Fraught

i dont think her interpretation fits. we can't use up the Holy Spirit. that's what i tended to think. but now in another post, the oil is equated to 'experience'. and another to 'endurance'. and still another to 'word'. do any of us know for sure what this parable means? all commentators seem to agree that the oil is definitely symbolic of the Holy Spirit. assuming this is the case, the other 5 virgins without oil must have never received salvation in the first place. they are not Christians. this seems to be the only way it fits? what do you all think?

inferring that the Exodus is the beginning of God's plan of redemption and the start of the jewish religion, one date is said to be 1491 b.c. God says in both deuteronomy & psalms that his commands are given to a thousand generations. the last i read about this, a generation is 40 years. could we not figure out the date of the finish of the redemption plan within 40 years? how long would it take to get from 1 generation to the thousandth generation? it's late & maybe i'm way off base; but, maybe not. inspired by psalm 111 (my current favorite): Psalm 111 (an excerpt) Praise the Lord! How amazing are the deeds of the Lord! All who delight in him should ponder them. Everything he does reveals his glory and majesty. His righteousness never fails.

so are you saying that if we do not use the oil of the Holy Spirit, it will run out? the more we use it, the more we will have when the bridegroom returns? the 5 virgins without oil in their lamps are 5 who have not used their gifts? therefore, the door is closed to them?

the odd thing about this is - who would represent the Christians?

very interesting post - still, i fail to understand the concept of 'more'. if the oil = Holy Spirit, that's puzzling. how does one go about obtaining 'more'? what would i have done to 'run out' of the Holy Spirit and have to borrow some? i look forward to reading more of the post so i may, hopefully, get clued in.

i don't think it's people being rated. i hope not. i don't even like having the squares. i rate my knowledge maybe 1 square (lol) yes, i know it's the number of posts, but still. isn't it that if anyone thinks a certain post is particularly important to read, we can star it? nothing wrong with that, a forum board is an opinion board, right? so that's our opinion. no problem there. in the spirit of equality, if another doesn't agree with the starred status, the space is here to say so. and that's my opinion

Must be. Real humans don't post so mindlessly. Most don't refer to Scripture as 'mindless' either.......except those who have no idea what it is. Did I refer to Scripture as mindless? Yes; Fresno Joe was quoting Scripture in the post you were referring to. Oh heck, he quotes Scripture in EVERY post. And you were mean to call his post 'mindless'. I did nothing of the sort. It is FJ's manner in which he quotes scripture that is mindless. Most of the time it contributes nothing to furthering the conversation. It was not meant to be mean, sorry. he is employed the words of the Ultimate Mind. they will reach whom they are meant to.

Three. Count 'em, three. Now there are three rude people here so far whom are considered christains. (note to Frout..praying icons used in this manner are patronizing and disrespects God) thanks for the reply. i was very curious if you would find my empathy offensive. thanks for satisfying that curiousity.

did i miss something in his words? i also agree we share the same God. he leaves out that maybe we disagree on who that God is !!

The passage means what it says. Those who reject God's Sovereignty in the heart of man (aka Free Will Apologists), can't handle this passage, and for the many years that I have asked them their view on it, without exception they deny the passage of its central meaning and gratuitously divert the hatred on to something other than what the passage clearly teaches. Sort of the in same mold as hoplophobes project sin and evil on the firearm, banning it rather than dealing with the perp who misuses the otherwise inanimate, unconscious metal object, or blaming the alcohol and not the driver in a DUI death. You might as well ask them why God hated Esau. (Ro 9:13) Without reading any of the other posts I can pretty much say that "hatred" will devolve into something that is not hatred. In fact, they will completely turn around the passage and say that God really loves them. I honestly don't know how folks can live with that kind of cognitive dissonance unless they just flat out reject those difficult passages in Scripture. And when I mean "difficult" I am talking about those many passages that argue against their bogus Free Will soteriology. The usual rhetoric occasionally calls for the red herring approach, that is, someone will point out that this is an imprecatory Psalm, as if there is something disqualifying and inherently wrong about praying for the demise of one's enemy. They might even go as far to say that David was blaspheming by projecting David's personal contempt for sinners on to God (who allegedly loves all men). Then comes the deflection, so while you are thinking about the nature of the Psalm you are then fed a line that says that either hate doesn't mean hate, or it isn't the doer (as the passage clearly says), but it is the sin (which the passage doesn't say). In either case, you are made to feel guilty about having a low view of God's enemies, then while you are told that David was just having a bad day, you get the lie, from that point, anything goes. If one explores the core of Free Will Theology, there is no divine hate, and logically there is no divine love. The Free Will Enthusiast will deconstruct "love" so much that it is completely devoid of all meaning. They will say that God's love for the Saint is the same as His love for the Sinner. Never mind the Prodigal son's father did not coming running out of the house and demonstrating love towards anybody who wandered up to the residence. Never mind Hebrews that teaches that God chastens whom He loves. Erase from your mind the passages in Romans that teach that God works things out for those who love Him. Forget all of the passages that convey a pattern of active love towards those who God considers His sheep/children. Certainly don't ask why God's love is poured out on His Elect or why that is even taught in Scripture, for afterall, if there is no distinction between the love God has for His own, and the alleged "love" God has for the reprobate, then why is it constantly represented in Scriptures? The Free Will Enthusiast doesn't want you to ask those questions. The anthropocentric warm fuzzies surrounding an empty "love" on all mankind trumps orthodox theology and God's revealed character. Remember, God allegedly loves people straight into eternal destruction and damnation. We are told that God poured out His love for the Sodomites when he rained down fire from the heavens without warning. We are supposed to believe that wiping out billions of people during the Flood was a divine act of exhibited love for the antediluvians. And surely God must love the generations of people who lived and died never having heard the Gospel. Why God even is supposed to love those who He deliberately blinds and keeps in darkness so that they will not believe. (John 12:40). This so-called "love" is supposed to be indistinguishable from the love God has for His Elect. Under Free Will Theology, where everyone is supposed to have an equal shot at setting themselves straight and making the correct choice, God must love everyone head-for-head, and that is why the word 'kosmos', or 'world' as we read in John 3:16, cannot mean 'those from every nation' (which is consistent with all of Scripture) but must mean 'everyone head for head' (which conflicts with many passages, particularly Ps 5:5). The Free Will Enthusiast has two options: 1) Deny or deconstruct the Scriptures that conflict with the anthropocentric Pelagian doctrines, 2) Talk about paradoxes, conflicting visions - as if contradiction is a good and noble thing. thanks for the post. you made a couple of things so clear. i don't know what you mean by 'free will theology' but it's irrelevant to the topic anyway. what is clear is that God means what he says and says what he means. if that fact occasionally goes against our concept of fair play, that would be the same as saying that it is unfair that 2 + 2 must equal 4.

i, too am excited about this study. i feel like it's going to lead us somewhere we want to go. Simeon was born on the twenty-first day of the tenth month (Ṭebet) of the year 2124 after the Creation (Book of Jubilees xxviii. 13; Midr. Tadshe, in Epstein, "Mi-Ḳadmoniyyot ha-Yehudim," p. xxii.). his name is interpreted as meaning "he who listens to the words of God". i thought of the other definiition ("he who hears and is heard") when reading this: He is always represented as having a particularly powerful voice; and it is said that once, in the brunt of a battle, when he shouted, the enemy fled in terror at the sound ("Sefer ha-Yashar," l.c. p. 61a). his tribe scattered, dispersed simeon in the n.t., a descendant? The Prophecy of Simeon At that time there was a man in Jerusalem named Simeon. He was righteous and devout and was eagerly waiting for the Messiah to come and rescue Israel. The Holy Spirit was upon him and had revealed to him that he would not die until he had seen the Lord

Looks like glory as well? Like terrorist need Islam to validate their murderous ways, all I need is a christain badge to flaunt around here to validate my rude manner. I fail to see how MY post was rude, Ateam. Are you not sitting there at your computer, with the intelligence to use it, and are you not unique among the 6+ billion inhabitants of this planet? Btw, making a corelation between Christians and islamic terrorists is not the way to make your point. Consider your readers, my friend. i feel sorry for ateam. he has a pretty big chip on his shoulder that someone must have gave him.

thanks. me too! this feels like a game of nanny nanny boo boo oh well, it's all good.

paul said to the romans "endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation". and: "Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer." oddly enough, i just recently found out that i can pray for hope. it's making a difference for me. i hope it will for you too.

just a real quick addition to your prior asking about eldest children. i'm the oldest of 4 daughters (my poor parents) !! it can be a burden. it can easily trigger rebellion also if too much responsibility for the younger siblings is put upon you.

thank you. that's exactly what i was trying to get at in my post. if God says an act is just, it is. simply because God says it is. i think that as human beings, we have only a foggy concept of justice or even mercy because we are so short-sighted. it's impossible for us to look even a year into the future and be able to see the consequences of our actions. if God is omniscient, and we know he is, then he can see the consequence of every action on every person clear into infinity. if we had that viewpoint, i'm sure His every action would make sense. since we don't, it would be very presumptuous on our parts to question anything.

The purpose of this is what? And, by the way, the first quote is from Freeman J. Dyson. If you are going to quote someone you ought to at least get the name correct. And the prize is the Crafoord Prize, not Crawford. But I guess other than those 2 basic mistakes we should just accept everything else you post about. absolutely !! you're obviously expecting me to accept what you have posted. but i'm puzzled, who is we? secondly, i could care less what you think i ought to do. and thirdly the purpose doesn't concern you. i liked it so i shared it with anyone else you might like it too. that's not you so go read something else.

wow, our minds cannot even comprehend what that might be like. 'the things that God has prepared for us'. wow!

you started me thinking about the meaning of names so i checked up on 'reuben' also. it means who sees the son; the vision of the son that would certainly explain why he did what he did in Genesis 37:21 But when Reuben heard of their scheme, he came to Joseph

"As we look out into the universe and identify the many accidents of physics and astronomy that have worked together to our benefit, it almost seems as if the universe must in some sense have known that we were coming." - Professor Freeman J. of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton "I find it quite improbable that such order came out of chaos. There has to be some organizing principle. God to me is a mystery but is the explanation for the miracle of existence, why there is something instead of nothing." - Alan Sandage (winner of the Crawford prize in astronomy) Willford, J.N. March 12, 1991. Sizing up the Cosmos: An Astronomers Quest. New York Times, p. B9.

i, too, in reading that verse, always pause there, a little puzzled. i always went on, thinking all things are revealed in their own time. maybe the revelation is soon in coming.

we remember that our God equally loves justice. without justice, there is no possibility for love, anyway. God cannot act unjustly. period. God is Love and God is justice. to Him belongs the definition of the word; therefore, he will execute it perfectly.

link to the below review A rousing SRO preview on Tuesday of the new Ben Stein documentary, Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, brought a Kansas City audience to its feet. And with good cause. Stein