movement founded by St. Jan Hus and St. Jerome of Prague, which sought to re-establish Slavonic liturgy and communion in both kinds in Moravia and in Prague, things with the Czechs and Slovaks had until the conquest of most of their land by the Austrians in the 13th century, when they were forcibly converted from Orthodoxy to Catholicism - thus the Orthodox Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia venerates them as martyrs, as do I.

Your views also would condemn a large number of members of the largest Protestant denomination, the Anglicans, as well as most of the persecuted Christians of the Middle East - the Coptic Orthodox, Syriac Orthodox, Antiochian Orthodox, Armenian Orthodox, Assyrian Church of the East, Ethiopian and Eritrean Orthodox, Alexandrian Greek Orthodox, and Jerusalem Greek Orthodox, and their Roman Catholic counterparts, many of whom, such as the Armenians and Ethiopians, have experienced martyrdom both from Muslims and Communists.

But we know that they are not condemned, because we are talking about Christians who worshipped Jesus Christ and were killed for their belief in Him, most recently, 93 Antiochian Orthodox men, women and children received the crown of martyrdom two months ago when a terrorist entered into a church in Damascus with an automatic weapon, and also threw a grenade at the iconostasis*, and many others have become Confessors (those tortured or injured for Christ). We know martyrs and confessors are saved because Christ declared “He who confesses me before men, i will confess before the Father” - and for this reason the early church placed a high value on the martyrs and their contribution to the church.

Indeed so many martyrs were killed during the reign of Emperor Diocletian, that it was decreed that all altars of all new churches would be built atop or contain the relics of martyrs (the use of the graves of martyrs as tables for celebrating the Eucharist is much older, and was the basis for the location of various ancient churches, which were built atop wherever martyrs were buried; it is also the reason why some of the ancient churches, such as the Armenians, Assyrians and Romans and some Syriac Orthodox have altars which have the proportions of a human body, which also remains the dominant configuration for altars in Western churches, even those who do not place relics in their altars, such as Anglicans.


*This shows the danger of false accusations of idolatry against the Orthodox - Muslim fundamentalists have routinely killed the Orthodox for idolatry and also desecrated our churches, but we know from archaeological evidence at Dura Europos and the Roman catacombs that the 2nd century chruch had icons, as did the Jews of that period, for at Dura Europos there was a house church and a synagogue, both of which were destroyed by ISIS along with the ruins in Palmyra.

Tropical Wilds said:

Are you serious?

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Unconfirmed speculation. There was a leak that Steven Crowder took credit from that early reports showed some "trans ideology" was found stamped on the casings. See here. Now that the engravings have been released I don't see where that leak report could have gotten that. I don't think it's been reported which shell casings were used but there are some that have TRN on them which is just the manufacturer. So, plausible but needs more evidence.

essentialsaltes said:

A Redondo Beach man was arrested Friday in connection with a suspicious bag that was left outside the Torrance courthouse this week, authorities said.

A law enforcement source familiar with the situation told The Times that the package at the Torrance courthouse “for sure was intended to hurt someone.” The source also said that surveillance video captured a man leaving the package along with a note that indicated a desire to cause harm and included claims that the man had “killed before.”

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What clicks in these people's brain to make them want to kill and/or injury people? It's like this obsessive behavior, "you took my guns therefore I'm ratcheting it up and I'm using explosives." Whatever happened to "now sit down and think about what you did". Do they truly feel like they are heroes fighting against some evilness? These people truly need some form of psychological help desperately. They need to truly learn to value all life.

iluvatar5150 said:

What's the opposite meaning of a Helldivers reference?

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A Heavenfloaters reference.

NewLifeInChristJesus said:

Jesus answered them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin." (Jn 8:34).​

You are re-defining slaves to suit the context, as I said before. You want slaves to mean that slaves of sin have no way to choose righteousness on one hand, but you do not want slaves to mean that slaves of righteousness have no way to choose sin or that "whoever sins is a slave of sin". You can't have it both ways. Ironically, your case would be stronger if you just let slave mean slave. But then you would have to give up on the idea of Progressive Sanctification...

Hint:

...those who are in the flesh cannot please God. However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness." (Ro 8:8–10 NASB 1995)​

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You do know that the Holy Spirit wasn’t given till after Pentecost, right? Jesus was talking in that verse (John 8:34) to people before He died, which was before the day of Pentecost. So, yes, at that time, people were slaves to sin because they had not received the gift and power of the Holy Spirit to guide and change us.

Thanks for the “hint”, but in Romans, we believers are not in the flesh because we have been redeemed and have the Holy Spirit to guide us and work on us to help us conform to the image of the Son. Also, I don’t know if you noticed that in the Romans 6 scripture I quoted in the my previous post, Paul was speaking in the past tense. Before they were saved/regenerated, they were slaves to sin.

Do you not understand the difference between unbelievers and believers? Or the difference between the pre-fallen world and the post-fallen world? Perhaps you should take a Bible study class and learn these things before posting here because you seem to not know anything about what the Bible teaches. It feels like you are making it up as you go.

NxNW said:

That was a misinterpretation by the right from a TRN stamp on the end of the bullet by the manufacturer.

The shooter wasn't trans; he was a Mormon from a right-wing MAGA family.

What is it about MAGA that brings about such violence?

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MAGA did not bring this assassination upon Charlie Kirk.

GoldenBoy89 said:

It is.

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No. It is not.

FreeinChrist said:

The Christian Post has become a rag.

So the bias against Christians:
- They can't block people from entering abortion clinics, which also happen to be where women also get treatment for other gynecological conditions and routine care not involving abortions. They can't assault those women either.
- Liberty University got fined for lying "about the cost of its doctoral programs to attract students to enroll". Christians aren't suppose to lie, right? They also violated the "Clery Act, which requires universities receiving federal funding to report data of campus crime and report threats to students".
- "The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) under Biden threatened the federal funding of the St. Francis Health System in Oklahoma for displaying a prayer candle in its chapel in 2023, the report noted.
The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty and the law firm Yetter Coleman LLP fired off a letter to HHS officials that year after an independent commission demanded that the hospital system extinguish a candle that represents the presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist, citing potential safety concerns for patients with oxygen equipment."

They eventually allowed the candle due to backlash - but hopefully people are aware that open flames are not allowed in hospitals be ause of the fire risk, and because many patients are on oxygen . Smoking is also not allowed. It is a fire risk.

As to the candle representing the presence if Jesus Christ in the Eucharist - don't you think that Jesus doesn't need a candle in order to be present?

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You forgot about the discrimination against Christian employees at HUD over posts on the website regarding celebrating Christian holidays while allowing leftist agenda posts, discrimination against the Little Sisters of the Poor to try to force them to do abortions, discrimination against churches that wanted to meet outside with mandated spacing during COVID whilst allowing up close and personal protests, denying military remembers the right to refuse the vaccine for religious reasons, OTHER people who protested at abortion clinics who DIDN’T block the entrance, excessive and unjustified fines on Christian schools that were way out of proportion to fines levied against non-Christian schools.

timewerx said:

It's not carnot....Unfortunately, I can't tell more.

There is no plan B. If it doesn't work, then that's the end of it. I'm not going to spend the rest of my life trying to crack it! It's been two months so far of grilling AI on the subject, even rebuilding the concept with "fresh AI memory" from scratch using different pathways several times. It always arrive to the same conclusion. You can't fool AI on this one especially when it comes to violating the law of conservation of energy.

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I sincerely wish you good luck! Perhaps it will benefit us all

Benaiah468 said:

No, Israel is not "lost" but is facing significant challenges, including the aftermath of the Oct 7, 2023, attacks and economic strain from the ongoing conflict with Hamas. Christians actively supports Israel through humanitarian aid, first responder equipment, housing for evacuated families, trauma counseling, and rebuilding efforts, asserting that a strong bond of friendship and support exists between Israel and Christians worldwide.

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Spiritually lost, not in a literal sense.

Vambram said:

I see that you think that honoring Charlie Kirk and his family is a political thing to do.

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It is.

DaisyDay said:

But violence actually seems to be falling in the cities somehow, not rising. Most school shootings, for some reason, do not take place in the inner cities.

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This may be merely selection bias, but a disproportionate number of the ones that come to my attention seem to happen in Denver suburbs.

Jerry N. said:

I agree with you that praying to saints can be a big stumbling block, but I’m not sure it can lead to damnation

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It does not = particularly since the prayer to the saints is not really a prayer but a request for prayers. It does not deprive Christ of His role as our sole Mediator, since all traditional churches - Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Assyrians, Anglicans, Lutherans, liturgical Methodists and so on affirm that Christ is the sole Mediator - attempts to declare the Theotokos “co-Mediatrix” are a neo-Collyridian error and have been thus far rejected by the Roman Catholic Church. Collyridianism (worship of the Blessed Virgin Mary) and Antidicomarianism (refusal to venerate the Blessed Virgin Mary or acknowledge her virginity) were both identified by St. Epiphanios of Cyprus as errors of equal magnitude in the late fourth century (the same Epiphanios that some iconoclasts erroneously try to enlist as proof that the early church rejected icons, when rather, it was likely he was removing an Arian depiction of our Lord, for we know from archaeological evidence such as the Arian Baptistry in Ravenna that the Arians in rejecting the deity of Christ would depict him as a beardless youth).

Jerry N. said:

However, repeating the same prayer to the same saint in a ritual over and over again distracts from the saving grace of Christ and give the impression of working one’s way into heaven by saying the rosary plus other rituals.

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That’s completely false - I pray the Hail Mary many times a day as did Martin Luther, among others, and it has not distracted from my focus on Christ our God as our only Savior - and as both our advocate and judge in the Eschaton. I know of no Orthodox Christians or Roman Catholics whose love for Christ is compromised by their Marian devotion; if anything, a strong Marian devotion increases love for Christ, because the Theotokos tells us in the Gospel according to John, of her son, “to do as he says.” Thus I do that by celebrating the Eucharist and pursuing prayer without ceasing, particularly the Jesus Prayer but also the Hail Mary, and the Divine Office. Nothing our Lord commanded precludes requesting other Christians, whether of the Church Militant or the Church Triumphant, for their prayers. In the Orthodox Church, we have certain knowledge of the presence of members of the Church Triumphant in our spiritual lives, because of their tendency to appear and do things for the benefit of the faithful, for example, the recent baptisms performed in Romania by St. Nektarios of Pentapolis.