Masked Chris

I think I agree that the backslider doctrine is incredibly inaccurate "for this is love, not that we loved God, but that God loved us" "for it's by grace you are saved, through faith. And this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not by works, so that no man can boast" "for I am convinced that neither life nor death, nor angels nor demons, nor the present or the future, nor anything in all creation can separate us from the love of God, who is in Christ Jesus our Lord" the only way we can "fall away" is if we out right say to God "get out of my life"

hi I am not sure where I'd find a reference like that..... it was prolly read out of context. Jesus says that he goes and prepares a place for us and if he goes to prepare a place for us than he will come back and receive us unto himself. He will come back for all that are his and not only that but you will come to a place that he created especially for you... god knows us better than we know ourselves and it's awesome to think that someone like that is preparing a perfect place for all of my hearts desires to flourish don't worry if you've accepted God's gift you are going no questions asked.... God is no lyier

well this was also before the fall and Adam and Eve had no sin nature. So they didn't need to obey a law of marrege because their hearts were already purefied by God. God writes the law after the fall as a sort of guide to keep us from falling away and marrege is part of that law. Adam and Eve didn't need that law because they were perfect beings. we do though.... we need that law because we are far from perfect and anyone who disagrees is blind. What LAW of marriage? I would go into OT law but Jesus says it so much better. Matthew 19:3-8 (New International Version) 3Some Pharisees came to him to test him. They asked, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason?" 4"Haven't you read," he replied, "that at the beginning the Creator 'made them male and female,'[a] 5and said, 'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh'? 6So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate." 7"Why then," they asked, "did Moses command that a man give his wife a certificate of divorce and send her away?" 8Jesus replied, "Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning. and I will take the traditional view of "no sex before marriage" as well.... as Paul addresses very clearly in his epistles. All of the problems with broken families and sexual diseases are caused by not following this simple instruction. Like I said....... we are blind if we think we are OK without the law. Matthew 19 is talking about divorce not weddings. and this verse just proves my point. God has joined together not the government. God unites man and wife. Our traditional wedding ceremonies are not necessary to be married in Gods eyes. In society eyes its different. ok you make a good point Marriage [in my eyes anyways] serves the same purpose of any law.... it acts as something to lean upon. I believe freedom is important but discipline is really even more important. If we have freedom with no discipline we will be lead captive by our own "freedom". Yes Adam and Eve were married in God's eyes.... but we are on the other side of the fall and our views and our ways are all distorted.... I am thankful for something such a the law and marriage and all that stuff.... without it this world would be chaos.... and chaos is no fun.

I don't by this.... our economic situation is no better or no worse than the times before us. Like I said.... prolly a little better. In the 1920s the people have just discovered the fruits of modern technology.... as plunged into it like a bunch of gluttons and as a result we were plunged into the Great Depression by the 1930s.... economic success to economic crash in only 10 years is the most unstable system I have ever witnessed.... we are not even close to as unstable... the government has it's problems but overall i think we are doing pretty well. these are not worse problems..... they are simply the same problems in different ways. Consider how the OT governed. Polygamy was encouraged to be a norm.... Also in the OT there were sex-religion shrines of the god Baal.... these can be compared to the strip clubs we see in every bar.... these are old problems and we have always dealt with stuff like this. As Paul says "nothing as seized us except for what is common to man"...... there are no new sins.... everything we are seeing today has been seen before. new types of weapons maybe.... but the only reason behind this is the increase with technology..... this is the same thing as saying "the Internet is faster, so therefore the end is coming".... WWI and WWII had nuclear bombs and all that stuff..... the only difference in today's world is there are more advanced ways to do this.... it neither increases nor decreases the dangers..... a nuclear bomb is a nuclear bomb and this to is something we have seen before..... and once again I point to the OT.... war after war after war after war..... the most bloody movie ever made would be about the Old Testament.... Samson killed thousands upon thousands upon thousands of men..... some of these battles were so bloody that the blood from the men turned into rivers. It's all the same thing.... the only difference is there is simply new ways to create these rivers of blood..... whether you kill thousands by sword or thousands by bomb.... at the core.... nothing has changed.

if I sound arrogant it's only because I'm so darn frustrated. We have heard for decades upon decades that according to certain prophesies the end time is coming..... but this has been preached since and proven wrong since Jesus rose from the grave. I wanna tackle some of the claims told by what I'm positive are false profits. 1] Morality continues to drop at an unspeakable rate A] not true.... we've always had this morel problem. It has not increased one bit.... ask your parents and they will tell you what THEY did as kids. It's not pretty.... every person goes through phases and according to Proverbs teenagers are usually very trouble prone.... it's not a new problem, not at all. 2] chaos is increasing on the earth A] WWI, WWII, The Great Depression, Adolf Hitler.... need I say more? We are actually in a very peaceful time in history compared to what has happened before. In about 20 years people will define this generation as peaceful yet spoiled. 3] natural disasters are on the rise A] My mother tells me stories about snow that covers houses during the winter and tornadoes that touch down every summer at an unbelievable rate... I've never seen snow cover my car and we have had bad storms but I've never felt the need to use a storm cellar.... again weather conditions are much more peaceful as well... the only thing "on the rise" is the political agenda and the deceptive nature of the world. 4] these events are getting worse and worse A]no.... according to what I have pointed out these events are calming down and the world is in a very peaceful time in history..... 85% of history so far is bloody battle.... read the OT to get a picture of this or read about the battle of Vietnam.... we are living in a very peaceful time in history... but yet a very spoiled and ungrateful time as well. 5] finally my personal favorite "we are the only generation who has not believed in the 2nd coming when it is preached... thus proving it A] I'm not sure where people even get this stance.... I believe in the 2nd coming and in fact it's one of my greatest hopes.... i just don't believe Jesus would say "you will not know the time or date" and THAN place hidden messages in the bible as if to solve a jig-saw puzzle. It's foolish.... plus if you take a good look in history, you will see that Gnostic people throughout history have abused the scriptures like this ever since the resurrection of Christ... these people will be assigned a place with the false profits... this is an old problem that will not go away. and that's my rant for the night.

I've seen it.... I was scared stiff.

the vows should tell us everything we need to know "...to love and to cherish for better or worse in sickness and in health till death do you part" I think it's pretty straightfoward

hey don't be so quick to assume that the friction is a bad thing . Jesus certainly wasn't afraid to shake things up and plus what makes you assume that causing friction means that we all hate each other? We sometimes need to love each other enough TO cause friction within each other. Disagreement will come naturally, I agree. But if you have a different opinion than another the best thing to do is to explain that you disagree and explain why. Why is critical, because it says more than "you're wrong", it says why you think the other person is incorrect. You can also say this in respectful ways, like "I disagree", or "I understand what you are saying, but I look at it this way", or "I'm afraid I think you are looking at it incorrectly" or something to that extent. That is a much better preface than "you're wrong" or "you must be CRAZY to think that" or "You make no sense!" etc. It's all in how you treat others with whom you disagree with. I agree... and I am ashamed to say I'm often very guilty of being rude. We all got stuff to work on though

It's hard to tell.... there are some people who do say it is Enoch and Elijah because they are the only 2 people who escaped death and were carried up to heaven.... others say Moses and Elijah because of the signs these 2 profits are displaying have strong resemblance to the signs of Moses and Elijah. There are people who take a completely different angle on it and say that the 2 witnesses are in fact The Spirit of God and The Word of God because of the fire that comes out of the mouth. The Spirit and The Word are the 2 things in scripture that breath fire...... this falls through the hole though because the witnesses die and we know that God's Spirit and God's Word never die either way it's interesting.... I'll post the passage here so people can have fun trying to decipher something as complex as prophecy... awwww scripture is fun And I will give power to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth." 4These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. 5If anyone tries to harm them, fire comes from their mouths and devours their enemies. This is how anyone who wants to harm them must die. 6These men have power to shut up the sky so that it will not rain during the time they are prophesying; and they have power to turn the waters into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague as often as they want. 7Now when they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up from the Abyss will attack them, and overpower and kill them. 8Their bodies will lie in the street of the great city, which is figuratively called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified. 9For three and a half days men from every people, tribe, language and nation will gaze on their bodies and refuse them burial. 10The inhabitants of the earth will gloat over them and will celebrate by sending each other gifts, because these two prophets had tormented those who live on the earth. 11But after the three and a half days a breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet, and terror struck those who saw them. 12Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, "Come up here." And they went up to heaven in a cloud, while their enemies looked on.

It's hard to tell.... there are some people who do say it is Enoch and Elijah because they are the only 2 people who escaped death and were carried up to heaven.... others say Moses and Elijah because of the signs these 2 profits are displaying have strong resemblance to the signs of Moses and Elijah. There are people who take a completely different angle on it and say that the 2 witnesses are in fact The Spirit of God and The Word of God because of the fire that comes out of the mouth. The Spirit and The Word are the 2 things in scripture that breath fire...... this falls through the hole though because the witnesses die and we know that God's Spirit and God's Word never die either way it's interesting.... I'll post the passage here so people can have fun trying to decipher something as complex as prophecy... awwww scripture is fun And I will give power to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth." 4These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. 5If anyone tries to harm them, fire comes from their mouths and devours their enemies. This is how anyone who wants to harm them must die. 6These men have power to shut up the sky so that it will not rain during the time they are prophesying; and they have power to turn the waters into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague as often as they want. 7Now when they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up from the Abyss will attack them, and overpower and kill them. 8Their bodies will lie in the street of the great city, which is figuratively called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified. 9For three and a half days men from every people, tribe, language and nation will gaze on their bodies and refuse them burial. 10The inhabitants of the earth will gloat over them and will celebrate by sending each other gifts, because these two prophets had tormented those who live on the earth. 11But after the three and a half days a breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet, and terror struck those who saw them. 12Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, "Come up here." And they went up to heaven in a cloud, while their enemies looked on.

well this was also before the fall and Adam and Eve had no sin nature. So they didn't need to obey a law of marrege because their hearts were already purefied by God. God writes the law after the fall as a sort of guide to keep us from falling away and marrege is part of that law. Adam and Eve didn't need that law because they were perfect beings. we do though.... we need that law because we are far from perfect and anyone who disagrees is blind. What LAW of marriage? I would go into OT law but Jesus says it so much better. Matthew 19:3-8 (New International Version) 3Some Pharisees came to him to test him. They asked, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason?" 4"Haven't you read," he replied, "that at the beginning the Creator 'made them male and female,'[a] 5and said, 'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh'? 6So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate." 7"Why then," they asked, "did Moses command that a man give his wife a certificate of divorce and send her away?" 8Jesus replied, "Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning. and I will take the traditional view of "no sex before marriage" as well.... as Paul addresses very clearly in his epistles. All of the problems with broken families and sexual diseases are caused by not following this simple instruction. Like I said....... we are blind if we think we are OK without the law.

well this was also before the fall and Adam and Eve had no sin nature. So they didn't need to obey a law of marrege because their hearts were already purefied by God. God writes the law after the fall as a sort of guide to keep us from falling away and marrege is part of that law. Adam and Eve didn't need that law because they were perfect beings. we do though.... we need that law because we are far from perfect and anyone who disagrees is blind.

hey don't be so quick to assume that the friction is a bad thing . Jesus certainly wasn't afraid to shake things up and plus what makes you assume that causing friction means that we all hate each other? We sometimes need to love each other enough TO cause friction within each other.

I agree and disagree with Joyce. I agree that she says we need to love them.... but you were still hurt and that matters and matters deeply. I think the best thing to do is to give yourself some closure and go to the person and let them know [not in anger but still as honestly as you can] that you were hurt. Also though..... this may sound silly but I find I am most resentful when I place my needs in the hands of people who are unable to fulfill them. I find myself first having a deep ache.... and than go to a person instead of God.... and as soon as an imperfect person handles the problem wrong.... i come to resent them and hate them. It's a deep problem.... I think the biggest way to get over resentment and hurt is to simply place these things in the hand of God and realize that everyone is imperfect and incomplete just like you are. I know this is one of the biggest things for me..... when someone screws up I'm usually the first person you see to point it out. I hate this side of myself.... but I realize I do this because I treat myself the same way.... I'm always like "why do i make so many mistakes??" It's incredibly freeing to have an attitude of "I am a work in progress and so is everyone else.... we are not yet made perfect so I can release both them and myself of all of our mistakes."