Prof. Thomas Kidd's lecture at the Spurgeon Library Conference, highlighted Surgeon's stand against American slavery (Wilfberforce had ended it in Britain) And the American Christian reaction of slaveholders. They made a bonfire of his printed sermons. My Question at the Spurgeon Library Conference

Welcome Glen!

What has happened to Catholic Belgium? That breaks my heart.

Lord have mercy!

JimR-OCDS said:

I'm cautious about people claiming to have seen people in heaven, purgatory or hell.

Years ago, a person who supposedly had an NDE claimed to see Pope John Paul II in
hell with a snake around his neck.

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That was a oneness Pentecostal in Latin America. They reject the Holy Trinity. She also saw Selena and Michael Jackson in hell. Apparently, she said both of them are now dancing in hell for all eternity.

SMH

Wolseley said:

You can say this much about progressive liberals: they are undoubtedly passionate in their views---but nobody has ever suspected them of being terribly intelligent. They will follow their passions rigorously, even when it's detrimental to them; look at the way the election turned out.

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Yup. Well said.

The last 30 years have seen dramatic reductions in global poverty, spurred by strong catch-up growth in developing countries, especially in Asia. By 2015, some 729 million people, 10% of the population, lived under the $1.90 a day poverty line, greatly exceeding the Millennium Development Goal target of halving poverty. The evolution of global poverty, 1990-2030.

Historically this is unprecedented.

An Oracle of Tyre:

Isaiah 23:1-7 Wail you ships of Tarshish, for your harbour is destroyed, your port of entry from Kittim is swept away.
Be silent, you people of the coastlands and you merchants of Sidon, whom the seafarers have enriched. They brought food and every other kind of merchandise, you became the marketplace of the nations. Now; be dismayed, you great sea fortress, for you no longer have children to care for.

Other peoples will ask: Is this the great city of ancient times, the one that moved to settle in far off lands? Is this the place where merchants were princes, where traders were the most honoured men on earth and who founded colonies in distant places?

Isaiah 23:8-11 Who planned this about Tyre? The Lord Almighty planned it, to bring low their pride and to humble those of high status. Plough and plant your own fields, you people of Tarshish for your strength is lost, for the Lord has stretched out His hand over the sea, He has shaken kingdoms and destroyed your military power.

Isaiah 23:14-18 Lament you ships of Tyre, for now your strength is laid waste. From that time you will be forgotten for seventy years; the span of one reigning monarch’s life. At the end of the seventy years, the Lord will turn again to you and you will once more become an great trading people. The merchandise and the profits shall be dedicated to the Lord, it will not be stored up, but will be given to those people who dwell in the holy Land, for their food and clothing. Psalms 72:10

Tyre: An ancient seaport on the Lebanon coast. Destroyed by Alexander in 332 BC.

Kittim: The island of Cyprus, used in the Bible as a ‘type’ for the Western nations.

Tarshish: Not the Tarsus of Paul, in Southern Turkey.

: Tarshish was the name of a son of Javan, of Japheth, of Noah.

: Tarshish is also the name of the precious stone of the tribe of Asher.

: Tarshish, Wikipedia - A place, a city or country, far away from Israel by sea, whose people are great traders, thought be some to be Carthage of Tattessos in ancient Spain. [These places were ‘stepping stones’ for them]

Ezekiel 27:12 & 25 Tarshish was the source of your commerce, from its abundant resources of tin, iron, silver and lead. Ships of Tarshish brought their cargoes to you. Jeremiah 10:9
Jonah 1:3....Jonah tried to escape the Lord, by going to the most distant place a ship could then take him, which was Tarshish.

So the place referred to in the Bible as Tarshish, is a city or country far distant from Israel, accessible from the sea and was a place of mineral wealth.
The British Isles fits this description and secular records confirm how all those minerals were mined there, then shipped to many parts of the ancient world.

When Alexander the Great conquered ancient Tyre, he built a causeway out to the city. The people who were Israelites, mostly from the tribe of Asher, could see their demise was imminent, so they took to their ships and sailed away to settle in a far off land. Exactly as Isaiah 23:7b says.

In due course of time, they became great again. Their sea fortress; London, became the marketplace for the nations and they have founded colonies in distant places.
Now, be dismayed, for you have lost your military power and your Empire!
World Wars 1 and 2 bled the British Empire dry.

After the Lord has cleared and cleansed the Holy Land, they will support the new nation of Beulah, all the Lord’s faithful Christian people, living in all of the holy Land. Isaiah 62:1-5

Michie said:

A Christian conservative legal group and a sexual exploitation watchdog are among many speaking out against President-elect Donald Trump's selection of Rep. Matt Gaetz, R- Fla., to serve as attorney general, citing allegations of sexual misconduct.

Trump announced his intention to nominate Gaetz, a staunch ally representing Florida's 1st Congressional District in the United States House of Representatives, to serve as Attorney General on Wednesday.

The selection of Gaetz, known for orchestrating the ouster of then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy of California last year, has drawn blowback from many, including some conservatives and nonpartisan groups.

Continued below.

Gaetz nomination draws pushback from Christian conservative, sexual exploitation groups

A Christian conservative legal group and a sexual exploitation watchdog are among many speaking out against President-elect Donald Trump s selection of Rep Matt Gaetz, R- Florida, to serve as

www.christianpost.com

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The DOJ opened up a 3 year investigation and in the end declined to charge (no evidence of criminal activity)

The Bible says there needs to be 2 or 3 witnesses to establish guilt. There's no evidence this is anything more than a false accusation.

If Gaetz wife isn't leaving him, and Bidens DOJ isn't charging him (and you know they would if they had anything on him) then I won't accuse him and I still support him for the position.

It's a closed matter as far as I'm concerned.

tonychanyt said:

1 John 4:


3 John 1:


Gaius was walking in the truth. In contrast:


Diotrephes was not walking in the truth.


How could the truth itself speak? Was the truth a person? A document? What was it?

John used the word 'truth' six times in 3J 1 in various senses. The truth could be an objective, truthful fact or a personification of the Holy Spirit. John used the term here mostly to contrast falsehood or deceit. Metaphorically, the truth itself spoke of Demetrius's life being in accordance with the truth of Christ's teaching.

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Yes, I think it is a figure-of-speech, a spoken 'literary device'. However, it brings to mind what I think will be such an amazing play on facts —I guess one way to put it would be, that the truth 'himself' is testifying continually during this life. And we think WE are the purveyors of fact!

Probably because Zelensky has to make a compromise with Putin as Trump will not provide
military and financial support to continue the war.

Zelensky allowed his country to be destroyed. Watch him leave with billions of US dollars in his pocket.

tonychanyt said:

How do you know that?

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Not that a negative proves anything, but the text does not say that God punished the child, while it does imply that it is God's punishment of David for what he had done, (though apparently not punishment directly for sin, which Nathan told David was forgiven him —lol, echoes of 1 Jn 1:9 (already forgiven, contingent on confession?), but a necessary result of public sin done 'in secret', maybe pretended to cause no harm to God's people by the sin of their king.)

The hard things/suffering people go through are not always —maybe not even usually— punishment of the person going through it, but training, culling/trimming, shaping, growing, and otherwise using the person for God's own purposes.

Love365 said:

Russia Today was banned from YouTube back in 2022.

Should they be allowed back at some point?

You could limit the types of videos they can have on.

1. Peace Plans

2. Russian Foods

3. Russian Culture

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The obvious point is that YouTube is owned by Google

The same Google that Russia fined $20,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 a couple of weeks ago, which is more than the total GDP of... The entire planet, for all recorded time.

I can't help but think that the Russian government channels aren't going to be coming back before the next ice ago.

In Joshua chapter five, the Israelites under Joshua have crossed the Jordan and are camped in a place where God had Joshua circumsize the second generation of the freed children of Israel, after 40 years in the wilderness. Chapter five verse nine reads: “Then the Lord said to Joshua, ‘Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.’ So the name of that place is called Gilgal to this day.” (“Gilgal’ is similar to the Hebrew word for “rolled.”) Luke chapter 24 is about the women approaching the tomb of Jesus on Resurrection Sunday. Verse 2 reads: “But they found the stone rolled away from the tomb.”

While I am no expert on the ancient languages of the Bible, there appears to me to be here a relationship between these two verses. Israel’s captivity and wilderness wanderings were in a certain sense akin to death. When God said “Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you,” that was the beginning of a new life for the Israelites, as Jesus’ resurrection was a new beginning of new life.

There is a personal matter of mine that relates. Yesterday was, in my view, the first day that I came to full, permanent assurance of salvation. I am now 66. I first heard the gospel in sixth grade. I started doubting my salvation in tenth grade. For fifty years, I have mostly understood that I was not saved. I remember back when I was a teenager and understanding I was not saved. I could not bring myself to come to and trust Christ. I understood I was heading for hell and nothing could be done about it. I was in a conundrum. Sometimes, thinking I was doomed and could never be saved, I just thought, for example, of myself sitting on a dock and watching boats and doing nothing, because there was nothing I could do about my situation. What was I to do? Just sit on a dock and stare out, was a possibility. Back in those days, there was a popular song on the radio by Otis Redding. It is called (Sittin’ On) the Dock of the Bay. One stanza of the song is, “So I’m just gonna sit on the dock of the bay, Watching the tide roll away, I’m sittin’ on the dock of the bay, Wastin’ time.” I periodically imagined myself just sitting on the dock of the bay, in my darkness and doom, and doing nothing. Today is when I discovered the “rolled away” verse in the OT. I was excited about the connection between those two verses, and the fact that I now understand that the stone of my tomb has finally been rolled away.

Dutch police detained nearly 300 anti-Israel demonstrators who rallied in central Amsterdam in defiance of a protest ban imposed after rioters hunted down and assaulted Israelis in the street the week before.

Multiple demonstrators who gathered for the unauthorized protest on Wednesday waved Palestinian flags and chanted, "Amsterdam is saying no to genocide" and "Free Palestine."

Police in riot gear apprehended members of the group, put them on buses and drove them to the outskirts of town, as The Times of Israel reported Thursday.

Continued below.

Tim Welby, son of the recently resigned Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, has defended his father's decision to step down amid mounting scrutiny over the Church of England's handling of abuse cases. The resignation has intensified demands for Stephen Cottrell, the archbishop of York, to follow suit due to his alleged neglect of multiple safeguarding complaints.

Tim Welby noted that “so many people were calling for his resignation” that his father's position had become “untenable,” accordingto The Mirror.

He said his father was “really, really cross that it didn’t occur to him to triple check” whether the abuse had been reported to the authorities. “The frustrating thing is I don't think it ever occurred to him that it hadn't been reported to the police,” he was quoted as saying.

Continued below.

I do not celebrate Christmas, Halloween, Easter, Lent, Passover, Feast of Tabernacles, Mid-Autumn Festival, Chinese New Year, etc. I don't even celebrate my birthday. I didn't attend my Bachelor's, Master's, or PhD convocations. I find them boring. I do not celebrate much, but I am happy that others do

Romans 14:

5 One person considers one day more sacred than another; another considers every day alike. Each of them should be fully convinced in their own mind.

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Colossians 3:

17 And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

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I think it is okay for Christians to celebrate Halloween. It is up to each one of us to make decisions guided by our consciences before God. I would not be a party pooper

What about Christmas trees?

If it bothers your conscience, don't use them.

What about the Jewish festivals, Passover, Rosh Hashanah (Feast of Trumpets), Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement), etc.?

It is okay for Christians to celebrate them, knowing they have been fulfilled in Christ.

It's very hard for me not to share the concern that MTG and Don Jr. have about this latest 'Biden' move ...

Marjorie Taylor Greene and Donald Trump Jr accuse Biden of trying to start WWIII with Ukraine missiles move​

Marjorie Taylor Greene and Donald Trump Jr have accused President Joe Biden of trying to start World War III after he gave Ukraine the green light to use US-supplied long-range supersonic missiles to strike inside Russia for the first time.

The Biden administration’s granting of Kyiv’s request to use the ATACMS missiles outside of its own borders marks a change in stance in the president’s final days in office, before President-elect Donald Trump – who has indicated he will limit US support for Ukraine – returns to the White House in January.

The MAGA representative and Donald Trump’s eldest son lashed out at Biden’s decision in fiery posts on X.

“On his way out of office, Joe Biden is dangerously trying to start WWIII by authorizing Ukraine the use of U.S. long range missiles into Russia,” Greene, who is among the Republicans who want to cut US aid to Ukraine, posted on Sunday.

“The American people gave a mandate on Nov 5th against these exact America last decisions and do NOT want to fund or fight foreign wars.

She concluded: “We want to fix our own problems. Enough of this, it must stop.”

Trump Jr – who last week told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that his “allowance” is up now that Trump is returning to the White House – accused Biden of attempting to tarnish his father’s legacy by placing the US on the brink of conflict before he takes office.

“The Military Industrial Complex seems to want to make sure they get World War 3 going before my father has a chance to create peace and save lives,” Trump Jr said.

Isaiah 40:5 came to my mind after reading your devotional

Fantine said:

34,000 dead is a "liberal narrative?" I am sure the grieving families are comforted to know the deaths they mourn are just pretend, a liberal narrative...and that somewhere in the US, people not only feel no compassion, but don't even think it's true.

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It is not about fake numbers. You are defending Hamas not the people. The people as I have shown HATE Hamas now so they are siding with Israel.

d taylor said:

-
​

No i did not, i just do not buy into Calvinist theology.

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Then you dont buy into the Truth, for they are both Gifts of Gods Grace

Unqualified said:

God doesn’t get Mad at us for little things. We imagine those things because our conscience always wants to please Him. He gets mad at sins that separate us from Him. He does not get frustrated, he can handle it. If he is silent it means keep praying.

unless you are in deliberate willful sin. Then God will be mad. But when the scene changes and you get scared take those thoughts captive as in 2Cor 10:3-5. This should help you return to peace and look to Jesus. Our thoughtcan sometimes lead us astray.. thinking that God is mad is a worm hole.

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Wonderful advice! Wormhole is true....it just takes root and gets worse and worse. Thx again!

Always good to see when Christians point out these issues.

comana said:

I must have missed the part where she stated she hates Trump voters. All I read was that she is upset that Trump will be in office. If she hates anything it seems it would be Trump policies.

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And she expressed sympathy for those who cannot leave and will be exposed to Trump's policies--which includes Trump voters, they just don't realize it yet.