Leaderboard

Israeli Scientist Says Ancient Pottery Shard Supports History Stated in the Bible 22Apr, 2015by Warner Todd Huston Israeli scientists and researchers are carefully studying a shard of ancient pottery that they say would support historical claims made in the Bible. The team is researching the shard at Tel Aviv University. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported Wednesday that a Tel Aviv University team has been examining pieces of First Temple-era pots and vessels with ancient inscriptions scratched in. The ancient pot fragment is known as an ostracon. One of the inscriptions addressed events described in the biblical book of Jeremiah. Haaretz reported: Even more gripping is the tale told by perhaps the most known ostracon from the period, which was found in Lachish, the largest Judahite town after Jerusalem. In the dispatch, an official stationed outside the city reports to his commander on the fall of a nearby stronghold, saying that “we can see the signals from Lachish, but we no longer see Azekah.” Scholars have taken this as a confirmation of the biblical narrative of Jeremiah, which recounts that Azekah and Lachish were the last fortresses of Judah to fall before Jerusalem was besieged and destroyed by the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II. The Israeli foreign ministry has noted that more than 100 ostraca written in Paleo-Hebrew script have been found in Arad in southern Israel, calling it “the largest and richest collection of inscriptions from the biblical period ever discovered in Israel.” Paleo-Hebrew was used in the ancient kingdoms of Judah and Israel.

I like the caption and the picture....it's about being on the same mission as the Lion of Judah....

Considering the story as anonymous, I find many people say that they are led by the Holy Spirit. I am not always convinced that that is the case. With the caveat that the word of God "divides asunder", you have to also consider what the results are of these actions by the person "led by the Holy Spirit". A new member to the faith cannot really come in with the feeling of being led by the Spirit and turn everything upside down. Unfortunately, the Holy Spirit is not the only spirit out there that is leading people, even within God's church. Satan also can be as an "angel of light". And he leads people. How do you tell the difference? I would submit there is a spiritual war going on in the church for the hearts and minds of the people. "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law." Galatians 5:22-23 (KJV)

That is quite a thought, brother. I have always been taught to be color blind. In the military, that was literally drilled into me (taught by a drill sergant). I have never thought of myself as a "white" person or as being "irish" or "german" (I am both). My identigy has always been wrapped up in being an American and being a Christian. Don't misunderstand. I am not saying we should be color blind. I am just saying I have always been taught that and pretty much tried to live my life that way.

Have You ever spent time alone with God in prayer and not said one word? Not waiting for His voice necessarily . Just kneeling to profound to talk. Absorbing yet not understanding what's going on. Alone with your thoughts of Him. With Him. No time limit. Not rehearsed. In Awe. Not making sense. Floods of knowing words do not mean a thing right now. Struck dumb in awe. Afraid this will too will be fleeting. Wanting to carry that around all day with you. Just walk and work and play with that moment in your head. All the day. Later seeing someone you know you should ask Forgiveness from. And in humility confess to the other. Hands in theirs Tears in the eyes. Words are not good enough it seems all over again..

Whbae said: My understanding of the Quran leads me to believe that the above statement is false. But, I am not positive. So, I contacted an Islamic group and asked them if it were true that a child born to an Islamic family was automatically Islamic. I have received the following answer: Islam requires that someone knowingly become a Muslim.

All about perspective!!

Lyndon said: Great post.

When I was being trained to teach diversity to VA employees I learned a new thought: The U.S. is not a "melting pot." Such dismisses cultural differences. Rather the U.S. is a mince pie (or a salad) where the specific individual parts maintain their identity and all contribute to the flavor of the taste. NOTE: I became an instructor in diversity when I challenged those teaching it on the basis than none of their educators were white and male. They considered it and promptly asked me to join them.

Was there any further discussion about what the Spirit had been convicting him about ... specifically? Do Adventist congregants dismiss Spirit-led convictions too readily?

27 herbs and spices is now associated in my head... Glad you are here. :)

We get a similar problem here from time to time "I have arrived, now I am going to run this, and take no advice from any one. After all, I have arrived." Yet I feel for the person, when I first came to the Adventist Church, I found it rather irritating that the Childrens' story was often more about having so much fun, but learned my lesson, and then became a Christian, and boy did I have a good time 'before I became a Christian' I was hoping and expecting to tell some Bible stories or Bible lessons. Just one opinion... others may differ. I have since heard some great children stories that were relevant life stories..

It is good to keep a spiritual emphasis on the children's story, but I am concerned when people want to cut down the time for children in the church service. I feel that children get pitifully little time in the service and we wonder why they find church such a drag. I hated church when little, no matter how much I liked the Bible, hearing Bible stories, and everything that went with it as it was definitely something to endure every week. Children are part of the church family and should be valued. As it is, children hear their short story and then are told to go back to their seat (with the implied message to shut up!). I would also fear for a church that would let newcomers come in and upset the order of church because they weren't happy with the way things are. I say this because I have seen in other religions are marked different manner of dealing with children in their worship service. For many years I attend a conservative synagogue. There, the children are a very important part of the worship service. Torah reading, of course, is done every Sabbath. If a child is being Bar/Bat Mitzvad, they read the Torah portion. During the chanting of the prayer, the children were up/down from the bimah frequently. When the Torah was taken thru the congregation, the children followed. When the challah was eaten, the children were there. When not on the bimah for a part in the service, they played in the aisles. Amazingly, they were quiet and did not intrude into the service. So many times I wished the church would be as kind to children as the synagogue was. And we also see how the religion has survived so well since the return from Babylon before Jesus came. And ponder it when you are wondering why so many children leave the church. Oh! BTW, the story detailed was great. How could you have a problem with it?

I really appreciate the sentiment expressed here. I was having similar thoughts and feelings this morning when I woke up. Just desiring His presence and His intimacy; wondering who I could channel His blessings to today. Blessings to you for coming here. What can we call you for short? "Gayatfootofcross" is too long; and just plain Gay sounds inappropriate. Does GFC work for you?

In my view, Jesus' message (and yes, His whole persona,) is held back and hidden by Christianity. But there has always been a few that have represented Jesus well -- the light of Christianity has been kept alive in every generation since the very beginning... It has never completely gone out. An example of the problem, is the story of the High Priest's two sons, Hophni and Phinehas. These young men were managing the day to day affairs at the tabernacle, and they were treating the people that came to make an offering, very badly. It was a horrendous mis-representation of God. (1Samuel 2). To a greater or lesser extent, this has been a constant problem. We teach that those that have "known" the things of God, but have continued to misrepresent Him, will, in the end, be much better off if they had never known -- their guilt will be so much greater, because they "knew" [at least theoretically] what the standard of conduct/ behaviour was. I believe that, as a people we need to mourn (or as the Bible says, "afflict our souls",) over our misrepresentations of God, and to understand "what manner of persons" we really need to be. Yet we believe that, despite the "falling away", God will eventually have a group of people that will represent Him well. "So will I make My holy name known in the midst of my people Israel; and I will not let them pollute My holy name any more: and the heathen shall know that I am the LORD, the Holy One in Israel." (Eze 39:7)

This was a great testimony by the young driver. We should have more like him in this world.

Young man in the video makes excellent points that I agree with but God most certainly sees color. He created them all. Diversity is beautiful and should be celebrated. Being color blind is a disability and makes it hard for you to see reality. If you simply ignore a persons color you are ignoring a part of who they are.

Do not judge a book by its cover. Open the book and read it. Statistics tell us that African Americans attend church more freaquently than white people do. Of course, not all African Americans attend church and not all white folks stay home. So one has to set aside racial sterotypes and actually get to know the person - or metephorically - read the book. I have been pulled over by police officiers in the past and each time I recieve "just a warning" it does make me feel a bit grateful. I think it was really nice for this young man to make this video as he was feeling so grateful for the grace the officer extended to him. That is a really good feeling.

What are you talking about???? The Bible does mention lions and lambs in the new earth...even serpents... and we shall eat fruit from the Tree of Life......so....... the Terms for Continuance of Life evidently will not be the same as they are now. Nuff Sed

I am bumping this old thread to the top as a short refresher course to maybe help a few folk remember how this whole idea of the Original Thoughts forum got started. This was the very first thread. It was the first toe in these deep waters of trying to encourage thinking for ourselves and expressing our ideas in our own words and not being just parrots endless repeating others and ourselves. My hope is that everyone will take the time to simply read through and see what our thinking was from the very beginning of this experiment. I would also encourage everyone to also read the locked and sticky topic at the top of the topic index for this forum as it is the conversation in Townhall that preceded this forum that spawned this experiment. Tom