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🐬 Parting shot: Aussie village Photo: Jeff Turner Baird Bay, on South Australia's remote Eyre Peninsula, is known for its calm turquoise waters and wildlife encounters. Visitors can wade in to swim with wild sea lions and dolphins. Finish Liner Jeff Turner writes: "With all the bad things happening in the world, some lovely things endure."

Starting a war is easy, sometimes just takes a stroke of the pen. It’s tough to win back allies after you’ve hurt them with tariffs, threats, and disrespect. You also can’t expect loyalty from people you claimed you didn’t need.

Oh they've been around for a number of years and are going to get worse now that we have decided not to help our neighbors around the world by closing down USAID!!!!! Doesn't alarm me at all, it just tells me or all of us that the soon coming of Jesus is getting really near!!

Exactly!!

He doesn't need those kinds of allies. We are at the end, so to speak. Not this year or next, but the power of the beast is forming. The USA military is the most powerful in the world. It needs no human allies. The world is not ready for what is coming. They think in historical context. I see many posting derogatory remarks about President Trump. How he will be remembered in history. None of that matters. This beast is being formed right now. I don't know who will be president when this beast takes total power. This is where we are going. This beast will have power, no man can stop. People of the world are completely unprepared for this. They think themselves smart, secure, and safe. But in this battle, ONLY Jesus can protect us/them. They will be quickly overwhelmed. "..it deceived the inhabitants of the earth." Nothing can stop it.

Froom's Movement of Destiny is the book to read. It presents a historical context for 1888, considering existing ill will regarding the "trinity" controversy as an important factor in the prejudices existing and the personalities conflicting. It also shines some light on EGW's endorsement of the 1888 message. She appreciated Waggoner's emphasis on the all sufficiency of Christ, in the context of arguments about His divinity. Theologically, Waggoner's emphasis in his writings on being "made" righteous rather than being "counted" righteous indicates that he had a somewhat limited understanding of justification by faith. He took as his text Romans 5 which says by the righteousness of one many shall be made righteous. This is a direct contradiction of Luther's theology which held that man remains sinful until translation, even though God considers him righteous because of his faith in Christ, hence the famous "simultaneously righteous and sinful" maxim expressed in his Galatians commentary. Perfectionism also flies in the face of this doctrine and Waggoner was a perfectionist, even though he rejected the IJ doctrine. Conflict over the nature of Christ often hinges on the meaning of the expression "likeness of sinful flesh." All one need do is read Romans 7. Sinful flesh is that of fallen man which renders it impossible to do the will of God, as Romans 7 describes. Jesus obviously did not have a nature like that. I like what you said about Jesus having a unique nature. That solves a lot of problems. Adam and Eve were "born" perfect and they still sinned, not having any predisposition to so do. We are born sinful and cannot help but sin. Augustine, when asked about sinlessness, said it is like having faith to move mountains. He never did it, never saw anyone do it, never heard of anyone doing it, but wouldn't say it was impossible.