"52. This first proclamation is addressed especially to those who have never heard the Good News of Jesus, or to children. But, as a result of the frequent situations of dechristianization in our day, it also proves equally necessary for innumerable people who have been baptized but who live quite outside Christian life, for simple people who have a certain faith but an imperfect knowledge of the foundations of that faith, for intellectuals who feel the need to know Jesus Christ in a light different from the instruction they received as children, and for many others."


I think there are many fully initiated Catholics who have not grown in their faith since childhood or young adulthood. So at this point they may have lost even the fundamentals. And perhaps even hunger for a more mature expression of the faith than they learned as children. There really is no limit to the depth one can go. We must be open to hearing their questions and be as best equipped as we can to provide either some answers or directions to answers.

Note that many consider the guy who supposedly was trying to kill
Trump, a NutBar.

Who are “they”? They are those who trample on us who are following Jesus Christ with our lives. They are liars, deceivers, manipulators, and tricksters. They are accusers (falsely) of those who are upright in heart, i.e. who are following Jesus Christ with their lives. And they are preachers and teachers of “the Word” who are teaching lies and who are teaching Scriptures out of context and who are twisting them to say what “itching ears” want to hear. And many of them are “marketeers” selling a product to please the flesh.

Therefore, if you are one of the few (who are following the narrow path) who take the Scriptures to heart, and who believe what they teach, in context, and who are sharing the truth of the gospel, and not the lies, you will likely be hated and persecuted by these liars who trample on the truth of the gospel and on those who are still teaching the truth. For they are learning in their training to get rid of those with “strong convictions” who might bring to light those things hidden in darkness and might expose the lies being told.

So, what kinds of “nets” do they set for our steps? Many of these modern-day preachers and evangelists are being trained in marketing schemes and goals and techniques in what to do or to not do in order to “draw in large crowds of people into their gatherings.” And these schemes will often supersede the teachings of the Scriptures, for they are wanting to attract the world to their gatherings in order to grow their “churches,” i.e. their businesses, and to build their earthly kingdoms.

So, if you are someone who holds to the truths of the Scriptures, taught in context, you may be ostracized, rejected, cast aside as unwanted, rebuked, encouraged to change course, encouraged to compromise with the world, lied about, falsely accused of wrongdoing, and otherwise mistreated and rejected and told to “go someplace else where you will be a better fit.” You may be treated as the enemy within the gatherings of what are called “churches” (businesses marketed to the world), and therefore dumped.

For so much of what are called “churches” here in America today are just businesses of human origin incorporated under the state, and thus they are “state churches,” i.e. not the church of the living God, the body of Christ, with Christ only as her head. There may be genuine believers in Christ among them, but they are mixed in with the people of the world, and the goals and objectives come largely from marketing books and seminars, and they are not the goals and objectives of Christ for his church.

So, as followers of Jesus Christ, we are to keep steady our paths of following Jesus Christ in walks of obedience to his commands, in holy living, and in daily putting our sins to death, by the Spirit. And we are to hold on to the truths of the Scriptures, taught in their appropriate context, which we are to be living, in practice, and which we are to be sharing with other people. And we are not to let any opposition get us down and discouraged to where we give up or to where we retreat and to where we cave to conformity.

And the most critical thing we must hold fast to, and which we must be sharing with other people, is the truth of the gospel as taught by Jesus Christ and by his NT apostles (in context). For they taught that Jesus gave his life up for us on that cross in order that we might now die with Christ to sin and live to him and to his righteousness in walks of obedience to his commands in holy living. And if sin is what we practice, and not obedience to God, and not righteousness, we do not have eternal life with God.

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

Oh, to Be Like Thee, Blessed Redeemer

Lyrics by Thomas O. Chisholm, 1897
Music by W. J. Kirkpatrick, 1897

Oh, to be like Thee! blessèd Redeemer,
This is my constant longing and prayer;
Gladly I’ll forfeit all of earth’s treasures,
Jesus, Thy perfect likeness to wear.

Oh, to be like Thee! full of compassion,
Loving, forgiving, tender and kind,
Helping the helpless, cheering the fainting,
Seeking the wandering sinner to find.

O to be like Thee! lowly in spirit,
Holy and harmless, patient and brave;
Meekly enduring cruel reproaches,
Willing to suffer others to save.

O to be like Thee! while I am pleading,
Pour out Thy Spirit, fill with Thy love;
Make me a temple meet for Thy dwelling,
Fit me for life and Heaven above.

Oh, to be like Thee! Oh, to be like Thee,
Blessèd Redeemer, pure as Thou art;
Come in Thy sweetness, come in Thy fullness;
Stamp Thine own image deep on my heart.

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Personally I have a very difficult time thinking I'm sinless, even when I'm not doing anything.

I feel like it's lying to claim I'm sinless. And hypocritical. I don't want to be a lying hypocrite. It's just not my thing to think that way. It would be a form of deception to me to think I'm sinless. I'd think that the adversary tricked me into thinking I am God.

Only Jesus was sinless. No one else met that criteria. I'm OK with that, and everyone else a guaranteed sinner

Rxlx said:

Correct. The 60,000 geysers blew for 40 days and nights and their water cooled the canopy that then fell as freezing rain for another 110 days.
Get a book called 'A Brief History of Time #2' and read the chapter that clarifies everything about the flood.

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But Stephen Hawking, who wrote "A Brief History of Time", was an atheist. He wrote: "“Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing. Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist.” So hardly a good source for clarifying everything about the Flood.

Lies, deceptions, all around.
Character actors on the ground,
Spinning, spin webs of deceit.
So that others they defeat.

Tricks and trappings are their game.
They treat all of us the same.
Getting us to fight each other,
Christian brother against brother.

Left and right, and black and white,
They want all of us to fight.
Chaos, chaos is their game.
They turn the world to insane.

Fakery, fakery – all’s about,
Getting us to our God doubt.
Wanting us to believe them,
Following in their diadem.

So, they throw us a curve ball,
Echoes, echoes, through the hall.
Hoping we will take the bait,
And that others we will hate.

Then a prince in shining armor
Suddenly appears on the scene.
He’s got just the fix we need,
So that we can live serene.

“Peace and safety,” promises him,
If we will bow to his diadem.
“No more worries,” so he says,
“Trust me, and I’ll be your head.”

But he’s a liar straight from hell
Who wants to put us in a spell.
Incantation, that’s his game
So the strong will now be lame.

So be wise. Don’t be a fool.
Put on your armor as a tool.
Fight the good fight of the faith.
And don’t e’er take of their bait.

Trust in God, your ONLY LORD,
Use that mighty, mighty sword.
Speak the truth and fight the lies.
You will then save many lives.

An Original Work / June 5, 2020

Hans Blaster said:

Is it anything from Gov DeWine that hasn't already been quoted here?

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I don't know. As you said, it's a 36 minute video and I haven't had enough free time to watch it.

FireDragon76 said:

As others have said, the Pope isn't promoting religious indifferentism, but religious tolerance and respect.

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I think that sums it up. We should all live in harmony.

Not to ramble on, but it's my understanding Catholic Maryland was actually the first tolerant United States territory that actually tolerated other religions, in their case protestants.

The Puritans, who were escaping religious persecution from the Church of England, had zero tolerance for people different from them, such as Quakers, and those dreaded Catholics which they despised.

HARK! said:

It tears up my inner being, dwelling on the reality of what is happening to these children.

Their lives are devastated.

Thank our father in heaven that these Catholics found the funds to speak out with a strong voice.

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Yup.

Enough is enough.

Who are the wicked? They are all who despise the commandments of God. And what does that look like? They do not obey the Lord’s commands but they chart their own course, instead, and they walk in the ways of the flesh and in their sinful practices. Sin is their practice and not righteousness, godliness, moral purity, honesty, faithfulness, and obedience to our Lord. And some or many of them are also those who profess faith in Jesus Christ, even some pastors. But their actions do not match their professions of faith.

And that is exactly what this passage is talking about. It is talking about those who recite the statutes of God (the Scriptures) and who take his covenant upon their lips (make professions of faith in Jesus Christ). But they hate discipline. And so they cast the words of the Lord behind them, and they ignore them when what they want to do opposes the commands of God. And so they do not live honest, godly, and morally pure lives, to the glory of God, but they take pride and glory in their own flesh.

And then they come up with all sorts of excuses and rationalizations for why they still keep returning to their vomit, i.e. for why they keep repeating the same deliberate and defiant and habitual sins in the face of God and against God and against their spouses and their children, and against others who also profess faith in Jesus Christ. They claim Jesus as their Lord and Savior, and heaven as their eternal destiny, but they hate the discipline of the Lord, and they will not bow to the Lord and give up their sinful practices.

And as far as the idea of keeping company with adulterers, several things come to mind here. The first one is that so many professing Christians today are addicted to pornography and to sexual sin of various kinds. And if not pornography, per se, then to sexually charged and sexually explicit material of various kinds, such as movies, music, video games, sex texting, and the like. And the other thing that comes to mind are these self-help groups where men (mostly) are in fellowship with other men addicted to porn.


Gossip has always been a problem, and it still is. But I find that putting other people down and talking badly about others without their knowledge so that they cannot defend their own honor seems to be rampant. And so people form their opinions of other people based upon what they are hearing others say about them, and this can do so much harm to the ones being talked about. It can do great damage to their reputations, as people judge them. Mocking other people who are different from us seems to be for sport, too.

Do we need to call out false teachers? Yes! Do we need to exercise church discipline against those within the gatherings of the church who are sinning against others without true repentance, who are sinning deliberately and habitually? Yes! Do we need to call out rampant and deliberate and habitual sin in the lives of those professing faith in Jesus Christ? Yes! For their own rescue! But we should not be gossiping about one another behind each other’s backs, especially if we are spreading lies and are slandering others.


So, what is God saying here? And please know that this is not Old Covenant teaching only. This is what the New Testament Scriptures teach, too. There is a solemn warning here against deliberately and habitually forgetting the Lord and his commandments, especially so that one can commit deliberate and habitual sins against God. And the warning is that if one continues on that course and does not repent of his evil ways, he will not be rewarded with heaven, but he will die in his sins and face the judgment of God.

But on the plus side of this, God lets us know that those of us who order our ways rightly and who demonstrate by our actions true thanksgiving to our Lord for what he sacrificed for us on that cross, we will receive salvation from sin. And in the New Testament Jesus said that if anyone would come after him, he must deny self, take up his cross daily (die daily to sin) and follow (obey) him. For if we hold on to our sinful lifestyles, we will lose our lives for eternity. But if we deny self, die daily to sin, and follow our Lord in obedience, in practice, then we have the hope of eternal life with God.

And Jesus said that not everyone who says to him, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one DOING the will of God the Father. Many will stand before the Lord on the day of judgment, calling him “Lord” and claiming all the things they did in his name, and he is going to say to them, “I never knew you. Depart from me you workers of lawlessness,” because they refused to submit to the Lord and to obey his commandments, but they went their own way, instead. (Luke 9:23-26; Matthew 2:21-23)

So, please know what the Scriptures teach. Read them in context. Compare the Old Covenant teachings with the New Covenant teachings, for much of what was taught to the people under the Old Covenant is repeated for us in the New Testament under the New Covenant. For God has not changed, and his moral laws have not changed. Obedience to God, submission to his will, and the forsaking of our sins is still demanded by God as part of genuine faith and for salvation from sin and for eternal life with God.

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

Trust and Obey

Words by John H. Sammis, 1887
Music by Daniel B. Towner, 1887

When we walk with the Lord
in the light of His Word,
What a glory He sheds on our way!
While we do His good will,
He abides with us still,
And with all who will trust and obey.

Not a shadow can rise,
not a cloud in the skies,
But His smile quickly drives it away;
Not a doubt or a fear,
not a sigh or a tear,
Can abide while we trust and obey.

Not a burden we bear,
not a sorrow we share,
But our toil He doth richly repay;
Not a grief or a loss,
not a frown or a cross,
But is blessed if we trust and obey.

But we never can prove
the delights of His love
Until all on the altar we lay;
For the favor He shows,
for the joy He bestows,
Are for them who will trust and obey.

Then in fellowship sweet
We will sit at His feet.
Or we’ll walk by His side in the way.
What He says we will do,
Where He sends we will go;
Never fear, only trust and obey.

Trust and obey, for there’s no other way
To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.

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timewerx said:

why are you only spending $3 on food?

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I do not see any reason to spend more. For example for $4 I can buy a soup mix that gives me 8 servings. I usually only eat one serving in a day which is one cup of soup and that cost me fifty cents. often I eat one serving of beans and one serving of rice. That is a lot of food for me for $1.50.

For the achang

Poor hillary.
Having trouble keeping track of the voices in your head?
If she appeared quite she being polite and trying not to vomit.
Seeing thing that aren't really there again are ya?

Bob Crowley said:

I didn't talk to his wife anywhere near as much as I spoke with him, but she had spiritual sensitivity. She was certainly a peaceful person.

But I don't think she had his particular gifts. We're all different.

He didn't pay me a visible visit but the night the died I had this real sense of peace descend on me for about half an hour. I'd had it with other people from time to time (when they've just died) but this was easily the most pronounced and long lasting. I think he did visit in that sense.

I don't know exactly why we connected but I know God wanted me to meet him. Early on when I was still a new Christian, "Someone" appeared in a vision and said "I want you to stick close to Mr. Missenden (that was his name). He'll discourage you but you'll learn a lot from him." Then the someone just disappeared.

Although he did discourage me (something he did unintentionally to a number of people) I did indeed learn a lot from him. I haven't had anywhere near the same sort of personal interaction with any Catholic priest. He was easily the most influential religious person in my life.

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You both sound like you were birds of the same feather.

RileyG said:

Very nice!

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Thanks!

Michie said:

Leaders on both sides of the political aisle reacted to reports of the U.S. Secret Service firing at a man with an AK-style rifle near the Trump International Golf Club in Florida believed to have been planning to assassinate former President Donald Trump.

During a joint press conference with the FBI and Secret Service officials, Sheriff Ric Bradshaw of Palm Beach shared that an agent spotted the muzzle of the rifle and fired shots at the gunman on Sunday. According to Bradshaw, the shooter was between 300 to 500 yards away from the former president.

Authorities identified Ryan Wesley Routh as the gunman. The suspect has been chargedwith federal gun crimes. Authorities are working to determine a potential motive.

Continued below.

'Deeply disturbed': Democrats, Republicans react to second Trump assassination attempt

Leaders on both sides of the political aisle reacted to reports of the U S Secret Service firing at a man with an AK-style rifle near the Trump International Golf Club in Florida believed to have

www.christianpost.com

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Apparently the Gov of Florida is also asking the State DA to find out the exact extent of criminal activity in this case because it is not logical to assume that the current justice department that is trying to jail the Republican candidate for president , is going to be fair-and-balanced when it comes to investigating those snipers that try to take his life.

Would be nice to know the full extent that the extreme-left media and politicians played in pushing the unstable gunman over the edge.

Hammster said:

And I responded.

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And what you posted didn't contradict what I and @iluvatar5150 pointed out. Which was that the Breitbart article was wrong.

probinson said:

I think she was the "wokest", by her own admission. Or at least "woker" than most anyone else.

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Yeah, I think so as well. Man, politicians have started going downhill. This reminds me of two verses from the Timothy books. Also, 2017 was the year of the eclipse. Maybe Kamala eclipsed everyone else in terms of wokeness.

1 Timothy 4:1 (ESV): "Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons."

2 Timothy 4:3 (ESV): "For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions."

Michie said:

Marijuana | Unsplash/CRYSTALWEED cannabis

Twenty-four states have already legalized recreational marijuana (pot) and four states, Florida, Idaho, Nebraska and South Dakota, have ballot initiatives in the 2024 election to do the same. Big money is being spent to push these ballot initiatives because even more big money will be made. Whatever you have heard about the benefits of legal recreational pot, there is a destructive dark underside being covered up.

The following consequences will occur when recreational pot is legalized:

1. Increased highway accidents causing death and injury by drivers high on pot.[1]

2. Increased ER visits from drug overdoses in children, students and adults.[2]

3. Increases in serious crime as more drug lords move in to undercut the expensive legal product.[3]

4. Brain damage to developing minds.[4]

5. Farmland gobbled up to grow pot instead of food crops.

6. Increased tax revenue will mainly grow new government programs dealing with addiction, health and safety. [5]

7. Black market sales of more dangerous drugs will increase because of the gateway nature of Marijuana. [6]

To be clear, most states have legalized "medical" marijuana for the sick. This editorial is about recreational marijuana.

"Recreational" marijuana’s sole purpose is to get high not to treat a medical condition. Also, please do not compare recreational marijuana use with alcohol. People do not necessarily drink to get drunk, whereas recreational pot users’ main goal is to get high.

Continued below.

The dark side of legalization of recreational marijuana

Whatever you have heard about the benefits of legal recreational pot, there is a destructive dark underside being covered up

www.christianpost.com

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Is there data to support these claims, or are you saying these are the potential dangers? California first legalized medical cannabis in 1996, and in 2012, Colorado and Washington legalized cannabis for recreational use. States considering decriminalizing the weeds have been monitoring the states that have legalized it for economic, criminal, social, and other effects. Now we know from Nixon's domestic policy chief John Ehrlichman that in 1968 President Nixon war on drugs was created as a political tool to fight blacks and hippies. He said, "the Nixon White House had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people,”

“You understand what I’m saying? We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin. And then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities,” Ehrlichman said. “We could arrest their leaders. raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.”

President Nixon instituted the federal government’s drug classification system, and he knowingly wrongfully designated marijuana in Schedule I, among the substances like heroin believed to be most abused and deemed as having no proven medical value. The government was doing this to demonize and destroy the lives of blacks, and tree-hugging make love, not war white liberals. Nixon’s tactics also hampered progress in research on the therapeutic potential of marijuana over the last five decades. With this better understanding of cannabis, the Department of Justice said that the attorney general was circulating a “proposal to reclassify marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III.”

.

More photos and information.

“There was an early Christian community here way before Christianity became the official religion,” Tepper said. “Through the excavations, we learned about all the connections between Samaritans, Jews, pagans, Christians, soldiers and civilians: It is a microcosm.

Cosmic Charlie said:

Fact of life.

Thoughts and Prayers.

The cost of living in a free society where the 2nd amendment is properly enforced.

It's just too soon to talk about this.

But seriously,

If I had been shot at twice,

oh, wait I HAVE been actually been shot at twice in my life, so I have some perspective on this.....

...I'd consider it an indictment of my personality and maybe take some stock of myself to figure out why people want to shot at me.

But, hey,

That's me.

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I know the sound of a bullet flying by a wee bit too close. The shooter didn't know me and wasn't selecting me in particular as the target. Not an indictment of me or my personality and I never lost a bit of sleep wondering 'why me?'. It was all on them.

Except the US is not actually based on the Bible or the Word. It was based on enlightenment ideas about government and liberty.

KevinT said:

So was Jesus talking about that sort of bondage-marriage? Or was He talking about ANY sort of union between future between humans?

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Kevin, thank you for the pleasant response.

It seems to me that Jesus is simply being factual. When He says, "people will neither marry nor be given in marriage" (Matt 22:30). There doesn't seem to be any room for ambiguity here. Marriage is marriage, however one wants to parse out all the kinds of possible types of marriage mankind has devised. Whatever possibilities there are, there will be no marriage. Just as the angels.

KevinT said:

You are making a similar inference as I did initially.

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Actually, I think mine is deductive logic.

KevinT said:

You are saying that no marriage among angels --> no children among angels, which is similar to what I wrote: "One might infer that when Jesus precludes future marriage that He meant no future children".

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Well, that would be skipping some steps.

(1) There is no marriage among angels in heaven (Matt 22:30).
(2) It is a sin to have sexual relation outside of marriage according to God (Heb 13:4).
(C) If angels do not marry then it follows that angels do not have sexual relations in heaven. Otherwise it would be sin. And there is no sin in the new heaven and new earth.
(3) If angels do not have sex in heaven, because one must be married to have sex, then angels do not procreate in heaven.
(C) If angels do not procreate in heaven. Then it is reasonable to concluded that angels cannot procreate at all. For why would God allow such a thing if he intends angels to never marry and never have sexual relations (because they don't marry).

KevinT said:

Yes, marriage has traditionally been tightly linked to reproduction and the raising of children, and this is the Biblical model. But think about the wild animals. Some pair for life, but many just temporarily come together for copulation. In some animals the male stays to help raise the young, and in other cases not. A wild lion will mate with a lioness and then take off. The mother raises the cubs alone.

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This is not biblical marriage. So it does not apply to Matthew 22:13. Jesus is speaking of human beings who are in the image of God and the union of marriage in which God has established for human beings. You have turned the topic of marriage among human beings into sex outside the bonds of marriage. Which the Bible says is a sin.

KevinT said:

I am not saying that they might go against God's directions. But rather that the directions from God could be different due to different circumstances.

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God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow (Heb 13:8). The reason that we can have confidence in our Lord is because He is righteous, pure, and eternal. We know that evil will never be good and good will never be evil. God's eternal character is...well...eternal. The topics in which you speak that God might "be different" are one's he has declared sin. That is, that sex outside of the marriage bond is sin. Sex with angels, although I do not think this is even a thing, will always be sin and God will not reverse course and make something that was sin to be not sin. How then would it be justice to condemn the wicked in this world to then turn around and give the stamp of approval to that same wickedness in the next? That would seem to be against His character.

KevinT said:

Best wishes and peace to you as well.

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Thank you Kevin.

Keep seeking God's truth as if it was hidden treasure.

Cardinal Raymond Burke believes we are possibly living in the “last times.”

“Are these the last times? I don’t know that. Our Lord Himself said that it is for the Father to make these decisions. But it certainly seems that way, and so we need a strong intervention from Our Lord,” wrote Burke in an X post on Thursday as he called upon people to join a 9-month novena to the Blessed Mother.

“Are these the last times? I don’t know that. Our Lord Himself said that it is for the Father to make these decisions. But it certainly seems that way, and so we need a strong intervention from Our Lord; and we’re begging Our Lady to intercede on our behalf.” Join the 9-month… pic.twitter.com/Bvoz4KQN2v

— Cardinal Burke (@cardinalrlburke) September 12, 2024

Continued below.