Of all the times...why now?

Psalm 27 said:

The phrase “drinking the Kool-Aid” refers to followership at its worse. It was coined after a delusional, pseudo-guru named Jim Jones led his cult, the Peoples Temple, to mass suicide. Over 900 people, including 304 children, killed themselves by drinking from a vat of grape-flavored drink laced with cyanide. (Although it wasn’t Kool aid they drank)
Two Great Reasons To Stop Saying 'Drinking The Kool-Aid'

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That is horrific. They weren't doing it in the name of Jesus I hope.

zoidar said:

I think we ought to spend alot more of our time in prayer. I want to, but it's hard to get to it. Also we (at least I) need to reafirm our belief in prayer. Prayers by a righteous person are very powerful.

Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months. Then he prayed again, and the sky poured rain and the earth produced its fruit.
— James 5:16-18

And there was a prophetess, Anna the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years and had lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, and then as a widow to the age of eighty-four. She never left the temple, serving night and day with fastings and prayers.
— Luke 2:36-37

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This is very true. When you think about the importance of prayer and it's power in the spiritual world and the fact that everything in our lives is so temporary and trivial, how can we NOT find time to pray?

Psalm 27 said:

He was a cult leader/deceiver, who used religion to control people.

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But who did they worship?

Jamdoc said:

I think some of the roughest part is that unlike past times we don't have a prophet to guide us, we have the bible, just written word, (that actually warns against trusting in prophets in the last days, that office is closed after John the Beloved). In the past, there were prophets who could perform signs and wonders to show they were a man of God and we could trust them After Revelation sealed up canon though? We can't trust anyone professing to be a prophet, we can't trust signs and wonders either, we're told that the enemy would attempt to deceive us with them.

So 100% of our faith has to be on the bible alone.
That's hard
Especially when the bible's authority is challenged, and those challenges have evidence to back them up.

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Like this

So Moses the servant of the Lord died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord.

6 And He buried him in a valley in the land of Moab, over against Bethpeor; but no man knoweth of his sepulcher unto this day.

7 And Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died; his eye was not dim nor his natural force abated.

8 And the children of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days; so the days of weeping and mourning for Moses were ended. Deuteronomy 34:5-8

Which was supposedly written by Moses but how could Moses write about after his own death? Is that what you mean?

I don't think it matters who wrote the Bible because it reads so consistent throughout. God seems different in the OT compared to the NT though.

Jamdoc said:

No I mean challenges like evidence of the world being older than 6000 years.
I have to admit I'm at a loss on those kinds of things but I don't go with the usual apologetic explanation of God making things seem older than they really are as if it's to trick us. Doesn't align with God's character and with Paul's writings in Romans that creation itself attests to God existing. The idea that God would put things as evidence contradicting His word.. doesn't hold well with me.

But I don't have an explanation aside from the possibility that either A. Adam was in the Garden of Eden for an unspecified amount of time before he sinned, and that the 930 years only started counting after being expelled from Eden. Or B. This world was built on top of a previous one, similar to how God is going to make a new heavens and new earth on top of this one.

Proverbs 25:2 declares that God has not told us everything, and that it is the honor of Kings to search those things out.

This side of heaven, we have to make the choice to trust the biblical creation narrative, even when creation itself provides evidence against it. There is omitted detail that God did not give to Moses. All we can really do is ask about it directly when we can and expect to get an answer face to face.

Regarding the books of Moses I usually don't attribute the actual authorship to Moses, I believe he had scribes that he dictated to, and they would have finished the book.

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I see what you are saying. Well, the earth was created thousands of years ago, and if a day is a thousand years to the Lord, then humans were created on what...the 5th day? So 5000 years the earth existed before He put us here as we are now as HomoSapiens. Not HomoErectus, or a caveman. I believe those were prototype animals so to speak or (challenged Nephilim...who knows.) But a lot of all the origin and beginnings are left to mystery and it should stay that way because it doesn't matter. We are here now, and we have bigger things to be concerned with. For instance Global warming. We should worry about that, the Georgia Guide Stones, we should worry about that. We should also worry about what is going on at the Vatican. I am a Protestant but I take note at what the Holy See is doing since it is done in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and last year's Nativity scene was sending a message of some kind. Yes it was an art exhibit created by a bunch of college kids in the 70's, but the fact that it had fifty-something pieces to choose from, and whoever was in charge picked an astronaut, and a Darth Vader-looking executioner to stand over the baby Jesus.....this display had to be approved by the Pope and other officials and it is so disturbing. Not Christmas-y at ALL. That is concerning. This is the figure at the Nativity. and here is the actual Nativity scene.

This picture is of the unveiling which has baby Jesus covered. When they uncovered Him I guess those figures were placed near by or behind Him. Keep in mind these are HUGE towering sculptures posted at the Vatican at St. Peters Square. We also need to worry about America and Covid-19 and especially for each other. I am struggling, your neighbors are struggling, ends aren't meeting and the Service industry has been completely wiped out. We need to help each other. We are all we've got. ( Don't look now but the government doesn't love us) We also need to pray for the people being killed and persecuted for being Christians.

Oops. Please remove

bèlla said:

Him!

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Him? They thought he was a prophet? Who did he say he was? See this is really bad on my part, but I tend to think that anyone who does not worship God is stupid. It is all so clear to me, and it baffles me how people don't get it. Like how can you not WORSHIP GOD. It is a judgement I am really working on but I do not understand it AT ALL.

bèlla said:

He appealed to people with deep emotional wounds. The disenfranchised and oppressed. People who wanted to belong and were hungry for love. Dreamers. People who wanted a better society.

This is a good video. It answers your questions.

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Ok thank you