Teachings to have a central point, around which our whole life revolves

High recognitions . . . The Central Point…

High recognitions . . . Can human beings turn their back on their Creator?

+ Thisbe looked at Sargon and asked: “Can human beings really turn their back on their own Creator? Pegulthai always taught that no creature can …

High recognitions . . . Can human beings turn their back on their Creator?

The majority of human creatures have turned their backs to the Divine Creator. God Himself has given the ‘life stream’ to mankind and provided His Words as guidance to make the best out of life.

A lot of water flows over the earth, which may or may not attract people at a speed. But one can also find a lot of people swimming upstream like the salmon trying to find their way to new life. As with many waterways, there are many side branches and not all roads lead to the sea. So also, the flows of life do not always form the right safe path to a better and easy life. Some streams end in a high waterfall.

Sometimes the sidestream is too lengthy and by trying to go against the current the strength of the swimmer gets up to its end. When his power has finished, then he will drown.

Why some people make it so difficult is another unresolved question. If they read the Bible they would already get a lot of answers to their many questions and would more easily find the simple and direct way to freedom, away from all the headaches in this life.

About a fleshless diet

Normally the Divine Creator provided enough food in the vegetable world.

However, not all fruits were to be eaten like that either. God had provided two trees in the Garden of Eden that man had to keep away from. But the mannin or 1st woman found this difficult and wished to be like God and be able to do things He could. She also tempted her husband, who went along with her story. They ate of the fruit of the “Tree of Knowledge of good and evil” (or Tree of moral) and gained insight into their futility and fragility. After they became aware of their mistake they hid from God at first, but after He found them and gave them another chance to be honest He placed them out of the Garden of Eden. From then on, it was not so easy for man to earn a living and he had to work for his food. At that time though, man was still aware that he should not inflict harm on any sentient creature.

As time progressed, humans began to crave more and/or become more greedy. Man was no longer content to just eat fruit and vegetables, and longed to eat things with flesh and blood. After some time man wanted also to eat ‘living beings‘ by which he first went for animals. In later years, certain peoples also came to eat other human beings, though that is not what God wanted.

The wrong ideaa  lot of people have about the People of God is that because they offered sacrifices that they would have eaten regularly meat. But that is not so. The offerings of pigeons and lambs in the Old Testament were done as an act of repenting, giving to God what He had given to them, showing that they could take distance from it and showing gratitude to the Elohim, but this also in a way that they showed respect for life.

Ascetic Jewish groups and some early Christian leaders disapproved of eating meat as gluttonous, cruel and not according to the Torah. Some Christian monastic orders ruled out flesh eating, and its avoidance has been, for several centuries, a penance and a spiritual exercise even for laypersons.

Today for many people, it is very difficult to go back to the origin of God’s Wishes. In a certain way, it would not be bad for man himself and for nature, when we would come to eat again those things the Elohim had in mind for our food.

Because man wanted to eat more and more meat, the flesh or other edible parts of animals, he had to replenish his meat supply and watched his livestock grow bigger and bigger, with those animals eating grass from deforested fields and thus being less able to purify the air, while their pee and poo polluted the air more. Thus, the world was burdened to a great extent, which would not have happened had he kept to God’s first thought.

The 17th and 18th centuries in Europe were characterized by a greater interest in humanitarianism and the idea of moral progress, and sensitivity to animal suffering was accordingly revived. There were several philosophes, and Protestant groups that came to promote and adopt a fleshless diet as part of the goal of leading a perfectly sinless life.

In the late 18th century the utilitarian philosopher Jeremy Bentham asserted that the suffering of animals, like the suffering of humans, was worthy of moral consideration, and he regarded cruelty to animals as analogous to racism.

It should not surprise us that the first vegetarian society was formed in England in 1847 by the Bible Christian movement, founded by William Cowherd in Salford, North West England in 1809. Those Bible Christians put great emphasis on the independence of mind and freedom of belief, stating that they did not presume

“to exercise any dominion over the faith or conscience of men.”

Their idea of and believe in free will and that the original sin did not taint human nature and that humans by divine grace have free will to achieve human perfection, made many consider the Bible Christian Church to be a sect.  The Bible Christian Church (1815) was a dissident group of Wesleyan Methodists desiring effective biblical education, a presbyterian form of church government, and the participation of women in the ministry. The group, having a Pelagian approach, originated in Devonshire and spread to Canada (1831), the United States (1846), and Australia (1850), although O’Bryan left the society over administrative differences and began an itinerant evangelism in the United States (1831). The Bible Christians joined with other dissident Methodist groups in 1907 to form the United Methodist Church.

Today, vegetarianism and veganism have changed roles for many.

Veganism denotes a philosophy and way of living which seeks to exclude, as far as possible and practical, all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing, or any other purpose. It also promotes the development and use of animal-free alternatives for the benefit of humans, animals, and the environment.

writes Hesh Goldstein in the NaturalNewsBlogs about health: How and why I chose veganism. She continues

The word “vegan” is newer and more challenging than “vegetarian”. “Vegan” includes every sentient being in its circle of concern and addresses all forms of unnecessary cruelty from an essentially ethical perspective. With a motivation of compassion rather than health or purity, “vegan” points to an ancient idea that has been articulated for many centuries, especially in the world’s spiritual traditions.

“Vegan” indicates a mentality of expansive inclusiveness and is able to embrace science and virtually all religions because it is a manifestation of the yearning for universal peace, justice, wisdom and freedom. {How and why I chose veganism}

We as humans should not think that everything is just ours and can be used by us as we see fit. We must realise that the Creator of the universe has loaned us the world. We are allowed to name and use things there ourselves. But that use should be done with respect. Just killing animals does not show respect at all.

We are therefore expected to have the right attitude towards how we treat things around us.

It is nice to see that there is a new trend and that the contemporary vegan movement is founded on loving-kindness and mindfulness of our effects on others. Hesh Goldstein finds it revolutionary

because it transcends and renounces the violent core of the “herding culture” in which we live. It is founded on living the truth of interconnectedness and thereby minimizing the suffering we impose on animals, humans and bio-systems; it frees us all from the slavery of becoming mere commodities.  {How and why I chose veganism}

We must recognise it has become time we reorganise ourselves and find ways to come back in balance with nature.

The suppression of awareness required by our universal practice of “commodifying”, enslaving, and killing animals for food generates the built-in mental disorder of denial that drives us toward the destruction, not only of ourselves, but of other living creatures and systems of this earth.

Because of this practice of exploiting and brutalizing animals for food has come to be regarded as normal, natural and unavoidable, it has become invisible. Eating animals is thus an unrecognized foundation of consumerism, the pseudo-religion of our modern world. Because our greatest desensitization involves eating, we inevitably become desensitized consumers devoid of compassion and caring little of how what is on our plate got there. {How and why I chose veganism}

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Preceding

A bird’s eye and reflecting from within

Warm-blooded, feathered vertebrates

Less… is still enough

Away with it oh no! – Weg er mee, oh neen

Grain for the heart

Looking at man’s closest friend

Weight loss that works

Having a problem with wonkiness…

Do you feel or love writing about Food

Is Organic food even safe?

Community Farming

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Find also to read

1. Man was created to be a vegetarian
2. The figure of Eve
3. We won’t cut meat-eating until we put the planet before profit
4. Seed banks: the last line of defense against a global food crisis
5. Welfare state and Poverty in Flanders #10 Health
6. Welfare state and Poverty in Flanders #12 Conclusion
7. Ecological economics in the stomach #3 Food and Populace
8. Today’s thought “Killing and eating” (January 05)
9. Today’s thought “Allowed to have dominion over the universe” (January 02)
10. Today’s thought “Rooted and built up in him” (November 14)
11. Food as a Therapeutic Aid
12. Cap 3000 a Valhalla blinding consumers

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Many looking for the church of the world instead of the Church of God

Looking for the church

Someone has said,

“I looked for the Church, and found it in the world. I look for the world, and found it in the Church.”

The word ICHABOD has been stamped on many a local church door, but only spiritual eyes can see that the glory of the Lord has departed. {It is Easier to Change the Local Church than the Bible}

That is the problem of our world or the problem of our nation … human beings always looking for other human beings and believing in human beings more than in the Word of the Highest all-knowing eternal God above all gods.

Coming face to face with God

Mankind is afraid to come face to face with God. It is impossible for man to see God, though man wants to have something they can refer to, see and feel or touch. They also want to have a god who has similarities with them, and therefore they took themselves a godhead they can grab. Of that god they created for themselves, a male figure, they can take pictures and statues. Even when the Bible tells mankind that he may not make any graven image of God, man prefers to ignore such demands and has made himself many images of their god.

The Holy Scriptures or Infallible Word of God – Photo by cottonbro on Pexels.com

Too many people do forget or do not want to see that God promises to work through His Word and that This Word of God gives all the knowledge that we need to come to find God and to come to know what God wants from us. God wants to have a relationship with His creatures. He did not create them to be against Him, in the same way, He did not give them commandments of which He knew man would be able not to keep them.

Sinful people

By the first sinful act of Adam and Eve, sin came into the world. All those coming after them were sinful people. Still today it is like that. It would be very difficult to find someone who is without something doing wrong or without having sinned. We are all taken up by sin.

“As by means of one man, sin entered into the world, and, by means of sin, death; and so death passed upon all the sons of men, inasmuch as they all have sinned: — ” (Ro 5:12 Murdock)

“If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? And if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.”” (Ge 4:7 KJ21)

“”If they sin against Thee (for there is no man that sinneth not), and Thou be angry with them and deliver them to the enemy so that they carry them away captives unto the land of the enemy, far or near;” (1Ki 8:46 KJ21)

It is that sinning that is standing in the way to have a good relationship with our heavenly Father. To come to a better relationship God provided means. One of those was by creating a possibility for man to show his submission to God and his desire to please God by offering sacrifices to God. Later in the history of mankind, there came special places to bring such offerings to God and as such temples came into existence, where also special people took care of the services for God. Those priests were at first anointed by God Himself, though later man took care of themselves to appoint priests and to decide for themselves how those services to God and sacrifices were to be carried out. In a way such services would later become churchservices.

Houses of worship for the Only One God Jehovah

At first Jesus and his apostles went to those houses of worship. In those temples, they praised not Jesus but the God of the Hebrews, the God of Adam and Eve, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Who is the Only True God. Jesus and his apostle were very well aware of that Name of That God. They worshipped Jehovah as the Only One True God.

“that men may know that Thou, whose name alone is JEHOVAH, art the Most High over all the earth.” (Ps 83:18 KJ21)

“2 And God spoke unto Moses and said unto him, “I am the LORD. 3 And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob by the name of God Almighty, but by My name JEHOVAH was I not known to them.” (Ex 6:2-3 KJ21)

When Jesus was gone the apostle did not change their mind about Whom they had to worship and about Whom they had to pray to and call His Name.

“For “whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”” (Ro 10:13 KJ21)

“and in that day shall ye say: “Praise the LORD! Call upon His name! Declare His doings among the people; make mention that His name is exalted.” (Isa 12:4 KJ21)

The way of worshipping did not change in the first century. It was customary for them to continue to go to the temple and to praise and glorify God there, as well as to continue to study the Hebrew Scriptures. They were convinced that such worship of God should come from deep within the heart and not be a mere passing fancy.

“God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.”” (Joh 4:24 KJ21)

“yet to us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we in Him, and one Lord Jesus Christ by whom are all things, and we by Him.” (1Co 8:6 KJ21)

Yes, not Jesus was their god, but the Divine Creator of heaven and earth was their God. To them, it was as pure as a lump of sugar or clear as water, that this God is only one.

“”Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD.” (De 6:4 KJ21)

One God and His beloved son opposite a god the son

They felt that they had become one in God by the sent one from God in whom they came to believe as that promised one from old times, who they now recognised as their saviour or that promised Messiah, by whom they now got the opportunity to get a new life.

“yet to us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we in Him, and one Lord Jesus Christ by whom are all things, and we by Him.” (1Co 8:6 KJ21)

It was several years after Jesus had died that certain people started taking Jesus as their god, forgetting the words Jesus himself had spoken.

“Jesus said unto her, “Touch Me not, for I am not yet ascended to My Father; but go to My brethren and say unto them, ‘I ascend unto My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God.’”” (Joh 20:17 KJ21)

Today there are still many people who do not hear or want to understand those words of that son of man, who gave his life for many, so that we can have hope for receiving a new life in the Kingdom of God.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,” (1Pe 1:3 KJ21)

Those who claim that Jesus is God, should better think about the fact that Jesus more than once prayed to Whom he called God. He did not pray to himself, neither cried to himself, or did not ask himself why He had abandoned him. (How would a person abandon or forsake himself?)

“And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” which is, being interpreted, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?”” (Mr 15:34 KJ21)

“1  These words spoke Jesus and lifted up His eyes to Heaven and said, “Father, the hour is come. Glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son also may glorify Thee, 2 as Thou hast given Him power over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as Thou hast given Him. 3 And this is life eternal: that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent.” (Joh 17:1-3 KJ21)

The apostle Peter might be one of the first apostles who publicly professed who Jesus Christ was.

“16 And Simon Peter answered and said,

“Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

17 And Jesus answered and said unto him,

“Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but My Father who is in Heaven.” (Mt 16:16-17 KJ21)

A son of man as a way to God

It was such confession that the apostles required also from those who wanted to go in the footsteps of their master teacher. This way started of a group of followers of Christ. People who were convinced that Jesus was the way, like he more than once told others.

“Jesus said to him: I am the way, and truth, and life: no one cometh unto my Father, but by me.” (Joh 14:6 Murdock)

“Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God.” (1Jo 4:15 KJ21)

The apostles also wrote down how they came to understand who Jesus Christ was and how the world had come to see that he is the son of man and son of God. By writing it all down, those writings should give a clear picture of Whom God is and about whom Jesus is.

“And the angel answered and said unto her,

“The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee. Therefore also that Holy Being who shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.” (Lu 1:35 KJ21)

“And I saw and bore record that this is the Son of God.”” (Joh 1:34 KJ21)

“29 Jesus said unto him,

“Thomas, because thou hast seen Me, thou hast believed. Blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed.”

30 And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book. 31 But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing, ye might have life through His name.” (Joh 20:29-31 KJ21)

Accepting Jesus as son of God

That life which may come over us is by accepting who Jesus is, the son of God, and not by going all the fancies of the world. It are not the human doctrines we should take for the rules to follow, but the Biblical doctrines we should take for granted and to go by. It are those sacred writings that tell us that Jesus is now sitting at the right hand of God, being a mediator between God and us.

“5 For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time,” (1Ti 2:5-6 KJ21)

For those who continued to follow the apostles of Jesus it is clear that there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things, and that newt to This God there is the one Who God Himself declared to be His only beloved son, Jesus Christ the Messiah. (1Co 8:6)

Followers of false teachings and false teachers

Up to today there are people who want to follow the teachings of those false teachers who claimed that Jesus would be an incarnated God. Some of the present teachers or pastors even want to twist the historical truth and come to say that it were the non-trinitarian preachers who would have followed Greco-Roman philosophy, though it are the Trinitarians who took all sorts of believes of those philosophers in their teaching, like incarnation, separate souls who would leave the body after death, hell as a burning place of eternal torture, etc. . Instead of bringing people on the right path to God, they mislead their churchgoers and having them worship a false god.

Already in the first century, the apostles warned against such false teachers who violated the Word of God and often came to deceive people with things they liked to hear. Such a God made flesh appealed to many, and still does. Hereby lots of people forget how often in the Bible is told that Jesus is the son of God (something totally different as “god the son”) and how Jesus himself spoke about his heavenly Father, from Whom he came and to Whom he went again.

“Jesus said to her:

Touch me not; for not yet have I ascended to my Father. But go to my brethren, and say to them: I ascend to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God.” (Joh 20:17 Murdock)

Those teachers claiming that Jesus would be God destroy the value of Jesus’ act of sacrifice and make God a great comedian who repeatedly told lies to deceive people, let alone called Himself a “God of no lies” when He did see mankind as lying creatures. Those Trinitarian preachers seem to neglect that The God of no lies said Himself that Jesus is His beloved son.

“And lo, a voice came from Heaven, saying,

“THIS IS MY BELOVED SON, IN WHOM I AM WELL PLEASED.”” (Mt 3:17 KJ21)

“God forbid! Yea, let God be true, though every man a liar. As it is written:

“That Thou mightest be justified in Thy sayings, and mightest overcome when Thou art judged.”” (Ro 3:4 KJ21)

Not only minimalise those preachers the self-sacrifice of Jesus the also make the resurrection of Jesus as a joke, because God can not die (Him being an eternal Spirit) and when Jesus is God we are still left with no proof at all that man would be able to step out of the dead. As such those trinitarian churches take away our hope for a resurrection, because we can not become God and do like Him, but are then still bounded to the grave (sheol or hell). The real followers of Christ continued teaching the Gospel or Good News of the coming Kingdom of God, by which there is the hope in the resurrection of the man Jesus Christ, as an example of what can happen to us.

“Blessed be God, the Father of our Lord Jesus the Messiah, who in his great mercy hath begotten us anew, by the resurrection of our Lord Jesus the Messiah, to the hope of life,” (1Pe 1:3 Murdock)

Not a schizophrenic God

Jesus was or is not a schizophrenic God Who came to pray and cry to himself. Jesus prayed sincerely to his heavenly Father, Whom he considered to be the Only One True God.

“And at the ninth hour, Jesus cried with a loud voice, and said: [Il, Il, lemono shebakthone;]that is: My God, my God; why hast thou forsaken me?” (Mr 15:34 Murdock)

“1  These things spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said: My Father, the hour is come: glorify thy Son, that thy Son may glorify thee. 2 As thou hast given him authority over all flesh, that he might give life eternal to as many as thou hast given him. 3 And this is life eternal, that they may know thee, that thou art the only true God, and whom thou hast sent, Jesus Messiah.” (Joh 17:1-3 Murdock)

It might have taken some time before the apostles really came to see who their master-teacher really was and how they should behave and go into the world as his disciples and workers for God. It can well be that the apostle Peter was the first one to recognise for the first time in public Jesus real position.

“16 Simon Cephas {Greek: Simon Peter} answered and said:

Thou art the Messiah, the Son of the living God.

17 Jesus answered, and said to him:

Blessed art thou, Simon son of Jonas; for flesh and blood have not revealed [it] to thee, but my Father who is in heaven.” (Mt 16:16-17 Murdock)

The religion of Old Testament not passing away

Photo by cottonbro on Pexels.com

After that Jesus was taken into heaven by his heavenly Father and after Jesus promised helper came over the apostles they dared to come out in public again and started off their great preaching work.

Those who heard and/or saw Jesus preach and/or heard the apostles,  could not believe that the religion of the Old Testament, revealed by God Himself, should pass away. They indeed regarded Jesus as the Saviour of Gentiles as well as Jews. We could say that Judaism was for them considered the necessary introduction to their group (which we call today Christianity). Several people from all sorts of rang came to join the apostles. Their Jewish movement was called “The Way“.

But by joining more non-Jews the matter of circumcision and the observance of the whole Mosaic law came under discussion. The question was the sole condition of an interest in the Messianic salvation. And, offensive as Judaism was, rather than attractive, to the heathen, this principle would have utterly precluded the conversion of the mass of the Gentile world.  The apostles themselves were at first trammelled by this Judaistic prejudice, till taught better by the special revelation to Peter before the conversion of Cornelius.
But even after the baptism of the uncircumcised centurion, and Peter’s defence of it before the church of Jerusalem, the old leaven still wrought in some Jewish Christians who had formerly belonged to the rigid and exclusive sect of the Pharisees, to which the apostle Paul also belonged to.

Difficulties around gentile converts

The churches of Jerusalem and Antioch resolved to hold a private and a public conference at Jerusalem. Antioch sent Paul and Barnabas as commissioners to represent the Gentile converts. Paul, fully aware of the gravity of the crisis, obeyed at the same time an inner and higher impulse. He also took with him Titus, a native Greek, as a living specimen of what the Spirit of God could accomplish without circumcision. The conference was held C.E. 50 or 51 (fourteen years after Paul’s conversion). It was the first and in some respects the most important council or synod held in the history of Christendom, though differing widely from the councils of later times. It is placed in the middle of the book of Acts as the connecting link between the two sections of the apostolic church and the two epochs of its missionary history.

Photo by cottonbro on Pexels.com

In the beginning, the people from The Way, like all the Jews, went on the Sabbath to the gathering in the temple. But after more goyim or non-Jews had joined that movement which confessed that Jesus is the son of God (Lu 1:35 ), and as such also came to abide in God (1Jo 4:15), they were not so welcome anymore in the temples and synagogues. Those non-Jews by their baptism in Christ being taken up in the group, which grew fairly quickly, and made others look jealous at them but also did not want those non-Jews in their prayer houses. Therefore The Way started also to come together in private houses and as such creating the first house churches.

Seeing and not seeing the man of flesh and blood

The apostles had after some years got a very clear picture of Jesus and with them many others had seen this man of flesh and blood (remember that God can not be seen by man). They testified that their master is the Son of God (Joh 1:34) and never said that Jesus would have claimed such a position, to be God. The amount of false teachers grew and began to argue with the true followers of Jesus who held to the sonship of Christ Jesus and did not wish to enter into the false teaching of Jesus’ Godhead.

In ancient time people could see and hear Jesus. We do not have such an opportunity anymore, though we should go by the material which is handed over to us in the Books of the New Testament. They provide enough information to learn about the man Jesus from Nazareth and his disciples. In connection with the Books of the Old Testament one should clearly come to see what Jesus role is in the history of mankind. Not having seen Jesus Christ, there were loads of people who came to believe in the son of God, that man of flesh and blood. Not having been able to see Christ we have to believe in him and accept him as the mediator for us by his heavenly Father the Only One True God.

“29 Jesus said to him: Now, when thou hast seen me, thou believest: blessed are they, who have not seen me, yet believe. —  30 And many other signs did Jesus before his disciples, which are not written in this book. 31 But these are written, that ye may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God; and that when ye believe, ye may have life eternal by his name.” (Joh 20:29-31 Murdock)

“5 For God is one; and the mediator between God and men is one, [namely] the man Jesus the Messiah; 6 who gave himself a ransom for every man;  — testimony that arrived in due time,” (1Ti 2:5-6 Murdock)

Jerusalem consultation

The object of the Jerusalem consultation was twofold: first, to settle the personal relation between the Jewish and Gentile apostles, disciples and preachers, and to divide their field of labour; secondly, to decide the question of circumcision, and to define the relation between the Jewish and Gentile Christians. On the first point (as we learn from Paul) it effected a complete and final, on the second point (as we learn from Luke) a partial and temporary settlement. In the nature of the case the public conference in which the whole church took part, was preceded and accompanied by private consultations of the apostles.

Constantine period

In the fourth century the division between the real followers of Christ and the followers of those false teachers who mixed those teachings of Christ with other human teachings, had become so big that they called for a council to decide how the church would continue.

Constantine I (the Great) the founder of Constantinople and the Byzantine empire, and for someone of the most gifted, energetic, and successful of the Roman emperors, was the first representative of the imposing idea of a Christian theocracy, or of that system of policy which assumes all subjects to be Christians, connects civil and religious rights, and regards church and state as the two arms of one and the same divine government on earth. This idea was more fully developed by his successors, it animated the whole middle age, and is yet working under various forms in these latest times; though it has never been fully realised, whether in the Byzantine, the German, or the Russian empire, the Roman church-state, the Calvinistic republic of Geneva, or the early Puritanic colonies of New England. At the same time, however, Constantine stands also as the type of undiscriminating and harmful conjunction of Christianity with politics, of the holy symbol of peace with the horrors of war, of the spiritual interests of the kingdom of heaven with the earthly interests of the state.

He was the man who gave those preachers the choice to come with the world or to stay by their ideas of not being part of the world. The majority choose to be befriended and to walk in fellowship with the world.

Unquestionably every age produces and shapes its own organs, as its own purposes require and as such the Jewish movement of The Way had seen many people going astray and going their own way.  Constantine I did put himself at the head of the age, and was annoyed by the differences and discussions there were by those who claimed to be the followers of the Nazarene rebbe Jeshua ben Josef, Jesus Christ. He also clearly saw that idolatry had outlived itself in the Roman empire, and that Christianity alone could breathe new vigour into it and furnish its moral support.

Donatists and Arians

From the year 313 he placed himself in close connection with the ‘bishops’, made peace and harmony his first object in the Donatist and Arian controversies and applied the predicate “catholic” to the church in all official documents. The Donatists argueing that Christian clergy must be faultless for their ministry to be effective and their prayers and sacraments to be valid. Constantine, hoping to defuse the unrest, gave money to the non-Donatist bishop Caecilian as payment for churches damaged or confiscated during the persecution. Nothing was given to the Donatists; Constantine was apparently not fully aware of the seriousness of the dispute, which his gift exacerbated. The Donatists appealed to Rome for equal treatment; Constantine tasked Miltiades with resolving the issue, which led to the 313 commission.

Many non-trinitarians are often called Arians by Trinitarians, though often those Christians do not follow Arius his teachings but simply the Biblical teachings. The Christian priest Arius, whose teachings gave rise to a theological doctrine known as Arianism, also followed the apostolic teaching that God is One and that Jesus is His son and not God Himself. What makes Arainism so different with what many non-trinitarians are still following today, is that those real followers of Christ (including us) do not integrate Neoplatonism, nor are we inspired by Plato’s ideas or by pre-Socratics (who interpreted the world monistically in terms of nature as such), from the relativism of the Sophists, and from the correction of Platonism in a this-worldly direction carried out by Plato’s greatest pupil, Aristotle.

It is a very big misconception of Trinitarians that nonTrinitarians, or those who do not wish to accept Jesus as God, would be Arians, whereas they do not follow the teachings of Arius at all. The teaching those present non-Trinitarians follow is simply the teachings of Jesus and his apostles.

The only similarity in Arius and the present non-trinitarian denominations is Arius’s basic premise of the uniqueness of God, who is alone self-existent (not dependent for its existence on anything else) and immutable; the Son, who is not self-existent, cannot therefore be the self-existent and immutable God.

“”There is none like unto the God of Jeshurun ^{[a poetic name for the people of Israel, meaning ‘upright people’]}, who rideth upon the heaven to thy help and in His excellency on the sky.” (De 33:26 KJ21)

“33  O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out! 34 “For who hath known the mind of the Lord? Or who hath been His counselor?” 35 Or, “who hath first given to Him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again?” 36 For of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things, to whom be glory for ever. Amen.” (Ro 11:33-36 KJ21)

Because the Godhead is unique, it cannot be shared or communicated according to Arius. Because the Godhead is immutable, the Son, who is mutable, must, therefore, be deemed a creature who has been called into existence out of nothing and has had a beginning. Moreover, according to Arius the Son can have no direct knowledge of the Father, since the Son is finite and of a different order of existence. For the real followers of Christ there is the knowledge that Jesus was placed in the womb of that young girl and as such coming directly from God must have some DNA from God. Jesus was born in that very devout Essene family of the tribe of King David and had got a very thorough religious upbringing with the Word of God as an inspirational source.

Name change

Badly enough, most of the clergy wanted to come to an agreement with Constantine the Great in order to keep the peace and not to be persecuted anymore. This was done by the clergy to bring their religion more in line with the Greek Roman religion and their triple deity Zeus who was then the main deity worshipped by Constantine and his followers. In order to equate Jeshua (Yeshua) with that deity Zeus, his name was transformed from Jeshua to Issou or Yai_Zeus > Je-Zeus which means Hail Zeus. Since then, the false name (Jezus – Jesus – Chesu) has become fully accepted and in time it was also used by the non-trinitarians to make clear that they were talking about one and the same person as the Trinitarians.

Constantine was praised and censured in turn by the Christians and Pagans, the Orthodox and the Arians, as they successively experienced his favour or dislike, but the real followers of Christ saw in him a very dangerous despot who could easily subdue the false teachers and in unity oppose the true followers of Christ.

The ones coming under agreement with each other about the deity of Jesus and the wishes of Constantine, became the Roman Catholics, who claimed to be the only true church and continued to grow by making sure people from all sorts of tribes could find themselves at home, because many of their traditions were taken in or integrated into that religion.

The real followers of Christ Jesus did not like the name change but had to do with it. for many centuries they tried those who worshipped Jesus as their god to come to know the real Jesus from the Bible.

The groups which accented the absolute oneness of the Divinity as the highest perfection, with a literal, rationalist approach to the New Testament texts sought their way in the world. That point of view was publicized about 323 through the poetic verse of his major work, Thalia (“Banquet”), and was widely spread by popular songs written for labourers and travellers.

The non-Trinitarian aspect and the other Arian teachings (of Arius) and papal positions (Ursinus) brought forth further disputes and conferences, synods or councils. The Ursinians became established in Milan and rekindled their opposition to Damasus.

Damasus I presided over the Council of Rome of 382 that determined the canon or official list of sacred scripture. He encouraged the production of the Latin Vulgate Bible with his support for Jerome.
He spoke out against other groups of Christians that had grown in popularity and denounced several major heresies in the church (including Apollinarianism and Macedonianism). In two synods (368 and 369) the unorthodox teachings of Bishop Macedonius of Constantinople and of Bishop Apollinaris (the Younger) of Laodicea were condemned. Among Damasus’s literary remains are 24 anathemas against various 4th-century heresies.  Apollinaris The Younger and his father (Apollinaris the Elder) had reproduced the Old Testament in the form of Homeric and Pindaric poetry and the New Testament in the style of Platonic dialogues after the Roman emperor Julian had forbidden Christians to teach the classics.
Apollinaris the younger denied the existence in Christ of a rational human soul, a position he took to combat Arianism. Skilled in logic and Hebrew and a teacher of rhetoric, Apollinaris also lectured at Antioch c. 374. Their different ideas also brought forth several schisms.

Current Churches in a Torn Church World

It would not remain at all with these few schisms in the church community; in each century several schisms occurred. Today, many even regard certain breakaway groups as churches of the commons, such as the Lutheran, Calvinist and Anglican Churches. They now belong to the generally accepted Protestant churches.

Lots of churches sought ways to get as many followers as they could, claiming that they are the only church by which people can be saved. They forget that it are no other human beings, than Christ Jesus who saves people of all races and people of all persuasions or from all walks of life. They claimed and still claim that their sacraments, religious signs or symbols, are the way to be saved. Many of those churches are convinced that their liturgy is the best one to prepare people to receive those sacraments, as visible symbols of the reality of God, as well as a channel for God’s grace and helps to understand what they are doing. Their liturgy is used to give the sacraments context and is there to allow folks to see them in action. Outside of the liturgy, the sacraments lose direction and application. For some that is the reason why a private baptism or communion is a sacrament without purpose or meaning.

It is a sacrament that is cut off from its intended goal. {The Role of the Church}

For non-Trinitarians, like the Christadelphians, there does not have to be a set of liturgical rules and order. Each church service can be done in a different order or different way. but what is most important is that the service is built upon the Word of God, and as such most time of the service should be spent on that Word, or readings from the Holy Scriptures and not on readings from human beings. Next to that Word of God people should be able to find, feel and see, that love of God and love of Christ present and shown by those people of that church.

The church is tasked with loving the Lord and loving its neighbor. The church takes what it receives from God and shares it with the world. Taken together, this means God acts through even-broadening layers to bring His grace into the world. {The Role of the Church}

Receiving God and being united with His son

But to receive God and to be united with God and His holy son, people have to do away with pagan or heathen teachings and traditions. In the Church of God, there can be no place for pagan rituals and false worship, like praying in front of pictures or sculptures. So, there has to be no place for crosses, paintings or portraits and statues of gods and saints, no idolisation taking place in the liturgy. Done away with a “Hail Zeus” or calling unto “YaiZeus” or JeZeus – Jezus or Jesus as a figure that would be three in one, a God the Father, a god the son and a God the Holy Spirit.

In case we want to hold on to that changed name of Jeshua, namely Jesus, that hopefully would be not too bad and shall be accepted by the Elohim Hashem Jehovah (That we can only hope and pray for – that he forgives us to use that name so that we shall be able to get others to get to know the Name of Jesus his God.) Better would naturally be that by the years coming closer to the end-times, people shall come to use more the real names of the Biblical characters and especially of Jehovah God, Whose Name is holy, and of the son of God, Jeshua ben Josef.

Sin is the opposite of God’s will, so to be a sinner means to be one who is opposed to God, who is an offense to everything God is. Sin is intolerable to God and so God destroys it, even if that means destroying the one who commits it. {Face to Face with God}

Having idols and false gods is “sin” because it goes in against the Will and Commandments of God. Real lovers of God have to keep tp those Commandments of God and not to the commandments, human doctrines or will of human beings.

Active in the world

In this picture, from a Lutheran pastor his site, you might see how far the church is gone away from God’s Word that forbids such pictures or reflections of people they call their god.

It is true that the Church or the community of believers has to be active in both worship and in the world so that God’s grace can reach those who need it.

This becomes the central work of the church and everything God does for His people is designed to facilitate that work. {The Role of the Church}

Though that does not mean the church has to think and act like the world! It is totally wrong to think you should be part of the Church of the world, because people have to be part of the Church of God of which Jesus is the foundation. Jesus should be the man whom we follow and whom we take as the cornerstone of our community.

“Jesus saith unto them,

Did ye never read in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, The same was made the head of the corner; This was from the Lord, And it is marvelous in our eyes?” (Mt 21:42 ASV)

“being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the chief corner stone;” (Eph 2:20 ASV)

Loving Christ is not only loving his word, it is living by his word that one fully accepts as a truthful word. And as such that one does not think when Jesus says God is greater than him that he (Jesus) is the greatest and that he can do everything because he would be God. all the thing Jesus did, we should appreciate and understand why he did it and how he wanted to be a faithful servant for God the same as he requires from his followers to be servants for man and for God.

Servants not doing bad things

Those who call themselves servants of God have to do their best to live according to the Will of God. In the last few decades, people should have had enough opportunities to see how many in those so-called churches of God have gone astray. In several Trinitarian denominations, being them Catholic or Protestant, we have seen that there were priests who used little children (boys and girls) to have sex with. Some churches thought that they could cover those paedophile acts by transferring those paedophiles to another church in another village. For centuries the Catholic Church has been a male bastion where male domination and tyranny were giving opportunities to defile the Name of God.

They thought to clean up the cesspool of sin in that religious structure, but the roots have gone very deep.

Furthermore many churches do not dare to speak out about certain Rules of God.

Sung Mass with the ordinations of two deacons and seven priests by the Bishop of Stockholm, in St Nicholas’s Cathedral (Storkyrkan)

In Europe’s largest Lutheran denomination, hundreds of clergies, staff, and congregates of the Church of Sweden, have declared, in an open letter that it is now a trans-inclusive institution.
While the hearts of the faithful Christians are broken, while heaven weeps, while the demons of hell dance in delight, the modern-day church is changed. Why? Because it is easier to change the local assembly than the eternal Word of God, which lives and abides forever. {It is Easier to Change the Local Church than the Bible}

After all those centuries the Catholic church did not change one hair.

In Rome, the Vatican is now home to a woke Pope, who allowed South American animistic religious rituals in the opening of the recent pan-Amazon Synod. Kathy Clubb writes in the conservative Catholic publication, The Remnant:

“Idol worship was on full display in preparation for the Pan-Amazon synod, with the tacit approval of Pope Francis. Although the Synod hadn’t yet started, the celebration of pagan ceremonies added weight to the concerns being voiced by prominent prelates and laymen that the Synod will be a vehicle for apostasy.”

{It is Easier to Change the Local Church than the Bible}

Strangely enough, when the Pope says something which comes closer to the Biblical truth, all the hairs of Catholic and Protestant (Trinitarian) priests raise up to heaven.

To embracing idol worship, Pope Francis is said not to believe in the eternal divinity of Jesus as the Son of God. Instead,

“Pope Francis conceives the Christ as Jesus of Nazareth, a man, not God incarnate. Once he took flesh, Jesus ceased to be a God and became a man until his death on the cross… {It is Easier to Change the Local Church than the Bible}

Pope Francis has said to Eugenio Scalfari: ‘There is proof that Jesus of Nazareth, once he became a man, even a man of exceptional virtue, was in no way a God’.” (Mark Powell, CALDR@N POOL on the web; see also, Fatima Perspectives #1343) {It is Easier to Change the Local Church than the Bible}

Several priest think wrongly that it would be changing Catholic dogma because the non-Trinitarians are gaining field in this world.

Why is the woke Pope Francis (b. Dec. 17, 1936), head of the Catholic Church, and sovereign of Vatican City, changing Catholic dogma?

Because it is easier to influence and change a vast religious institution than to change the Word of God, which says: “Thou shalt have no other gods before me” (Ex. 20:3). {It is Easier to Change the Local Church than the Bible}

Yes, the Bible is very clear about That! One may not have other gods before the Elohim Hashem Jehovah.

Lots of those learned people do not want to see how a person can be divine but not God. (Perhaps you might have a divine wife, though we hope you would not worship her as a god.)

There is no such verse in the letter of Paul to Timothy that would say

Concerning the eternal divinity of Christ, the Bible says, “And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory” (1 Tim. 3:18). {It is Easier to Change the Local Church than the Bible}

The Bible words are as follows in the last verses of that letter:

“And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness; He who was manifested in the flesh, Justified in the spirit, Seen of angels, Preached among the nations, Believed on in the world, Received up in glory.” (1Ti 3:16 ASV)

giving an indication that Jesus is one way to come to “see and understand God“. Him being manifested in the flesh is the son of God who “gave himself for us.” Truly they are in harmony. The love of the infinite God could neither be created nor purchased but it could be and is been shown through the work of His son. The Spirit of the Father was manifest in Jesus and by the inspiration and power given by God, Jesus was able to speak wise words and to do many miracles.

All those things which are clearly notated in Scriptures are not to confuse us, but to bring us light. Jesus should be such a light for us, a beacon or a lighthouse in the surf.

When looking at churches we should check how those who call themselves leaders of that church, behave. We should check in which way a church has its teachings in accordance with the Bible and how the leaders of that church live according to those Bible Words.

For sure we should not choose for the church that wants to be fully in line with the world and its traditions. From the Bible, we can learn that most of those traditions are not in line with God’s commandments and as lovers of God we should want to go fully doing the will of God in the same way Jesus put his own will aside to do the will of God. (Naturally, in case Jesus would have been God he would never have put his own will aside. … Is it not?)

“And he went forward a little, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying,

My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass away from me: nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt.” (Mt 26:39 ASV)

“And again he went away, and prayed, saying the same words.” (Mr 14:39 ASV)

It is not Christ his will that shall be done on earth as in heaven. Also, Jesus prayed and learned others to pray that this Will of his heavenly Father would be fulfilled.

“Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth.” (Mt 6:10 ASV)

Even in difficult times, Jesus asked his God that not his will was going to be fulfilled, but God His Will

“And he said,

Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee; remove this cup from me: howbeit not what I will, but what thou wilt.” (Mr 14:36 ASV)

We should know that like Jesus could not do anything without God, we too cannot do the important thing without our heavenly Father. (Though in fact even the little things we are only able to do because God allows them to happen.) Let us therefore not do our will, but have the courage to do like Jesus, going for the One Who had sent him, the Elohim Hashem Jehovah, God His Word, God His Will and for God His Chuch, doing God His Will.

“I can of myself do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is righteous; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.” (Joh 5:30 ASV)

“For I am come down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.” (Joh 6:38 ASV)

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Preceding

A vital question for believers

The rock on which we stand

As near to God as you want Him to be

Religion and the essence of devotion – Necessary parts in the daily walk with God + Christians, Lutherans, Wesleyans, and other followers

Seeds and weeds for being the greatest nation

After darkness a moment of life renewal

Should church members question preachers about the doctrine that is not in the Holy Bible?

Christians saying Jesus is God giving food for atheists to prove there exist no God

Responsibility bigger than those who talk about worldly matters

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Additional reading

1. Christian in Christendom or in Christianity
2. Looking for answers on the question Is there a God #1 Many gods
3. Only One God
4. God is one
5. God spoke to our forefathers and speaks to us
6. Bible Inspired Word of God
7. Word of God
8. A Book to trust #12 Archaeology confirming or denying claims of the Bible #3 Material evidence to survive
9. Written and translated by different men over thousands of years
10. The One Who divinely inspired the writers of the Bible can also preserve it
11. Reading to grow and to become wise concerning the most important thing in life 4 Words giving us wisdom and encouragement
12. The Bible’s View of Itself
13. Words of God to stand and to be followed and to believe
14. Vital importance of reading and following the Kitvei Hakodesh
15. Main verses in the Bible telling us Who God is #1 Exclusive Divine Eternal Unseen Creator and Sovereign Spirit God with set apart Name Jehovah
16. Main verses in the Bible telling us Who God is #8 Some more attributes of God
17. Today’s Thought “That they may know that there is none besides Jehovah ” (June 21)
18. Today’s thought “Do not add anything to what God commands you, and do not take anything away.” (April 21)
19. Bible exceptional Book of books where nothing can be taken away or added
20. Today’s Thought “Idols are nothing against the first and the last God” (June 20)
21. Importance to read the Bible regularly and gain understanding
22. Everything from the Bible is useful for humans
23. Reading to grow and to become wise concerning the most important thing in life 4 Words giving us wisdom and encouragement
24. With the Bible, honour should be given to God and not to people
25. Deciphering Truth in Word and Concept – That we might see
26. Objects around the birth and death of Jesus
27. Spelling Yahshuah (יהשע) vs Hebrew using Yehoshuah (יהושע) (Our world) = Spelling Yahshuah (יהשע) vs Hebrew using Yehoshuah (יהושע) (Some view on the World)
28. Altered to fit a Trinity (Our world) = Altered to fit a Trinity (Some View on the world)
29. Jesus the “God-Man”: Really?
30. Jesus son of God or God the son
31. Jesus son of God
32. The sent one from God
33. Jesus Christ the Messiah
34. One Mediator
35. Americans really thinking the Messiah Christ had an English name (Our world) = Americans really thinking the Messiah Christ had an English name (some View on the World)
36. False opposite true worship which exalts the God of Israel
37. Behind a False doctrine – the Trinity
38. The Trinity matter
39. Trinity – history
40. Living stones 4 Idols of wood and stone
41. Iconoclast in the picture
42. Today’s thought “Do not add anything to what God commands you, and do not take anything away.” (April 21)
43. Displeasures and Actions of the Almighty God
44. Paul’s warning about false stories and his call to quit touching the unclean thing
45. A god who gave his people commandments and laws he knew they never could keep to it
46. Different wineskins
47. The Development of Differences
48. False teachers and false prophets still around
49. Devotees and spotters
50. Disobedient man and God’s promises
51. An unbridgeable gap
52. God’s forgotten Word 6 Lost Lawbook 5 Heretics
53. Not studying an abstract and arcane text of the ancient world
54. Demanding signs or denying yourself
55. Troubles testing your faith and giving you patience and good prospects
56. Hardships for choosing to follow the real Christ
57. Roads leading to God
58. Words to bring into a good relationship
59. Why not quoting more from well-known theologians
60. Luther on Being a Theologian: Oratio, Meditatio and Tentatio
61. Denominationalism exists because?
62. Religious people and painful absence of spring of living water
63. Living as a believer in Christ
64. Jewish and Gentile Disciples
65. Religion and believers #5 Transition to Monotheism
66. Jeshuaists, Messianic Jews, Messianics and Christians
67. Changes in the Remnant of Jewish Believers
68. The belief of one going to heaven
69. Framework and vehicle for Christian Scholasticism and loss of confidence
70. Roman, Aztec and other rites still influencing us today
71. Counterfeit Gospels
72. Concluding thought by the article series “Key to the Bible”
73. Certain Catholics claiming that the power of the priest is equal to that of Jesus Christ
74. When found the necessary books to read and how to read them
75. Looking for a biblically sound church
76. Today’s thought “Using God’s words to justify actions” (April 1-2)
77. Those Belonging to the called ones coming together
78. Memorizing wonderfully 55 Exchanging the truth of God for a lie
79. Extra verses to memorize Deuteronomy 4:15-16 Watching yourselves very carefully
80. Deep sense of consciousness of the brokenness of our system
81. Noahide Laws or Seven commandments incumbent upon all of humankind
82. A Gentile and the Mosaic Law
83. Face to Face
84. Does God need you?
85. Does God need your mitzvahs?
86. Does God really care?
87. Constantine a brutal sociopath getting the believers in a God man on his side and creating a Christian church
88. Jewish and Christian traditions of elders
89. a City full of the Pride of life
90. Cyrus the Persian
91. Today’s thought “A house of prayer” (March 27)
92. Good or bad preacher
93. 3 Reasons the Resurrection Matters
94. One in God’s Hand
95. Sacrifices in the Millennium
96. Matthew 24 about temples or Houses of God and the end of the age
97. Pope Benedict will hide (Our World) = Pope Benedict will hide (Some View on the World)
98. ast day of Ratzinger as Pope Benedict XVI (Our World) = Last day of Ratzinger as Pope Benedict XVI (Some View on the World)
99. Catholic church asking for forgiveness and promising to take action against child-abusers (Our World) = Catholic church asking for forgiveness and promising to take action against child-abusers
100. French Catholic church covered up abuse of 330,000 children
101. The decline of religion in the US continues unabated
102. Matthew 12:1-8 – The Nazarene’s Commentary: Something Greater than the Temple
103. Inculturation today calling for a different attitude (Our world) = Inculturation today calling for a different attitude (Some View on the World)
104. Male domination and tyranny giving opportunities to defile the Name of God
105. Kler the Polish Spotlight on Poland’s Clergy Sexual Abuse
106. Americans their stars, pretension, God, Allah and end of times signs #3 Cyberwars and prophesy
107. Move ahead with the commitment against child sex abuse says Pope Francis I (Our wold) = Move ahead with the commitment against child sex abuse says Pope Francis I (Some View on the World)
108. The abuses of priest make Catholics give up their religion 
109. Disciple of Christ counting lives and friends dear to them
110. Christadelphians or Messianic Christians or Messianic Jews

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Related

1. Why does the Bible need 66 books? Part 2
2. Exquisite Uniqueness of God
3. “The Eve of Christmas,” Matthew 1:18-25
4. In the Incarnation, Humanity Received a New Dignity
5. The Incarnation
6. Incarnation and all that…
7. The Mystery of Godliness: The Transformative Power of the Incarnation
8. Incarnate Love
9. Truth-less “grace,” or grace-less “truth”?
10. Mystery and Clarity
11. John 1:1-14 Sermon: Love Incarnate, Love Divine
12. Adoption, incarnation, and growing in grace and truth (Growing Deeper with John 1:6-18)
13. John’s Gospel and the Word made flesh (Growing Deeper with John 1:1-5)
14. The Word Became Flesh. II: The Word Was God
15. God the son, Part 1
16. Epistle Reading for Sunday, January 30, 2022
17. Hebrews: Superiority of the Son
18. Creed // Jesus God’s son (Hebrews 1:1-3)
19. Today’s Scripture – November 15, 2021
20. All that he is triune
21. Trinity – Trilogy – Triplet
22. Definition of the day: Trinity
23. Trinity
24. Why a Triune God?
25. God Who Is—is Triune
26. Beyond Belief – What the Heck is the Trinity? Is God Three or Is He One?
27. There are certain Christian preachers who want people to believe that all Christians would believe in the Trinity. Why do Christians beleive in the Trinity? Such a question let us see that the writer of that article either is not aware of other Christians who only believe in a binary god and neglects the most important group which worship only the God of Jesus and not a god the son, namely the unitarians and non-Trinitarians.
28. Your Divine D.N.A. [Sermon]
29. Am I headed in the right direction? [Sermon]
30. The Incarnation in the Life of the Church
31. He Was, He Is, and Forever Shall Be
32. “The Word became Flesh,” John 1:14
33. “Simeon’s Song,” Luke 2:22-40
34. Statue Of Zeus At Olympia
35. False Gospels: On Blindness > Antics > Compromise
36. False Gods by Graham McNeill
37. Reenacting the Way of Jesus
38. Loving Christ Really IS Loving His Word
39. Poetic faith
40. How can Jesus be considered sinless when the Bible describes his anger
41. “Jesus in the Temple,” Luke 2:40-52
42. “Jesus, the Son of God,” Luke 4:31-44
43. Know Jesus, Know God
44. Hebrews: The Fulcrum
45. Direct Access to the Father
46. Do Denominations Divide Us?
47. Does Denominationalism Blind You to the Truth?
48. Nuanced beliefs
49. Deceived
50. Throwback Thursday ~ Finding a New Church- Starting from Scratch
51. Law; Is It For The Rich Or The Poor?
52. Division Among Christians
53. From One Religion To Another

2020: Week #29: The Shape of Summer

ShelteringHaven

Summer days.

Pool parties. Graduation celebrations. Baseball games. Vacation flights.

But not always. Not this year.

Expectations are challenged. Thoughts shuffle. The shape of summer is arranged. And then rearranged.

Never having been this way before the heart – and mind – do not quite know what to make of these unexpected days. Shuffling the shape of summer. Arranging. Rearranging. Questioning. And. Still hoping. For normal.

Yet. In the midst of it all. There stands the Creator. Our Lord. Shaping summer. Holding steady in the unexpected and unfamiliar. Owning it all. Guarding each day. His faithfulness superseding all else.

“You own the day, you own the night; you put stars and sun in place. You laid out the four corners of earth, shaped the seasons of summer and winter.” Psalm 74:16-17, The Message

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Christian Response to the Covid-19 Pandemic

Sometimes people have to be confronted by something terribly bad. At regular intervals, certain people come to struggle terribly and have to learn by a hard lesson, being pulled down by an accident or serious disease.

Several people at a certain moment in their life got struck. Suddenly they become confronted by a longer period that they can not do the things they normally do. During that time of not doing anything, they are given time to think about the past but also the future. Then they can take time to meditate and to really start to reevaluate the value of things.

Before they got sick or bounded to the bed by their sickness or paralysation, they can have the film of their life repeated over and over again for days. At that time they have hours and days to think about all those things that kept them busy. Then they also realize that they had and still have so many dreams that they’ve had over the years and projects that they wanted to do.

From people who previously had serious accidents and diseases, we do know several people came in confrontation with the matter of a godhead, and started examining the Scriptures, coming to one conclusion, that there is Only One True Divine God, the Elohim Hashem Jehovah, Who is a loving God and not a cruel Being that would have His children being tortured or being burned forever.
It is then for them the time to recognise how so many churches or denomination lied to their flock and used fear to master them.

The devil, being spoken of in the Bible, is any or every adversary who walks on this planet. For sure there are many adversaries of God too, who would love people not to believe in the Divine Creator or have them keeping to the many false teachings, human traditions and heathen festivals.

But it are the real lovers of God who in such difficult times should show how they know for sure Who is behind everything and Who can be the helping hand in times of problems but also be a Guide in times when everything seems alright.

These days when there is a virus making many victims, those real followers of the son of God, should show the world how God has given the world a saviour and mediator, who paid the ransom for all the faults we as human beings have done.

Now is the time that all real lovers of God can show the world Who That real God is and how we as united lovers of God are not afraid of what comes upon this world but are willing to unite in prayer to protect all those around us, believers and unbelievers.

In the article of Janisha Jacobs, affectionately known as “Keela“,, the greatest hope is expressed that during this crisis more people will be drawn closer to Christ, the son of God. We only can hope and pray that more people shall come to see that in this time of fear there will be no other choice but for our faith to increase and to join hands spiritually. That in this time of not knowing what tomorrow holds we will learn to let God worry about tomorrow and focus on getting through today, with the knowledge that there shall come even worse days and even a more severe battle, with the third World War or Armageddon. Therefore we can look at this pandemic as a rehearsal for what still has to come and to make us stronger to be prepared for what is still to come.
Let us, therefore, pray not to false gods, like some many have taken themselves false gods, but learn also others to pray to the God Jesus also prayed too, namely his heavenly Father (and not himself) the One and Only True God, the Elohim Hashem Jehovah.

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To remember

• facing global Pandemic of Covid-19 virus #CoronaVirus.
• enough news surrounding panic > All across the world right now persons are facing panic, trauma & a lot of uncertainty because of the effects of Covid-19.
• Persons afraid, lost loved ones, +  wondering if they will be next.
• China, Italy, America, UK, etc. > unimaginable crisis.
• biggest question right now =  “when will it end?”
• for the church = also the question of “how do we react?”
• to get us to close down churches > building =/= church
• people = church
• via Zoom = enjoyable + more intimate than “pulpit and pew”
• try + prevent spreading virus => stay home
• response/reaction to world crisis & pandemic = faith, wisdom, compassion, forward thinking, leadership + most importantly prayer.

Keela's Chronicles

As most of you know, we have all been facing the global Pandemic of the Covid-19 virus #CoronaVirus. Initially I had no intentions of blogging about it, figuring that there is enough news surrounding the panic and I didn’t want to be one more person adding fuel on an already blazing fire. But, if you read my latest post you know by now that I decided to change my mind

All across the world right now persons are facing panic, trauma and a lot of uncertainty because of the effects of Covid-19. Persons are afraid, many have lost loved ones, some may not even know if their loved ones are still alive in places like Italy, some persons are sick and many others are wondering if they will be next. And all of these emotions and feelings are completely understandable but so very heartbreaking.

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Nature: God’s Great Blessing

All to often too many people are looking for God in far away places, whilst His wonders can be seen around us. Man may have been banned from Gan Eden, not living in a Royal Garden any more, but the Divine Creator still lets mankind feel and see what could be part of his living world.
Sources, streams, rivers, flowers and trees bear witness to His Glory.

Footsteps

This weekend, as you are reading this, I am camping with my church family. I have been looking forward to this for weeks because this is my first vacation from my job since September.

Some people hate the outdoors, but even though I grew up in the suburbs, I have always had a deep connection with nature. The outdoors has been my quiet space to think and get out of my normal activities;It is the place I go to relax and it is also one of the few places I feel closest to God.

God created everything around us, including ourselves and the people around us. He made a beautiful garden for the first people to enjoy and live in. While they did not last in the garden God created, the beauty in nature has never gone away. Nowadays, some people have to search hard and long for a place…

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O God, How Long? ~ Psalm 74

In this godless world there are also people who think they think they can ask their god or gods for things to happen. There are also people who call themselves ‘Christian‘ and wonder why God does not answer their prayers, though they do not see they have not taken them the right God of gods but pray to a man made god, a god son, and to people they call saints. Though the Elohim Hashem Jehovah is very clear that we should only have and worship the One True God of Israel, the God of Abraham, Jesus and his disciples, Who is an eternal Spirit God and not a fleshy god.

If you feel as though God is not watching or that He does not care you are perhaps better to search your heart, to see if you are really worshipping the right god, and not for example Jesus or any other human being or idols.

Today we can find lots of people who make a mockery of the God of Israel, also not willing to see the Biblical Truth. They most often see the false teachings of human ‘spiritual’ leaders or theologians, be it from Islamic or Christian groups, who destroy everything on their path, leaving nothing but pain and misery in their wake.

More people should follow Asaph his example, coming to look up at the real Only One True God, Jehovah the Elohim Hashem Divine Creator, and to cry out to that God of the universe, the Maker of heaven and earth, summer and winter. We all should know that it is That eternal God Who is prepared to be our rock and refuge, to defend Himself and those who really love Him and worship Him alone, that no matter what the enemy would love to do. They shall always come to know that This One True God is always the Most Mightiest god of all.

– Note: a pity the guest-writer of today, who calls herself a Born-again believer in Christ, wife, mother, teacher, artist, poet, blogger, pianist, singer, telling us she has praised God with her music ever since 1980, makes a strange twist at the end of the article, writing

“Then boldly make your requests known to Him, praising His name and trusting Him for the answer in His time.”

as if she thinks Jesus is God, and as such is forgetting that Jesus is the son of God and the Way to God.
But all the rest of the article, when you keep that only One God Who is One, in your mind is a worthy collection of words to remind people of that greatness of the Most High and how in the ancient times people looked up at Him.

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To remember

• Asaph felt lonely + alone > God silent => remembered days of old + God redeemed Israel from out of the hand of the enemy in Egypt, + brought them to Canaan, +gave them land for an inheritance, + established His name in their midst.
• enemy had attempted to wipe out religion of Israelites by destroying their places of worship > temple + synagogue destroyed by the enemy
• we can trust Jehovah God to know when enough is enough <=  God = never early, never late; always right on time, not limited by our calendar or clock.
• God’s purposes are ever so much bigger than anything we can imagine.
• Asaph did not ask God to defend His people, but His own holy and righteous name => to be preserved holy and blameless in the eyes of the enemy.
• Asaph wanted deliverance, not for his own sake, or for the sake of his countrymen =  for the testimony of the God of mercy and grace.
• not forget that God = still in control in affairs of men.
• elements of Asaph’s prayer in psalm 74 should be present in all of our prayers
• our guest writer compares Psalm 74 to the Model Prayer as recorded in Matthew 6:9-13.
• When you pray > do not be afraid to let God know how you feel <= He already knows anyway
• When you pray > Praise Him for who He is + for His will to be done, + for provision + forgiveness, deliverance

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Additional reading

1. Are you looking for answers and Are you looking for God
2. The truth is very plain to see and God can be clearly seen
3. God of gods
4. God is One
5. Attributes to God
6. God should be your hope
7. The Almighty Lord God of gods King above all gods
8. God Helper and Deliverer
9. Gods promises
10. Belief of the things that God has promised
11. God’s never-ending stream of much-needed mercies
12. Gods salvation
13. Believing in the send one and understanding that one does not live by bread alone
14. Today’s thought “They did as Jehovah God commanded Moses” (April 17)
15. Today’s thought “nonsense surrounding the many gods” (July 28)
16. Have you also been deceived
17. Walking alone?
18. Does God hear prayer?
19. Work with joy and pray with love
20. Give your worries to God
21. Praying For What We Want or Don’t Want
22. Genuine prayer
23. Does God answer prayer?
24. People who know how to pray to move God to take hold of our affairs in a mighty way
25. Gods measure not our measure
26. God showing how far He is willing to go to save His children
27. Extra verses to remember by The Name to be proclaimed
28. Listening and Praying to the Father
29. Trusting, Faith, calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #3 Voice of God #6 Words to feed and communicate
30. Trusting, Faith, Calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #4 Transitoriness #2 Purity
31. Trusting, Faith, Calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #7 Prayer #5 Listening Ear
32. Trusting, Faith, Calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #10 Prayer #8 Condition
33. Trusting, Faith, Calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #16 Benefits of praying
34. Trusting, Faith, Calling and Ascribing to Jehovah #18 Fulfilment
35. God Feeds The Birds
36. Displeasures and Actions of the Almighty God
37. Prayer, important aspect in our life
38. Worship and worshipping
39. Praise and give thanks to God the Most Highest
40. Praise the God with His Name
41. Gods non answer
42. Faithful to the leastening ear
43. Wishing to do the will of God
44. Observing the commandments and becoming doers of the Word
45. Golden rule for understanding in spiritual matters obedience
46. Happy who’s delight is only in the law of Jehovah
47. Rest thy delight on Jehovah
48. 7000 to 20000 words spoken each day
49. Biblical Prayer at Tabernacle Site Shilo
50. Own Private Words to bring into a good relationship
51. Old Man of Prayer
52. Sometimes we face trials
53. Being sure of their deliverance
54. Prayer for the day

The Abundant Heart

God rules the day and the night, and He can be trusted with the details of my life too.

Does it seem as though this world could not get any more debauched than it is already? Do you feel as though God is not watching? that He does not care? I can assure you that He is, and He does. But perhaps He is waiting for His people to cry out to Him in humble prayer.

Asaph felt the same way. The enemy was having a heyday, making a mockery of the God of Israel and destroying everything in their path, leaving nothing but pain and misery in their wake. Asaph did the one thing he could do—he cried out to the God of the universe, the Maker of heaven and earth, summer and winter, to defend Himself in the presence of the enemy.

from Psalm 74
Maschil of Asaph

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Dependable Promises

It is the hope given to every human being that he may count on the Divine Creator when he is willing to give himself in the hands of the Most High Establisher God above all gods.

Much too often it is only in difficult times or awful moments that people come to remember God and come to ask Him for favours.

Today we must be aware that we come in very challenging times in which we can see enough signs that the end-times is near. We not only have to strengthen ourselves but also have to prepare those around us for the times coming. Knowing our own limitations we should know that the Most Almighty is willing to be with us, to be our Guide and to be our Rock. On Him we can count. To Him we should look forward.

As worshippers of the Only One True God we should bring others to find the Way to God as well so that they too can feel comfortable in the glory of the Most High.

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To remember

• times when there is nothing we can do to change our predicaments > even specialists can bring us no cure or solution
• There is limit to what even the most intelligent + most skilled of us can do => situations + moments when God matters most to many people
• time when being reminded of God’s faithfulness = very comforting + very much needed.
• not failed one word of all His promises.
• He never ever turns back on His word =>  find courage + peace because we know > He is our savior, our provider, our deliver, our healer Who has never failed us => assurance, courage, + comfort.
• place our total dependence + utmost confidence in God for our victory. {Victories and Conquests}
• to those who live for God’s pleasure > Despite all obstacles, challenges, oppositions + enemies, despite our inabilities + limitations = God isn’t stopped => He brings us safely to His promise {Living in His Promises}
• The hour of temptation—the great time of testing will come, but we as God’s people need not worry or fear; God will protect us. {Kept From Trials}
• God never leave us or forsake us {Kept From Trials}
• His followers, we will be treated extremely badly; that’s for sure. For others who don’t have a personal, loving, saving relationship with Him, that’s really dreadful. But for us, He also gave the reason not be scared: we are very valuable to Him {No Worry; No Fear}
• God turns our worst experiences to great opportunities.{No Worry; No Fear}
• Praise God, He’s willing to grant us mercy, to bless us, to delight in us. {Mercy, Blessings, Pleasure}
• Because of God’s mercy, we don’t have to fear a nation’s or even this world’s impending doom. {Mercy, Blessings, Pleasure}

*

If things aren’t adding up in your life or happening as quickly as you’d like, remind yourself that God is still on His throne. All is not lost. He is working things out for your good. He will give you the strength to endure as he develops character in you. Nothing has the power to completely overtake you as long as He is on His throne. {God Is Still On His Throne}

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Preceding

Choose Green: Reading and talking about your ideas leads to success.

God’s wisdom for the believer brings peace

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Additional reading

1. Philippians 4:4–7 – Do Not Be Anxious
2. Signs of the the last days when difficult times will come
3. A voice and a Word given for wisdom
4. Best intimate relation to look for
5. Necessary to be known all over the earth

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Related

1. Sadness and Hard Times
2. Into the Darkness
3. Hope in the Storm
4. Life Keeps Changing
5. Life’s challenges
6. life’s challenges: I am lost
7. Don’t Forget the Terrible Times
8. 5 Bible Verses for Hard Times
9. 12 songs to get you through the tough times
10. Life on the Run…
11. Worrisome Times
12. Testing Times
13. 14 Days of Blessings: Day 5 Today I wish you courage.
14. Seasons That Try
15. All season Christians
16. Our Shepherd and God
17. Trust In God’s Wisdom
18. Trusting God in Difficult Times: A Prayer Based on Psalm 86
19. faith
20. Creating Comfort Out Of Difficulty.
21. God Is Still On His Throne
22. Even in the valley, God is faithful
23. God is Present
24. God Must Hate Me Today!
25. God’s Deadline
26. W.O.W.! God Listens
27. Intercession by the Holy Spirit
28. God will have His way!

Pr. Adrian Ona

Joshua 21:45   (NLT)   Not a single one of all the good promises the Lord had given to the family of Israel was left unfulfilled; everything he had spoken came true. 

There comes a time when being reminded of God’s faithfulness is very comforting and very much needed. There has not failed one word of all His promises. All He has spoken He has done just as He said.

We face very challenging times. There are times when there is nothing we can do to change our predicaments, when even specialists can bring us no cure or solution; they can just state painful facts. It can be very daunting, very unnerving, especially in life-and-death situations. It’s a fact of life. There is limit to what even the most intelligent and most skilled of us can do.

These are situations and moments when God matters most to many people, when our faith…

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A masterly copied and reproduced Word to feed the minds

The Divine Creator took care that all human beings could come to know Him. He provided His Word and made sure it was copied carefully and reproduced through the many years of humankind.

All people have the opportunity to hear about the Divine Maker. We, who have the gift of all

“the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation …” (2 Timothy 3:15)

must make abundant use of them to ‘feed’ our minds, and ‘inspire’ our actions, if we are to experience the wonders “of the age to come”.

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Preceding article: Dedicated daily reading of God’s word to create a vibrant faith within us

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• Nietzsche and the New Ten Commandments
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• How Will You Finish?
• Elohim, Mar-Yah showing His wonders

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Ideas about Religiosity

From the Old French religiosete (late 14th century)  and directly from Late Latin religiositas “religiousness,” from religiosus we got religiosity. In 1795 it came only 0.02% as used word. In 1947 it reached 0.1% and got a peak in 1944-45 from 0.17-021%to decline again until 1959 when it reached a deeper point again of 0.12%. From then onwards it got more used, with a frequency of 0.3% in 1978 and climbing to 0.44 in 1996. In2005 it got a boost and was used 0.62%. After a little dip it got again to 0.74% in 2008.

You can wonder if the word became more popular because the time was so bad that people sought more answers and where looking for meaning in their life, but in a time when more people were religious in a way which seemed exaggerated and insincere.

In the 2010 the word became again more popular to denote the way people were either going to be or not be religious. Having to face times where more people are not so much interested in the existence of a supernatural ruling power, a divine Creator and a controller of the universe, the act of those people became also more in the picture and part of debate. This also because many impeach that religion is the base of the many problems we do face today. Lots of people accuse the religious people of creating a situation of hatred between people. The non-religious people inculpate the believers of the different religious or faith groups this world counts, and that are many.

religions in Europe, map en. See File:Europe religion map.png for details. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

When we talk about religion we look at one or an other of the various systems of faith and worship based on such belief. As such we are often confronted with the great religions of the world, being Christendom and Christianity, Islam and Buddhism. the persons belonging to one or another religion we do expect to be bounded to the organisations of that religion and to have a religious life according to the rules of that religion.

When we talk about the religiosity today we think of the manner a person has an awakened sense of the elements we encounter in life. This may be concerning a higher unseen controlling power or powers, with the emotion and morality connected therewith. {Chambers 20th Century dictionary, 1972-1977, p.128,1141} In the 1977 reprint of the Chambers dictionary is still looked at religiosity as some bigotry or blind or excessive zeal, especially in religious matters.

Appropriate to or in accordance with the principles of a religion a person might be religious. In Christianity of or relating to a way of life dedicated to religion by the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, and defined by a monastic rule. {Collins English Dictionary}

When we talk about the religiosity of some one we think about his religious life or how he is spiritual, holy, sacred, divine, theological, righteous, sectarian, sanctified, doctrinal, devotional, scriptural, devout, believing, godly, committed, practising, faithful, pious, God-fearing, reverent, pure, churchgoing, conscientious, exact, rigid, rigorous, meticulous, scrupulous, fastidious, unerring, unswerving, punctilious. {Collins English Dictionary}

The religious person is some one who is taken by religiosity and beliefs in and worships something or someone, mostly a superhuman controlling power or powers, esp. a personal god or God or gods. The person who is religious wants to come to a religious act or have some religious activity, spending time to religiosity or giving time for his belief or practice, forming part of his or her thought about or worship of a divine being.

he has strong religious convictions

both men were deeply religious, intelligent, and moralistic. {The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English, 2009}

Today when we talk about religiosity and a religious person, not many are going to think straight ahead of

belonging or relating to a monastic order or other group of people who are united by their practice of religion: religious houses were built on ancient pagan sites. {The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English, 2009}

but are going to think more about the way people are treated or regarded with a devotion and scrupulousness appropriate to worship

I have a religious aversion to reading manuals. {The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English, 2009}

The religiosity may take on all sorts of forms, going from the simple worship – the activity of worshipping, to veneration, cultism, also going into the extreme, becoming excessive or irrational devotion to some activity; “made a fetish of cleanliness” or to become a devotion to the doctrine or a cult or to the practices of a cult.

Religiosity mostly has to do with devotion or love, passion, affection, intensity, attachment, zeal, fondness, fervour, adoration, ardour, earnestness, dedication, commitment, loyalty, allegiance, fidelity, adherence, constancy, and faithfulness. It can be seen in the way people act or worship and bring prayers, religious observance, church service, prayer meeting, matins, vespers, divine office.

In its broadest sense today religiosity can be seen as a comprehensive sociological term used to refer to the numerous aspects of religious activity, dedication, and belief (or religious doctrine)

The Gallup Religiosity Index, 2015. (dark color indicates religious, light nonreligious)

Some like to divide religiosity in six dimensions, others from four to twelve components, based on the understanding that there are at least three components to religious behaviour: knowing (cognition in the mind), feeling (affect to the spirit), and doing (behaviour of the body). Though sociologists have differed over the exact number of components of religiosity.

What can be found in lots of studies is when written by atheists the believer is looked at as a stupid person who believes in things unseen. For the reason such a person accepting what is written in the Bible lots of such researchers do find that they can not be very intellectual because many strong believers do not want to accept certain scientific findings. We can assure you that there are also very intelligent people, scientists, medics, lawyers etc. who are very religious.

Also is known that many do not want to show their religiosity in public and today many are even afraid to show their religiosity to others at all, or dare not to bring up religious matters in public but also not between their own friends or in the family.

For the reason to bring religiosity more in the open the Message Board or Internet Forum Christadelphian has been created in August 2016 on the American Yuku servers of Crowdgather, Inc.. By creating such forum the public has the opportunity to bring up questions and members are allowed to edit or delete their own posts. The posts, when there are more, will be contained in threads, where they appear as blocks one after another. The first post starting the thread; this may be called the TS (thread starter) or OP (original post). Posts that follow in the thread are meant to continue discussion about that post, or respond to other replies. The Christadelphian makers of the board are aware that it is not uncommon for discussions to be derailed, but they do want to give it a chance.

At the place Christadelpian where many people may exchange ideas easily hopefully many will bring forth some good subjects also. To start off the following opening articles can be found

1. Welcome to Christadelphian
2. Places of interest to get more knowledge about God
3. Places of interest to get more knowledge about God
4. Christadelphian a Christian
5. A god, The God and gods
6. How do you look at religion
7. What or which god are you looking at and going for and who or what do you want to worship
8. Christianity and Religiosity in Europe

 

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Preceding articles

Searching for fulfillment and meaning through own efforts, facing unsatisfaction and depression

Laboring in the Vineyard or Sitting on the Hillside with Jonah?

 

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Also related

1. A world with or without religion
2. Being Religious and Spiritual 1 Immateriality and Spiritual experience
3. Being Religious and Spiritual 2 Religiosity and spiritual life
4. Being Religious and Spiritual 5 Gnostic influences
5. Being Religious and Spiritual 3 Philosophers, Avicennism and the spiritual
6. Being Religious and Spiritual 7 Transcendence to become one
7. Looking for True Spirituality 1 Intro
8. Looking for True Spirituality 8 Measuring Up
9. Philosophy hand in hand with spirituality
10. Science, belief, denial and visibility 2
11. Points to remember of philosophy versus spirituality and religion
12. Science, belief, denial and visibility 2
13. Worship and worshipping
14. a Place to discuss religious matters and Christadelphianism
15. Religious matters
16. Religious people and painful absence of spring of living water
17. Christianity and Religiosity in Europe
18. New Christadelphian forum
19. Finding God amid all the religious externals
20. Problems attracting and maintaining worshippers
21. Heaven and hell still high on the believers list showing a religion gender gap
22. Structuur -structure
23. A visible organisation on earth

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Further reading

1. Religion
2. Religion and ceremonies
3. Ethics and Morals – the Ten Commandments
4. Politics is a funny game.
5. For the little gods’ sake…
6. Consciousness continues to amaze and elude
7. Weather or not.
8. Success
9. Religious matters
10. What comes next?
11. Young immigrants to Canada passionate about spirituality: Todd
12. the primitive as reaction, pt. 2
13. Science doesn’t know it all. Neither does Religion.
14. Cara Wall Scheffler: What anthropology can tell us about the origins of religious behaviour
15. Religious experience: William James + criticisms from Russell
16. Religious experience: Otto and the numinous
17. Religious experience: Ayer
18. Experiencing God
19. Belief in moralistic gods makes people generous—towards coreligionists
20. On Certainty
21. Stop Saying “I Feel Like …” to Spiritualize Your Desires
22. Go Ahead and Ask God for Something Really Small
23. How I Hear God’s Voice

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Related articles

• Head-counting the Christians
• Diversity Is More Than a Buzzword
• India saw religiously motivated killings in 2015: US
• Number Of Atheists Decreasing In India
• Do we need religious education in schools?
• 2015 Report on International Religious Freedom – China: Macau
• Is Islam a Religion?
• The Psychology of Ideology and Religion
• Religious Freedom in a Multicultural World
• Looking for writers for two Lifestyle Magazines

Sensitive trees for insensitive man

even, dense and old stand of beech trees (Fagus sylvatica) prepared to be regenerated (watch the young trees underneath the old ones) in the Brussels part of the Sonian Forest (Forêt de Soignes – Zoniënwoud) in Belgium (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

For years already, I claim we should treat plants and animals as subjects but also as living beings created by the Divine Creator, who has given them for our use but not mis-use or maltreatment. I always claimed they too have feelings and ways of communicating. In the 1970ies I followed many scientists who tried to proof and did proof how plants also have feelings and communicate with each other.

Though at regular times people seem to be reminded of it. Because too often man forgets that he is not alone having feelings and able to communicate with others of their own sort properly.

It is long known to biologists that trees in the forest are social beings. They can count, learn and remember; nurse sick neighbours; warn each other of danger by sending electrical signals across a fungal network known as the “Wood Wide Web”; and, for reasons unknown, keep the ancient stumps of long-felled companions alive for centuries by feeding them a sugar solution through their roots.

The German Peter Wohlleben studied forestry and spent over twenty years as a civil servant in the forestry commission. For him trees are his life and for that reason he also gave up his job by the state forestry because he wanted to put his ideas of ecology into practice. He now runs an environmentally friendly municipal piece of woodland in the village of Huemmel, holds lectures and seminars and has written books on subjects pertaining to woodlands and nature protection so those interested can accompany him through the forests of his homeland and the whole world.

The Hidden Life of Trees describes how trees are like human families. We as human beings only think of ourselves being able to make a nice family, though many make a mess of it, and when watching Danish television series I even wonder if there are normal Danish people walking around in the North, who can have a normal family life. In the series we come to see they all seem to be unfaithful.

In nature we see better build ups. Tree parents living together with their children, communicating with them, and supporting them as they grow, sharing nutrients with those who are sick or struggling, and even warning each other of impending dangers. With their newfound understanding of the delightfully complex life of trees, readers will never be able to look at a walk.

The deep dark forest One of the tracks through Pantmaenog Forest. There are prehistoric tumuli marked on the map here but they are difficult to find among the dense conifers. The trees here were planted after Bellstone quarry closed in 1908 and some of the old quarry workings are also concealed by the forest: human beings making their mark on the landscape in a variety of ways. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Since it first topped best-seller lists last year, Mr. Wohlleben has been spending more time on the media trail and less on the forest variety, making the case for a popular reimagination of trees, which, he says, contemporary society tends to look at as “organic robots” designed to produce oxygen and wood.

Though duly impressed with Mr. Wohlleben’s ability to capture the public’s attention, some German biologists question his use of words, like “talk” rather than the more standard “communicate,” to describe what goes on between trees in the forest. But no matter how you want to call that communication we should come to understand that it is really communicating, no matter if you want to call it talking or something else.

It is also different with human beings who think they communicate and are on social media, thinking they have so many friends, but in reality do not have many friends nor comrades and do not really have any real communication going on between all those people. We did not mind to run around in that what God had created us and did not have to hide anything for others, always able to keep faithful to the one we loved and where we choose for. But to day they want to shine and glitter in fashion clothes but are fast to take those cloths of in the hidden to do things we would have found inappropriate when there was not a strong connection with each other. But to day they seem to change of girl like they change of underpants, and often there is not much conversation going on and lots of time it is just a one night stand with no further communication at all. They have become worse than animals. (Are am I looking at it too pessimistic?)

Whilst I do believe those trees have much more communication going on than their human counterparts who are not afraid to kill more and more of those air-cleaners, not seeing that they are polluting more and more their own environment, making it poorer and poorer. Even those Germans who are reputed to have a special relationship with the forest are a kind of a cliché and it can well be that those Germans do not love their forest more than Swedes or Norwegians or Finns.

When I lived and worked in Germany, for relaxation I went into the woods around Köln and went swimming in open air. Then I could encounter many like minded nature lovers who wanted to be one with it and, like me searched for ways to respect it and to make properly use of feeding us in a clean and appropriate way. No chemicals, no additives, all pure whole grain and pure natural food.

Young musicians living in a shared community in Amsterdam.

Though when I look at how enthusiast we where in the 1960–70ies and had so many dreams, being called ‘flower power‘ people, many not understanding our idea of sharing and love and making a collective community, kibbutz or commune, many of them have gone far away from their idealism and the last few months we see many things we fought for, being undone in a very short time.

Though might we see somewhere some light shining in the dark, perhaps getting back some younger ones again being interested in nature and how we should behave in it? Can it be that there are again seeds planted for people willing to reconsider our human behaviour in the big universe?

For sure it is high time that people are going to understand the need of forests and green spaces around our busy roads and living estates. Yesterday it was again on the news that in the Kempen 122 ha of woods has to be offered for sand-winning, as if it is nothing. Man also thinks it is alright to artificially space out trees, but forget that shall not give the same intensification as wooded areas. The plantation forests that make up most of West Europe’s woods ensure that trees get more sunlight and grow faster. But, naturalists say, creating too much space between trees can disconnect them from their networks, stymieing some of their inborn resilience mechanisms.

Intrigued, Mr. Wohlleben began investigating alternate approaches to forestry. Visiting a handful of private forests in Switzerland and Germany, he was impressed.

“They had really thick, old trees,”

he said.

“They treated their forest much more lovingly, and the wood they produced was more valuable. In one forest, they said, when they wanted to buy a car, they cut two trees. For us, at the time, two trees would buy you a pizza.”

But where are all those very thick trees gone, I wonder. In Belgium some years ago you could find also many places where you could enjoy the view of masterly or kingly majestic trees. The last two years , in the region where I live now (Leefdaal, Flemish Brabant), we have seen hundreds of trees being cut and not replaced.

Deep in the forest something stirred Go Ape, a series of aerial walkways, swings and zip slides in the forestry land north of Aberfoyle. Note – human beings included for a sense of scale. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Mr Wohlleben had also difficulties with the ministry of forestry but it turned out that Mr. Wohlleben had won over the forest’s municipal owners. 10 years ago, the municipality took a chance. It ended its contract with the state forestry administration, and hired Mr. Wohlleben directly. He brought in horses, eliminated insecticides and began experimenting with letting the woods grow wilder. Within two years, the forest went from loss to profit, in part by eliminating expensive machinery and chemicals.

We should enjoy those trees going to grow in all sorts of shapes, creating all sorts of designs in the air. When we look at ourselves, we should see that we also do not have a life going in straight lines. We also not all grow up straight. Why should trees have to grow up in those particular straight lines indicated by people in the office. The same as the right 25 cm cucumbers, the bananas with the drawn out moon shape, the tomatoes and apples which may not be too big or flat… everything should be according to the book and numbers indicated,  … but life is not according the book of man … but should be according the Book of life …. with not everything exactly the same, and not always according to the books of man….

When is man going to see we should come back to being close to nature and to be part of nature again? And when is he going to understand we do need much more green around us … to have a colourful life full of health and joy?

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Please also find to read:

1. World Agenda for Sustainability
2. Welfare state and Poverty in Flanders #1 Up to 21st century
3. 2nd Half 20th Century Generations pressure to achieve

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Related articles

• Forest resilience; can microbes help combat climate change issues faster than genetic adaptations?
• New drive to restore forests in Eastern and S. Africa countries launched
• Data from 1800s can help researchers, forest managers maintain healthy forest ecosystems today
• International Day of Forests 2016: What’s the state of the world’s forests?
• Seeking Peace in a Healthy Environment
• Woodworms threaten Europe’s last pristine forest
• Forests Help Quench Urban Thirst
• Hug a Tree: International Day of Forests
• Forest / Wild Fire – Asia – Nepal
• Report On International Day Of Forests

Picturing Paradise Lost

Everything we may see around us is allowed to be there by the Most High, Divine Creator, the Adonai Elohim Hashem Jehovah.

 

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Preceding: Get the lenses out to getting closer again

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Read also

Elohim Mar Yah showing His wonders

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Related articles

• The cynosure of all things
• Psalm 90
• Apostolic Creative & Creativity
• Be Blessed at this Holy Time
• Salvation Is His Name. Selah.
• Psalm 136
• Sketches
• ‘Nature’ is creating a new online journal – but it won’t be open access
• God Isn’t A Man

Fraternized

Blessed meadow,

trees

and flowers

planted by God,

O sweetness of Paradise:

Let your leaves, like eyes, shed tears on my behalf,

For I am naked and a stranger to God’s glory.

(Hymn from Lenten Matins)

“Behold, the dwelling of God is with men. He will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away.”  (Revelations 21:3-4)

View original post

Get the lenses out to getting closer again

With Spring we get reminded to do things all anew. It is a new start for new life, in nature and perhaps also in our souls.

border|22x20px South Africa, Aerial view of Chapman’s Peak Drive. For exact location see geocode. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

We like watching beautiful sites and beautiful pictures. For those who are bounded on their wheelchair or are very limited in going places (like having limited financial means) the internet may provide them a view or window on the world. We are thankful for those photographers who want to share with us their views on this beautiful world. We do not know if they are aware that with their craft they can share the beauties of the Divine Creator His wonderworks. But at least He can use them to bring people to see that what He provides for the human beings, who can enjoy it or forget to look at it and miss a lot in their life.

For those wanting to catch the inedible beauty the world is offering it is not so easy to put it on a two dimensional piece of paper. When they want to get up close to their subject they shall need to make sure that the key elements are in focus.

Small blue green flowers WordPress site The Earth laughs in flowers writes in  Garden-photography get a little closer:

Using a dedicated macro lens you will find that only a millimetre or two from front to back will be pin sharp. If you are struggling to keep key elements in focus try shooting from a different angle and keep the background out of focus.

Extension tubes for SLR camera lenses. An extension tube attaches to the body of a single-lens reflex camera; the lens attaches to the tube. Extension tubes come in various lengths and contain no glass (as the pen indicates). These use bayonet-type lens mounts. Русский: Макро-кольца для зеркальных фотоаппаратов с байонетным креплением. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In life as in photography one has to focus on the right things and look for the essentials. In life we do have to look for important matters but also have to take care to see that we do not unbalance the natural matters. Natural subjects with eye-catching textures may pull your attention for putting it on the imaginary memory. Only when we see the total picture in life we can come to concentrate on the finer details, the same with photography.

When we do not have a garden of our own we may be lucky when we can manage to see gardens caught on the little frames, squeezed a few specimens into pots to adorn front ‘patio’s’ .

View from the northern CBD towards Table Mountain in Cape Town, South Africa. Lion’s Head is visible between the Shell and LG buildings. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Jude, the author of Travel Words, brings a a collection of her travel notes and diaries over the years, having lived in many different places both in the UK and abroad, including brief spells working as an Au Pair in Switzerland and in a Hotel in Norway followed by 12 years living in South Africa. Her childhood vision was to emigrate to Australia, but although she came close to it on several occasions she, like perhaps many of us who wanted to emigrate to warmer places. She now has her eldest son who now lives there which she is able to visit on several occasions and considering it her spiritual birthplace. Not many can be so lucky to have that opportunity.

If we are right, she also presents Small blue green macro and 60 mm a World in miniature.

You may have ea look at her sites and awe at the beauties she know to capture.

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Preceding

The natural beauties of life

Birds, Birds Everywhere

8 Reasons We’re Looking Forward to Springtime Photography

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Read also: Elohim Mar Yah showing His wonders

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• Detailed Creatures
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• Before You Buy a Better Camera, Buy Better Lenses
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• Have a “weird” weekend with these “weird lens reviews”
• ” ‘Lifes Little Things’ according to photographer Cendrine Marrouat
• Little Miss Ladybug
• It Has Been Eight Years

Winter and Spring wonders of nature showing the Master’s Hand

In the early 1860s, Gregor Mendel developed the concept of the gene to help explain results obtained while crossbreeding strains of garden peas. He identified physical characteristics (phenotypes), such as plant height and seed color, that could be passed on, unchanged, from one generation to the next. The hereditary factor that predicted the phenotype was termed a “gene.” Mendel hypothesized that genes were inherited in pairs, one from the male and one from the female parent. Plants that bred true (homozygotes) had inherited identical genes from their parents, whereas plants that did not breed true (hybrids, or heterozygotes) inherited alternative copies of the genes (alleles) from one parent that were similar, but not identical, to those from the other parent. {Encyclopedia, topic Genes} When you know that we have about 140,000 genes which instruct the body’s cells to put amino acids in the right sequence in order to build proteins, you might wonder how this all was provided in the first instance.

Mørketid or Polar night at the South Pole, Antarctica.

One type of light therapy lamp for classic (winter-based) seasonal affective disorder

After the “Majestic darkness”, the “Mörketid,” or the time when the sun does not rise at all in northern Norway the Northern Europeans may see light coming up the horizon. For two months, only a gray-red twilight glow was visible for a few hours at noontime. Having 21.2 percent of Norwegians living beyond the polar circle suffering from Winter depression they now may come back to life. Some looked for their therapeutic ‘sunlights’. The fresh light shall have the melatonin, a hormone produced in the brain, to increase again. They do know that an increasing number of tourists, however, are enticed to the polar circle by the flickering aurora, the glistening of the snow in the moonlight, and the cozy light of scattered villages. Also for them it are wonders of nature.

In Winter the social activities could have helped to keep people enjoying life. According to a Harvard University study, elderly people who participate in social activities, such as going to church, restaurants, sports events, and movies, live an average of two and a half years longer than less social people. It has long been assumed that it was the physical part of such activities that helped people, said Harvard’s Thomas Glass, who led the study. However, he added that this study provides

“perhaps the strongest circumstantial evidence we’ve had to date that having a meaningful purpose at the end of life lengthens life.”

Glass noted that doing more, regardless of the activity, extended life in almost every case.

With warmer weather awaited and the days becoming longer we should look forward to more outdoor activities which shall give us more fresh and hopefully better air. Though we do have to think seriously about preserving that fresh air and doing much more against the pollution.

TV watching may come in second to relax, after listening to music (according to a study of 2000), people should find more leisure in going to do outdoors leisure activities and socialising more. In this system of things throughout Europe more and more people are feeling pressed for time, reported in 1999 the German newspaper Gießener Allgemeine. The same is true whether people are working outside the home, doing housework, or enjoying leisure time.

“People sleep less, eat faster, and feel more rushed on the job than 40 years ago,”

says sociologist Manfred Garhammer, of Bamberg University.Part of that sleeping less is brought on by watching more television which is recently pushed more in the background by the youngsters who are spending lots of times on social media. Though they seem to accumulate lots of friends on them, they seem to be more lonely and prone depression than some years ago. We also hear of many more borderline personality disorders and eating disorders and broken families which do not help to have some good relations or making people happy.

The second decade of this century daily life continued to accelerate in all the European nations. You would think labour saving household devices and a reduction in hours at work would have brought about any “leisure society” or “time prosperity.” Instead, on average, time for meals has been reduced by 20 minutes and for a night’s rest by 40 minutes and people take less time to look at the beauties around them. The magic of nature, plants growing, animals going around, all seems to pass their eyes unnoticed.

In case they would give it more attention they not only would enjoy life much more but they also would come to see that all that vibrant exuberant activity is marvellously orchestrated and that there is a Master Brain behind it.

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Preceding:

Time to Unwind

Earth’s Unwinding

Autumn is in the land

Spring playing hide and seek

Spring-migration is on at the Holler

Beauty for beauty

Shy beauties

Time to bloom

3 daffodils

Echo

How to make sustainable, green habits second nature

We all have to have dreams

Savouring pictorial entertainement

Engagement in an actual two-way conversation with your deities

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Find also to read:

1. Democratic downfall
2. USA Climate Change Action Plan
3. 20 Best Gratitude Quotes
4. Bad company ruins good morals
5. Cleanliness and worrying or not about purity
6. Man in picture, seen from the other planets
7. Inequality, Injustice, Sustainability and the Free World Charter
8. Paris World Summit of Conscience, International interfaith gathering #1

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Further readings

1. Gratitude; by Lights media
2. Living Life to the Fullest
3. Animal Spirits: The Raven/Crow and The Hummingbird
4. The “Pursuit” of Happiness
5. Our State of Health and Happiness
6. Leisure-time – boredom-issues concerning college-students

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Related articles

• NASA data leads to rare discovery: Earth’s moon wandered off axis billions of years ago
• Climate Change Shifting Wine Grape Harvests in France and Switzerland
• India starts survey of elderly people to address their needs
• The genesis of schizophrenia
• Even if GMOs are safe, mandatory labeling is a good idea
• Is it “Wrong” to Believe that the Earth is a Sphere?
• Loneliness (as seen by Tess Connor)
• “Unnoticed”
• Lonely Life

‘I try to keep my hate in check. If you can’t hate, you can’t love.’

The author of this article thinks religion has robbed us of freedom to think and listen to our inner selves, but true Christianity demands just that. The Divine Creator requests us to place ourselves in the whole universe and to go deeper in our inner being. God demands us to come to know our own “I” and to make it not a “selfish I” but to come to an acceptable relationship with those around us.

The author also ask us to imagine a life where equality existed and institutions crumbled, which “is what keeps him pushing along”.

Those who read and come to know the Bible shall not be “misguided souls who choose to work in prisons” but the opposite shall become liberated beings who are no slave any more of this world. For them they shall know that no human being can do them something very bad. Even when they would take the life or the person this would not be the worst thing, because once death all suffering shall be ended and life gone, the person having done the killing not having accomplished much more and not been liberated himself of the agonies which are bothering his mind. The opposite he (the murderer) shall have some extra worries or bad dreams “en plus”.

To the Inside-Outside Alliance group of people who claim to be trying to support the struggles of those inside (or formerly inside) Durham County jail, and their families and friends, we would advice to revise their idea about religion and ask them not to take away the dreams of a better life which really can come true when a person does find the right religion.

By pushing all religion into the corner and to consider it evil is taking away the right of the prisoner to have a hold or guidance to become a better person or for the one who is imprisoned unlawfully to see the good his imprisonment may bring to his other inmates. Because even imprisoned we can do good to others and should be doing good to others. Even when we may be literally chained we do not have to be spiritually chained and even when they would put us in an isolation cell we can be very free when we are willing to make ourselves strong enough so that the other his limitations on us do not obstruct our self-development and our own being.

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To remember

The theory of will power

cause of demoralization in prisons:  All transgressions of accepted moral standards = to lack of a strong will

majority of inmates of prisons = people who did not have sufficient strength to resist the temptations surrounding them or to control a passion which momentarily carried them away.

In prisons = monasteries = everything done to kill a man’s will => no choice between one of two acts ==> whole life regulated + ordered in advance => to swim with the current, to obey under pain of severe punishment.

will power disappears

prison = done everything to kill inner strength > make him docile tool in hands of those who control him

penal system based on the deprivation of individual liberty

 

sound of chains + steel banging all the time = enough to test the strongest will = will break you

all we can do = give advice to people +live a moral life.

Misguided hate can hurt

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Preceding articles

Remain lovingly = No path for softies

Crying is good for inner self!!

A little ray of sunshine.

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Additional reading

• Not bounded by labels but liberated in Christ

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Amplify Voices Inside

Kropotkin wrote a lot on the wrongs of prisons. These two paragraphs hit the nail on the head for me. Sadly I feel these effects.

The theory of will power

“There is another important cause of demoralization in prisons. All transgressions of accepted moral standards may be ascribed to lack of a strong will. the majority of inmates of prisons are people who did not have sufficient strength to resist the temptations surrounding them or to control a passion which momentarily carried them away. In prisons as in monasteries, everything is done to kill a man’s will.

View original post 491 more words

Solstice, Saturnalia and Christmas-stress

Today lots of people tend to treat things such as Christmas trees and holiday gift giving as if they’ve been with us forever. While these are old traditions, they were once far more localized. In this world of media everywhere, we tend to forget that customs were once far more specific to the area. Lots of people also have lost the connection of those festivals and have transposed it to their group of people, believers or non-believers in Jesus Christ or in God.

From the Saxon days there was Yule for mid-winter and in the regions of West Europe the autumn storm brought many ideas alive to think about gods who controlled everything in nature. The days becoming darker demanded for and still demand for some more light bringing into it. In the old times to honour the gods it was custom to put all sorts of things in the trees as an offering to the gods. On December the 25th it was the day of the goddess of light. Time was taken to celebrate her.

Traditional Christmas card with holly and mistletoe. Circa 1880s

Druids, Celts, and even the Romans used evergreen branches made into wreaths in winter solstice celebrations. Because so many things lost colour and seemed to have died people looked up for those elements in nature which could be so strong that they stayed green. Pagan symbols as holly and ivy remained green and were taken as a promise of life to return in dead of winter. Holly – prized for its ability to bear fruit in winter and its healing uses – were the blessings people hoped they could have in the house and share with each other. Healing elements were very important to get through Winter.

While the Romans were holding the feast for the god Saturn — which occurred about the time of the winter solstice — they decked the outsides of their houses with holly. At the same time the Christians were quietly celebrating the birth of Christ, and to avoid detection they outwardly followed the custom of their heathen neighbours and decked their houses with holly as well. In this way holly came to be connected with Christmas customs. The plant was also regarded as a symbol of the Resurrection.

The missionaries coming in these regions quickly understood how the pagan traditions were so strong and how people would not like to give them up. This we still see today happening. As Christians should come to know more about traditions and about usages all over the world, plus having the Holy Scriptures to find what they could or could not do, we see that those who call themselves Christian still do not like to give up those pagan traditions and pagan festivals.

The Roman Catholic Church had already given in to Constantine the Great allowing the false teaching of the trinity be part of the Catholic Faith, so it was a further small step to adapt the Western Celtic and Saxon traditions to the Roman Faith. In 336 CE, during the time of this so called  first Christian Roman Emperor for the first time on December 25th “Christmas” was being celebrated.

A very early Christian tradition said that March 25^th was the day when Mary was told she’d give birth to Jesus (called the Annunciation). And nine months later, of course, would be December 25^th. But the Bible doesn’t mention the exact days of that annunciation, nor of the birth of Jesus, though from all the secular writings we do know when the cencus took place, when the falling star appeared and that it was in October that Mary and Joseph went to fulfil their duties. We can take it was in 4BCE on October the 17th that rabbi Jeshua from the tribe of King David was born. For those who would love to celebrate his birthday it is strange that they than not do this around the period Jesus was rally born.

An image from the necropolis under the Vatican in which Jesus = Mithras (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It is true that in many cultures we can find a festival of lights, also the Jews have such a festival of lights. Germans and Scandinavians had their yule festival. Celtic legends connected the solstice with Balder, the Scandinavian sun god or Norse god of light, son of the chief god Odin and his wife Frigg, who was struck down by a mistletoe arrow from the blind god Hödur (or Höd). At the pagan festival of Saturnalia, Romans feasted and gave gifts to the poor. Drinking was closely connected with these pagan feasts.

The Babylonian sun-god and god of agriculture and flocks, Tammuz, lover of Ishtar, born on the winter solstice according to legend was also celebrated on December the 25th and by the Roman Catholic Church his symbol was taken as the symbol for Jesus (the sign of Tammuz or the cross), placing Jesus as the bringer of light and god of light.

The leaders of the instituted organisation of clergy who accepted the trinity, agreed to adopted the saturnalia day of the ‘day of birth’ or ‘day of new life’ as a remembrance day of the new life Jesus has given to all mankind. For them it was easier to get more converts by keeping the folks from indulging in the old pagan festivals as part of the pagan culture, now transformed or redressed in a Roman Catholic dressing.

Branches that had thorns became to be the thorns Christ wore on the crucifix (sign of Tammuz) and the berries were stained red by his drops of blood. From the Norse and the Druids, the Mistletoe you may find growing here everywhere and at that time was considered special because of it found growing on the sacred oaks, was featured in several old myths and held to be sacred and associated with fertility, which led to kissing boughs.

Also today at the Christmas markets we can find the gangway where there is the kissing bough custom one holds that a woman who refuses the kiss shall have bad luck, and that those who kiss underneath it shall be having a blessed and fruitful year.

Not all the following years Christmas was part of Christian life. During Cromwell’s rule, Christmas was even banned. Charles II restored the holiday in England. However, the Parliament of Scotland officially abolished the observance of Christmas in 1640, to purge the church “of all superstitious observation of days”, and it was not restored as a public holiday in Scotland until 1958.

Julbocken, by John Bauer (1912)

From the 4th to the 19th century the tradition of the Northern people their celebration for their chief god and the father of Thor, (Thunor, or Thonar), Balder, and Tiw, Woden or Wotan became more and more also liked by the people from Holland and Belgium and the man with a long white beard who rode a horse through the heavens one evening each Autumn became their Sint Niklaas (Sinterklaas) or Sint Nicholas  (saint Nicholas) and in the Anglo Saxon countries Father Christmas or Santa Claus/Sancta Claus.

1881 illustration by Thomas Nast who, along with Clement Clarke Moore’s poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas”, helped to create the modern image of Santa Claus

From the 20th century onward that Father Christmas started gaining more popularity and the presents became more and more the focus of the people for that season were the darkness seemed to have darkened their Christian sight. Lots of Christians enjoyed decorating the ‘Christmas tree‘ and telling their children the Saint from Spain had brought presents for all those who had behaved well the previous year. Later in the month it was the Santa who once more brought presents in the house.

History illustrates the awesome outworking of initial events from when the Divine Creator has declared

Zephaniah 1:17-18 The Scriptures 1998+  (17)  “And I shall bring distress on men, and they shall walk like blind men – because they have sinned against יהוה  {Jehovah}, and their blood shall be poured out like dust and their flesh like dung.”  (18)  Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of יהוה  {Jehovah}. And by the fire of His jealousy all the earth shall be consumed, for He makes a sudden end of all those who dwell in the earth.

This comes from the Christadelphian bible reading for December 15 when we started reading this short and somewhat overlooked prophecy of Zephaniah. He would have been one of the prophets Peter referred to, as we read the final chapter of his second letter of the same day-reading, he told them they should remember

2 Peter 3:2 The Scriptures 1998+  (2)  the words previously spoken by the set-apart prophets, and of the command of the Master and Saviour, spoken by your emissaries,

Today we may find lots of people who have stress about the coming days when they have to present nice meals and many presents and have to fulfil many family visits and social obligations. Their eyes are closed for the real issue in life. Not a Santa shall bring salvation and he from the North has nothing to do with the birth of Jesus Christ. When we look at the many Christmas markets we even do not see much what reminds us of the Saviour who was sent by God to this earth.

Ages ago holy prophets told about the eyes of people which would become blinded. Today we

“should remember their predictions”

Folk tale depiction of Father Christmas riding on a goat. Perhaps an evolved version of the Swedish Tomte. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

We also should remember that they also warned for the time that scoffers were going to come and would lead people following their own sinful desires. About the promised one who was born, lived for a very short time here on earth, died, was resurrected from the dead and showed that he was not a spirit, but the one brought back alive by his heavenly Father, that master teacher is not remembered much these days and many do not think about his return or even do not believe in it.

Yes many laugh at us and say,

“Where is the promise of his coming?”

Many children have to promise their parents that they will be good next year. Then they also will get some present. But not many children learn about that man who died for our sins. Not many take time in this ‘Time of the year’ to read the Bible and to meditate on what God and his son Jesus had to say.

Today lots of people are concentrating on their self and do see all those refugees coming in our regions as a possible threat to what they can enjoy. Many are afraid they shall have to share with those poor people who travelled thousands of miles to find their luck in our Western world where money seems to flow like moulted butter.

Many people do not see what is really going on and how those set apart men of God had warned for certain situations we can see today. Also Jesus told about the signs of those days we have today. That time Jesus spoke about, may be much closer than many think. Many are blinded by the money this world is offering. Lots of people think everything can be said with presents and with the value of money. The real value for life they often do not see. Capitalism has put sand in their eyes.

The ways of godless thinking and living will be seen for all the foolishness they are; and we must never forget, there are only 2 ways: the broad way and the narrow way. Those on the narrow way are

2 Peter 3:12-15 The Scriptures 1998+  (12)  looking for and hastening the coming of the day of Elohim, through which the heavens shall be destroyed, being set on fire, and the elements melt with intense heat!  (13)  But according to His promise we wait for a renewed heavens and a renewed earth in which righteousness dwells.  (14)  So then, beloved ones, looking forward to this, do your utmost to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless,  (15)  and reckon the patience of our Master as deliverance, as also our beloved brother Sha’ul wrote to you, according to the wisdom given to him,

“waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace” (verses 13,14).

Included in what they (we) are waiting for, is what Job perceived and that we read today. He declared,

“I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me!” (19:25-27).

He believed in resurrection!

That final comment is most thought provoking. Our hearts will be in danger of fainting within us for multiple reasons, when God “bring(s) distress” – the experience will be awesome for believers! But how imminent then will be the time when they will “see God” through seeing his Son, marvelling in anticipation of the ultimate time when

“God himself will be with them as their God … for the former things have passed away” (Revelation 21:3,4).

Let us anticipate in faith the things that “our eyes shall behold” to carry us through the coming time of “distress”.

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Additional reading

1. Holidays, holy days and traditions
2. Christmas customs – Are They Christian?
3. Christmas, Saturnalia and the birth of Jesus
4. Irminsul, dies natalis solis invicti, birthday of light, Christmas and Saturnalia
5. Focus on outward appearances
6. Jesus begotten Son of God #1 Christmas and Christians
7. Christmas in Ancient Rome (AKA Saturnalia)
8. Christmas trees
9. Actions to be a reflection of openness of heart
10. With child and righteousness greater than the law
11. Objects around the birth and death of Jesus
12. Politics and power first priority #3 Elevation of Mary and the Holy Spirit
13. The imaginational war against Christmas
14. Autumn traditions for 2014 – 1: Sinterklaas and Zwarte Piet
15. Manna from Sint Nicholas
16. Traditionalists Vow to Fight Charges of Racism in Netherlands
17. Ignorance of Today’s Youth (and Adults)
18. Sancta Claus is not God
19. Brits believe Santa present at Jesus’ birth, new poll reveals
20. Wishing lanterns and Christmas

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Further reading

1. Winter Solstice and Yule
2. Yule is upon us!
3. Dickens’ Christmas Story as an Intertexteme in Leskov’s Yule Short Story
4. Winter Solstice 2015: Shortest Day Of The Year Celebrated As Pagan Yule
5. Commercialmas
6. Yule 2015 #15 performing magic
7. Yule 2015#16
8. A radiant vision of splendour
9. Yule prep
10. Yule Wreath and Garland
11. 13 Trolls
12. War Against Christmas?
13. Holiday King of the Hill
14. SGC Admin: From our inbox to you from: Patti Wigington: Paganism/Wicca Expert
15. Yule – Wicca subject of the week
16. Happy Yule 2015
17. How to bring some real Christmas spirits into your Yule-tide
18. 10 Ways to Celebrate Yule
19. Santa Claus, Krampus,The Wild Hunt and Me.
20. Vigil
21. Use Yule Bells For Positive Energy
22. Irish Christmas
23. Christmas, the Weridest Holiday of the Year; Part one
24. Holly Tree
25. Holly, Plant of Saturn and Mars
26. Symbol of Yule: Holly Mistletoe and Bayberry Candles
27. Memories of Yuletide
28. A Little history on the holly tree
29. Let It Be Done Unto Me
30. Annunciation
31. Annunciation: a reflection for Advent
32. This Annunciation
33. The Annunciation, according to Bl. Anne Catherine Emmerich
34. Tuesday 15th December
35. Wednesday Writings – Annunciation
36. Mary’s Heart
37. Angels & Advent: In His Shadow – a sermon podcast
38. And the virgin’s name was Mary
39. Angels of Advent: Encountering the Annunciation
40. Somersaults /Wednesday, December 9, 2015
41. Feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin
42. Mary and a “Yes” to God’s Request
43. Joseph’s Pregnant Advent
44. The Overshadowing of Mary –Pentecost
45. Christmas
46. Saturnalia
47. From Sukkot to Saturnalia: The Attack on Christmas in Sixteenth-Century..
48. Togas, Laurels, Chariots and Some Roast Lambs’ Testicles
49. Countdown to Christmas 17: Saturnalia
50. Saturnalia Is a Fleadh by Another Name. Just Don’t Tell Jerry Buttimer
51. By Jove! It’s Christmas: Did the First Christian Roman Emperor Appropriate..
52. War On Christmas Memes: Saturnalia
53. War On Christmas Memes: The Yule Tree
54. Christmas: it’s all about money, not messiahs.
55. Geranium Lake Properties, Saturn and Sol
56. Advent Calendar Day 15: Christmas: The Perfect Excuse For A Fight? by Lucy Brazier
57. Pig Washing 1, “Christmas”
58. Christmas is Pagan!
59. Christmas — Who gives a rip HOW we came up with the date we use?!?
60. Christmas is Tammuz’s Birthday?

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Related articles

• Santa preparing sleigh for ride through Nipomo
• Which Christian sect is the only true Christian church?
• 25 Orthodox rabbis issued a statement on Christianity
• Objects around the birth and death of Jesus
• Updating the Roman Catholic Church…
• Why Are Catholics Unable To Admit That, Yes, They Do Pray To Mary?

29. Laws that Value People

In our series on abortion we have let you hear pro’s and con’s and tried to show how we have to cope with such situations when something terrible happened or when people are confronted with the question of going to a Family Planning Office or counsellor or an abortion clinic.

Lots of people think there are only the 10 commandments, forgetting that those better would be called 10 Words. In the Torah are many many more rules given and to often people overlook the “You may not’s” to see them as commandments as well. Once is said a person may not do something him or her is given a rule or regulation to keep at.

.

Those who call themselves Christian should better also look at those “You may not” remarks in the Holy Scriptures.
Most of the instructions given in the Holy Scriptures concern relationships; the relationship to the Divine Creator and His creation, the creatures (man, animal and plant). They concern our attitude to ourself, to others around us, and to our ‘wants‘ and involve the things we should want to share with others around us, guiding us to a good behaviour and to a good way of life.

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In case many more people would live according to those Divine instructions there would be less trouble and less pain in this world.

*

To remember:

Much of our Western world rejects God and many would say our only meaning is found in evolution, and humanists and atheists (who tend to be one and the same) say that evolution is about survival and we have arrived at a point where we are sophisticated human beings who now act on more than just instinct. We have developed reason and rationality and so we see that it is sensible, if nothing else, to think well of one another if we are to survive and not enter another world war which would undoubtedly be even worse than the previous two. To survive we need to think well of one another. {28. Valuing People}

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Simply writing a list of human rights does not mean everyone will keep them. They will not make a child obey its parent or the parent not abuse the child. They will not stop an employer abusing an employee or vice-versa. They will not stop politicians, or any other national leaders for that matter, acting corruptly. Laws may be good in general but a strong adherence to the values underpinning those laws (remember, we considered this a couple of meditations back) will be the only thing that guarantees we treat one other well across the globe and, as we suggested in a previous meditation, we will only hold those values when we see and accept the primary cause behind those values – God. Any and every other foundation gives way. It will only be those who hold fast to God, the loving God of the Bible who reveals His design for us, who will genuinely hold these values – and live by them! {28. Valuing People}

.

Gal 9:5,6“I will demand an accounting for the life of his fellow man. Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for in the image of God has God made man.”

= You Will be held accountable to God for the wrongful killing of another person.

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God’s values are expressed in the Law He gave to Moses

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at the heart of valuing a human being = honour or respect or value the victim’s life > in the image of God has God made man

• evolution is the method God used in Creation, it was with purpose {28. Valuing People}
• God’s first ‘laying down the law’ in respect of the sanctity of human life
• God warned about being held accountable for taking a human life – + by implication forbade the taking of human life
• God warned of what the repercussions would be for taking a human life
• Ten Commandments = first half = about relationship with God + second half about relationships with other human beings
• instructions go to the heart of community + civilisation, relationships within families
• Parents = building block for next generation + to be honoured
• if parents are dishonoured or disrespected => following generation will be at odds with God’s design for a harmonious world

following commands in the negative form – “you shall not” = so sharp + clear => consequences for ignoring them not spelled out by God

=  in respect  of a) basic human life,  b) marriage relationships, c) personal property, d) human reputation and e) human peace and security.

main covenant laws = guidance laws about dealing with servants (slaves) i.e. respect within employment (Ex 21:2-11), the penalty for murder (v.12,14), manslaughter (v.13), a child attacking or cursing its parents (v.15,17), the death penalty for kidnapping (v16), ….

= steady catalogue of instructions about dealing with people + dealing with circumstances where life is threatened

first 15 verses of chapter 22 about dealing with property problems + protecting people, e.g. virgins 22:16,17,  aliens (22:21), widows and orphans (22:22-24), i.e. protecting the vulnerable.

Into chapter 23 we find laws about justice in general, about not helping the wicked (v.1), not perverting justice (v.2), not showing favouritism (v.3), not denying justice (v.6), not making false charges (v.7), not using bribes (v.8), not oppressing foreigners (v.9) + about their relationship with the Lord when they enter the Promised Land

first nine verses of chapter 23 = about making sure that people are dealt with fairly (justly).

=> underlying value of importance of each individual human being covered by a law to protect them

laws show how to deal with miscreants, how to deal with situations that go wrong

in Leviticus a whole series of lengthy requirements about offering sacrifices and those laws are all about how a guilty sinner can get right again with God.

God does bring destructive judgment on human beings > a remarkably restrained hand > constantly looking for the good for humanity

We are to value human life.

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Additional reading

1. No prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation
2. Incomplete without the mind of God
3. Written to whom it is about to be reckoned
4. No prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation
5. Bible, best Book of books to get to know the truth 
6. Bible, helmet of health, salvation and sword of the spirit
7. Written down in God’s NameA way to look for Christ, the Bible, Word of God
8. Bric-a-brac of the Bible
9. Feed Your Faith Daily
10. We should use the Bible every day
11. Fools despise wisdom and instruction
12. Genuine Christians content with going through motions of ritualistic religion
13. Every creature is a divine word because it proclaims God.
14. Observing the commandments and becoming doers of the Word

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Further reading

1. God’s Healing Power – Ask and You Shall Receive?
2. Moses, the Exodus and the 10 Commandments
3. The 10 Commandments
4. 10 Commandments- Keeping the Name of God
5. 10 Commandments: the idolatry commandments
6. 10 Commandment Pt. 2
7. God’s Law in the Life of the Baptized: The Fourth Commandment
8. God’s Law in the Life of the Baptized: The Fifth Commandment
9. God’s Law in the Life of the Baptized: The Sixth Commandment
10. God’s Law in the Life of the Baptized: The Seventh Commandment
11. “Are We Really Keeping the 10 Commandments?”
12. Following the Rules
13. What do you mean, the 10 Commandments don’t apply to me???
14. Sermon on 11 October 2015 about a whole lot of Law….and just a little bit of Gospel. (Because you have to put it in there)
15. The Law Fulfilled In You, Making It Obsolete
16. Kosmic Laws Of Nature
17. 20 Extremely Stupid Quotes By Famous People That Is Sure To Steal Your Ribs
18. The Ten Commandments Still Apply
19. Hear the Instruction of Thy Father, and Forsake Not the Law of Your Mother
20. Trick for Memorizng the 10 Commandments
21. These ought ye to have done…
22. Beware Spiritual Lust
23. Ten Words
24. The Ten Commandments Movie trailer
25. For the Narrative Lectionary Preacher: Deuteronomy & Talking about Law
26. Ten Commandments Removal Discussion – Eavesdropping
27. #7: This Rule Is So Underrated
28. Do Romans 14 and Colossians 2 Provide Cover For Modern Sabbath Deniers?
29. The Significance of the Shabbath & The Laws for Keeping the Shabbath
30. Understanding Bible Truth
31. Surpassing Glory.
32. Don’t Just Let the Rocks Cry Out
33. Humanity in the Toddler Stage
34. Is Removing The 10 Commandments A Big Deal?
35. Texas Riders Deliver 10 Commandments To Oklahoma Governor
36. An Overview of the Ten Commandments Enforced by the Civil Magistrate
37. Late Night Removal of 10 Commandments Monument in Oklahoma Reignites Controversy
38. “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
39. A Doubter’s Guide to the Bible Review: Is the Old Testament Law really good?
40. The little boy on the beach….
41. Truth 13. God’s laws guide you in the best way to live and lead you to Jesus.
42. Living with the understanding that His commandments are not burdensome.
43. In Need of Perfection – Part 11: You Shall Not Covet
44. The Unity of Body, Soul and the Tablets
45. Justifiable Acts Against Wrong
46. Devarim Five: Shamor v’Zakhor
47. Devarim Ten: Circumcise the Foreskin of Your Heart
48. Deuteronomy Chapters 10, 11, and 12
49. The basis of the 10 commandments

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Related articles

• Vayelech
• Ten Commandments Tablets Craft from Crayola.com
• Does God Make New Year’s Resolutions?
• This Week’s Old Testament: What Are Jews Learning at Temple Today?
• Haazinu
• Christian Salvation, Part Two: Old Testament Mercy
• Brotherly love: Lessons in how to improve our relationships with our fellow Jews before Yom Kippur
• PRIME CREATOR – 10 Commandments For Ascension – Channeler Dr Kathryn E May
• Families visit 10 Commandments monument for last look
• Yom Kippur Guide for the Perplexed, 2015

Bible Meditation Shop

Meditations in Meaning & Values  29. Laws that Value People

Ex 20:12-15   “Honour your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you. “You shall not murder. “You shall not commit adultery.

“You shall not steal. You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor. You shall not covet your neighbour’s house.

We considered in the previous meditation God’s first ‘laying down the law’ in respect of the sanctity of human life. When He said, ““I will demand an accounting for the life of his fellow man. Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for in the image of God has God made man,” He not only warned about being held accountable for taking a human life – and by implication forbade the taking of human life, but He also warned…

View original post 892 more words

If the baby is part of the woman’s body…

The Divine Creator from the beginning had a Plan and created man and mannin (woman) with a purpose. Everything which was in the universe had its purpose and so also in the human beings there were elements provided for a purpose.
Much too often man thinks they can do without something which is in their body. But is it really so?
Also when something new starts in the body people sometimes think they can get away with it by just removing it the same as they throw something in the bin.

Life does not belong in the bin.

Before eliminating something from our own body we should carefully think and consider what the consequences may be.

It is not because man lost connection with God and that there might not be any unity any more between God and man,  that everything is just permissible. it is this going astray from God that made that human beings made such a mess of humankind and lost respect of his own human body.

English: “1:1”, 23 flags of human beings at the ceiling of the Amsterdam Central station (above platform 5). Made by Anton Broos in 1984. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Living with human-reality we have to see where there is human-transgression, human-wickedness, where there may be incompetent human-beings, but also where the natural sinful often stubborn man need help and guidance and not words of damnation, by which the person shall not receive any help at all. It is up to those who love the Creator to show man’s sanctuary, man’s duties, man’s glory, man’s goal and to show others where our heart has to be.

Those in doubt and having questions about life and about the unborn we should show the ‘manual-for-life‘ and help them to go for the right solution, but this always in the knowledge that all matters have to be taken in account, and that sometimes it might also not be the way would like it to evolve. Always we should show respect for the person who shall have to make the right decision for herself and for her  and the unborn‘s future.

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Preceding articles:

Whoopi Goldberg commandments and abortion

My Choice (by Jezabel Jonson)

The Real ‘Choice’

“They Told Me What I Wanted To Hear” – Real Abortion Stories

The Things We Carry, by Penny

Hillary Clinton Says Religious Beliefs About Abortion Have to be Changed

Freedom and amendments, firearms and abortions

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Further reading:

1. We love because he first loved us
2. A philosophical error which rejects the body as part of the human person
3. Inner feeling, morality and Inter-connection with creation
4. Roman Catholic Church in the United States of America at war
5. 2014 Human Rights
6. American Senate ignoring many voices and tears of their own people
7. About lions and babies
8. Westboro Baptist Church and Catholic Truth against Nelson Mandela
9. Always a choice
10. The chief function of the body is to carry the brain around
11. We all are changed into the same image from glory to glory
12. God loving people justified

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Related articles

• Yom Kippur Guide for the Perplexed, 2015
• Whoopi Goldberg Admits the Purpose of Planned Parenthood is Abortion
• Whoopi on Planned Parenthood: ‘Get out of my vagina!’
• Peeple app lets you rate human beings like restaurants
• Pope Francis Challenges More Than Capitalism and Climate Change Skeptics
• Whoopi Goldberg is the Resident Bible Scholar on ‘The View’
• Elohim, Mar-Yah showing His wonders
• Ten Ten: Million Man March
• On Free Will: Theology.
• Haazinu

Whoopi Goldberg commandments and abortion

Whoopi Goldberg resident Bible-scholar on “the view”

In September Godfathers Politics commented on a lady who has a certain swing to

get away with her ignorance because her audience is often just as ignorant as she is {Godfatherpolitics: Whoopi Goldberg is the resident Bible-scholar on “the view”}

Whoopi Goldberg (the most recent winner) became the tenth winner, first winner to win two of their awards in the same year, and first African American winner in 2002. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Whoopi Goldberg on Tuesday September 22nd ranted about Catholicism, the Pope and his visit to America.

Whoopi Goldberg, offering her thoughts on the faith, complained about Pope Francis discussing abortion: ‘Well, there’s nothing in the Book that says anything about abortion. Let’s make sure of that. The Ten Commandments are the Ten Commandments. There’s only ten.’” {Whoopi Goldberg is the resident Bible-scholar on “the view”}

10 Commandments for many people

Most people do think there are only Ten commandments (the 10 commandments / 10 words) but God has given mankind many more mitzva (plural of mitzvot/mitzvoth), Statutes given unto us or commandments. Also we should know that there are the mitzva of the One and Only True God of gods, but also the commandments of Christ Jesus. Both are given to us to help us fulfil the Wishes of God and to bring us on the right track to the entrance of the Kingdom of God.

When we look at Bible translations we are confronted with choices being made and the translaters hoping to find words people would understand in the right context. Some Bible translations substitute the word “commandments” for “words.” therefore Godfather politics says:

Whoopi can’t be blamed for this mistake since millions of people make it.

The Most Trustworthy All Powerful Master Creator Deity Adonai, Everlasting Elohim Hashem Divine Jehovah God, with Whom we have to build a good relationship, has spoken many words in the past. Those words are bundled in the HolyScriptures, the book of books or Holy Bible, also known as the infallible and incorruptible comforting Word of God, full of Wisdom, that brings us the truth and can feed us when heard and that we have to accept, to be searched, to read, to study,  to understand, to follow,  able to bring us reconciliation, and which has to be proclaimed.

Decalogue

The Ambitious Italian American who adheres to his own personal code of honor Gary De Mar prefers people to use the more accurate word “Decalogue,” from the Greek words deka (ten) and logos (words).

The name “decalogue” is recorded from late Middle English, and comes via French and ecclesiastical Latin from Greek dekalogos (biblos) ‘(book of) the Ten Commandments’, from hoi deka logoi, literally ‘the ten sayings’ which in many translations became  ‘the Ten Commandments’ . The decalogue brings a summary of divine law given by the God of Israel to Moses on Mt. Sinai. They describe what’s listed in Exodus 20:1-17 and Deuteronomy 5:6-21. Even so, command “words” (debarim) from God are laws to be followed.

The Decalogue or Ten Sayings of God on the 2 Stone tables of Moses – “Tables of the Law”, synagogue window, Alsace, late 19th century, Alsatian Museum of Strasbourg.

Those sayings of God or the wishes He Expressed have a paramount place in the ethical systems of Judaism, Christendom and Christianity, and Islam. Listed in the books of Exodus and Deuteronomy, the commandments are divided into duties toward God and toward one’s family and neighbours and society. Their normative status is indicated by their prescriptive and unconditional language. They function as general stipulations decreed by God as part of His covenant with the people of Israel. In both Exodus and Deuteronomy, the case law following the listing of the commandments is based on them and deduced from the principles contained in them. In Islamic tradition, Moses brings new revelation in the form of the commandments. In Christianity it is Jesus who brings a new revelation and offers mankind with the grace of God a Royal Commandment or Golden Rule in exchange for about 675 old laws, having the gentiles (non–Jewish), goy or goyim (people of the nations) or heathen who want to convert to the faith of Jesus making it easier to be part of that Christian community.

Being under the Law

Believers in God have to be under the Law following, obeying or observing the ordinances of Law of Moses or Mosaic Law, which has laws of deportment or conduct, ways of behaviour and customs, concerning food and ways of eating and law-keeping. This decalogue, or God’s laws is also known as  Law of Moses and has been the base for many law-books.

The Bible, God’s inspired Word, should be the guide for all those people who believe in the Divine Creator God the Most Almighty.

When we do hear Whoopi Goldberg talking about the Bible and Christian faith see sees to have an idea which we do find by some more American television viewers and which is in big contrast with some other American views. Two ends which are contrasting like day and night.
Whoopi Goldberg, offering her thoughts on the faith in her show, complained about Pope Francis discussing abortion:

‘Well, there’s nothing in the Book that says anything about abortion. Let’s make sure of that. The Ten Commandments are the Ten Commandments. There’s only ten.’”

As shown above there are more than ten commandments written down in Scriptures and the ten words she is talking about are including a whole lot more than she seems to believe.

Women trump card

For Gary DeMar

The war on women trump card has been abortion. Any time a conservative begins to make political progress, Democrats and any number of establishment Republicans pull out the abortion deck and play the “exception” cards: rape, incest, and the life of the mother. {How Rand Paul Turned the Tables on the Abortion Debate }

Several things may not be explicitly mentioned in the Holy Scriptures, but can be found in-between the lines.as such many may think there is nothing about rape and abortion in the Bible.

It’s true that there is not specific law in the Bible that says,

“You shall not abort your child.”

You won’t find these laws either:
“You shall not drown your child. You shall not throw your child off a bridge. You shall not strangle your child. You shall not leave your child in a hot car. You shall not stab your child. You shall not poison your child.”

“You shall not murder covers”

all these situations and many more. {Whoopi Goldberg is the resident Bible-scholar on “the view”}

Living souls to be respected

From the Holy Scriptures we can come to know we do have to have respect for every living soul, this means every animal and every human being. A soul being the element with life in it., which belongs to the Almighty Creator and not to man. We may use the animals for food, but should not just kill them for fun. the same we should be careful with other human beings which we do not have the right to take their life. It is not up to man to judge about other human beings their life. This brings into discussion two important human beings, the ones who are not yet on earth and the ones who are living already on this earth. For the last group it is quit easy. Even when they murdered somebody it is not up to us to lower ourselves at the same level as them. So we may not kill those who even did atrocious things to others. The death penalty is totally against the Law of God. Strangely enough in the United States we have lots of Americans who cry more death-penalties should be carried out and that more people should land on the electric chair or should get a deadly injection, those same people call the doctors and girls or women who carry out an abortion a murderer. Some even do not mind to kill such doctors who have abortion clinics. (Weird, weird, weird!)

For the more difficult matter of respect to other living beings comes the unborn who is there because of rape, or who is dis-formed, or who brings the carrier in life danger and offers the only solution either to bring the child on earth and let the mother die or keep the mother alive but have the death foetus.

The Bible attributes self-consciousness to unborn babies, something that modern medicine has studied and acknowledged. Jacob and Esau “struggled together within” their mother’s womb (Genesis 25:22). The New Testament offers a similar glimpse into prenatal consciousness: “And it came about that when Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb” (Luke 1:41). “Struggling” and “leaping” are the result of consciousness. Jacob and Esau fighting inside the womb is indicative of their continued fighting outside the womb. John leaps in reaction to Mary’s pregnancy. {Whoopi Goldberg is the resident Bible-scholar on “the view”}

Pastoral letters and justification

In 2014 in the United States of America for several Americans the newest low for Planned Parenthood is to use the Bible and religion to convince women that they are morally justified to kill their unborn babies.

The organization’s so-called “Pastoral Letter” begins with this outlandish claim:

“Many people wrongly assume that all religious leaders disapprove of abortion. The truth is that abortion is not even mentioned in the Scriptures.” {Planned Parenthood Uses Bible to Support Abortion}

For many evangelicals and pentecostal Christian believers it may be very simple, but they forget that life is not just that simple. Many religious leaders disapprove of abortion, but others also dare to point out reasons why it could be better to have an abortion. but

It’s not a valid argument to say that because some do that killing an unborn baby is a morally acceptable choice. {Planned Parenthood Uses Bible to Support Abortion}

De Mar is wrong

to suspect that most if not all the religious leaders Planned Parenthood claims do not “disapprove of abortion” have a very low opinion of the authority of the Bible. {Planned Parenthood Uses Bible to Support Abortion}

Several of those religious and political leaders might have a much higher opinion of the authority of the Bible and some even might believe the many words for what they say whilst lots of the anti-abortionist leagues do have their own agenda and do keep to a lot of unbiblical doctrines.

Sixth commandment

Though many people might forget that the Sixth Commandment also covers unborn babies. Unborn babies are viewed as persons. everything which receives the breath of the Divine Creator is what becomes a ‘living soul’. A soul is not something what exists next to a person, but is the living person him or herself. As soon as there has been a connection which has created a beginning of a new human being, there is a new life.

We may not forget that it will never be so easy as many pretend to take away yourself the life from what moves within the own female body. We also have to remember that no Hebrew woman in the old times would ever have thought of killing her unborn baby. To be barren was one of the worst things for a woman to endure (Genesis 17:15-16; 25:21; 30:1; 1 Samuel 1:2-10; Psalms 113:9; 127:3-5; Luke 1:7; 23:29; Galatians 4:27; Hebrew 11:11). To kill an “inheritance from Jehovah God” would have been unthinkable.

But then people should also consider

when a being or something from nature becomes a human being and an inheritance from God.

Products of conception

Big question in the whole matter is also

when does a product of conception becomes a human being?

De Mar may point out

Some commentators claim that in Exodus 21:22 killing a “foetus” is nothing more than a property crime rather than the killing of a human being. This is absurd. Their operating premise is that an unborn baby is not defined as a person.

when he says that the Bible teaches otherwise he does overlook that in several passages he mentions in several articles he wrote about this subject he always refers to ‘children’ who came out of the womb of the mother or who were already long borns and as such were effectively to be called ‘children’.
He writes

The original Hebrew reads: “And if men struggle with each other and strike a pregnant woman so that her children [yeled] come out. . . .” Notice that the text uses the word “children,” not “products of conception.” {Whoopi Goldberg is the resident Bible-scholar on “the view”} + {Planned Parenthood Uses Bible to Support Abortion}

He recognises:

Notice that the text uses the word “children,” not “products of conception.” The Hebrew word for “children” in this verse is used in other contexts to designate a child already born. For example, in Exodus 2:6 we read: “When Pharaoh’s daughter opened [the basket], she saw the child [yeled], and behold, the boy was crying. And she had pity on him and said, ‘This is one of the Hebrews’ children [yeled].’” {Planned Parenthood Uses Bible to Support Abortion}

That child from the Hebrews (Moses) was already delivered some time earlier.

We must be honest, nowhere is there written ‘child’ for the foetus. Only when the foetus is fully grown is being spoken about the child that comes out of the woman.

The bible also speaks about giving birth prematurely, which in english bible translations is often translated by “miscarriage.” The Holman Christian Standard Bible translates:

“When men get in a fight and hit a pregnant woman so that her children are born [prematurely] but there is no injury, the one who hit her must be fined as the woman’s husband demands from him, and he must pay according to judicial assessment”

de Mar writes further:

There are two Hebrew words that fit the circumstances of miscarriage or premature birth: “There shall be no one miscarrying [shakal] or barren in your land” (Ex. 23:26; also Hosea 9:14). The Hebrew word for “miscarriage” was available to Moses since it appears just two chapters later.

Another example is found in the book of Job: “Or like a miscarriage [nefel] which is discarded, I would not be” (Job 3:16). Meredith G. Kline offers a helpful summary of the passage:

“This law found in Exodus 21:22–25 turns out to be perhaps the most decisive positive evidence in scripture that the fetus is to be regarded as a living person…. No matter whether one interprets the first or second penalty to have reference to a miscarriage, there is no difference in the treatments according to the fetus and the woman. Either way the fetus is regarded as a living person, so that to be criminally responsible for the destruction of the fetus is to forfeit one’s life…. The fetus, at any stage of development, is, in the eyes of this law, a living being, for life (nephesh) is attributed to it…. Consistently in the relevant data of Scripture a continuum of identity is evident between the fetus and the person subsequently born and Exodus 21:22–25 makes it clear that this prenatal human being is to be regarded as a separate and distinct human life.”1

Umberto Cassuto, also known as Moshe David Cassuto (1883–1951), was a Jewish rabbi and biblical scholar born in Florence, Italy. In his commentary on Exodus, he presents an accurate translation of the passage based on the nuances of the Hebrew:

“When men strive together and they hurt unintentionally a woman with child, and her children come forth but no mischief happens — that is, the woman and the children do not die — the one who hurts her shall surely be punished by a fine. But if any mischief happens, that is, if the woman dies or the children, then you shall give life for life.”2

The King James Version takes a different translation approach, but it is consistent with the text that “children” are “coming out.” The KJV reads,

“If men strive, and hurt a woman with child, so that her fruit depart from her, and yet no mischief follow: he shall be surely punished, according as the woman’s husband will lay upon him; and he shall pay as the judges determine” (Ex. 21:22).

The use of the word “fruit” is a descriptive euphemism for a born child in the Old Testament (Gen. 30:2) and the New Testament (Luke 1:42).

There is no getting around the fact that the Bible opposes killing unborn children, for that’s what they’re called. How can an organization like Planned Parenthood that is in the unborn baby killing business be trusted with commentary on what the Bible says on the subject?

1. Meredith G. Kline, “Lex Talionis and the Human Fetus,” The Simon Greenleaf Law Review, 5 (1985–1986), 75, 83, 88–89. This article originally appeared in Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society (September 1977). Also see H. Wayne House, “Miscarriage or Premature Birth: Additional Thoughts on Exodus 21:22-25,” Westminster Theological Journal, Vol. 41, No. 1 (Fall 1978), 108–123.
2. Umberto Cassuto, Commentary on the Book of Exodus (Jerusalem: Magnes Press, The Hebrew University, 1967), 275. {Planned Parenthood Uses Bible to Support Abortion}

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Find additional reading:

1. Sayings around God
2. Incomplete without the mind of God
3. Commandments of God
4. Commandments of Christ
5. Necessity of a revelation of creation 11 Believing and obeying the gospel of the Kingdom of God
6. People Seeking for God 5 Bread of life
7. Hashem השם, Hebrew for “the Name”
8. Bible Word from God
9. Bible a guide – Bijbel als gids
10. Looking for True Spirituality 8 Measuring Up
11. Being Religious and Spiritual 5 Gnostic influences
12. Being Religious and Spiritual 8 Spiritual, Mystic and not or well religious
13. Not trying to make the heathen live like Jews #1
14. God’s design in the creation of the world
15. God’s Blog recorded in a Book
16. Creator and Blogger God 3 Lesson and solution
17. Creator and Blogger God 4 Expounding voice
18. Creator and Blogger God 6 For His people
19. Creator and Blogger God 7 A Blog of a Book 1 Believing the Blogger
20. Creator and Blogger God 8 A Blog of a Book 2 Holy One making Scriptures Holy
21. Creator and Blogger God 10 A Blog of a Book 4 Listening to the Blogger
22. Creator and Blogger God 12 Old and New Blog 2 Blog for every day
23. Words God speaks unto all and the Spirit that quickens
24. Scripture words written for our learning, given by inspiration of God for edification
25. Statutes given unto us
26. Time passing away
27. Are Christians prepared to Rejoice in the Lord
28. Looking for something or for the Truth and what it might be and self-awareness
29. The true light in recorded words
30. Mosaic law
31. Observing the commandments and becoming doers of the Word
32. Mitzvot or commandment
33. God’s law or Law of God or Laws of God
34. Laws of the Old Testament
35. Biblical law
36. Laws of Moses or Law of Moses
37. Law of Christ
38. Laws of man
39. Ethical laws
40. Family laws
41. Natural laws
42. Moral law
43. Organic laws
44. Physical laws
45. Rational laws
46. Religious laws
47. Roman law
48. Royal law of love
49. Letter of the law
50. Levitical laws
51. Nazarite laws
52. Sharia law
53. Way of law
54. Law of faith
55. Law of non-contradiction
56. Laws of logic
57. Laws of nature
58. Laws for the universe
59. Health laws
60. Jewish law
61. Judeo-Christian-values
62. Works of the law
63. Love for Law of God
64. 1st commandment
65. 3rd commandment
66. 4th commandment
67. Commandments of Christ
68. Commandments of God
69. Keeping Gods commandments
70. To observe Gods commandments
71. Yoke of commandments
72. Why we do not keep to a Sabbath or a Sunday or Lord’s Day #2 Testimony
73. Why we do not keep to a Sabbath or a Sunday or Lord’s Day #6 Sunday or the Lord’s day
74. How long to wait before bringing religiousness and spirituality in practice
75. Blogging in the world for Jesus and his Father
76. Written down for God to bring us up to a virtuous life
77. For the Will of Him who is greater than Jesus
78. Al-Fatiha [The Opening] Süra 1: 4-7 Merciful Lord of the Creation to show us the right path
79. Catholicism, Anabaptism and Crisis of Christianity
80. Incomplete without the mind of God
81. Feed Your Faith Daily
82. We should use the Bible every day
83. Bric-a-brac of the Bible
84. Letter to a Non-Christian Nation
85. Praying and acts of meditation without ceasing + Commands to obey
86. Building up the spirit of the soul
87. Being under the law
88. Ceremonial law
89. Lawful actions
90. Unlawful actions
91. Abolishment of Mosaic Law
92. Breach of Sabbath law
93. Breaking the Mosaic law
94. Abrogation of many Mosaic Laws
95. Were allowed to wilfully break the Law of Moses
96. Made dead to the Law
97. Curse of the law
98. Justification by law
99. God loving people justified
100. The Law of Christ: Law of Love
101. Free from the law
102. Golden rule for understanding in spiritual matters obedience
103. Built on or Belonging to Jewish tradition #4 Mozaic and Noachide laws
104. A philosophical error which rejects the body as part of the human person
105. From Despair to Victory
106. I can’t believe that … (4) God’s word would be so violent
107. 2014 Human Rights
108. American Senate ignoring many voices and tears of their own people
109. Roman Catholic Church in the United States of America at war
110. Caricaturing and disapproving sceptics, religious critics and figured out ethics
111. About lions and babies
112. Westboro Baptist Church and Catholic Truth against Nelson Mandela
113. Always a choice

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Further reading:

1. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.
2. Republicans’ Love Hate Relationship With Waiting Periods
3. Choosing Evil
4. My Choice
5. New at Live Action: Abortion Fans Terrified of Memorials to Preborn. Let’s Do It.
6. Should I Have An Abortion
7. Praise Report from Joan
8. The Things We Carry, by Penny
9. Video: Children and Abortion
10. “They Told Me What I Wanted To Hear” – Real Abortion Stories
11. New at Live Action – Obama Hypocritically Lectures Christians on Inclusion
12. Letter to National Abortion Federation #1
13. At Least Someones’s Being Honest…
14. Abortion today: what women need and want
15. A Case of Need by Michael Crichton (1968)
16. Gloria Steinem: ‘If men could get pregnant, abortion would be a sacrament’
17. Michigan Bills Would Ban Second-Trimester Abortion Procedure
18. Episode 113: My Choice is No Crime – Abortion is a Health Issue
19. Experiences at the Abortion Clinic
20. 33 Ways You Can Be Prolife
21. Gun Control: Pro-Life or Anti-Suffering?
22. Thinking about Faith and Politics: A Non-Partisan Reflection
23. A Conversation With “Safe,” “Legal,” and “Rare”
24. The White Rose
25. Sidewalk Chronicles: Prolife Mentorship
26. Religion and Abortion
27. Realities and ideas in listening to the Pope and the Synod
28. The Terminated
29. For my Mother, who tried to murder me…
30. Top Two GOP Planks Expose Mindset
31. Politicians and abortion
32. Frenetic Friday Night
33. The Antichrist’s Eucharist
34. New at Live Action: Liberal pro-lifer needs reminding that respect must be mutual
35. Just two cents… & art speaks in a silent way
36. A house divided…..a reflection.
37. Thoughts on Hippocrates
38. Rick Santorum: ‘If marriage is just about adults, kids are in trouble’
39. Planned Parenthood Hearing Oversight Committee Video
40. I had an abortion too
41. Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992)
42. Grace, Truth, Worldviews and The Ongoing Abortion Debate
43. Did We Win?
44. Pro-Life and Pro-Choice
45. Jacquette on Abortion
46. Turnbull and Dutton wage war on women
47. Rogue mothers have no decency
48. Fan Friday—Planned Parenthood
49. A moving set of photos has reignited a debate about abortion in China
50. How do you make her a mother?
51. Wasserman Schultz’s Shocking Answer To When Her Children Became Human
52. Lost and Found – October 16th Edition
53. Abortion Advocacy Is Extremisim
54. Abortionist Caught With 14 Containers of Aborted Babies in His Car Works at Catholic Hospital | LifeNews.com
55. Women would not lose access to healthcare if Planned Parenthood is defunded
56. DWS Won’t Say if her Children Were Human Beings Before They Were Born
57. The Medical Framework and Early Medical Abortion in the U.K.: How Can a State Control Swallowing?
58. For This Cause I Was Born
59. One Thousand Stitches
60. Motherhood in the spring time
61. The Second Side
62. Why does Hillary Clinton regard Planned Parenthood as a protected organization?
63. Things you should know about Pregnancy
64. Women’s health 2.0: The pill, the ‘Rod’ and emergency contraception vs abortion.
65. The Power of Telling Someone Where to Shove it…
66. Stand against the inhumanity of human abortion. Be their voice.
67. The Indecent Mind of Andrea Dworkin by Stacey McCain
68. Missouri GOP lawmakers brainstorm new abortion legislation
69. HSCI319W – Applied Health Ethics – Midterm Review Session
70. Cops seize 14 containers of human tissue from abortionist
71. Memebuster – Sharia Law Is Identical To The Republican Platform
72. The Principle of Not Caring What Other People Do
73. A list of shame: 9 MEPs publicly support Planned Parenthood’s trade with baby organs
74. PPFA change shows its guilt, pro-lifers say
75. Church, Wake Up
76. What Planned Parenthood’s Change on Fetal Tissue Really Means
77. Pro-Life Argument Archive ❤
78. Women’s health
79. Whoes Body?
80. Four
81. The Life You Save May Be Your Own
82. Federal lawsuit filed in San Diego to stop California pregnancy care center “Bully” law AB 775 that coerces conscience violating speech.
83. California Democrat Governor forces crisis pregnancy clinics to promote abortion
84. This is Down Syndrome Awareness Month
85. Excuse Me, Your Liberal Propaganda is Showing
86. This Is My Abortion Story
87. National issues affecting women to consider..
88. “Can’t Abort Love”
89. The truth about how women get abortions in America
90. The Real ‘Choice’
91. “Whose Positions Are ‘Extreme”?: Marco Rubio, ‘A Woman Has A Right To Choose’, But Not Really
92. Abortion Survivor to Cecile Richards: ‘I Am So Thankful to Be Alive’
93. Planned Parenthood and the Future
94. Abortion- It’s Wrong no matter how you look at it!
95. ‘Pro-Life’ issues and human rights
96. Abortion
97. The ordeals of student mothers
98. Standing Up for Life
99. My Pet Peeve
100. Gender Stereotypes, Sex education and illegal Abortions in Argentina.
101. Nothing Changes
102. Affirmation of Life vs. Quality of Life
103. Quick link: decriminalise abortion in NSW
104. CA Religious Health Clinics Sue For Right To Withhold Info About Abortion
105. The Ironic Post on Patheos that Bristol and Sarah Never Read
106. Sidewalk chroncicles: “I’m going to Hell”, he said.
107. Planned Parenthood Announces They Will No Longer Be Compensated for Fetal Parts
108. ICYMI: Would Defunding Planned Parenthood Violate the Constitution?
109. Truth exposed about woman who stood up to Trump with tough questions
110. The Byproduct Of Idolatry
111. Why We Should be Nothing but Pro-voice
112. 313. Pro-Choice Pro-Life
113. Our Gospel call to support a culture of life

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