Unless your truth isn't the truth. Then you will walk the landscape of untruth, looking to spread untruth and in the process lose yourself. Something to consider.
I'm simply following the example of Jesus. Jesus is not the type of person who will follow you around even against your wishes until you agree with Him. He also won't hang around if He is not welcomed in some place. Jesus even let people walk out of His sermons.
Americanvet has made his intentions clear. But it only means I'll leave him alone, but not this topic.
The eye of God is a well-established and historic Christian symbol.
I can't find it in the Bible. All I found is don't make one! (Exodus 20:4)
If you are one of the very few Christians who interpret that to be against the commandment, I assume that you carry no currency in your wallet, have no pictures of family members, and find every historic monument in the country to be sinful. If so, Masonry is not for YOU.
Yes, I do all those but the currency part.
But you see there's a difference between cash and family photos
1. Cash - can fulfill needs - but Jesus say don't esteem it
2. Family photos - cannot fulfill needs unless you can eat paper - Bible says it's idolatry.
1. You can keep cash and not sin as long as you don't esteem it - you don't strive to be richer, you give what you don't need to God's Work and the poor, you don't use it to buy things you don't need or more expensive than what is needed (if a cheap/basic car is enough to get you around the city, why buy a more expensive SUV, luxury sedan or sports car?)
Jesus kept coins too they collected in their ministry with the face of Caesar. But Jesus and His disciples did not esteem them except one - Judas who kept some of the ministry money for himself.
2. However, there is no reason for you to keep family photos since it can't fulfill any need. The only reason left why keep it is you esteem it and it becomes your idol.
As you've said, you never took an oath in court, in the military, or on other such occasions, but there aren't many Christian churches that find this to be wrong. As always, no one is saying that anyone should join in defiance of his own church's policies. What you are saying is that no one should join if this conflicts with YOUR personal religious beliefs.
I agree with that. However, this not due to religious beliefs. I sought the Bible and saw it there. I assume we all use the same Bibles with the 66 books, maybe with slightly different words used but otherwise, similar in interpretations.
I don't easily ascribe to popular beliefs even in local churches regardless of denomination. I've observed many churches compromise the Truth in different levels and seems to have a major effect in the number of members - that is the less Truth you preach, the more members you have!
So is doing anything but sitting in a cave and reading the Bible 24/7. But I don't believe for a minute that you really do this. In fact, you waste a lot of time here and belong to CF, which according to what you've said before, is not God-pleasing.
I don't see reaching out to others with the Truth as waste of time.
century. Times change. Cultures change.
But God stays the same.
Times change indeed, idols are no longer made of wood, gold and silver, carved by chisel. Now it's made of carbon steel, or carbon fiber, aluminum, CNC machined, cast, forged...
Now we can sing acts of fornication, laugh with those who say the Lord's name in vain in TV, party every week or every day, inviting our friends, instead of the poor and strangers. Have infinite number of things to waste money on instead on spending them on God's Work and to the poor...
Now we can make profits off the backs of cheap labor in 3rd world countries. Not only that, we are destroying our environment much more vigorously than it was then.
Now we can cause others to sin on a daily basis by wearing clothes that easily reveal our bodily features and to behave seductively as popularized by mass media.
It's a very long list so I'll stop here
Only way I see it is that times has changed for worse. We have simply created more ways to commit evil and make acts of evil more acceptable and even something to pride on.... Like how many girlfriends have you had last year?? How good can you dance this music which entails sexually-motivated moves?
We are now living in the prophesies then made by Jesus and Paul. It was they that prophesied that things will get worse. People will prefer to hear lies than Truth. The Truth will irritate them.
