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https://atoday.org/how-politics-is-destroying-adventism-and-maybe-all-of-christianity/

The way I understand it is that Satan is trying to get people to gather into either the beast (catholic Europe, with a small "c") where we just obey, or where he tries to get us into the dragon (Spiritualism: live as you please for heaven is your home. You have your truth and I have mine, and this destroys our will as we end up responding to and being slaves of our feelings.) There is a series on PBS, I can't think of the exact name of the series maybe someone else can post it. But it is showing how social media is being used to get us to respond to feelings instead of serious thinking. While we are waiting for things about the occult and seances etc., spiritualism is getting a stronger foot hold into our population and into the church.

Yes, I agree. The things we have been taught do not have an expiry date per se. We simply add to them what God tells us to. But we don't cancel it. As we study more, and pray more, God's Word literally unfolds and sets the stage for "all things becoming new." (2 Cor 5:17). I really like this book by Tonstand because he has dared to go where few have ever gone before. When he talks about "The Everlasting Gospel," he talks much more about Jesus than he does the mark of the beast drama. The emphasis in all the prophecies is Jesus. We are not even close to preaching the message (not messages) of The Three Angels if the beast watching holds the majority of our attention. Tonstand says it like this: Growing up into Christ is what the everlasting gospel is about. And thats what Tonstand's book is all about, within the context of "the revelation of Jesus Christ." (Rev 1:1)

? Promise Pleasant words health to the bones Proverbs 16:24 Pleasant words are as an honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones.

I just noticed this thread. God promised Cain that if anyone killed him that God would punish that person sevenfold, or God's perfect wrath. Whether trusting in this promise ended up being salvation or not we won't learn until heaven. Lamech made a rhyme. The lines of slaying a man and a young man was simply parallel, where you repeat the same idea two different ways. And he then referred to God's promise to Cain. However at the end Lamech ruined his poem. He was following regular poetic rules and everyone knew what was coming, but suddenly the end was wrong, horribly wrong. There were two correct ways of ending the poem. One correct way would have been to say "If Cain be avenged sevenfold, then Lamech be avenged seven plus one fold." The other correct way to have ended it would be to say "If Cain be avenged sevenfold, then Lamech be avenged eightfold." If he said either of these lines he would have been asking for God to provide the same promise to him that God gave to Cain. However, Lamech did not say either of those two lines which fit the poetic style. In saying "Lamech seventy and seven fold." What Lamech was saying was that he was so full of hatred that if someone killed him, that God's perfect vengeance was not enough. Lamech was saying that he wanted way more vengeance than it is possible for God to give. We find a reference to this story; When Peter asked Jesus how often he should forgive, up to 7 times? he was NOT thinking math. He was asking Jesus if he was to forgive fully, perfectly, to forgive the way he hoped God would forgive him. But Jesus turned to Lamech's horrible poem and said "No you should try to be more forgiving than God is. God should look at you and scratch his head and ask how you can be so forgiving." As Lamech was so overwhelmed by hate that he wanted someone to suffer more than God could make someone suffer, so we should set up as a goal to be as forgiving to people as Lamech was hateful.

My politics are a little left of center. I had read or listened to recordings of several of Trumps books. I liked what I heard and was initially glad when he started to run for President. However as he was running, I could not believe that it was the same man listed as author of those books. In the books he was more balanced, but on the campaign his comments were crazy and scary. But I figured that he was appealing for votes and that his actions would be more moderate. I think for the most part he started out that way, saying crazy things but not doing many crazy things. But as the years have gone by his actions have been getting more and more crazy until his actions were as crazy as his words. In his books he complained about the tax and spend Democrats but warned that it was worst to be a borrow and spend Republican. Guess who turned into a borrow and spend Republican? His treatment of the people being deported is horrible. If he wanted to deport them, he should have first have the process set up and protect the families and especially the children. He just did it with nothing set up and all who voted for him will have to face judgement for this task. He says that he has something better than Obama care. I support a universal health care but from what I've been hearing the Obama Care is more a welfare for the drug companies and prying into things that are none of the governments business. I understand that Truman had a good plan, and that Nixon offered one that was not too bad. Conversation to change Obama Care to one of these two plans would catch my interest. But Obama care is better than nothing. Trump is bragging about having a better plan, but has no details. Only "Repeal Obama care and I'll give you something better." Show it! Rather than showing leadership, he's been acting like a boy who dressed up like a man to get a job of being the night watchman of a shopping mall, got in, locked the doors but then let in his buddies and that the kids ran wild through the mall playing with that they want, taking what they want and leaving a mess behind them. He has not shown any leadership in the pandemic, except for saying "I stopped the flights from China and that saved millions of lives." but he has done little for what has come here except saying "Safe" and that we will soon have a wonderful vaccine. Maybe we will but he's been saying "Safe" for everything so long that we cannot trust him, even if something turns out to be safe and good. Didn't Aesop write a story about Donald Trump? I think it was titled "The little boy who cried 'Safe'". Trump's supporters picture his critics as belonging to the far left. I am concerned about the far left. When Ronald Reagan was running for president he said that here has been too much talk in this campaign about the left and the right. The left is communism, the right is fascism. Both are evil. In the United States we are moderate. While there is a slight lean to the different directions, either of us are right or left. We are moderate. But in the decades since there has been more movement. Sadly, too many Republicans, including those who are attracted to Mr. Trump are trying to make the United States into catholic Europe, the Europe we broke from in 1776. And on the liberal side there has been more advancement by those who want to make the United States into post French Revolution Europe. Meanwhile we are forgetting and rejecting a little thing called the American Revolution. I'm sorry but if we just keep offering the two types of Europe, we will sadly end up one. We need to be critical of candidates of both parties. Right now, sad to say the Republicans are much farther to the right and are turning into the nightmare that Reagan warned against. They are changing us into catholic Europe. (yes, small "c" catholic.) Biden is a moderate. The Republicans are trying to scare us that the far left will end up controlling Biden. But he knows that he is running to represent not only the far left but also the moderate Democrats and Republicans. We need to get some good people of both parties to try to get back into balance. We may need to remind Biden at times that he is representing a much larger group than the far left. But he appears to understand and would listen. As long as we are not quiet he can stay more balanced. But sadly Mr. Trump has either shown that the moderate picture that he gave in his books were either a lie, or that someone like his son-in-law or others controlling him and using him to have the rich people do what they wish like a gang of kids running around unsupervised in a mall at night and to make us catholic Europe. Believers point out that Trump may be able to support Christian ideals by making abortion illegal and repealing same sex marriage. I hate abortion. Yet there are some issues that I do not want to put into the government's hands. Being lazy and simply making abortion illegal will only increase the death of women going to underground abortion clinics or try to induce an abortion at home. We need to fight abortion on the grass roots level. We need to offer alternatives to abortion, and support to these people. Let the government decrease the dangers by keeping the clinics legally in the open, and let churches and other groups and individuals decrease the demand. Do we want to do with these young women the same thing Trump did with the illegals, just dump them into a bad situation? As for same sex marriage, as long as I am not told that I need to be in one, I won't complain. I have enough issues in my life then to worry about those dealing with that issue. Also, the Bible is not as clear on the topic as we had traditionally assumed. In the Old Testament we find our "proof texts" in two contexts. The one was with what you can and cannot do when you come to worship the Lord. The Hebrews still kept the Canaanite feasts of the land (they were the high points to the agricultural year) and had similar rituals. But the Canaanites thought that they needed to unite their life forces to help out Baal and the gods of life get a victory over the leviathan and the gods of death. They would thus along with the rituals that the Hebrews would copy, add things that the Hebrews were told not to copy. These were things that the Canaanites saw as uniting their life forces. They would eat breads of different grains and have clothing of different textiles, and everyone would have sex with each other, man, women, children, animals. Also, in the text the Bible gives reasons beyond the not coming to worship by doing these things, but gives reasons not to do them inside or outside of a worship service. But reason for the one on men being with men as with a woman is that it is an "abomination" and the word translated "abominations" is a technical term about stupid superstitions that don't do anything but which has become connected with idolatry. So while the Bible is saying "When you come to worship, especially on the feasts of the land, don't eat the mixed grain bread, wear the mixed textured clothes and don't lay with your sister because she is your close relative." Our "Proof Text" basically says "When you come to worship, we are not having an orgy, so don't lay with another man as you would your wife because it is a stupid superstition that won't give you the results you are looking for." The second context is that the Canaanites thought that if they raped someone passing through their territory (which was the major intersection of trade caravans from Europe, Asia, Africa) that they could steal some of their victim's life forces. So if they rapped an Italian trader passing through, some of the grapes that would have grown in his home garden in Italy will now grow in your garden in say Sodom. Or if they raped a trader from say Austria, then some of the goats that would have been born to his family's goats in Austria will now be born to your goats in lets say Gomorrah. Or if you rape a trader from Babylon, some of the children who would have been born to his wife in Babylon will be born to your wife in say Jericho. The Bible condemns this practice and part of giving the land to the Hebrews was to make this important but dangerous intersection safe for world commerce. I don't want to go into the details but we find the "New Testament" proof texts either quoting the Old Testament with their contexts or another issue. None of these are what the gay community are dealing with and there is a lot of debate if we should take a narrow reading to the text and thus say that it does not apply to them, or if we should give the text a broader application that it says. With these issues is it really safe to let the government force tradition on to people who might be in a different situation? What the government's job is to protect both. There are things that a church can make as a rule for it's members. The government is to give protection to the church and it's members to not force it to do things they are uncomfortable with, such as baking a cake or taking pictures for a same sex marriage. We need to allow for compromises and working together. I'd like to see the senate being 50% Republicans and 50% Democrats. I'm worried about how we got too many idealists in office, with the Tea Party on one side and I'm sorry but Obama and some on his side are idealists over their ideas. Too much of the last administration was a bunch of idealists who spent 8 years basically on strike and then a reactionary vote 4 years ago. I'd like to see the supreme court have 3 conservatives, 3 liberals and 3 moderates. I am worried about our future. I'm worried that we are in a situation where if this was 79 years ago, a joint session of congress and the president makes his speech "Yesterday, December 7, 1941, a day which will live in my glory, I Donald J. Trump single-handily prevented an attack on the Hawaiian navy by the Chinese. I know that there are some stories saying that it was not the Chinese and that there was damage, but that's simply fake news from the far left based upon the fact that some of the Hawaiian sailors found a hornets nest and was poking around and got some stings from the angry hornets. To prevent this from happening again I want all Americans to just continue to go to school and work as normal, and I will be giving my friend Putin $10 million as a consulting fee that I can write off my taxes and this will prevent anything like this from happening again, and I want to reprimand the leadership in Germany since they are complaining that I'm too much of a racist, but that is again fake news from the far left."

How shall we understand the “mark of the beast” in the context of Revelation 13? The most obvious parallel to the mark is the seal of God. The seal is placed on the foreheads of God’s servants (the 144,000) to protect them from Satan’s destructive efforts when the four winds of the earth are released […] The post Sunday Laws and Bible Prophecy (8): The Mark and the Seal appeared first on Jon Paulien's Blog. View the full article

Wow! I use to be on Jon Paulien's list, but looks like my e-mail got off for some reason. I'd like to get back on it. This was really good! I liked what he pointed out here about the 3 groups: Those who are fully committed to God no matter what. Those who are fully committed against God no matter what. And those who don't have a commitment but goes along with the cultural things against God since it is to their advantage. What could be an ancient idea for the mark of the beast was what people did on the birthday of the emperor. Everyone in the city were to show their commitment to Rome and the emperor to pass by the emperor's image and bow in prayer to the emperor when in front of it. Jews were excused from this and would instead have prayers said for the emperor. But if you did not pass by his image and bow to it, your neighbors could wonder about your commitment. To deal with this some Jews started going by the emperor's image and "noticing that their sandal needed adjustment" and they would bow not to the image but to fix their sandals. The Rabbis were teaching that this practice is wrong.

Gustav: I just have this to say did you watch the debate tonight. It was a disaster, the most rude, obnoxious, disrespectful, ridiculous, liar, uncouth, ignorant person I ever saw. He knows nothing, is nothing and a new conservative got on news tonight and said; "He was so embarrassed because all the rules of the debate was broken and he looked like an idiot. He does need to be in office." So all of your above rattling means nothing, is nothing but another person who is racist and Trump help bring all of you out into the light. He would not admit to M Wallace tonight about the White Supremacy and it was ask clearly to him and was totally ridiculous as your comments are. I choose not accept yours as I choose the worst person who can't even pay taxes and brags about it. Good Night, I am going to bed!

? Promise Forgiven Isaiah 33:24 And the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick: the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity.