unworthyservant

God's law has always been and will be through the rest of eternity! It was formalized after the delivery of His people from Egypt, but it existed for eternity. Someone else commented on each specific incident that was mentioned in the original post and did it pretty well so I'll only say that discussion about when God's law became God's law is counterproductive to ever answering questions of this type because it assumes that God's law actually has a starting point in human history.

Here's a short analysis of my decision that Donald Trump has more in common with Caligula than John the Baptist. Known for sexual sins. Trump-Y Caligula-Y John the Baptist-N Known for ostentatious spending and lifestyle Trump-Y Caligula-Y John the Baptist-N Known for narcissism Trump-Y Caligula-Y John the Baptist-N Known for humility Trump-N Caligula-N John the Baptist-Y Known for paranoia Trump-Y Caligula-Y John the Baptist-N Known for teaching the word of God. Trump-N Caligula-N John the Baptist-Y So that's 6-0 Caligula. Game, set, match!

I'll paraphrase Mr. Trump. I saw an interview where when he was asked asked whether he was really a Christian he replied something to this effect. I guess I am, I went to church and even ate the little cookie they give you.

A true story. A few years ago I had some friends (a couple of brothers that I had attended High School with), who at the time were working labor jobs for close to minimum wage. They were in their 50s and only a year or two apart in age. While their parents had found the Lord late in life, after they were grown men, neither had been church going or lived their lives according to the teachings of Christ. Then one day, the younger brother was diagnosed with terminal liver cancer (he had been a big drinker in his day). Hospice came and brought a hospital bed and prepared them for the imminent death that was to come. The first thing the younger brother did was to find the Lord and join a church where a friend was pastor. The older brother, knowing that he was the only person left to care for his brother, decided to quit his job, having no plan as to how they were going to live. When he picked up his last paycheck instead of bringing it home, he stopped at a local gambling establishment and used his last check to play the gambling machines. He was known to play these machines on occasion but had never won much of anything. On this day, he walked into that establishment with his little check (probably a couple hundred dollars) and walked out with over $10,000 dollars. As it turned out the $10,000 was just exactly enough to keep them going until the very day the younger brother died. Matter of fact he didn't actually have quite enough left to pay for the cheapest cremation that they had, so had to count on friends for that. During this time, the older (surviving) brother had a pending disability claim due to an accident years earlier where he had broken his hip. He also had a lawsuit over the same injury. He decided to not return to work but rather, give up the apartment that they had shared (he probably couldn't have afforded it by himself even if he did return to work) and began almost a year of living without a dime of income by staying with a friend who housed and fed him. While his disability claim may have been valid, even his lawyers had told him that his lawsuit wasn't so cut and dried and might be unsuccessful altogether. They advised as a last ditch effort that they would try and settle for $10,000 dollars to avoid going to trial and the possibility of getting nothing. Long story short, the defendant rejected the offer, the case went to trial and he as awarded in the neighborhood of $600,000 and was left with in the neighborhood of $300,000 after the lawyers got their part. The first thing he did was to buy himself a home and nice car (both modest by most standards). Then he proceeded to spend the money like it was going out of style on things like custom cars, antiques, and generally living what he thought was the good life. This lasted for 2 or 3 more years and he was broke again, with very little remaining of the things he had spent the money on. Then one day, he was found dead in his new home under mysterious circumstances. The rumor is that he committed suicide but I have no independent knowledge of what caused his sudden death (he didn't have any serious health problems that anyone knew about). Anyone have any thoughts on this? Personally, I don't quite know what to make of the sequence of events and how it all played out.

This question is about using the site. I've been on here for a few days and have noticed something that has me puzzled. It seems that some posters somehow have the ability to simply quote a certain passage from someones post and then reply to that passage. I have quoted others and made comments but when I hit the button that says quote it quotes the entire post and doesn't give me any option where I can quote only one part of someones message? How are they doing that?

I think it's because man has monkeyed with the message for 2000 years (it's amazing what man can do to find ways around the message over that long a period) and have obscured the actual teachings of Christ.

After giving the original question a little thought, in my opinion Donald Trump has more in common with Caligula than John the Baptist!

This world is not my home I'm just passing through my treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue the angels beckon me from Heaven's open door and I can't feel at home in this world anymore O Lord you know I have no friend like you if Heaven's not my home then Lord what will I do? the angels beckon me from Heaven's open door and I can't feel at home in this world anymore They're all expecting me and that's one thing I know my savior pardoned me and now I onward go I know He'll take me through though I am weak and poor and I can't feel at home in this world anymore Just up in Glory Land we'll live eternally the Saints on every hand are shouting victory their song of sweetest praise drifts back from Heaven's shore and I can't feel at home in this world anymore I have a loving mother just over in gloryland And I don't expect to stop until I shake her hand She's waiting now for me in heaven's open door And I can't feel at home in this world anymore O Lord you know I have no friend like you if Heaven's not my home then Lord what will I do? the angels beckon me from Heaven's open door and I can't feel at home in this world anymore

I do have an opinion of our purpose for being here in this place and time. It's the same purpose as every Christian since Christ. To spread the Gospel and to do God's work by helping those in need. As for the Government, God puts leaders in place for His own reasons and while we can't know those reasons, we must trust that God is in control. What really bothers me is how in this divided political world in which we live, preachers are pledging allegiance to certain politicians, thus alienating half the country from their ministry simply to make a political statement. Does that sound like a good trade off? I know people who used to think very highly of Franklin Graham until he came out with his hyper political rhetoric and in support of Mr. Trump (or individual1 as he's known in some circles). Now they can't stand him and what if it made anyone question their faith?

No!!!! Other than they are both human beings. Nothing more that I can see.

I'm not talking about how Christ was identified. The point is that if we spend our time and money doing ALL his teachings then we won't have enough of either to worry about having the time or money to indulge in sin.

Obviously God has no need of money. And I don't mean to imply that it's sinful to be happy when your team is victorious. But Christ did tell us what to do with our money and what not to do. TO DO: Help the poor and the needy. NOT TO DO: Spend it on earthly pleasures for ourselves. So, for me it's simple. Should I spend my money on sports for pleasure or on the poor as Christ commanded? Think of it this way. You mention golf. You have to buy clubs. I don't know how much that costs but lets just use $100. (I just checked and some single clubs sell for more than that so let's say $200.) Then you have to pay a fee at most golf clubs to use their course. Lets say that runs another $30 per month (I'm stabbing in the dark here but you'll see the point isn't whether my numbers are accurate.) Just went and searched so I'm abandoning my numbers in favor of those from Golf magazine. According to their numbers, in 2005 the average golfer spent $2776 on golf alone (wow). Now ask this question of the Lord. Lord I have $2776 left after I pay my living expenses, what should I do with it? Spend it on golf or give it to the poor? WWJS? By the way, while the start of the NFL season prompted my post, it's more about the money than the particular sport. Go Reds! (no, I haven't purchased even a hat)

Christ didn't actually endorse any particular economic system, so I'm OK with that. I didn't mean it to become a comparative about the virtues of any system. The only question I pose is should we use a reference to God on it for whatever the reason?

BTW, by the way, I checked and the numbers I quoted are personal net worth and have nothing to do with Samaritan's Purse of any other charity for that matter. He only took a modest salary of $15.000. That was in 1950 when $15,000 wasn't that modest. Per Forbes Magazine by 2005, his compensation just from the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association was a modest $450,000. My understanding is that most of the $25 million that he amassed in personal wealth was from book sales.

I didn't mean to imply that Billy Graham was dishonest in any way. I've heard that theory about the dishonesty of the temple sellers and since the Bible doesn't say it specifically, and I can't find anyone who has convincing enough evidence, I personally don't know if it's the case or not. I mention it because it was what drove Christ to anger. The point about Billy Graham and other millionaire preachers is that it seems that they have laid up for themselves quite the treasure on this earth. All I'm saying is that especially a preacher shouldn't amass millions of dollars of personal wealth when there's starving people right here in the US. It just seems to go against everything that Christ taught on the subject. Christ said "A rich man shall hardly enter the kingdom of heaven.". In my humble opinion, 25 million dollars is pretty rich. When Christ said "You cannot serve God and mammon", he was talking to us all, even if you are a preacher and have done a lot of good. When the rich ruler came to Jesus, He first told him to follow the commandments. When the young man indicated that he had indeed kept all the commandments from his youth, Christ didn't dispute that, he said "One thing you lack". The thing that he told him to do was sell all that he had and give the money to the poor. Only after he would do this could he follow Christ. We all know the story about how he couldn't do it. Christ taught that the way to show that we don't love money (or worship mammon) is if we are willing to give it up for the Gospel's sake.

Let me just add the following. I don't have an answer to the question, I simply found it and thought it posed an interesting translation question. Fact is, I don't really care that I don't know. If God really needed me to know he would show me the answer.

You are correct in the idea that translation can be a tricky thing. I generally check Strong's and Matthew Henry. Sometimes there's good stuff in John Gills. point is knowing it's tricky, I generally don't engage in translation issues unless there's an obvious question as in this case that question is if Paul said sorcery, then why didn't the Greek manuscripts use mageia which according to both Strong's and Meyer's is the literal word for sorcery and not nearly as ambiguous.

It doesn't match any I've seen either but it's a good idea of how things might be described, I think.

Well, you say that nobody knew that Jesus was no son of Joseph but in Mark 6:3 we read " Is this not the carpenter, the Son of Mary, and brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon? And are not His sisters here with us?” Now in Christ's day calling someone the son of his mother was a slur showing that they know he is a bastard. Otherwise they would always say the Son of Joseph. (or whoever was known to be the father) You say there was no financial problem but per my research, in Jesus day Nazareth was known as a rural lower class kind of town with lots of poverty, so one could conclude that they weren't well to do. It's a well written on topic. And personally, I see getting called to make a such a long journey while about to give birth is indeed an emergency. I guess it's all a matter of perspective. I'm just glad it has a happy ending!!!!!

Just saw on TV where they're playing NFL football again. That reminds me of some more numbers. Americans spend around $100 Billion dollars per year on sports related items. Everything from attending games to merchandise and the like. On top of that it's estimated that they spend somewhere between $100 and $400 Billion betting on just sports(wide range because much of it is illegal). And as for gambling, there's another $80 Billion spent on lotteries. So using the low estimate for sports gambling that's a total of $280 Billion and with 75% of Americans identifying as Christian, if we attribute 75% of that spending to Christians, we're in the neighborhood of $200 Billion. (math isn't my strong suit and I'm too lazy to use the calculator) Now the question; if posed with the question "We have an extra $200 Billion dollars after paying our living expenses. What should we do with it?" What would Jesus say? Spend it on sports and betting or on the poor and needy?

He doesn't seem nearly as blatant as modern preachers but there are clips on YouTube where he's at it pretty hot and heavy. The audio isn't great so a little speaker is a good thing to have if you want to check them out.

It even goes back at least to Billy Sunday, who, while he made nowhere near what the later ones did, still did pretty well for his time and was preaching a sort of prosperity gospel.

You are correct, Billy Graham didn't solicit donations but he did pretty well for himself. At his death his net worth was estimated at $25 Million. There's another preacher out there these days (no names) who doesn't solicit donations and his net worth is estimated at $40-60 million. All earned through book and related sales as I hear it but given that the only thing that drove Christ to anger was the sellers and money changers who were profiting from selling things to worship God, I wonder what He would think of preachers who have amassed millions in personal wealth from sales of Christian books?

That's another good point, the merchandising of Christianity. It could be a topic in itself.