All Discussion PAGE 638

Hamas is a Satanic, Demonic cult.

In the end, they will be destroyed completely by the return of Jesus Christ.

I believe IMHO we may see His return sooner than most can comprehend.

All signs show the stage is clearly being set to usher in the AC.

I'm posting a wild guess of 2030/2031 by what I've collected the past few years.

Nobody but the Father knows the day and hour but the year will be known for those who are watching

Hi Rich,

This is a HUGELY fascinating topic. This topic is so large, how to even begin researching? My mind really struggles to understand.

Let me pose a thought: The LORD says he put stars, moon, and sun in the sky for the tracking of seasons and time. Since God changes not, then he is probably still using his clock. He probably is not using the Gregorian calendar or any other. (Yes I know God is eternal and time is not a thing for him). But, probably the LORD is still using the calendar he gave to Moses. So, the first month of the year is always in the spring.

And, you've probably heard the concept that the sun is the minute hand and the moon is the hour hand. Then, there are the weeks of years in the Daniel prophecy. That's a whole other difficult "time" thing to understand.

Well, at least we do know that time is short. We can have school when we get to Heaven. Come LORD Jesus . Amen.

People in soul sleep are not dead. They are sleeping in the bosom of the LORD.

"What profit is there in my blood, when I go down to the pit? Shall dust praise thee? Shall it declare thy truth?"

Ps 30:9

"As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness."

Ps 17:15.

I'm sorry Gus but I don't know what in the world you are talking about. Could you explain? :)

"The dead praise not the LORD, neither any that go down into silence."

Ps 115:17

Gigi, These are your comments to me:

"Do you know that the translators of the KJV used a Bible composed by Erasmus, a Catholic priest in the times of the reformation in their translation?"

Answer: Yes. I know.

"So your are saying that the KJV translators used a corrupt version in their work."

Answer: No. Where in my posts have I said that the KJV translators used a corrupt version?

"It is fine to discuss the topic of the validity of translations based on facts, but not on an obvious vehement bias towards the Catholic church as you have shown in your post. I am not defending the Catholic Church here. Just saying that your argument would be better received if you left out the hate and based your viewpoint on factual information. "

Answer: The topic of Bible translations and how they came about is an hours and hours long study comprising volumes of reading material. This site is for quick comments not lengthy dissertations. You are accusing me of hate but that is quite unfair. There is nothing in my posts indicating hate of the Catholic people. However, the Catholic/vatican/Papacy is antichrist. The system is the Beast. It was identified as so by the Protestant church fathers. And, that Gigi, is a fact.

"O my people, they which lead thee cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy paths." Isaiah 3:12

I think you and I are partly saying the same thing. I meant when God breathed His breath into Adam He made him a living soul. Adams soul was clean until he sinned and from then on a Savior was needed for mankind to have a cleansed soul again to enter heaven.

I am confused on what you said about Jesus, do you think He had a soul or He didn't? God is God. How can he have a soul even in His humanity? :)

Gigi,

You are mistaken. The soul does not exist without the body.The person must be a combination of both body and soul.

"Wilt thou show wonders to the dead? Shall the dead arise and praise thee?

Shall thy loving kindness be declared in the grave? Or thy faithfulness in destruction?

Shall thy wonders be known in the dark? And thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?"

Psalm 88:10-12

When you fall asleep at night, suddenly, it is morning. That is the object lesson of soul sleep.

In examining the Scripture it is not a question of how you or I think is the best way to keep track of years. What matters is how did the Holy Spirit keep track of years through the authors He chose (which wasn't you or I), at least in terms of understanding what they wrote. Only after we understand their frame of reference can we accurately translate from their preferred frame of reference to ours.

Even today you can't understand dates correctly if you don't know the culture. Americans express dates as MM/DD/YYYY, but most European countries express dates as DD/MM/YYYY. If you don't determine the culture you are working with you will become confused very quickly, especially if the date you are provided is 01/05/2023 (January 5, 2023 to an American, but May 1, 2023 to most Europeans).

Satellites have been lost due to a failure to determine whether units were being provided and inputted in Metric or English units. Both standards work if the proper conversions are applied in the proper order, but they lead to disaster if the differences between them are not recognized before applying them.

What is always best is when each culture understands what the people from another culture are saying to each other in their own cultural frame of reference before we reinterpret it according to our preferred cultural frame of reference.

On the matter of the long ages of the Patriarchs, especially before the Flood, my belief is that the original creation of Adam and Eve on the sixth day was without genetic corruption and that the waters above in the heavens created on the second day provided protection from radiation that slowed the rate of adverse genetic mutations. As a result, aging and death were very slow.

However, the flood resulted in the waters above being condensed as rain due to volcanic activity that also resulted in the breaking up of the fountains of the deep. Genetic mutations increased and aging accelerated until a new equilibrium was reached.

Mat. 24:29 "... after the tribulation..." points us the beginning of the last week, week 70th Daniel 9:27 and the antichrist commits the abomination of desolation, we will have a 3.5 year countdown to the Post Trib Rapture. It will really be the first half of the last week that will be ruled by the satanic antichrist. The Dragon, who is mentioned in Revelation 13:11, will give to the Beast of sea-a GENTILE Beast- , his Power, and his Throne(in JERUSALEM), and great Authority, as is written in Revelation 13:2. Then will LITERALLY be fulfilled Luke 21:24:"Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled", combined with Revelation 11:2- ...the court which is without the temple, it is given unto the GENTILES: and the HOLY CITY shall they tread under foot forty and two months (i.e. by the first half of the lasts week, it because a GENTILE MAN BEAST will be enthroned in Jerusalem- Revelation 13:2, spiritually called Sodom and Egypt). Terrible. Very very terrible.

By the way, I remember that our Lord JESUS listed several and terrible events, events that will preced, for some time, the beginning of Daniel's prophetic fulfillment of the great tribulation, it is called a period of sorrows- Matthew 24:3-8. This prophecy of JESUS will take a period of time to be LITERALLY accomplished, of course, the most important thing is to know for sure that this period of pre-tribulation has already begun, it is already RUNNING, and we are living within it. What do you think?

On the other hand, I also remember the great tribulation is a consequence or the effect of Michael's coming, according prophecy of Daniel 12:1

Erasmus, King James, and His Translators (Part 1 of 3)

By David H. Sorenson

Erasmus thus became an enigma. He slowly but surely shifted away from Catholic theology, but stopped short of joining with Luther. He attacked the Roman Catholic Church, but never officially left it. Part of this confusion is to be found in the personal temperament of Erasmus. Whereas Luther had the temperament to stand and thunder, "Here I stand, I can do no other," Erasmus was more timorous. He was not an open fighter. His battling was through his pen. Whereas Luther eventually was excommunicated from the Catholic Church, Erasmus tried to reform it from within. [5] Whereas Luther became a "come-outer," Erasmus remained a "stay-inner." He would have been better served to follow Luther's example. However, he did not. He thus became a target from both sides. The establishment of the Catholic Church detested him. Most of the Reformers were suspicious of him as well.

Erasmus is a fascinating character in the lineage of the Received Text of the New Testament. His Greek New Testament, without doubt, was the catalyst which sparked the Reformation. He was a Catholic at the beginning of the Reformation. However, as he continued to search the Scriptures, he increasingly became less and less Catholic in his position. By the time he died in 1536, he had virtually become an Anabaptist in his theology. To his demerit, he never officially left the Catholic Church. However, when he died, it was not in the arms of Rome. Rather, in 1534, he returned to Basel, Switzerland, and two years later died in the midst of his Protestant friends, "without relations of any sort, so far as known with the Roman Catholic Church." [9]

Hello Mssue70710: Your comment really touched me. Please let the Lord give you comfort. I feel true sorrow for what you are going through. I don't want to hurt you or cause you any more pain but I feel I must be gently honest with you in a mistake I believe you are making in this sad situation. If you are asking God for something with a sincere heart, not out of selfishness or pride or other ungodly reasons, which I know you are not doing, He is going to answer that prayer through His great love for you in giving you what is the very best for you now. If you love the Lord with all your heart, soul and mind you will eventually walk, run, skip, etc. for eternity with Him so perhaps while still here you may have to spend the rest of your time in the wheelchair. I'm NOT saying He won't heal you here, I'm just wanting you to send your mindset in a little bit of another direction that perhaps the answer has already arrived, "No not now." and to be thankful that he has sent you a man who loves you and wants you to be his wife. It grieves me that you sent him away like you did. He loves you. Marry him and let him love you and just wait on the Lord. If you can, do a Google search for Nick Vujicic and watch his videos. He is incredibly inspiring. I hope in some way this has helped you. :) God Bless You Ann

Gigi,

First, I do not understand your comment below:

", You have conflated many beliefs into the belief that the soul lives on after death. In doing so you have clouded the issue presented here."

Secondly, I know plenty of professed Protestant Christians who believe their dead relative watches over them or claim to have seen a dead relative's ghost. I know plenty of non religious people of no denomination that believe in ghosts. Catholic children are confirmed at age twelve and must choose a saint. Catholics pray to dead people for protection and other favors and are also told to pray to Mary. There are millions of Catholics that call themselves Christian.

The state of the soul at death is a serious issue whether you realize it or not.

Thirdly, the story of Lazarus and the rich man, that Jesus shared, was a COMMON PARABLE of that time. Jesus was using it as a teaching lesson. Now, compare that parable to when Lazarus ( Martha and Mary's brother) died. He was in the grave and came back. He did not write a book about how lovely heaven was. He did not describe his experience in heaven to anyone. Nor did Lazarus complain that he wished Jesus would have left him happily in heaven. Lazurus was asleep.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Jesus stated Lazarus is sleeping. Lazarus is dead.

In order for the body to have life, it must have the soul.

Now, about Paul: below quoted from Amazing Facts: Absent from the Body

"If we go to be with the Lord by means of our immortal spirit when we die, then we do not go to be with Him by means of the visible coming of Jesus, the resurrection of the dead and the change of the living. Then Paul's words would not be true. There is no possible way of avoiding this conclusion, except by claiming that the descent of the Lord from heaven, the mighty shout, the trumpet, the resurrection of the dead, and the change of the living, ALL TAKE PLACE WHEN A PERSON DIES-a position too absurd to be considered."

Hello GiGi: Nice to talk to you. I would like to respond to your reply to Hadassah about his comment on how "the Vatican started messing around with the Bible, omitting things, altering things, adding things in order to support their doctrine." I'm apologize if my comment is also upsetting to you, although, I'm glad you weren't defending the Catholic Church.

Basically, I loath the DOCTRINE of Catholicism, it is an evil, false doctrine that has sent many, many poor souls to hell. I loath any false doctrine that deceives souls to damnation. Don't imagine that because I find the doctrines loathsome that it means I hate the people who believe in those doctrines because I love the souls who are being deceived. I grieve that they may not have eternal life with Jesus because they are not understanding the truth of His teachings and His salvation because their minds and hearts are so firmly held captive by those extremely deceitful teachings. :) Be Blessed, Ann

Hey GiGi, an observation on your reference to John 11:25, Jesus did indeed "explain" that he was the resurrection and the life. But if you notice verse 23 and 24, when he says.. "Thy brother shall rise again", Martha, having listened to the teachings of Jesus on many occasions, says.. v24 Martha said unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection AT THE LAST DAY. just saying.

Hey Momsage,

Sorry for the delay, thank you for your reply. My understanding in Genesis when God breathed the breath of life into the first Adam he became a living soul. The Hebrew word is nephesh, that means a living being, Adam was not given a soul he became a living soul/being. Same as the last Adam Jesus the Messiah was conceived in the womb of Mary, Luke 1:31-33, and He was a living being/nephesh.

As the first Adam, Jesus came into this world without sin, but not like the first Adam He lived a perfect life without sin totally obedient to the Father even though He was tempted as you and me, Hebrews 4:14-15.

God bless,

RLW

Jema, this response and the one to Gus strike me as being snarky, but I may be wrong. What did you mean by each of them?

It is helpful if one gives a grounded explanation of their thoughts rather than a "quip" or a "jab" at others.

I find that for the most part, your responses are kindhearted, but these do not seem to be so. Why? For what purpose did you send them?

Please know that I respect you and I keep you in my prayers as I do so many on this site. I mean no harm in this post. It was just that these two posts seemed out of place and unedifying. I hope you can explain your thinking so I can better grasp what you were wishing to convey, not to be judgmental, so forgive me if it seems to be to you.

Hi Rich,

Interesting information.

For me, I think the best calendar is the one that most closely matches the amount of time it take for the earth to orbit the sun, which is scientifically a true year. In Genesis 1 it says that the sun, moon, and stars are to be used by us to determine seasons, days, and years along with "signs".

So neither the sun, nor the moon, nor the stars are used exclusively of the others to set our calendars. The sun gives us the number of days in a year and the seasons, the moon gives us lunar months which can be helpful for some things such as agriculture, the stars provide us with a yearly procession of the constellations that repeats in cycles (and depends on whether one is in the southern or northern hemisphere. The universe is amazing. The heavens are filled with wonder as we consider its vastness, containing billions upon billions of heavenly bodies, whether planets stars, suns, galaxies, and so much more.

Since the flood, it has taken us this long to explore outer space (we do not know if this happened prior to the flood or not). We are finding out so much that is really astounding about this realm. We marvel about the greatness of God and the glories of His creation. It declares His glory always whether we are aware of what is "out there" or not. Our earth is our home, where God determined man to live. We have been blessed with such an awesome place to exist here! So much beauty, diversity, order, and cohesiveness.

With all this said, I believe that keeping to a solar calendar is not any more or less spiritual or "right" than keeping a lunar one. But the solar is more scientifically accurate and we are free to use it as God says to in Genesis to determine "seasons, days, years. and signs.

S Spencer,

Thank you brother, I also consider you as a brother, sorry for the brain flub, nicely put. The truth is what is important and the care we have for each other, and our goal is not to cause division but inspire each other to study that we grow and walk in the light of the truth.

God bless,

RLW

Hello Momsage,

You are correct, our salvation does not depend on whether we believe in "soul sleep" or "soul death" as opposed to the continuance of the soul as alive after the death of the body. So it is still good to discuss it if we use Scripture as our guide ad rule.

I am encouraged by the words of our Savior and Lord in John 11:25-26

"I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall NEVER die. Believest thou this?"

Jesus knew that people from that time forth would certainly die physically as to their bodies dying, just as those who lived before him died in the body. But here He says that, though the body dies, we still live on. He is speaking of our soul's continued existence after the body dies. Can't be any clearer than this. He asks a good question: Believest thou this? I believe what He says here and look forward to being alive with Him when my body dies and to see those believers who have died before I die and those who die after I die. We will have a great reunion in the life to come. We have eternal life in Jesus as believers and so this means our soul will not die but will be reunited with our bodies when our bodies are resurrected.

Also John 10:27-28

"My sheep hear my voice (in this life), and I know them, and they follow me. And I five unto them eternal life and they shall NEVER perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand."

So good to know that we have eternal life now, even if we die, we live on, not in our bodies, but in our soul and spirit, until the resurrection when our bodies will join with our soul and spirit once again and then be forever alive.

The current Gregorian calendar all of western society uses was first implemented in October of 1582. It had never been used prior to that. And it actually took many centuries for it to fully replace the prior Julian calendar, which dated back to Julius Ceasar in 45 BC.

The Julian calendar was the first widely adopted calendar that approximated the Solar year cycle and that was adopted for both civil purposes and (the majority of) religious observances. However, the date for the observance of Easter is still based on a lunar calendar that more or less tracks with the Hebrew lunar calendar that still controls the observance of Jewish religious feasts.

Lunar calendars were used through most of human history. The lunar cycle is the reason we still divide years into months. The root word for month is the word for Moon in every language as far as I am aware.

Lunar calendars all try to maintain an approximate match between the 29.53059 day Lunar cycle and the 365.24255 day solar cycle.

The Hebrew Lunar calendar used alternating 30 day and 29 day months for an 364 day year during the typical 12 month year (these years can actually be 353, 354 or 355 days long). An additional 30 month known as first Adar is periodically added during leap years that occur 7 times during a 19 year cycle to maintain an approximate match between the lunar cycles and the solar year.

There is some evidence that the prophets and the pre-flood Era used a 360 day calendar year of 12 months with 30 days each to track time spans. This seems to fit Daniel and Revelation when they give the number of days that represent a 3.5 year period as 1,260 days (30 12 3.5 = 1,260). It also seems to fit the description of exactly 5 months between the beginning of the flood in the second month, on the 17th day of the month to the date the Ark came to rest in the 7th month, on the 17th day of the month as being 150 days long (5 30 = 150).

It's been 20 years since I was in a car accident which left me paralyzed. I pray to the Lord daily for him to restore my legs to walk again. I believe in his word when he say in John 14:13-14 "And whatsoever you shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you shall ask anything in my name, I will do it". lately I have been feeling like why God let me live. Than if that is not bad enough me and my fianc broke up because I wanted to wait until I can walk to get married. He has been patient with me up until Thanksgiving when he said marry him or let him go. I'm not questioning God I'm just hurt this man was the love of my life and I lost him.

Hi Momsage,

Yes, I agree with everything you said. I was just carrying it a step further.

We Christian's will face intense persecution in the near future. I want to have the same type of strong faith exhibited by our LORD. I want a firm, unwavering stand for the LORD so that I will not be moved no matter the consequence.

We Christian's do have faith IN Jesus and all that implies. Now, we need HIS same faith that he exhibited when going to the cross.

Your testimony made me feel joyful. Thank you for sharing. Praise the LORD that we both escaped the Catholic Church.

Yes Hadassah, I believe that folk today who don't have English as their primary language/mother tongue, have no other option than to use the translation undertaken for their language. This maybe from Bible Societies or Bible translators, and I strongly suspect that these folk won't be using the KJB or another version taken from the Textus Receptus, rather from a more modern translation that would also make their job a lot easier.

A case in point, that I've shared here before: when ministering in Pakistan back in the late 80's, I was giving a Bible study to a small Church group & 1 John 4:10, "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins" was one of many references that was given. I had to use a Urdu translator (a brother in Christ) for this study, since my Urdu proficiency is woefully inadequate, & I had checked with him on some of our more 'difficult' biblical English words, e.g. 'propitiation'. He told me that in Urdu it is 'kafara' which in English is 'atonement'. But when I asked if 'kafara' could mean anything else to him (as we understand it in English), he replied, 'no other meaning at all'; they had no word in Urdu for 'propitiation', which meant that the translators made no effort to maybe give the proper meaning as a footnote, for example.

So Christians in Pakistan & parts of N. India actually miss out on receiving the full Truth & value of verses such as 1 John 4:10, thinking that the Gift of God's Son had atonement as its only message - they had no idea, because of a bad translation, that Jesus not only died for mankind's sins, but that He also bore the Wrath of God upon Himself that was actually destined for us. That by believing on Jesus, both our sins have been forgiven & God's Anger has been averted. Now not only lacking in Urdu, but I wonder how many other foreign language translations are denying Christians the full & accurate Words of God given for them.

Hadassah,

Do you know that the translators of the KJV used a Bible composed by Erasmus, a Catholic priest in the times of the reformation in their translation?

So your are saying that the KJV translators used a corrupt version in their work.

It is fine to discuss the topic of the validity of translations based on facts, but not on an obvious vehement bias towards the Catholic church as you have shown in your post. I am not defending the Catholic Church here. Just saying that your argument would be better received if you left out the hate and based your viewpoint on factual information.

Hi Brother Ronald, I meant to send this to you.

Somehow I sent it to myself.

"No Problem Brother.

We have always discussed doctrine with the intention to grow spiritually.

Just remember a few years ago I said I was happy to call you my brother and that still remains and I'm happy you consider me a Brother as well.

I'm sure others fill that way.

When these such things causes hatred amongst the Brothern then there's an BIG issue.

Beware of those who cause divisions.

I will be reaching out to you during the week

God bless.

Hello Hadassah, You have conflated many beliefs into the belief that the soul lives on after death. In doing so you have clouded the issue presented here.

Most Christians who believe that the soul continue to live after death do not believe in purgatory or praying to or for the dead or consulting psychics to interact with dead people's spirits. So such topics are truly not part of the discussion at hand, which is, does the soul die with the body or does the soul continue to live after death.

Those of us who believe that the soul continues to live on either in the presence of God in blessedness or in hell in turmoil. And we have directed people involved in this discussion with the Scriptures in Luke 16 where Jesus discusses a man named Lazarus who died and went to Abraham's bosom and an unrighteous man who died and went to Hell and was in torment; Paul's statements in 2 Corinthians 5:6-8 where he says that to be absent from the body, (as in a soul being separated from the body in death) is to be present with the Lord; and Revelations 6:9 and 20:4 where the souls of the saints are with God. These Scriptures are not influenced by Greek philosophy nor the Catholic teachings, rather, are inspired by The Holy Spirit and therefore are God's words to us.

Also, Scriptures tells us that our bodies will be resurrected when Christ returns, not that our souls will be resurrected.

These Scriptures teach me that the soul lives on after the body dies.

Belief in Jesus as the true Savior is necessary for salvation, else you could believe He is the tooth fairy and get saved. The demons knew who He was, believed He was God, but not unto salvation.

How can I have the faith OF Jesus if I'm a sinner praying for salvation? Why would I be willing to die for that faith if Jesus hasn't even saved me yet? The faith I'm talking about is faith that Jesus will forgive of my sins so I can give my heart to Him.

When someone gives up sin to become a child of God, that's not a good work, that's obedience to God to live a holy, righteous life. Once we love God with our whole heart, souls and minds then we love doing good works for His sake. It brings joy to our hearts. :)

Be Blessed