Joshua

Doesn't single out homosexuality in any way?!?!? Sounds like a pretty clearcut condemnation of homosexuality if you ask me. Romans 1:31 says being without understanding is a trait of those whom God has given over to a reprobate mind, it does NOT say it's a sin: As for why Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed, it is even spoken of their homosexuality here: Jude 1:7 Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. All through the OT and even in the NT that phrase of someone "knowing" someone else refers to sexual intercourse. (i.e. Ge. 4:1, Ge. 4:17, Ge. 4:25, Jg. 11:39, Jg.19:25, 1 Sa. 1:19, 1 Ki. 1:4, Mt. 1:25) Lot naturally was horrified by what they wanted to do so much even that he did end up offering his daughters instead. Also, if you'd read Genesis 19:33 you would know that Lot didn't participate willingly, his daughters had to get him so drunk he didn't even know they were in the room for them to be able to do it. While not all sin may affect anyone other then the sinners personally, it is still sinning against God. And sin is a disease. Christ came not only to forgive us of our sins but to make us new people that would turn from their sins and thus He will destroy the works of the devil, including sin (1 John 3:8).

I voted for Peroutka If Bush and Kerry were my only choices I'd vote "None of the Above"

Umm... I say it's just because we are all slaves to our lusts and sins. You could also say a murderer can't help being one, he just is. Even if he is able to physically refrain from murdering someone in his mind he's already committed the crime and thus is guilty. Even if you don't commit adultery/premarital sex with someone in your mind you've most likely already done it, making you guilty. Until you're saved and given a new mind, a new heart, and a new Spirit you are not freed from the bondage of sin so that you are free instead to serve God.So I suppose you can make that argument for anyone other then a Christian. And of course until that heart transaction occurs whereby you get in a right relationship with God through Jesus Christ's finished work on the cross you are not freed from that sin bondage, nor do you have eternal life. A person living rebelliously in known sin is almost certainly not a Christian is what I am saying. And the Bible makes it abundantly clear that homosexuality like hating others, adultery, lying (whether they're little and white or whatever their characteristics), stealing, coveting (wanting what other people have), etc... is a sin. Just check the first chapter of Romans if you don't believe me. God views sodomy pretty seriously... where do you think the word comes from? Sodom and Gomorrah... Before the angels pulled Lot and his family out of the city before it got burned up, a bunch of homosexuals wanted to rape the angels who they thought were men... It's right there in Genesis 19 btw.

I was noticing I already posted my good poems here so I decided to write another one I just wrote this now in about the last 5 or 10 minutes Enjoy -_-What all think they've gotAnd so many do notIt's life's biggest mustDon't confuse it with lustAny heart it can thawFulfils God's moral LawYou can give to the poorLet your body be burnedWork incredible miraclesSpeak in tongues never heardAnd if you're missing outOn this which you most needThen let there be no doubtYou have nothing indeedMany claim to serve GodBut escape this commandAnd they find it so oddThis is His great demandAnd for all of your knowledgeAnd wisdom, and powerWhich makes others to trembleAnd still others to cowerIf you're lacking in thisThen all you have is mootFor you're missing the pointThis, God's great attributeIt never harms othersIs patient and kindMeekly it suffersWith no evil in mindBearing all, believing allHoping all, enduring allNever failing, over all travailingThis, God's gift from above-This Is Love

Some of the rules might be a little strict but it's hard to argue with the end result. I think that not only is the hosting itself probably the best on the web but the community is also one of the best on the web. It's definitely refreshing to find a site that cares so much about maintaining an environment free of charachter assassination and other distasteful things. The credits system is also liberal enough for me to do a ton of posting in the winter to compensate for the summer months when I do all my baseball playing. *cough*

Good outlook at least As far as predestination: I guess the question is whether God has already determined who will be saved or whether it means simply as a group, God determined/ordained that He should save sinners before the beginning of the world and they should do good works and be holy and blameless before Him in love. Again however, the promise is to "whosoever" and it isn't God's will that any should perish but that all should come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9). Regardless, my old pastor once asked what God would do if someone got saved who wasn't supposed to. "He'd probably forgive them" Interesting side topic though Oh, and I like the signature about the positive attitude *thumbs up* Nice meeting you

God didn't make us robots, He gave us the freedom to choose Him or not, else we wouldn't really be loving Him. And He created us to have a loving, personal relationship with Him. Read Acts 17:11 if you're under the notion that blind faith is involved for some reason and that God doesn't want people questioning the Word. And there's far more evidence for where the Bible came from and its authority then any other great work of literature in history. God divinely inspired men through the ages to write the Bible we have now and preserved it, providing tons of manuscripts and archaeological evidence to back it up. There's a good portion on where the Bible came from at the end of Halley's Bible Handbook but since it isn't online and is quite a few pages long I'd just as soon not type it all out if I don't have to. I may end up doing so during this topic later... As for Christianity, it's what the Bible says that matters, not what someone thinks that matters. We are all sinners and sent to Hell for ANY sin, which is why the whole world is guilty before God (Romans 3:19). In 1 Kings 8:6, 2 Chronicles 6:36, Ecclesiastes 7:20, etc... it says that noone does not sin. Christ Himself says there is only one good, and that is God (Mark 10:18). Long story short, what decides whether we get into Heaven or not is simply whether or not we have been saved, i.e. repented of our sins, trusted in Christ alone (who died and rose again to save us from them) to save us by His death on the cross (and not good works, Mary, the pope, etc...), and accepted Him into our life as Lord and God. Salvation is not about demographics, saying you're a Christian doesn't make you one any more then going in a garage makes you a car. Salvation is a heart transaction between you and God where you are spiritually born again and given a new mind, a new heart, and a new Spirit, where God comes to dwell in you, forgives you of your sins, adopts you into His family, etc... God being a just, holy, and righteous God is forced by His very nature to condemn any sinner to be separated from Him, and the only place left to go is a place the Bible calls the Lake of Fire. When we as a race chose to spurn His love and what He had in store for us, we brought this upon ourselves. God in His love made a way for us to escape this, He came in human flesh to pay the penalty for our sins. The only way we get into Heaven is by trusting in that payment to save us rather then anything we or anyone else can do. Pretty simple, huh? Problem is, people don't like to think there's nothing they need to do, they want to think they need traditions and rituals and all sorts of good deeds to get in. And by doing so they don't place their trust in the only One who can save them, Jesus Christ. The Bible claims from the beginning to the end to be the inspired, infallible Word of God Himself, which is one of the things that seperates it from all other writings. The burden of proof thus is not on it but on others to prove otherwise. And in 2000 years now there still isn't anything concrete for people to throw out there and say "Aha, this shows otherwise!" You say all churches are wealthy. I happen to know this isn't true. I heard a statistic about how Independent Fundemental Baptist churches make less then any other denomination but give more to missions then any other denomination or something like that. It might've even been more then all other denominations combined. I'm going to come right out and say it, I believe the Catholic Church is Satan's greatest instrument and the Babylon (Revelation 17 & 18) or imposter church the Bible speaks of. Christ said few will find the path to life but many will come to Him in that day claiming to be His only to be told He never knew them (Matthew 7:13-23). Simply judging by the few/many contrast most of those who call themselves Christians will be either liars or deceived. Christ said by our love for others will all men know we're His disciples (John 13:35) and in Romans 13:10 we see love is the fulfilling of the law BECAUSE IT DOES NO HARM TO OTHERS. My question to you is why you would think those who do harm others and thus do not love are Christ's disciples? You are right about one thing, God meant us to think for ourselves. Just read Acts 17:11. The Bible directly calls "noble" those that genuinely question God's Word as long as they do so with "all readiness of mind" and an earnest heart that seeks truth. The Bible directly states it is God's truth and there is no other, then challenges you to question it and hold it up to all other so-called truths. That's the wonderful thing about truth It's like light, hold it up to darkness and the light is revealed. Truth doesn't need to hide from lies, but by the revealing and comparing of knowledge is truth revealed. When you see someone who uses charachter assassination or stubbornly refuses to listen (hardened heart) it's a safe bet they believe a lie, for truth does not fear to stand up to lies, as light does not fear to stand up to darkness. And so you see, evil hates the light and doesn't come to it. Liers will refuse genuine open conversation and instead will try to invalidate the words of others by attacking the person. I wish I could find this one thing for "Cults" where the C stands for Charachter Assassination I think but I'm having trouble finding it

Even jokes can be taken seriously, right? It raised some serious Biblical issues that I thought it would be interesting to bring up. *shrugs*

I definitely liked Wakelim's comments, just read the first chapter of John to see that Christ existed from the dawn of creation. In the first chapter of Revelation He describes Himself as "Alpha and Omega" or the beginning and the end, the first and the last. And Christ was never "born" in the sense we think of, although I've discussed this several times before on these forums, like here: http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ John 8:58 Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am. Anyway, the Bible says that God made everything good and made man to enjoy a personal relationship with Him. God blessed man abundantly but when man turned His back on God and His commands God was forced to punish man for his disobedience. Through our disobedience death came into the world: Romans 5:12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: Romans 5:17 For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.) 18 Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. 19 For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. Here's an excerpt from "More Then A Carpenter" by Josh McDowell", I think he describes it VERY well:

The only real exercise I've been doing for years now is playing baseball and occasionally some other sport. Ever since I was 12 or so (I'm 21 now, and 5'8") my weight wouldn't go below 145 or above 165. I was trying to GAIN weight for a long period, went to all you can eat buffets and it's shocking how much I can eat. I can eat as much as I want, whatever I want, and I can't get that weight over 155. So from my personal experience, I'd say just playing baseball a lot for enjoyment will keep you thin, regardless of what you're eating. *shrugs*

Hmm... I saw the description about blasphemy but I don't even see a real scene here... 1) Where does the idea of halos enter into in the Bible?2) Why would some guy named Patrick be at the entrance? Isn't Christ the One who says "Well done, thou good and faithful servant"?3) I don't see anything about a pearly gate in the Bible being the point of judgement, rather there's a day of judgement where Christ on the throne judges all, and you enter in if your name is in the Book of Life, else you're cast into the Lake of Fire.4) Judging by Luke 20:35 there is no marriage in Heaven so why the guy would have a girl "given" to him I'm not sure.5) Judging by Habakkuk 2:15 there's a curse on those giving others strong drink, meaning God wouldn't give the guy beer.6) Punishment involves the Lake of Fire, the opposite is Heaven. The Bible speaks even of Hell as being separated by a gulf that no man can cross (Luke 16:26). It nowhere speaks of punishment in Heaven.And to top it all off, isn't blasphemy against God specificially?

And I have a hard time trusting anything by people who use faith to believe what they believe (evolution *cough*) while not admitting that it does in point of fact involve faith. That doesn't mean I instantly refuse to listen to anything they say and just insult them and what they say without giving them a chance to be heard. You can find just about anything you want from any major work of literature if you take it out of context. You can throw bits and pieces of sentences together and make it look like it supports your views. That doesn't mean it does. *shrugs*

The excuse of "other things are hurting people so it's ok for me to hurt people too" is not valid.

On the contrary, genuine sincere Christians that have really been saved (and they are out there, even if you don't meet them too often) pray because they already have faith and hope. It's simply God's chosen way for sinful man to communicate with Him, and as Christians for us to present our petitions to Him, worship Him, etc... The Lord is utterly real. Someone once said something like you can't prove God exists, you can't prove God doesn't exist, and we all know He does exist. God has given us evidence of a master design in creation. It's amazing that scientists can see the design and not think there's a designer. God has also left us evidence in our consciences, and even the people most resistant to the idea that God exists generally accept that they can't explain why we have this desire for justice, for good and evil, and to know God. God has planted things in us that might well convince us all by themselves if we'd look at them. I tend to think most atheists are people who have never really bothered thinking about the great matters of life nor have truly examined themselves and who they are before either. Prayer doesn't have to be for others, it can be for relationship quite often, to get us in touch with the One to whom we owe all, the greatest relationship we can have on planet Earth. Hope that helps, jz

BR, you might not have heard (I only happened to run across an article by chance) about how GTA had something called a "Hot Coffee Mod" included IN the game by the manufacturers that could be downloaded from the internet. It let players see girls performing sex acts among other things that would've boosted the rating even higher. So GTA deliberately put that in the game and hid it so the rating wouldn't go higher, knowing kids could get at it. THAT is why there's all the furor over it, and why it got banned. Does that affect your opinions on the matter at all?

What a hilarious topic I can just see the ways people can start getting on Wassie's list... "Wassie, I like you... as a pincushion.""Wassie, I like freaks... erm, I mean..."I'm sure you can see where this topic can get even more hilarious :PLol

Mama_Soap, I believe there is an absolute truth, one can be a "good" person by obeying the 10 commandments. Pretty straightforward right? Like Christ said however, there is none good but one, God, and none of us ever will keep those commandments. Even the ones we'd think we'd fit like to not kill we learn we can violate just by hating others, and the final nail in the coffin is that if we break one point of them we break them all. It's why God had to step into this world and pay the price for our messups. We can't be good, we can be justified through faith in Christ however. Concerning all the moral dilemmas everyone keeps bringing up, here's a simple rule: It is never right to do evil, regardless of what good may come of it. It isn't our problem to right wrongs but to not do wrongs ourselves, God alone is a just judge and vengeance is His.

At the same time, video games can encourage crime by allowing people to live out their fantasies. There's such a thing as feeding hate and lust, and our society is making it far easier to do so. Then when the natural results of that occur they act shocked. Just because it lets you vent your aggressions doesn't mean it's a healthy way of doing it, since it can be feeding what's wrong as well as letting you vent. You can play a sport and vent your frustrations, you don't need something that lets you simulate crimes.

It seems to me that the whole argument behind hate being necessary is that you need it as protection, a defense mechanism for survival from other hateful individuals. But of course, if hate is taken out of the equation altogether...

Cerb, I especially liked the line about the only reason you are is because I am. Might be even better capitalizing the word "am" And BR, while I stand against the idea that there are any falsehoods in the Bible, I'm simply making it known here, if you don't want to talk about it, we won't.

Well, there's a worldwide bestseller called "More Then A Carpenter" by Josh McDowell (I just bought it as a paperback for 5 dollars a few days ago ). Anyway, your poem made me think of this part of it from page 119:

Karlo, I've already posted these verses several times now, here they are again:

Hmm... a petition... I think there should at least be a law saying they can only take your home if a judge deems it crucial to town development or something like that and that they have to pay you as much as the house is worth according to how much your taxes say it's worth.

Well, one interesting aspect of this is how intelligent leviathans/dragons are made out to be by the Bible, they are likened to Satan several times for their evil cunning and known for their pride. I've wondered before if the Bermuda Triangle might be a favorite hangout for leviathans Cunning as they are I'd guess they're probably laying low with all the growing power of man. You've got stronger, better armed ships now that are watched by the Coast Guard, planes, cameras, satellites, etc... Revealing their existence and any signs of hostility would probably not be something they want to do. Someone in another topic mentioned how we're exploring other planets but don't yet even know what lies in our oceans and mountains. With more submarines and ships running around though in more recent years the chances are getting higher that if there is anything out there we don't yet know about that it will be found.

Cool stuff Cmat, I like the buttons and the title area is pretty good, I like sites that have more colorful layouts with lots of room for information to be displayed on them personally though. I haven't done much work on my site and am still messing around just with getting the graphics to put on it right but you can probably get an idea of what I'm trying to do. You can get free layouts like this from http://bravenet.com/ then alter the color scheme and buttons by taking them into PSP or an equivalent program and then editing them. Someone introduced me to PaintShop Pro 7 but before that I was pretty unfamiliar with anything more advanced then Paint So it's the graphics editing that's the slow and annoying part for me, and I've had problems getting the title the right size on the webpages. I'm still trying to decide what I want the title to look like on my site right now though. And I need to do some color changing on certain graphics here *shrugs* It should look awesome when I'm done though http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/