Quote: (04-13-2019 01:37 PM)NoMoreTO Wrote:  

^^ Interesting how mainline protestant saw the largest drop. I am guessing its the female involvement in the clergy, openness to gay sex among many of these sects.

That is exactly correct. You can see the evangelical protestant population rising from 5 to 23 percent, while the mainline protestant population dropped from 28 to 11 percent. Normal well-adjusted people want the truth (the Word of God) and people with real problems want something that works (e.g., the time-tested principles enshrined in the Holy Bible).

Many people attend a "church" that is nothing more than an echo-chamber social club that reinforces the erroneous beliefs of man, rather than the timeless truth of God. I once heard a pastor (who I really respect) say that if you go to a new church and listen to a sermon that fails to repeatedly mention Jesus, sin, and hell -- run away.

If I had to choose only one Bible verse that explains most of the societal problems that mankind now experiences it is this one: "In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes." Judges 21:25 (KJV)

The historical context of the verse is very important. Until this time, Israel was not ruled by a king. It was ruled by a loose cadre of judges (wise elders guided by God). Israel did not need a king, because God was its King (through the elders). But the people of Israel demanded a king, because all the other kingdoms had a king. In essence, the people of Israel turned their back on their true king (God) in exchange for weak vain human kings. By turning their back on God, the people of Israel became untethered from God and His law -- and "every man did that which was right in his own eyes." Sound familiar?

Judges 21:25 is the very last verse of the Book of Judges. The next book is the Book of Kings, which documents the folly of relying on man (kings) instead of relying on God. History simply repeats itself in cycles of enlightened peace or abject horror, depending upon whether mankind listens to God.

Is there such a thing as spiritual eye bleach?

^ You love those testimonials. My problem with them is that they are channels on youtube looking for views. While this doesn't mean they are improper, BS, or invented, it is healthy to be skeptical of them.

Quote: (04-13-2019 03:58 PM)Kid Twist Wrote:  

^ You love those testimonials. My problem with them is that they are channels on youtube looking for views. While this doesn't mean they are improper, BS, or invented, it is healthy to be skeptical of them.

I find testimonials to be a welcome break from our tendency to over-intellectualize faith.

Some women, like this one, feel they have been called to make their channel, and I give them the benefit of the doubt until proven otherwise.

A lot of these channels are obviously horse shit, or at least counterproductive. Like ones where they dismiss explicit directives from the Bible and make up their own rules:

^ Her interpretation of why woman are not supposed to speak in church is a clear example of why woman shouldn't speak in church.

It's not because it disrupts the peace. It's because it disrupts the hierarchy.

Cardinal Robert Sarah, a prominent voice at the Vatican and someone that papal observers view as a potential Pope, said that the spiritual crisis in the West stems largely from a rejection of God the Father, from whom "we receive our nature as man and woman." He added that "gender ideology is a Luciferean refusal" to receive the "sexual nature" given to each person by God.

Quote:Quote:

"From Him we receive our nature as man and woman," he said. "This is intolerable to modern minds. Gender ideology is a Luciferian refusal to receive a sexual nature from God. Thus some rebel against God and pointlessly mutilate themselves in order to change their sex. But in reality they do not fundamentally change anything of their structure as man or woman."

"The West refuses to receive, and will accept only what it constructs for itself," said Cardinal Sarah. "Transhumanism is the ultimate avatar of this movement. Because it is a gift from God, human nature itself becomes unbearable for western man."

"This revolt is spiritual at root," he said. "It is the revolt of Satan against the gift of grace. Fundamentally, I believe that Western man refuses to be saved by God’s mercy. He refuses to receive salvation, wanting to build it for himself."

https://www.cnsnews.com/blog/michael-w-c...ven-us-god

Jonathan Pageau makes a good symbolic case for the ritual purity Laws of the OT:

Quote:Quote:

"From Him we receive our nature as man and woman," he said. "This is intolerable to modern minds. Gender ideology is a Luciferian refusal to receive a sexual nature from God. Thus some rebel against God and pointlessly mutilate themselves in order to change their sex. But in reality they do not fundamentally change anything of their structure as man or woman."

"The West refuses to receive, and will accept only what it constructs for itself," said Cardinal Sarah. "Transhumanism is the ultimate avatar of this movement. Because it is a gift from God, human nature itself becomes unbearable for western man."

"This revolt is spiritual at root," he said. "It is the revolt of Satan against the gift of grace. Fundamentally, I believe that Western man refuses to be saved by God’s mercy. He refuses to receive salvation, wanting to build it for himself."

In all seriousness, that explains the obsession that Silicon Valley types have with creating technology for its own sake. Because they believe man will be made morally superior by placing a piece of technology in his hand.

Then there's the Singularity. Everyone is so focused on whether it is possible to create an AI that will reach and then exceed human levels of cognitive ability. Nobody is asking whether or why we should.

Also explains the prevalence of LGBT support in the tech industry.

Quote: (04-14-2019 10:57 PM)Tail Gunner Wrote:  

Cardinal Robert Sarah, a prominent voice at the Vatican and someone that papal observers view as a potential Pope, said that the spiritual crisis in the West stems largely from a rejection of God the Father, from whom "we receive our nature as man and woman." He added that "gender ideology is a Luciferean refusal" to receive the "sexual nature" given to each person by God.

Quote:Quote:

"From Him we receive our nature as man and woman," he said. "This is intolerable to modern minds. Gender ideology is a Luciferian refusal to receive a sexual nature from God. Thus some rebel against God and pointlessly mutilate themselves in order to change their sex. But in reality they do not fundamentally change anything of their structure as man or woman."

"The West refuses to receive, and will accept only what it constructs for itself," said Cardinal Sarah. "Transhumanism is the ultimate avatar of this movement. Because it is a gift from God, human nature itself becomes unbearable for western man."

"This revolt is spiritual at root," he said. "It is the revolt of Satan against the gift of grace. Fundamentally, I believe that Western man refuses to be saved by God’s mercy. He refuses to receive salvation, wanting to build it for himself."

https://www.cnsnews.com/blog/michael-w-c...ven-us-god

I'm officially protestant but would convert to Cathlocism if this Cardinal becomes Pope. Seriously. These words could save a billion souls.

Edit: reading his Wiki entry. This guy is a champion.

Quote:Quote:

"What Nazi-Fascism and Communism were in the 20th century, Western homosexual and abortion Ideologies and Islamic Fanaticism are today."

"Western homosexual and abortion ideologies and Islamic fanaticism" could be seen as "almost like two apocalyptic beasts" with demonic origins...

Surely this belongs in this thread.

Quote: (04-15-2019 12:06 PM)BlueMark Wrote:  

Quote:Quote:

"From Him we receive our nature as man and woman," he said. "This is intolerable to modern minds. Gender ideology is a Luciferian refusal to receive a sexual nature from God. Thus some rebel against God and pointlessly mutilate themselves in order to change their sex. But in reality they do not fundamentally change anything of their structure as man or woman."

"The West refuses to receive, and will accept only what it constructs for itself," said Cardinal Sarah. "Transhumanism is the ultimate avatar of this movement. Because it is a gift from God, human nature itself becomes unbearable for western man."

"This revolt is spiritual at root," he said. "It is the revolt of Satan against the gift of grace. Fundamentally, I believe that Western man refuses to be saved by God’s mercy. He refuses to receive salvation, wanting to build it for himself."

In all seriousness, that explains the obsession that Silicon Valley types have with creating technology for its own sake. Because they believe man will be made morally superior by placing a piece of technology in his hand.

Then there's the Singularity. Everyone is so focused on whether it is possible to create an AI that will reach and then exceed human levels of cognitive ability. Nobody is asking whether or why we should.

Also explains the prevalence of LGBT support in the tech industry.

The singularity bears resemblance with this:

Quote:Quote:

35 But some man will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come?

36 Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die:

37 And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain:

38 But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body.


39 All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds.

40 There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another.

41 There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory.

42 So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption:

43 It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power:

44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.

45 And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.

46 Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.

47 The first man is of the earth, earthy; the second man is the Lord from heaven.

48 As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.

49 And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.

53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.

Quote: (04-15-2019 12:46 PM)MrLemon Wrote:  

Quote: (04-14-2019 10:57 PM)Tail Gunner Wrote:  

Cardinal Robert Sarah, a prominent voice at the Vatican and someone that papal observers view as a potential Pope, said that the spiritual crisis in the West stems largely from a rejection of God the Father, from whom "we receive our nature as man and woman." He added that "gender ideology is a Luciferean refusal" to receive the "sexual nature" given to each person by God.

Quote:Quote:

"From Him we receive our nature as man and woman," he said. "This is intolerable to modern minds. Gender ideology is a Luciferian refusal to receive a sexual nature from God. Thus some rebel against God and pointlessly mutilate themselves in order to change their sex. But in reality they do not fundamentally change anything of their structure as man or woman."

"The West refuses to receive, and will accept only what it constructs for itself," said Cardinal Sarah. "Transhumanism is the ultimate avatar of this movement. Because it is a gift from God, human nature itself becomes unbearable for western man."

"This revolt is spiritual at root," he said. "It is the revolt of Satan against the gift of grace. Fundamentally, I believe that Western man refuses to be saved by God’s mercy. He refuses to receive salvation, wanting to build it for himself."

https://www.cnsnews.com/blog/michael-w-c...ven-us-god

I'm officially protestant but would convert to Cathlocism if this Cardinal becomes Pope. Seriously. These words could save a billion souls.

Edit: reading his Wiki entry. This guy is a champion.

Quote:Quote:

"What Nazi-Fascism and Communism were in the 20th century, Western homosexual and abortion Ideologies and Islamic Fanaticism are today."

"Western homosexual and abortion ideologies and Islamic fanaticism" could be seen as "almost like two apocalyptic beasts" with demonic origins...

Eh? There are more theological problems to consider.

Quote: (04-16-2019 06:56 AM)ilostabet Wrote:  



Surely this belongs in this thread.

Howard Storm is a pastor who had a near death experience and met Jesus and asked him every question he could think of.

I believe that he had a genuine encounter with Jesus, but this is not something I am going to try to convince anyone else of because matters of the spirit are so personal and often the real things that convince you come from deep in the gut and not from a well laid out argument, the point here isn't to get contentious.

So this quote is offered as a different take on things like churches, cathedrals, shrines. Do you think God thinks about them in the same way we do?

http://encounters-with-jesus.org/what-ho...he-angels/

Quote:Quote:

When he [Jesus] told me that I had to come back to the world and I was trying to convince him not to send me back…, I asked him what would I do if I came back… Before he had a chance to answer, I said you know I am an artist and I would like to build a shrine for you… I would make this shrine so big and beautiful and bizarre that people would come from all over the world out of curiosity to see what it was about. And what they would find was it would be about you. And that would make them think about you. That’s what I would like to do if I came back.

He said, I would rather you didn’t do that.

And I said, WHAT?!! People have been building shrines to you forever. There are lots of shrines. Why can’t I build a shrine? I would like to build a shrine.

He said you spent so much of your life hiding out in the studio, avoiding people, I would prefer it if you didn’t avoid people by building this big shrine… I don’t really care about shrines. People like to build shrines. I understand that. It makes them feel good. It does absolutely nothing for me or for God. We don’t have any use for them whatsoever. If that’s what amuses you, I guess that’s what you gotta do. But don’t do it for me. Don’t deceive yourself into thinking it’s something I want or need, because I don’t.

I’m like, OK, you shot down my idea, what’s you’re idea of what would I do?

And he said, love the person that you’re with.

And I said, OK, great, I’ll do that. No problem. What do you want me to do?

He said, I just told you what I want you to do: love the person that you’re with.

And I said, Yeah, but after I do that, what do you really want me to do?

No, that is what I want you to do: love the person that you’re with.

I said well, that’s simple enough, that’s easy, I can do that.

And he said, oh really. Well, that’s what I want you to do. That’s enough.

And I said, how is it enough?

He said, if you do that, you’ll change the world.

And I said, oh, you want me to change the world?!

Exactly, that’s why put you in the world in the first place: to change the world.

Well you know there’s been a lot of people that have tried to change the world and they usually turn out really pretty badly. I can think of examples like Adolph Hitler, and Joseph Stalin, and Mao Tse-tung. All of them wanted to change the world and they made it worse. If I go back and try and change the world, why isn’t it possible that I could a lot of terrible mistakes and make the world a worse place?

The way that I want you to change the world is by loving the person you are with.

Wait a minute, that’s a contradiction. You want me to change the world but you just want me to love the person I’m with?

Yes, that’s the plan; that’s The Big Plan… If you love the person that you’re with, then they will go out and love the person that they’re with, and they will go out and love the person they’re with and it will be like a chain reaction and love will conquer the world and everyone will love one another. That’s God’s Big Plan.

It’s not going to work.

Why won’t it work?

I love the person I’m with. They walk across the street and get run over by a truck. Everyone gets angry and upset.

Yeah, that happens. But it’s really God’s plan and nothing is going to stop it. It’s going to happen.

Even if you had a million people, I don’t think it’s going to happen.

There’s more than a million people in the plan…

Well, from what I know of the world, you don’t have enough.

Actually, we have all the angels in the plan. There’s a lot of them. There are more angels than there are people in the world… There are millions of people. There are all the angels. There’s God. It’s inevitable. The plan is going to happen.

If that’s your plan, I’ll do it, but I just don’t really see much hope for it.

[And Jesus said], you don’t know enough to see how it’s going to happen.

So, my solution to everything is to love one another. And when I read the Bible and found out that that was written in the Bible as Jesus’ commandment: this is my commandment, that you love one another… that’s the program. I have tried to be part of that program… So, I personally have no big plan other than to be loving.

The only fly in the ointment was that I thought it was going to be easy, and it turns out to be the hardest thing I have ever done. It sounds so simple, but it’s really difficult. It’s easy for me to love my mother because she was a really nice woman and she was a very loving woman. It’s not hard to love someone who is really good and really loving. But what do you do with someone who is difficult, or really nasty? Those are hard people to love.

And what does it mean to love someone? Sometimes to love someone means you need to incarcerate them. And that’s not a lot of fun. Sometimes loving someone means you have to put as much distance between them and you as possible and tell them to never call you. And that’s not a lot of fun. Loving someone sounds so simple but it is very difficult…

Quote: (04-13-2019 04:12 PM)debeguiled Wrote:  

Quote: (04-13-2019 03:58 PM)Kid Twist Wrote:  

^ You love those testimonials. My problem with them is that they are channels on youtube looking for views. While this doesn't mean they are improper, BS, or invented, it is healthy to be skeptical of them.

I find testimonials to be a welcome break from our tendency to over-intellectualize faith.

This is something I've been thinking about a lot too. I've always had a taste for philosophy, spending more time studying it than I have for the subjects I actually majored in.

While I still enjoy reading about these subjects and still invest a lot of my spare time in study of it, I can't but think that there's a huge downside in a lot of this: namely intellectual vanity which is just as dangerous if not more than what we typically have in mind when we think about vanity. Yes I am saying that in a lot of ways, fedora neckbeards with loving sharing I Fucking Love Science posts aren't that much different from IG thots putting up IG stories of their new Lululemon yoga pants.

Nietzsche, the big bad atheist himself said something about the modern man's inclination to be "knowledge junkies" - collecting and consuming information not for the sake of edification or wisdom but in the same way a bugman collects pop culture material. These sort of people in a lot of way are a higher form of bugmen - instead of obsessing over Star Wars or the latest pop culture shiny thing they'll mentally masturbate over pop science shiny thing. Instead of using their knowledge of the various reboots of X-men as a signal of superior knowledge they'll use things such as the picture of that black hole that got pictured.

In a previous page of this thread both Aurini and AnonymousBosch talked about being discerning with what you choose to read and asking yourself if it does anything to bring you more wisdom about God or if you are just reading out of intellectual vanity. AB said for him personally, he tends to get drawn to Gnostic thought when he gets into a vain frame of mind.

The Gnostics were big into acquiring secret/hidden knowledge since they thought having such knowledge is what would raise them to a higher plane. I can see a lot of modern equivalents of this with a lot of these I Fuck Love Science Neil deGrasse Tyson fanboy types. These sort of people thinks that hoarding tons of science trivia is going to somehow elevate them all over the uneducated idiots they see at their local fast food joint or that they argue with over social media.

I think all of this ties into how our current age loves irony and sarcasm and sees people who aren't into it as dullards and fogeys who just aren't 'with' it. The only worthwhile knowledge is something that be quantified or placed in a peer-reviewed academic study. Anyone expressing honest joy must have somehow been brain washed and needs to be told how their experience can simply be explained by this or that.

I've been hanging around people who are on the evangelical and charismatic side of things and I find their attitudes to be a welcome change from the sort of attitudes I've been describing above. There's a lot of talk in the New Testament of not being of this world and in this day age, people like that truly aren't part of this (clown) world.

Quote: (04-16-2019 01:48 PM)Wutang Wrote:  

While I still enjoy reading about these subjects and still invest a lot of my spare time in study of it, I can't but think that there's a huge downside in a lot of this: namely intellectual vanity which is just as dangerous if not more than what we typically have in mind when we think about vanity.

An alternative, but related perspective:

https://mindlevelup.wordpress.com/2016/1...ight-porn/

Extra points if you see the recursion funnie.

Quote: (04-16-2019 01:48 PM)Wutang Wrote:  

I think all of this ties into how our current age loves irony and sarcasm and sees people who aren't into it as dullards and fogeys who just aren't 'with' it.

Agree with all of it.

Your post reminded me of this video where a couple of ironic hipster comics make fun of themselves and their need to over examine ideas that are pointless to everyone else.

Interesting development, Master Roosh. Keep in mind the Armenian Church is part of the Oriental Orthodox family of churches. Which means it's in communion with the Coptic (Egyptian) Orthodox Church, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, and the Syrian Orthodox Church. So there are plenty of churches for you to visit, should you wish to do so.

The god-pill is probably the only pill that can offer any durable comfort in this shit-show and the further torment to come. No matter how bad it gets or how much we are to suffer on this clown world, atleast our souls are saved.

One of the more practical consequences of the God pill is that if anyone has, like Roosh, established themselves as a cultural critic or an online figure criticizing blue pill received wisdom, their employment prospects, if they have gained any infamy over the years, are rendered effectively nil.

Look at James Damore, who didn't even do anything particularly controversial, being offered up as a gender Nazi to satisfy the left's authoritarian appetites. Last I checked, no one has hired him. Even the guy who joked about a 'dongle' to his friend and was overheard by a SJW, had trouble for a while.

The God pill is one of the few mainstream remedies to this situation. If you cannot find an employer in your church who loves a good redemption story and is willing to hire you, you should find another church.

In Christian churches, this should cut across all denominations and political views and again, if it doesn't, they can't really call themselves Christian.

And this doesn't even have to apply just to internet public figures. If you are someone who has gone the digital nomad route and been living off side hustles and traveling the world leaving yourself with a big gap in your resume, and you are tired of it, you don't have to carry the same fear as someone without a church community.

These churches are supposed to be all about redemptions, rebirths, new leaf turnings. They are not supposed to be like mainstream culture which sharpens its knives at the thought of casting some poor guy out of polite society and keeping him out.

If they do that, they are turning their backs on their own divine commission.

If you take the Christian flavor of the God pill, it will be a weight off your shoulders, and you can walk through life the same as any one else without worrying about the judgments of the unthinking mob.

At least, that's the theory.

Quote: (04-17-2019 11:23 AM)debeguiled Wrote:  

In Christian churches, this should cut across all denominations and political views and again, if it doesn't, they can't really call themselves Christian...

If they do that, they are turning their backs on their own divine commission.

Thus spake debeguiled.

Quote: (04-17-2019 11:49 AM)_Different_T Wrote:  

Quote: (04-17-2019 11:23 AM)debeguiled Wrote:  

In Christian churches, this should cut across all denominations and political views and again, if it doesn't, they can't really call themselves Christian...

If they do that, they are turning their backs on their own divine commission.

Thus spake debeguiled.

Communist and socialist governments always persecute Christians -- and the leftists in America and Western Europe despise Christians -- because Christianity's recognition of Man's free will obstructs their plans to have the government coerce a free people and to obfuscate the truth:

Quote:Quote:

Freedom is the ability of every person to exercise free will without a government permission slip or watchdog.

Free will is the natural characteristic we share in common with God. He created us in His image and likeness. As He is perfectly free, so are we.

When the government takes away free will, whether by fiat or by majority vote, it steals a gift we received from God; it violates natural law; it prevents us from having and utilizing the means to seek the truth.

Because the exercise of free will to seek the truth is a natural right, the only time it is moral for the government to interfere with it occurs when one has been fairly convicted by a jury of using fraud or force to interfere with the exercise of someone else's natural rights.

https://www.newsmax.com/andrewnapolitano...id/912181/

Quote: (04-17-2019 11:23 AM)debeguiled Wrote:  

These churches are supposed to be all about redemptions, rebirths, new leaf turnings. They are not supposed to be like mainstream culture which sharpens its knives at the thought of casting some poor guy out of polite society and keeping him out.

In reality, most churches in the USA, even (or especially?) the most conservative ones, enforce the moral standards of modern "polite society" more than they critically examine them.

Quote: (04-18-2019 05:17 PM)BlueMark Wrote:  

Quote: (04-17-2019 11:23 AM)debeguiled Wrote:  

These churches are supposed to be all about redemptions, rebirths, new leaf turnings. They are not supposed to be like mainstream culture which sharpens its knives at the thought of casting some poor guy out of polite society and keeping him out.

In reality, most churches in the USA, even (or especially?) the most conservative ones, enforce the moral standards of modern "polite society" more than they critically examine them.

I think that you missed the point. God's people (and the Church) have a duty to hold each other accountable for their actions according to the standards expoused in the Bible. This is quite different than skewering someone for sport or, even worse, acting the part of the hypocrite who points out the speck in his brother's eye, while having a plant sticking out of his own.

Examine the teachings of 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians. Paul wrote his first letter to the Corinthians because a scandal had erupted within the Corinthian church -- an open display of incest, a man having sex with his father’s wife (presumably, his step-mother). (1 Cor. 5:1-13). Paul demanded that the church excommunicate the offender so that the church would not be corrupted.

That man later repented and was now in need of forgiveness and restoration to fellowship. (2 Cor. 2:6–11). In his second letter, Paul exhorted the Corinthians to forgive the man and to receive him back into the fold.

What is the lesson? God's people (and the Church) have a duty to hold each other accountable for their actions according to a Biblical standard -- and to cast people out of their congregation if they refuse to meet that standard or repent. If a person repents, however, God's people (and the Church) also have a duty to forgive the rehabilitated person who has repented. Just as God forgives us (if we repent), we must also forgive others (if they repent).

BTW: This also explains why a homosexual "Christian" church is a fake church. You can have homosexual tendencies, do your best to suppress them, slip up occasionally and sin, and still be a good Christian. That is quite different than declaring that homosexuality is not a sin and that there is nothing morally wrong with homosexual activity (contrary to Holy Scripture). At that point, you are shaking your fist in God's face.

I also think it's cool that Roosh or guys like him, if they go down the Christian road, don't feel like they have to live their whole lives in public anymore, there are options.

Privacy can have a salutary effect on the nervous system.

Now when are you going to tell us about that mushroom trip?