Josephstrks

Here's a good 'toon: http://www.zmag.org/cartoons/

Monday, September 30, 2002 Tishrei 24, 5763 Israel Time: 00:06 (GMT+3) Back Home 17:31 29/09/2002 Last update - 17:34 29/09/2002 Refined uranium found in Turkey weighs grams, not kilograms By Yossi Melman, Ha'aretz Correspondent, and Agencies The captured weapons-grade uranium. (Photo: AP) The refined uranium caught by Turkish police Saturday weighed far less than originally thought, an official source in southwestern Turkey said Sunday. It was originally believed that the Turkish paramilitary police had seized over 15 kg of weapons-grade uranium in the operation that also resulted in the detention of two men accused of smuggling the substance. The actual weight of the uranium turned out to be hundreds of grams, a fraction of the initial estimate. The uranium is to be sent for tests to the local Atomic Energy Agency. The two suspects were brought before a judge Saturday night charged with the illegal sale of the material. Officers in the southern province of Sanliurfa, bordering Syria and 250 km from the Iraqi border, were acting on a tip-off when they stopped a taxi cab and discovered the uranium in a lead container hidden beneath the vehicle's seat, the Anatolian news agency said Saturday. The incident came at a time of mounting speculation the U.S. could attack neighboring Iraq for its alleged program of weapons of mass destruction. Officials at Ankara's Atomic Energy Institute would not confirm they had been notified about the material. "Our investigation on whether the uranium was destined for a neighboring country is continuing," a Sanliurfa police official was quoted as saying by Anatolian. Authorities believe the uranium came from an east European country and has a value of about $5 million, Anatolian said. It was not immediately clear when the operation was carried out. Anatolian only gave the first names of the suspects, which appeared to be Turkish. Smugglers use Turkey's porous eastern border to import drugs, and hundreds of thousands of migrants each year illegally cross the rugged frontier on their way to more affluent European Union nations. Police in Istanbul seized more than one kg of weapons-grade uranium last November that had been smuggled into Turkey from an east European state. The smugglers were detained after attempting to sell the material to undercover police.

Wednesday 9/25/02 Baptist open Letter to George Bush Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America WAR IS NOT THE ANSWER: An Open Letter to President George W. Bush The Hon. George W. Bush The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Washington, D. C. 20500 September 24, 2002 Dear Mr. President: We write to you today with a simple message: Do not attack Iraq! We do not write as friends of Iraq

Just wanted to let you all know that Dr. David Jeremiah is beginning an in-depth study of the Book of Daniel on his radio program Turning Point, for anyone that gets this show on Chritian Radio on Friday, Sept 27. It will last until sometime in December. He also has a book called "Handwiritng on the Wall" that I imagine the programming will follow.

Yeah, just cause yoga is from India, doesn't mean it's bad.....

I shtere more than one Book of Enoch out there? It seems I've heard some confusion over this.

Thank you, Jesuson, for a good intelligent response to my query. It actually whetted my curiousity even more, I can see that this is a long-debated topic over the centuries. I am very curious about this Nicean council , as I understand that this is where a group of church leaders got together and decided which books could be included and which not. This council occurred after Jesus' time, and I wonder which scriptures were in use during His time on earth. Were some of the Apocryphal scriptures also studied and used in those times and have since been put outside of the Bible?

This is probably a well-hashed topic, but why is it that such scriptures that are not included in the Bible, or were deleted at the council of Nicea are not considered valid or credible? Examples include 'The Book of Enoch' (which was quoted once in the NT) The 5 books of the Apocrypha Certain scrolls that have been recetnly uncovered, like the Gospel of St. Thomas for example. Where in the Bible does it say that the Bible is the ONLY source of truthful revelation? And was God at work among those men at Nicea, even after God had commanded at the end of Revelation that no word be changed? This topic not meant to challenge the Word of God, but need answers as I don't truly understand this.

So if it's not okay to do yoga, how about marital arts--karate, tai chi, judo? And this tae bo, isn't it from the Orient?

Baptism is like a public declaration of your salvation, much like a wedding ceremony publicly declares your private union with your wife and your commitment to her. I don't believe it is a requirement, but I do believe that one will desire a baptism once they are saved. I know I sure did. As for Holy Spirit baptism, I honestly don't know. I know that soon after I invited Jesus into my heart, I also asked the Holy Spirit to come. I don't know if this was necessary, but I know for sure that He's in me too.

I tell my 3 year old that everyone is tryig to touch Jesus :inlove:

Anyone know of any good websites that have good art to help visualize the book of Revelations, Ezekial and Daniel? I visited one today and it made me want to find more. Not sure what to type into the search engine.

I think maybe there is a lot of knowledge hidden in numerical codes in the Bible that have yet to be deciphered, consider things like the dimensions of the Temple and much, much more.

I'm glad we are finally on this topic. I've been trying to address this for weeks. Apok is right, how do you explain this in the field of Apologetics to skeptical people? In my reading of the OT, God inflicted plenty of wrath on the masses. People always want to say it was Satan that did it, but the OT clearly states over and over and over again that God was doing these things to the people for whatever reason, including famines, plagues, swords, etc. So what about the collateral damage, surely there must have been some innocents caught up in the plagues et al. Or do you suppose that God singled out those few God-fearing people? And who's to say that 9/11 was caused by man, and was not actually a divine appointment? These are tough questions, folks, and require tough answers to satisfy an unbeliever who is asking them.

I stand in total agreement with you Adstar. My point being, however, that in the OT it was a similar history of conquest by the children of Israel into the land of Canaan, and God was commanding them to carry out these abominable acts, such as slashing open the bellies of pregnant women, for example. The Crusaders were doing essentially the same thing, in God's name. I understand that Jesus' teachings were far and away about peace and love, and that is the heart of my faith in Him.

Yes, GodMan, to everything that you wrote (I mean, amen!) In pursuing my faith in Jesus I have to just leave it a mystery why the suffering of so many in conquest of nation against nation, I have to trust in His plan, I have to trust in His soveriegnty, and in God as the absolute in which we measure all else. This process of renewing the mind to the Word is very difficult at times. Sometimes I feel as though I am in a 'spiritual wilderness' as there are so many churches, doctrines, denominations, debates, points of view all coming from the same Bible. I realize that the OT is multi-layered in meaning and full of hidden treasures, and I seek earnestly for them as I read. My faith comes from my conversion experience and not because the Bible convinced me to believe. In fact my believing is not based on intellectual rationalization in any way (according to the world's thinking). I read the Bible to get to know God better and to seek guidance and direction, comfort, etc. I am a pacifist and always have been, war and violence are revolting to me, both the capability of the agressors to commit such atrocities and the suffering of the victims. So it is hard for me to integrate into my faith that God would actually command people to do such things to others. What we are calling racism here (although agreed it's ultimately the same ancestry) runs rampant through the Bible. However, Jesus teaches us to love our enemy, that it's easy to love those we agree with and like, but a far greater thing to love our enemy. This is a contradiction to me. God is ultimately as capable of healing as He is destroying. Why are not more benovelent methods used to change lives and hearts. I realize no one can really answer this question and other cultures and religions don't do much better at explaining the great mystery of suffering, war, conquest and all that. I realize Jesus suffered and God did not spare Him either. It's pretty profound stuff.

The point being that if you were from another culture, for example a descendant of Ishmsael, who had many children in Canaan, and you were reading the Old Testament, God would appear quite rascist, which is the core of this thread. It is actually a pretty brutal history that is recorded in the OT. The New Testament breaks through that, thank you Jesus for being such a revolutionary. And Paul for ministering beyond the Jewish bigotry. Some of that rascism was continued after the New Testament times, as Christian crusaders and missionaries conquered many territories in Europe and the New World in Jesus name, "and whoever would not seek the Lord God of Israel was put to death, whether small or great, Whether man or woman". Not to mention the inquisition, and people honestly thought that God was instructing them to do these things like He was some general in the army, and we still do it today here in the USA believing we have favor with God. Sorry, I just don't understand the brutality of the OT and the subsequent conquest of the Church, the suffering of millions (collateral damage) is something I haven't come to terms with yet and no one seems to be able to give me any answers because I believe in all honesty you don't really know yourself. If it wasn't for Jesus and His teachings, and the deeper levels of meaning hidden in the OT that address the spiritual history and not the physical, I don't think I could even buy into Christianity as a religion.

What about all the people residing in Canaan before the children of Israel invaded? Was God a respector of these persons?

Thanks RCruise for the response. I am discovering that my questions are not as simply answered as I hoped, as it seems there are many different viewpoints on so many topics. I guess I'll keep on studying formyself

Wordsower, I agree about the SDA literature, just was studying the Sabbath commandment and they have lots on it, and came across this about Elijah, got curious, posted here, still learning :inlove: So then according to Matt 17:10-13, if Elijah did come already, then has the great and dreadful day of the Lord (Malachi 4:5) already happened too?

Karen: On the third page of this Spiritual Warfare Features room is another thread about this Maitreya guy, and it also gives a couple of links to Worthy News article about him. Just thought you'd like to check them out. George has already been on top of this one! :thumb:

I guess I should add the scripture this is based on: Malachi 4:5 I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.

Isn't Elijah supposed to come back again to herald Jesus' second coming? If so, do you think we would recognize him? (I just read this in some 7th Day Adventist literature so I'm not sure if it is their doctrine or if this is generally accepted as part of the prophecy picture.) :???: