tim_from_pa

I don't have an educated guess. Rather, it's better to go by Scripture. I suppose you are asking "what happens" to them after they depart. The same thing that happens with any human being who departs who did not have depression. What does the Scripture say? What sins can be forgiven? What about faith? It depends on that individual's circumstances.

I saw the title of this post and it resonated with me! Yes, Jesus is Lord! And the insightful replies are also terrific. I need not add anything to all this except (to sound cliche) "Amen"!

Interesting. A few years back I was researching some genealogy, and may be there is something you can find out about this woman and family. You said that other relatives kept this photo until 2021. So do I understand correctly that the owners of this album were relatives (who maybe forgotten about great great...grandma's faith) who otherwise knew they were related to this Christian woman?

I'm a fan of the late archaeologist Eilat Mazar. Her grandfather (Benjamin) after the capture of Jerusalem started the "Big Dig" from 1968 to 1978 south of the Temple Mount (Ophel area). Alongside all the workers was a young girl (his granddaughter) who would take a keen interest in excavating and learning what they found. Benjamin was a close friend of Herbert W. Armstrong of the Worldwide Church of God as he was a close friend of Israel. Later on Eilat picked up where her grandfather left off under the wing of the Philadelphia Church of God (an offshoot of HWA's church). Her enthusiasm was bigger than life and her dedication found the location of David's and Solomon's palace, and one of her most famous findings was the bulla of King Hezekiah and possibly that of the prophet Isaiah (she found them in close proximity and dated them the same time frame - the Bible states the closeness of Isaiah with King Hezekiah). She dug with one hand and held the Bible in another. While she was not overly religious, she believed in the historical accuracy of the Bible and was often criticized for it, but her work was second to none. One complaint of hers was that the Islamist often dug up near the mount and moved potential artifacts to trash dumps; they were that much against any finds that would support the Jewish/Christian cause. While she could still sift through the rubble to find artifacts that prove the Jewish history, because it was disturbed certain facts such as the time in history was lost, so the evidence was only half there so-to-speak. I have attached a link to a .pdf file of their magazine "Let the Stones Speak" that tells about the bulla of King Hezekiah and Isaiah. The Philadelphia Church of God named their free magazine in honor of Eilat Mazar because she would simply say "Let the Stones Speak" as she gathered evidence and left her conclusions based on facts and not political/religious ideology. https://armstronginstitute.org/files/W1siZiIsIjIwMjIvMDEvMTMvMzZ1YWQ1YWxqaV9IRVpYX0VOX0UwMV8xODA3LnBkZiJdXQ/08dfd8bd20b7b0e5/seals-of-isaiah-and-king-hezekiah-discovered.pdf

Yes, good scriptures. Many Christians do not realize Joseph had the birthright (Judah had the scepter). While all the tribes of Israel were blessed and have a part in the future nation of Israel, the tribe of Joseph was to become the populous one even to the point of becoming many nations. That's in black and white in every Bible. I do believe that this foreshadowed the Gentiles (and indeed became them) as foreshadowed by brother Joseph who was not even recognized by his own brethren but appeared Gentile. Each house, i.e. the house of Israel and house of Judah had a separate purpose until becoming united again in the end of days (Ezekiel 37). In this age, they have the purpose of spreading the gospel message and bringing material blessings to this earth. Sad to say that all this is going downhill (just as prophesied) and we will enter the "time of Jacob's trouble". But in the long run, it's all to help prepare for the next age.

While the win is something to rejoice over, I often get irritated if a similar situation occurs again and they have to "do it all over again". While court cases often do use historical judgements where similar cases were decided, it's the mere presence of a trial all over again to decide basically the same thing can get wearisome. And they will do this again, because Satan will attack the church again and find a ludicrous reason to stop God's people from gathering. It's like a pesky mosquito; it just does not let up. Yesterday the lock downs were for illness. Today it may be for civil order, tomorrow it may be aliens for all we know. The idea has been planted in governments' minds now that they can try to get away with arresting their citizens at their whim like putting children back into their rooms and this is now a power head-trip. This won't stop until 1) Citizens get so riled up that someone in power gets severely hurt (to which they will decide 'this is not a good idea') or 2) the better solution is for the Lord to come back and put the crooked governments in their places. After all, that is the Christian's hope anyway.

I love it. This comes out every year (as do Easter posts at Easter time). But I won't be nasty like in my younger days. Tradition dies hard. But yeah, if I had to pull a date out of the Bible, the clue as to when His birth was is in Revelation 12:1 which to us Sir Isaac Newton theologian types is code for an astronomical position. The passage of scripture is a sign that John saw referencing Jesus' birth. There are certain astronomical/mathematical criteria I believe regarding His birth, His death and how many days he lived on this earth. Consequently, I used those criteria to come up with an exact date of His birth and death. What I WAS NOT looking for was the day of the week he was born using this criteria and it turned out He was born later on the Sabbath (as Sunday was starting). Hmmmm. The same day of the week that he arose. And like I said, I was not even looking for that. I suppose the Lord just threw that in as a bonus. The dates "worked out" so perfectly that it gave me the chills. LOL

My personal belief is that God is a family: We have the Father, and Son, the church being the wife so that in a corporate manner is the wife but individuals are also sons of God. This is all illustrated in nature with a male, female (husband and wife) and resulting children. If Satan messes that up with LGBTQ'ism, then the whole concept of spirituality is perverted. In the physical realm, I think Satan tried to do that in what I call the "Genesis 6 incident". Had they (the fallen angels) succeeded, then there would be no perfect bloodline for Messiah to save mankind. But Noah was "perfect in his generations". The modern church is far removed from biblical Christianity although I am not saying that individuals within the church are not genuine. I'm just saying there is a naivete. Satan has done well to deceive the whole world (Revelation 12:9) despite people having the Bible they still believe in partly pagan things. Now here is something that will give one the chills. Jesus said "as in the days of Noah...." And here we are in a messed-up world and one of the things that has been in the news lately are UAP's (aka UFO's). Seems they changed the acronym to soften up the association with UFO's. Even though UFO meant "unidentified", we ALL know this meant aliens. So they changed it to distance their reports from that. Genesis 6 all over again???

Probably it just means there will be a bloodbath in the elections.

I read the 1769 version because as a rule, one cannot get the 1611 version with that style English when they look for and order a KJV Bible. In other words, sellers default to 1769. Nevertheless, my understanding is that it's basically an update to clarify archaic language but with keeping some of the older version English to keep its style (as even in 1769 people did not speak English totally the way the KJV Bible is written but spoke more as we do today). While I prefer the KJV as your Pastor does, I understand it already had a revision from its original so another one (the NKJV) is in the same spirit of the KJV Bible and I'm warming up to it. The problem is, the NKJV is copyrighted so it's difficult to find a free downloadable version, although I have (it's just not nicely formatted as any pirate would do lol). The KJV (1769) IS NOT copyrighted except for the United Kingdom where that right is in the Crown. However, the whole KJV Bible (including the apocrypha) is downloadable for free anywhere else and the formatting is not bad either.

First of all, don't assume they are non-Christians. See Mark 9:38. I realize that verse is NOT about a different doctrine, but rather about being in a certain group. But the principle applies. Nevertheless, people over the years have strove to understand the nature of God, of man, of sin, and in general what the bible is all about. The apostle Paul even said we know in part and prophecy in part... i.e. we all hold certain truths and are limited and perhaps that unknown exorcist in Mark 9 knew something the apostles did not know. It all boils down to the Lord God Himself deciding who is in His Kingdom and who qualifies as a believer and not us because we have "orthodoxy". As a matter of fact, I'd pay very close attention to so-called cults that are in the minority. (So-called cults are not stupid. They have to well define their belief system better than mainline Christianity or else they would not survive. ) After all, Jesus called His followers a "little flock". Being in the majority is not assurance of being correct or for that matter in the Lord's Kingdom. As for other religions that call Jesus a prophet or whatever, they just have an incomplete view of Jesus when He asked Peter "Who do men say I am?" vs "Who do you say I am?". They may or may not eventually be saved, either now or in the hereafter, but look at their heart and intent. The Lord does not judge by outward appearance, but by the heart, the bible says. They may be wicked, or they may be one day made righteous. Pray for them, even treat them as a brother, but don't consider their state the final state.

I can tell you what I believe the bible teaches, but I don't know if it's popular. The answer is the same as babies who die before they made a decision for Christ. They are resurrected physically in the GWT judgement and have an opportunity to follow the Lord there. (c.f. John 7:37 where even on this last day Jesus is calling people to come to him). That is to say, nobody "makes it in" as the cliche goes without deciding for Christ. On the other hand, the bible teaches He will draw all men to him, not willing any should perish. The issue is when are we called? Those lost are those who were called, understood the message and yet deliberately rejected the sacrifice of Christ whether it is now or later. The only thing the people in question people fail to attain is the glorious first resurrection, and the opportunity to rule and reign with Christ. But they don't forfeit eternal life necessarily (nor are they guaranteed it). Keep also in mind that even with significant mental disabilities, we still don't know what goes on internally in their minds and they may hear the gospel message and understand it as the Spirit gives them understanding better than we think. So don't assume, either that they don't know Christ.

Possibly animals (human-like) in the first earth age between Genesis 1:1-2 or from the Nephilim (Genesis 6). The former is timeless and took place when (I believe) the dinosaurs and earlier forms of life. Carbon dating has been dating these bones to long ago but that's with the presupposition that the decay rate was constant throughout time (rate of decay is often an equation using natural logarithms). I already heard the thought proposed though that this assumes the earth's atmosphere and conditions were always the same. Since the earth has been hit with several cataclysms we have to ask if this is so? DNA may be similar to man's but so is a worm's DNA. So I'm not sure if the Lord created Adam from pre-existing stuff of life (i.e what the bible calls the earth) or it was a new start. I opt for the latter by calling this "active creation". God can do so without breaking His own laws of biology. I believe in what I call passive creation and active creation (or renovations). Let me give an example: God created the laws of physics and matter. Sir Isaac Newton believed that this way God could put the universe into motion and it would thus form by itself like winding a clock and letting it run. So as gravity took over with nearby mass, it could condense as it fell into itself. Pressure would build up, fusion would start to take place, nuclear reactions happen and next thing you know, you have a star. That's passive. But in the whole wide universe, you won't find a mechanical watch that made itself in this same manner. This implies an active form of creation that involves a being deliberately manipulating something. But just because there is a creator that makes this watch does not presuppose he has to break the laws of physics to do so. As a matter of fact, it's workings depend on the laws of physics. Yet, this miracle took place outside of passive workings. The fundamental flaw in the belief of scientists is that there is nobody to make this universe, so by these same laws (which I wonder why they think they exist to begin with?) everything, including life, forms slowly and as I would say, passively. God can and does work both ways. This is how "science" and "creationism" do not contradict.

Halloween is a hokey kind of holiday and most of us are too big to be putting up "decorations" of silly things like walking skeletons, witches, carved pumpkins and the like. Besides, it gets tiring because we see a witch fly out on her broom all the time after she is done being speaker of the House for the day.

God created Adam in His image. He wanted sons of God like to Himself and a race of people who would rule as he does. (Genesis 1:28-29). He gave man the choice (I won't get into detail here) to choose the tree of life and thus live forever as sons of God etc (Genesis 2:9). This would displace Lucifer who is over this earth and would usurp his rulership (Ezekiel 28:12-19 & Isaiah 14:12-15). So if the Lord created Adam to fill in where Lucifer lost by his sin, that would make anyone madder than a hornet and the race was on: Satan's Kingdom vs. God's Kingdom. That's because since Adam sinned, Lucifer's plot to ruin mankind and thus his rule would be nullified by the work of Jesus Christ, i.e. the original plan in the garden would be carried out anyway causing great hatred. The reign of Lucifer was in the first earth age in which he became proud and a judgmental flood resulted (not Noah's, but the one in Genesis 1:2). We are in the 2nd present age of Adam where the Lord renovated everything for Adam to rule and ultimately there will be a new heaven and earth (3rd earth age). There will be only righteousness there under the reign of Jesus Christ and all sons of God with the Father over all (I Corinthians 15:24, Revelation 21:3). In short, man was to replace Lucifer, Lucifer tried to trip him up, but the atoning work of Jesus Christ fixes that and the plan will go on anyway. So Lucifer's days are numbered and he's very hissed off about it.

Yes, donate it to a museum of cultural interests.

The bible teaches one thing, and then NDE's seemingly confirm something else. For example. I've heard of NDE's that say that people saw their loved ones, even those who were supposedly alive. I want to offer two possible explanations: 1) First off, a person with a NDE never actually died but "came back" again so sometimes it may be hallucinations. but.... Suppose they did see something and can describe everything such as what was happening in an operating room. No, I do not believe that's their "soul" floating about. Rather, it's the same principle as the Transfiguration story that the disciples saw. They saw Moses and Elijah in the Kingdom, but in fact they were dead. This leads me to 2) A person is seeing visions of the future which are not actually present in this age. Upon revival, the mind would remember that. For those (such as myself) who believe in what is commonly called "soul sleep", there is no time at death, and the next conscious moment would be the resurrection where people wake up to being with loved ones. Think about it. A time machine of sorts where they are instantly propelled into the future being absent from the body and present with the Lord. If these very real possibilities can exist, then no NDE experience can negate the bible no matter what it seems like.

IMHO you are wise and are asking the right questions. So as an ol' man here, I say just study your bible (you seem very intelligent and can pick up on things well) and commune with the Lord. His Spirit will guide you into all truth. And then.. treat all these people like your brothers and sisters, perhaps chuckling at some of the things to yourself that hang them up. But establish yourself and rest in the Lord. It matters not what they may or may not say about certain subjects or about you or whatever. You see, God calls each and every one of us as He sees fit i.e. for the purpose we are here for in spite of our foibles. So to judge them or again, for them to judge you is in effect saying to the Lord who HE is allowed to call and justify.

LOL That was funny. I was going to make the comment that this is something that the Babylon Bee would have and sure enough, when I scrolled down they were the ones that posted it. Besides my daily devotions, I have a daily Babylon Bee session to place humor on all the bad news lately. LOL

I'll say this much about climate change. I don't think people realize how vast the earth and its atmosphere is. I mean it gets dumped into by all sorts of natural things such as volcanoes as well as man made materials. Yet, it remains breathable. I briefly read the posts here and came across hurricanes and atomic bombs. Well, that's another thing that demonstrates the power, the energy and vastness of our atmosphere. It is often asked "Why not nuke a hurricane?" Well, that's mankind in his arrogant stance that would think that (and thankfully there are those who advised against it). The reason is because the nuclear bomb, even many megatons, would leave the hurricane relatively unscathed. However, it would become a very radioactive hurricane -- hmmm very bad idea obviously. Then you have conspiracy theorists who say they are doing some Chem-trails, especially with Aluminum. Well, maybe yes maybe no, but if they are, I can't help but to think that doing such things is the same type of cornflake brains that think we can nuke a hurricane. The reason is that I did some calculating myself, and even to have a layer of aluminum surrounding the earth only microns thick we would need enough Aluminum that exceeded our national debt in cost. Not to mention how we'd get countless tons of it all up there before it would dissipate again. So what about climate change? I won't say one way or the other. But I did post a picture from a friend's FB page that makes us think just a little, that is if we can get past our Messiah Complex and get our noses out of the air that are so high they are catching 747's.

You piqued my interest (again) in this and I found a link to one site's explanation of the priestly courses. What I have heard over in the past was that they served on a weekly basis but all the priests were there for the feasts. I have done a calculation myself awhile back and if we take the 48 weeks (24 x 2) plus the feast days it works out to very close to about a solar year (and about 12 lunar cycles). However, I do not have an explanation for the years with a leap month. However, some theologians seem to believe this makes the 8th course of Abijah fall at the same general time of the year. It seems most others believe in the weekly cycle where they serve twice a year. That would make the courses run around the calendar. However, the historical reference to Abijah happening around Pentecost time frame (near the year our Lord was born) was a quote from Josephus. I hope I piqued your interest to search and actually find this reference, but I would deem that more reliable than theories as to how the system worked. That all said, I believe there's an symbolic verse that states this directly and that's what I go by. However, the division of Abijah IMO adds circumstantial evidence to support the timing. In other words, if there are other mentions that seem to take place at the same time, then it adds to the evidence that it is the correct timing. I never pursued the Abijah theory as my primary means to arrive at the date, so I did not do detailed study. It's more of a historical thing as opposed to astronomical, the calendar and gemetria: Purely mathematics.

I don't know what this book says as I did not read it, but I do know from my own studies that the major eastern coastal cities seem to lie on or close to that line pointing to Israel and I once called it "the line of Israel" The cities that lie on or very close to this line is New Orleans, Atlanta, Washington DC, Baltimore, Philadelphia, NYC and Boston. There's some esoteric stuff I heard with these groups like the Masons and other NWO stuff, etc that things like this happened deliberately. Again, this is the topic of ley lines. I just find them fascinating from a mathematical perspective but there has to be a reason as it seems much of this stuff would not happen by mere chance.

Why didn't I think of taking a screen shot? LOL. Here's the real triangle.

I included a picture of a spherical triangle to illustrate what he apparently was saying. Let C be the North Pole, B is Delphi Greece and A is the NYC trade center. First of all, a mini-lesson on bearing or azimuth. If we face the pole C from B, i.e. looking due north from B, then a 90 degree azimuth angle is east, 180 is south and so forth. If we go around 360 degrees we get back to C. If we rotate another 306 degrees (666 degrees total) we are now facing A just shy of a second rotation of 720 degrees. That means that angle B (signified by the Greek letter Beta is 54 degrees bearing LEFT (Northwest) of the pole. That's the direction to both NYC trade center and New Orleans. So AB (designated by the small letter c) is the line crossing both although obviously c would be larger to New Orleans but the bearing is the same. He's going by the bearing. He's just playing with some math tricks claiming that this is another meaning of the number 666 in hidden form. To be honest, I do the same thing which is what I was saying that his observation is interesting, although just slightly off. Direction plays a role in the bible and as such is symbolic of things not the least of which one faces toward Israel (e.g. the Temple) to pray from this end of the world in NYC one would face basically Northeast (in this illustration angle alpha since Greece is close to Israel)

Yes, I basically agree with you here. That is assuming I read everything correctly and did not inject my own thoughts in reading your post. I will say this, that a lot of Greek and other pagan thought was interjected into Christianity. One of which is an immortal soul (if we can state a few foundational facts than by extrapolation other doctrines either stand or fall). Along that line is the separation of the soul from the body i.e. a conscious soul but unconscious body. Both of these are false. An extrapolated doctrine if we did accept these beliefs about an immortal soul that can be separated from the body, then we get into doctrines such as "dying and going to heaven" or "dying and going to hell" even though logically to send anyone to heaven or hell is judging the outcome before the final judgement so I'm not sure how that passes the logic test. From that since one may believe in the endlessness of the soul, then that allows for "eternal torment" when in fact, that is not dying, but rather eternal life in misery. And with the eternal soul doctrine, if one instantly gets whisked off to heaven as a conscious spirit being, then the question would rightfully have to be asked as to the point in the resurrection? Immediate life in heaven does not bother the worldly system because they don't inherently believe in resurrection and salvation. To them salvation is the same old man but merely forgiven, but that is not what the bible teaches. Salvation involves a new man, a new creation and that person is granted immortality (only God is inherently immortal). This new man is to fix what Adam was supposed to have become had he taken from the Tree of Life but instead his race is dying from sin. So it's the flesh and old man dying and a new man from this same person. To prove that Greek and other worldly doctrines infiltrated Christianity, we can look at the obvious instead of the abstract. One of which is the changing of the Sabbath to Sunday, and holidays that Paul warned us not to celebrate (every Christian knows about Halloween, Christmas and Easter but how about the holy days of the Lord in Leviticus 23?). How about symbols like crosses and statues when we are told not to make any sort of image? These are blatantly obvious without getting into the more hidden doctrines. It reminds me of the verse that it is an honor for Kings to search out a matter, but as in the Law of Moses, we can choose to obey the obvious, and the wisdom of the Lord will come to us.