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We’ve been reading Charles Darwin all wrong

That's only true if your metaphysic is like a deist's, i.e., God creates like one spins a top so that once it gets going, it's on its own. But that is not the metaphysic of classical Christianity. "In him all things hold together" (Col. 1.17). Accordingly, God doesn't just create but also sustains all things in their existence. All things that make boiling water possible are sustained in their existence, including those properties they regularly exhibit. No, God isn't stepping in to help since God never stepped out. What makes it "natural" is that we can observe their working and regularity (order), and we can give an account of their properties without recourse to divine intervention, but that is only because there is (or at least seems to be) an inherent order in which they operate.

That order, itself, is simply assumed by science, and for good reason. But we don't really have an account for the appearance of order in the universe. Perhaps the best option out there concerns entropy and the 2nd law of thermodynamics. I am sure some of the smarter folks on the board have ideas, too. But we can't get outside of the universe to see it as a whole and give an account. As Einstein remarked, the great mystery of the universe is its comprehensibility. At any rate, for a robust Christian metaphysic, that order is an act of divine grace that sustains all things in an orderly way so that water always boils under the same conditions. In short, it's all a miracle and an act of divine influence.
Yes, well I've always believed that we little humans are bobbing around on a unfathomable ocean of mystery.
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Shepherds Scattering the Sheep

“’Woe to the shepherds who are destroying and scattering the sheep of My pasture!’ declares the Lord. Therefore thus says the Lord God of Israel concerning the shepherds who are tending My people: ‘You have scattered My flock and driven them away, and have not attended to them; behold, I am about to attend to you for the evil of your deeds,’ declares the Lord.” (Jeremiah 23:1-2 NASB1995)

Who are the shepherds today who are destroying and scattering the sheep of Christ’s pasture? They are people who call themselves pastors, reverend, elder, deacon, bishop, priest, pope, and teachers, and so on. But they aren’t just those who are in leadership positions within the gatherings of what are called, “the church.” But they can be political rulers of nations who call themselves “Christians,” who profess faith in Jesus Christ with their lips.

And how are they destroying and scattering the sheep? One way is by teaching the people lies convincingly enough to where they accept the lies as truth and they reject the truth as though it is the lie. And so they end up following after a human-created gospel which does not insist that they die with Christ to sin and that they now walk (in conduct) in obedience to our Lord and to his commands, in daily practice, in the power of God.

Not only do they teach the Scriptures out of context, and distort them, and twist them in the direction of what they want them to say, but they teach false doctrines of faith, and they teach that God said what he did not say, and they teach undying devotion and support given to a physical and political and godless nation, in the name of God, and in the name of Christianity, which is opposed to what the Scriptures teach we should do.

And sadly, it appears that the majority of those who call themselves “Christians,” here in the USA, are following the lies and the liars. And so many of them are giving their devotion and veneration to godless people and to godless nations which reject the authority of Jesus Christ over their lives, and who are antichrist by their denial and rejection of Jesus Christ as the Messiah who has come, and by their unwillingness to bow the knee to God.

But they don’t scatter the sheep of God’s (Christ’s) pasture by deception only. They also do it by rejection of those who are following the truth of the gospel, who are standing on the Word of Truth, and who are rebuking the lies of Satan, and who are proclaiming the truth of the gospel of our salvation to the people, as Jesus and his New Testament apostles taught it. Many of these shepherds are being trained to get rid of people like us with “strong convictions,” and to invite us to go where we will be a “better fit.”

So, let’s get this straight. The Israel of God today is not the political and godless nation called, Israel, who by the large majority are antichrist, because they have rejected Jesus Christ as their Messiah and Lord. The Israel of God today are all who believe in Jesus Christ, whether Jew or Gentile by physical birth. Collectively we are God’s holy nation, his beloved, and the sheep of his pasture. So you are not required of God to give your allegiance and support to the antichrist nation called, “Israel.”

[Genesis 17:7-9; Genesis 18:19; John 8:18-19,38-47; Romans 2:28-29; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; Romans 9:4-8,25-28; Romans 11:1-36; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; Galatians 3:16,26-29; Galatians 4:22-31; Ephesians 2:11-22; Ephesians 3:6; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-16; Hebrews 8:6-13;1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 2:22; Jude 1:5; Revelation 2:9; Revelation 3:9]

Also, you are not to give your veneration, allegiance, and support to any physical nation of people, in the sense of worship of them and their leaders with a blind trust that believes whatever lies they feed you. The USA is not “one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” For, even though the majority religion in our nation is “Christian,” not many are literally surrendered to Christ as Lord of their lives, following him, obeying him, and dying to sin daily, by the Spirit. Many give lip service only.

And with regard to the gospel, Jesus taught that if we are going to come after him that we must deny self, die daily to sin, and follow him in obedience to his commands. For if we profess him with our lips, but sin is still what we practice, and not obedience to God, then we don’t know God, we are not in fellowship with Christ, we are not born of God, we do not have salvation from sin, and we do not have eternal life with God in heaven. So please know and believe and live the truth, for your life depends on it.

[Matt 7:13-14,21-23; Lu 9:23-26; Jn 10:27-30; Ac 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; Tit 2:11-14; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2; 1 Pet 2:24; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6,15-17; 1 Jn 3:4-10]

My Sheep

Based off John 10:1-30 NIV
An Original Work / June 24, 2012
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love


My sheep hear me. They know me.
They listen to my voice and obey.
I call them and lead them.
They know my voice, so they follow me.
They will never follow strangers.
They will run away from them.
The voice of a stranger they know not;
They do not follow him.

So, I tell you the truth that
I am the gate, so you enter in.
Whoever does enter
Will find forgiveness and will be saved.
Nonetheless whoever enters
Not by the gate; other way,
He is the thief and a robber.
Listen not, the sheep to him.

Oh, I am the Good Shepherd,
Who laid his own life down for the sheep.
I know them. They know me.
They will live with me eternally.
The thief only comes to steal and
Kill and to destroy the church.
I have come to give you life that
You may have it to the full…

They know my voice, so they follow me.

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Shepherds Scattering the Sheep
An Original Work / June 25, 2025
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

What exactly do you think trump means by MIGA

No, it wasn’t destroyed. Couldn’t you tell by their response? ;-)

What response, Iran is now in the middle of a civil war, on top of the war with Israel. (There's on the ground fighting now in both the north and the south in Iran, between the Iranians and the regime as far as I can tell,).

Khamenei's office has made no public statements in 24 hours now, and we are no longer even sure the state of Iranian leadership in reality.

So what response exactly? A regime on the brink of collapse with who even knows in charge?

Do you think they are going to tell anyone the truth when they are having to use paramilitary against their own people to perchance remain in power?

We did no damage. Right. I'll take MAGA eyes on the problem in real time and go with that assessment.

We destroyed three underground nuclear sites. it's probably not the only underground nuclear sites, but they were major sites nonetheless, and it serves to set them back at the least quite considerably in their ambitions.

The propagandists are not trustworthy. In or out of the so-called intelligence community.

"Monica Elfriede Witt, 39, a former U.S. service member and counterintelligence agent, has been indicted by a federal grand jury in the District of Columbia for conspiracy to deliver and delivering national defense information to representatives of the Iranian government." Former U.S. Counterintelligence Agent Charged With Espionage on Behalf of Iran; Four Iranians Charged With a Cyber Campaign Targeting Her Former Colleagues


Not everyone in life is trustworthy. The president of the United States is the commander in chief of the armed forces and executed an historic military operation that successfully completed its mission objective. Kudos to all our men and women in the military. Zero deaths and 3 nuclear facilities destroyed. In and out without anyone even knowing.

For a military operation it was flawless and serves as a warning I'm sure.

No one wants to be involved any further militarily, and I'm sure no one desires our further military involvement I pray. Iran can end their nuclear weapons ambitions. It's always been a red line.


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We’ve been reading Charles Darwin all wrong

It's been directly observed that evolution proceeds by mutation and natural selection.
No one has ever observed any prehistoric life-form evolving via mutation and natural selection.
As even honest YECs admit, the evidence shows common descent. For example, evolutionary theory predicted that lungfish would be more closely related to humans than they would be to other fish. And that prediction has been observed.This would make no sense whatever if creationism were true, but it's another confirmation of Darwin's theory.

It's alleged that fish are the common ancestor of reptiles and mammals, for example, but no one can prove that reptiles and mammals descended from fish via a natural process.

The process of common could have been the result of a supernatural process ... unless you can prove that it could not have been the result of a supernatural process.
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Biden aides lined up to appear before House Oversight Committee in autopen investigation

There's the suspicion that Biden's mental fitness was in such decline that aides used an autopen to sign documents to conceal it.

If the defendant (whoever that might be) wants to use that as a defense, they can do so at their trial. But it's not relevant to the issue of whether or not the autopen was used without authorization.

-- A2SG, either it was or it wasn't......
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"It is not good for man to be alone..."

The church‘s position on singles exists for several reasons. There are positions where it isn’t an issue like youth ministry and possibly young adults. But the greater issue is dating and the fallout that could occur in the church. Most couples don’t marry the first people they date and it can take a few tries. Can you fathom the problems that might ensue? Never mind the gossip.

Add in the fact we’re very litigious in America, plus the gender wars, #metoo and social media. They‘d be foolish not to have a policy in place. Married couples are an insurance policy of sorts. It isn‘t perfect but the alternative could be worse. We’re entering new territory with sexual assault allegations being tried in civil court which could be costly to defend and destroy their reputation. This is a new period and caution is best.

~bella
Reasonable concerns. Perhaps a policy they can't date within the church. They would have to seek a spouse from outside the church (that church). What if they are not sure they want to marry or don't feel ready? Are they to be shunned from ministry until they marry? What if they decide to stay single? Marriage should not be a requirement to minister. It is not in the Bible.
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We’ve been reading Charles Darwin all wrong

Show me one. Show me a published paper that is nothing more than a dreamed up story.
Almost every scientific paper that attempts to explain how prehistoric life-forms evolved will contain hypotheses that can't be tested, which amounts to pseudo-scientific story-telling, not true science.
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We’ve been reading Charles Darwin all wrong

Evolution is a science, not a belief system or the basis of one. It is certainly not the basis of "atheist belief".
The theory of evolution certainly supports atheism, which explains why so many atheists are psychologically addicted to it and defend it so zealously.

It's interesting that more than 80% (if memory serves) of evolutionary biologists are atheists. Coincidence? I don't think so.
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We’ve been reading Charles Darwin all wrong

What use would I have for a "belief system". Religion was useless, I miss absolutely nothing about religion because it offered me nothing useful.
If it makes you happy to believe that there is no God, that you're just an accidental bag of chemicals and that this life is all there is to existence, good luck to you.
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We’ve been reading Charles Darwin all wrong

This is entirely wrong about evolution. You can stop trying now as you have reached maximal wrongness on the topic.
It's entirely wrong? Really?

I'm curious, how did you prove that a natural process was responsible for mammals descending from fish, for example?
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We’ve been reading Charles Darwin all wrong

No stories. Detailed accounts, based upon observation and carefully validated, of how one or other aspect of the mechanics of the evolutionary process expresses themselves and what the results of that expression are. Their stories are not an act of creation on their part, but an act of observation and inference and explanation.
"carefully validated" ... now that's funny!
Pray tell, how can an explanation of how mammals (allegedly) descended from fish, for example, be "validated"?

Anyone with a vivid imagination can dream up a story about how such a transition might have occurred according to the theory of evolution, but validating its truthfulness is another matter - in fact,validation is impossible.
So any such explanation amounts to nothing more than pseudo-scientific story-telling.

The truth is, a great many so-called scientific explanations of how prehistoric life-forms evolved are heavily laden with hypotheses that can't be tested, which means such explanations don't even qualify as science.
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Biden aides lined up to appear before House Oversight Committee in autopen investigation

He can talk about how mentally fit his patient is, if the patent gives approval. The question is, will the doctor be able to do so, or will he have to keep quiet about it? It would be pretty telling if he's asked something like "how mentally fit is your patient?" and he has to reply with "I can't talk about that".
How is that relevant to the issue? If the committee is trying to determine whether someone used the autopen without authorization, how does President Biden's mental state figure into that? The misuse of the pen is the issue, not the President's mental state.

-- A2SG, so there are no confidentiality conflicts for the President's physician.....
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Does man have a freewill ?

God doesn’t “regret” making Saul king in the same sense as we do. The bible teaches us God is omniscient so He knows all. I’ve always though of these kind of words like regret or repent when applied to God to be an anthropomorphism to helps up better understand the sorrow that He has for Saul. Below is what the word means to give you some context.

נָחַם nâcham, naw-kham'; a primitive root; properly, to sigh, i.e. breathe strongly; by implication, to be sorry, i.e. (in a favorable sense) to pity, console or (reflexively) rue; or (unfavorably) to avenge (oneself):—comfort (self), ease (one's self), repent(-er,-ing, self).
The KJV translates Strong's H5162 in the following manner: comfort (57x), repent (41x), comforter (9x), ease (1x).
Thanks. That is helpful and well thought out.
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Does man have a freewill ?

It's very easy to explain. God gave man free will and it saddens Him when someone makes bad choices that go against His desires like Saul did.

You can see the same thing here:

Genesis 6:5 Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6 And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.
Thanks, that is pretty much what I thought, and it indicates the limitations of language.
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We’ve been reading Charles Darwin all wrong

Au contraire.

The Bible says otherwise.

Romans 1:25 Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.

Atheist not only worship creation, they serve it.
Well said, brother.

Additionally, Romans 1 also says, "they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking and their senseless minds were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man or birds or animals or reptiles."

Claiming to be wise about what produced the history of life on earth, atheists who attribute that history to a wholly natural process become fools, who in effect worship nature instead of giving glory to their Creator.
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Islam attacks Israel

For now, Israel and the US have delivered a decisive and perhaps fatal blow to Iran Inc. We’ll know soon enough if Trump’s intervention — with bullish airstrikes and diplomacy — has brought this round of fighting to a close. Whether this is the beginning, middle or end of this stage of Israel history — and what comes next — will take more time to figure out. Jerusalem Post

But we have Bible Prophecy!
The Prophecy in 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11, is very applicable for today, just before the Day of the Lord, which will come unexpectedly.
We are told that in that time, people will say -'Peace and Safety', as Israel and Iran cease hostilities now and a peace agreement will be sponsored by America.
THEN; -destruction falls upon them.....and there will be no escape. This will be the many Prophesied Day the Lord sends His fiery wrath, to change the world and commence all the end times things.
keras, I think Trump is declaring a "cease fire".

But it is not the peace and safety saying of 1Thessalonians 5:1-11.
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