Jaydog1976

At core of this whole situation is the fact that these groups of people are completed focused on self. God is not the center of their lives they are, or at least they thing they are the center of their own lives. We need to be praying for them that God would bring someone into their lives that will share the gospel with them. But on the flip side they are also trying to destroy and rewrite history. And this is a very dangerous thing because then past mistakes are not remembers and as we all know that history repeats itself time and time again.

I always examine what my pastor does and teaches. I make sure that what he preaches lines up with scripture.

So I looked into this number thing a while back and found some things that kind of raise some red flags for me when I read and interpret scripture. First I found that this number code thing is something called Gematria. The definition of gematria is "a Kabbalistic method of interpreting the Hebrew scriptures by computing the numerical value of words, based on those of their constituent letters." So I had to dig further into the definition. My curiosity was directed to the term Kaballistic which comes from the word Kabbalah. The definition of Kaballah is "the ancient Jewish tradition of mystical interpretation of the Bible, first transmitted orally and using esoteric methods (including ciphers). It reached the height of its influence in the later Middle Ages and remains significant in Hasidism. ". So of course after reading this definition kabbalah I had to dig into it even further. The word Hasidism raised my curiosity yet again so I went to find out what this meant. Here is what I found. The definition of Hasidism is "an influential mystical Jewish movement founded in Poland in the 18th century in reaction to the rigid academicism of rabbinical Judaism. The movement declined sharply in the 19th century, but fundamentalist communities developed from it, and Hasidism is still a force in Jewish life, particularly in Israel and New York." Bottom line I don't think any of this is something that Christians should be involved with. While I do agree that more we study God's Word the more we find out who He is. That is the point. We are spending time with Him and getting to know Him better. Anyone that doesn't spend time with God won't know Him as well as they should. The problem is that I find that many of those hold to Gematria tend to do deny these facts exists can actually claim that they are irrelevant to the discussion. However it is extremely relevant and to use a very mystical system to interpret God's Word is saying that the Holy Spirit does not lead us into truth but we need a secondary man-made system to find some hidden meaning in Scripture.

I saw it a thought it was a great music. I do agree that the soundtrack could have been better but that is only a mild irritation. I have heard worse. For the very beginning of the movie the stories lines were a bit difficult to follow but once I realized that they were three stories tying into one it was easier to follow. I think our minds are so used to one continuous story the way this story was told was not something we are used to so the brain had a hard time figuring things out at the beginning. I only paid $5.50 a ticket and it was just my wife and myself. Would I pay $12 and up to watch the film? Nope. I would either watch it during the cheap matinee or just wait till it comes into Redbox or if you have patience wait until it hits Netflix. There are bigger and better films coming this year that you may want to save your hard earned dollars for.

Yeah that is why I don't have a problem with Halloween either. 50% off the candy afterwards is totally awesome!

As Christians we sometimes expect those that are not Christians to think like Christians, act like Christians and the like. What we fail to remember, and myself included, is that because of Jesus Christ we, through the Holy Spirit, are able to see the sin around us because our eyes and hearts have been opened. We now serve a different master who is Christ. We cannot expect those that don't know the Lord to live holy and righteous lives. This is sin plain and simple and we need to pray for people like this and we need to show Christ lives in us and that there is a much better way to live. Not saying this isn't a sad situation and I am not saying to turn a blind eye to it and just say, "Well sin is sin." What I am saying is that we need to look at these people as people who need Jesus in their life and that we as Christians are to be witnesses to them as well.

The key thing I got out of the article is that this number is over several years. When I saw the article title I thought it was like in the last couple of days. But I can see that it has happened for a course of several years. My other thought is I am sure it isn't just in Finland but in other countries as well. So this questions comes up, why do we have an article about it for Finland? What about the US? Canada? Middle East? Etc. Just my thoughts on the matter.

Especially BBQ.

I see No's as an answers but I don't see the whys. The reason I would not do it would be because I don't want people to know where I am. It is none of their business. If they required that I was micro-chipped to work there I would just politely quite. I think it would breach personal security and quite honestly it really isn't ethical in my opinion. However with this being said a microchip isn't the mark of the beast or anything like that. I would also think that most people, especially conservative thinking people, would avoid it as well even if they were not Christians. Just my thoughts on the matter.

He may have done some Sunday morning stuff. I can't remember. It has been some time ago.

I think he was more on the reformed side of things. But quite honestly even that is questionable. He was just a odd person who had some really off the wall beliefs. I remember growing up listening to him and I remember that my dad would just shake his head in disbelief and say, "Where does this guy come up with this stuff?!"

Harold Camping wasn't a JW. He was a preacher that had a thing called Open Forum on a radio station called Family Radio. He taught that the church age had ended and that the only true church was family radio. He has some other very odd teachings. His open forum was where people could call in and he would answer their questions. It was quite brutal to listen to because he took sooooo long to answer people. And yes numerology is a man made system that adds to God's Word.

This whole numerology system reminds me of a preacher named Harold Camping who was based out in California. He was the head of Family Radio and his teachings were the rage in the 90s and into 2011 before he passed. Anyway Mr. Camping would take numbers from the Bible and then would add, subtract, multiply and divide these numbers and would come up with dates that predicted Christ's coming back. His first major date was the year 1994 which he wrote a book on titled 1994?. Well I knew a family directly that fell into this trap and bought all sorts of things like new carals, house, etc truly believing that Christ was coming back in 1994. No matter how much we pleading with him to rethink this he never did and vehemently defended Mr. Camping and his doctrine. Well needles to say 1994 came and went and Christ did return. This family was devastated in both faith and in their finances. The Mr. Camping does it yet again, recalculates new numbers, and predicts Christ coming back in 2011. Well people again fell into the trap and went into a fenzy selling their stuff off and giving the proceeds to family radio. Well Christ didn't come back either in 2011 and again people's faiths were shattered. While Mr Camping wasn't into Kabbalah he was into using numbers in the Bible to preach and teach something that wasn't there. He was trying to fit man's ideology and thinking to God's word instead of letting God's word mold and shape man's thinking. Hundreds of thousands of lives were destroyed because of this false teaching. It's sad that instead of letting the Holy Spirit lead and direct people somehow have to add to scripture stuff that isnt there and then say this is some new truth that God is showing us.

I whole heartedly agree that it is a false doctrine and should be avoided. And yes if there was such a numerical system to understand scripture then God would have given it to us and there would then be no need for the Holy Spirit.

So I looked into this number thing a while back and found some things that kind of raise some red flags for me when I read and interpret scripture. First I found that this number code thing is something called Gematria. The definition of gematria is "a Kabbalistic method of interpreting the Hebrew scriptures by computing the numerical value of words, based on those of their constituent letters." So I had to dig further into the definition. My curiosity was directed to the term Kaballistic which comes from the word Kabbalah. The definition of Kaballah is "the ancient Jewish tradition of mystical interpretation of the Bible, first transmitted orally and using esoteric methods (including ciphers). It reached the height of its influence in the later Middle Ages and remains significant in Hasidism. ". So of course after reading this definition kabbalah I had to dig into it even further. The word Hasidism raised my curiosity yet again so I went to find out what this meant. Here is what I found. The definition of Hasidism is "an influential mystical Jewish movement founded in Poland in the 18th century in reaction to the rigid academicism of rabbinical Judaism. The movement declined sharply in the 19th century, but fundamentalist communities developed from it, and Hasidism is still a force in Jewish life, particularly in Israel and New York." Bottom line I don't think any of this is something that Christians should be involved with. While I do agree that more we study God's Word the more we find out who He is. That is the point. We are spending time with Him and getting to know Him better. Anyone that doesn't spend time with God won't know Him as well as they should. I don't know but my thought is that Gematria isn't something a Christian should get involved in. Gematria, from what I can tell, takes a man-made deciphering tool and tries to fit it to scriptures. This is just my research that I have done but thought I would share it with others in case they were wondering where these numbers come from. My goal is not to debate this topic since I don't believe this whole number decoding thing lines up with scripture. I just thought it was important to put the information out there into where the decoding system originated from.

Chat tends to get that way. You can't let it bother you. Just block them and move on. I do one of two things with trolls, either I will call them out immediately and then block, or I will entertain them for a time because I am bored and have nothing else to do. In either case don't let them get to you. I tend to spend too much time in circles. However I also know when enough is enough. Once I feel that the gospel was presented I will discuss it a bit further then pretty much I leave the person alone. I will allow others to try and chat with them and I will leave chat altogether for a time. Most anti-Christian talk is not demonic activity. We have to be careful that we don't think that every event is. Most times it is because people don't know the Lord and chose not to. Then they come into a christian chat either to stir up arguments (trolling) or they come in maybe looking for answers. Very few, that I have found anyway, really are there to learn anything. But the quote above probably wasn't the best response to give given the situation. But that is just my opinion. Just a side note, 2 hours in a chat is quite a bit of time. I can barely stand 10 to 15 minutes in chat unless the discussion is captivating. Most times chat is just a bunch of talk about food, entertainment and such. It really isn't the greatest medium to spread the gospel. But it can be done. I would encourge you and those in chat to find other things to do other than chat. I know it is difficult given your situation but there is so much to learn out there that chat should be a secondary item to being productive in learning and doing things. I personally watch how much I am in chat because chat can be an addictive process and I don't want to be checking chat every 5 seconds seeing what someone just said. Again not a demonic instance. Those in my opinion are few and far between. We definitely need to be praying. Personally I don't rebuke Satan I try to flee from him. Big difference. I know Jesus had that authority to rebuke Satan but I am not sure that we do. Even the archangel Michael when fighting over the body of Moses did not rebuke Satan but said, "The Lord rebuke you!". But this is just my personal believe. I could be wrong but I haven't seen enough real evidence that we as finite human beings, even if we are saved, have the authority to rebuke Satan. We do have the ability to flee from him because he is a roaring lion looking to devour someone. Again my opinion because I have not really researched this topic in depth. So I am erring on the side of extreme caution.

The other issue with Nestorianism is that there is no scriptural evidence that Jesus had split personalities (this is really what Nestorianism teaches). And as one poster above said, Which one died for us? If you say God then did Jesus switch his personality to be God on the cross? Then if that is the case when was he God and when was he not? Nestorianism is a heretical view of Christ. So unless you can support scripture with your opinion then it is just opinion. I think the OP would be very hard pressed to really find an scriptural basis for this viewpoint.

Evolution is only a theory but has been claimed as fact. What I find amazing is that something that hasn't even been proven to be true is considered fact. Ludicrous. Creation itself speaks of God's wonder and majesty, science helps us understand that fact and allows us to see God's handiwork even more closely. Evolution still has yet to be supported but for those that believe in evolution to reject it would mean that they would have to acknowledge that either God does exist or there is a higher power that made everything and that they are part of that creation. Man would rather believe a lie than acknowledge the one true God who created everything.

I have acquaintances that are women but we are not best friends. I really on talk with them when at church, work or on facebook. I can assure we that we would never hangout with them in a public or private place without my wife somewhere around. One thing I read on time was this, Make your life as boring as possible when talking with a woman that is not your wife. When you create drama and make up woe is me stories that is where the trouble begins. It don't find it wrong for a married man to talk with a woman but I would strongly advise never to be seen alone with her and make sure that your love for your wife (or wives to the husbands) is so clearly evident that the woman you are talking to understands that your completely and totally unavailable.

What I find amazing is that the Jews seem to have known exactly what Jesus was saying when he said in John 10:31-33, "Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him. 32 Jesus answered them, Many good works have I shewed you from my Father; for which of those works do ye stone me? 33 The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God." They considered this blasphemy since Jesus was claiming to be God. If Jesus just said I am a good person that came from God the Jews would have not picked up those stones. So am I to gather then from the original post that the Gospels are wrong in how they recorded the facts? To say that Jesus isn't God or not fully God is just plain wrong and the writers of the gospels believed the same thing. Even today the Jews still believe that is it blasphemous that Jesus said He was God and they will torment and protest in front of Messianic Jews that have trusted Christ and believe that He was God. I for one will read scripture for what it teaches and you can find this teaching all through scripture: Jesus is fully God no doubt about it. Anyone that denies this fact has either not read their Bible and compared scripture to scripture or they are denying it because they don't believe that God's Words are true.

So do you feel better now that you got that off your chest? I felt this was more ranting and raving over an opinion than actually hardcore facts. Sure the US is going down the tubes but just because I call it the 4th of July doesn't mean I've been duped by the government or have been slowly brainwashed by it over time by it. I am as patriotic as they come and I have no problem calling it the 4th of July and will continue to call it such because it is what we celebrate it for that is the important part not the title. Just by two cents.

So my thought is this, we know that the JWs doctrine is not right and is not scriptural. What do we as believers do about it? Do we bait then with questions to trap them and the feel like we won the argument or do we present the gospel when that opportunity arises by maybe engaging them in dialogue and building a relationship that will allow itself for them to open up to the gospel? I only ask this question to find what different methods are used. I know what my method is but I also know,that one method doesn't fit all situations.

Thanks for clarifying your statement. I agree with you. The original poster was as one person called it, cherry picking.

Quite honestly does it really matter whether we think dinosaurs were on the ark or not? It actually does because it means we are either taking God at His word or God doesn't mean what He has said. Genesis 7:1-5 indicates that yes even dinosaurs were on the ark. It's says 2 if every kind, including unclean animals. The question that has to,be asked is, is a dinosaur a kind? Another question has to be asked is God to be taken at His word or not? If we say yes then we have to take these verses at gave value and say that dinosaurs were on the ark, if we say no then God is lying to US and how can I be sure that what else God says in His word is wrong? Just a couple of thoughts. The focus should be on,what God's word says not what we think. And quite honestly none of us were there to be an eyewitness of the account so I am going to trust God and take Him at His word.

I guess it depends on what the definition of happiness is and what makes you happy. Are we looking for earthly things to make us happy? This type of happiness is short lived and not good. However if I am spending time with the Lord and my happiness has a foundation in Him and in HIm only then that is a good happiness.