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I have discussed a number of times with Church of God people that keep the feasts how they do so when animal sacrifice and the levitical priesthood are both required to do the actual feast. There is never an answer except to try and build straw man arguements about the passover. Yet the fact remains that you cannot do animal sacrifice without both the Levitical Priesthood and the Temple. There is no animal sacrifice in the heavenly kingdom because there is not death there only new life.

Rather than being depressed he may feel relieved that, like you said, he can now be really honest about where he is. The good thing is the even though he may have given up on God, God has not given up on him.

Why generally is the only topic white on black racism? Are blacks seen as incapable of racism and racists acts?

Okay, I'll start another thread on "power tends to corrupt"

Greetings all, it was announced today that the CFS now have the fire under control. The good news is that they were able to save the township of Birdwood where the SDA church is located. Sadly 27 homes are reported to have been lost and a number more damaged, however no loss of life has happened. They were able to prevent the fire from reaching Birdwood so the church and other town buildings are all quite okay, thankyou for your prayers and support!

There is nothing that I would like better than for all Christians to be under one roof. But whose roof? Whose understanding of the gospel should be preached? The bottom line is, does truth matter? Whose truth? If there is to be any betrayal, it's because the truth is distasteful to them. And btw, which doctrines are you willing to compromise on?

The EEOC is a very strong supporter of religious liberty. Read their rules that employers must follow in regard to Sabbath observance. The question is asked as to what would have happened if either a Satanic Bible or a Quran had been involved. While I could be wrong, I suspect that there is an important technical point involved in this case that played a role in the teacher winning the case: The teacher did not make a general distribution of the Bible. Rather, the teacher gave the student the Bible only after the student request one. It is true that the article cited above does not say that the student directly asked for the Bible. But, it is stated that the student enquired on a number of occasions as to the source of the quote. That could be implied as an indirect request and a search for information about the quote. It was not illegal for the teacher to cite the passage. The fact that the student enquired as to its source several time prior to the teacher giving the student a Bible shows that the teacher did not attempt to manipulate the student into asking for a Bible. In short, I Believe that this case would have been quite different if the teacher had attempted to push the Bible on students absent their asking for one. As to the question about the Satanic Bible, or the Quran: The student's request did not place the teacher under an obligation to provide the Bible. So, the teacher would not have been obligated to provide either a Satanic Bible or a Quran. Well, sometimes there is wisdom in restraint. Wisdom would probably have suggested that the teacher only inform the student as to the source and let the student directly obtain it outside of the action of the teacher.

Oh, and since the fire is God's love, when does the fire burn out?... It never does. The fire is everlasting. We are either consumed by it and die or live in it forever.

No, God never stops loving. As I understand what the Bible and Mrs. White teaches about hellfire, this is the very thing that makes hell hell. We, all of us have two attitudes fighting inside of ourselves. The first is the sinful nature or a disposition to think we are for ourselves by making less of the outside world. To esteem ourselves more highly than our breathern, to serve self, to seek the highest place; to serve the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh and the boastful pride of life. But in Genesis 3:15 we received our deepest desire: something in us that wants to be like and with Jesus. To want to love the world as Jesus has loved it. These two attitudes are fighting in us. We are constantly making choices that places one more in power in our lives and the other less in power in our lives. However, even at our best there is tinged with selfishness, the sinful nature. And even at our worst there is still something there, no matter how perverted, of wanting to love the world as Jesus has loved it. At the end when "Fire comes down from God out of heaven" it is where the lost see Jesus and God the Father in all their glory and beauty and love. The lost see God and are overwhelmed by God's beauty. Jesus is the one altogether lovely, the desire of ages, great joy to ALL people (not just the honest in heart or good people) the desire of nations, the one beloved of women, the one more desirable than gold and sweeter than the honey. God's nature is to love them. The Holy Spirit's nature is to point them to the beauty of Jesus. The lost are overwhelmed with this. God does everything short of forcing the will. The lost want to come. They see loved ones they long to be with, and the longing to be with them pales in comparison with their longing to be with Jesus. But Jesus in John 3 says that they are lost because they refuse to come for fear that their deeds will be exposed. They are unforgiving people, and as they see the ugliness of their sins in contrast to his beauty they feel that God can't forgive them and will sooner or later going to get them for their sins, so they refuse to yield to his love and the drawing power of the Holy Spirit. They spent their life resisting the Spirit and this has become characteristic of them and despite their wanting to come, they refuse to come. They want to but they wont. If God was to stop loving them it would cease to be hell and they would just resign to their lot. But it is this stalemate of God constantly loving and drawing them doing everything short of forcing their will and their longing to yield and being so attracted to Jesus, but their refusal to yield that makes this experience hell.

I especially like what you said about the reality of the Holy Spirit speaking to our hearts. How do we prove something like that? We can't... But it is real notwithstanding.