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Break Off An Engagement

exzucuh: Can you show a single example of a wedding ceremony in the Bible? I have looked, but was never able to find any. There is the Wedding at Cana, but all that is mentioned is a feast (what we today call a reception), not a ceremony. The same is true of the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. Jesus also had several parables that involved weddings. Some of these mentioned feasts, but none of them mentioned any kind of ceremonies.

Properity Gospel Biblical
	JackB: Saying "it is good to help with God's ministry" is exhortation, which is good. Saying "God won't bless you if you don't help with his ministries" is coersion, which is not good. Saying "God won't bless you if you won't help with my ministry" is extortion. Unfortunately, many teachers teach the last two messages.

Break Off An Engagement
	exzucuh: At that time, if an engaged fiance was found to be pregnant (as, for example, Mary was), the child was legally assumed to be that of the fianc. Neither one of them was taken out and stoned for adultery. If it was not legal, they would have been.

Break Off An Engagement
	exzucuh: Please explain to me how I am "compromising" and "double-minded" and "making up Christianity as I go along" and "think I can wilfully sin every day"? What have I said to give you that impression?

Fort Hood Terrorism Attack

Jim2: Even though things like birth certificates are matters of public record, they are private - you can obtain your own, but nobody else can. It's none of their business. The constitution demands that the president be a natural born citizen. I am not aware of any other president nor presidential candidate being required to prove his citizenship. However, other than this kind of proof, Obama's birth certificate is nobody else's business. As far as proof of his native birth is concerned, the State of Hawaii (whose responsibility it is to furnish such proof) has done so. Once they have done so, that should be the end of it. But some people just CAN'T let go.

Cyber Churches Gaining
	Steveng: That's true. On the other hand, God won't judge one unfairly, although other people may well do so (and unfortunately, there are even a lot of Christians who judge people unfairly, which can cause people to hesitate to trust them.)

Break Off An Engagement

Jackb: Jesus's comment had nothing to do with who the woman was lying with. He said that she was right in that she had no husband NOW, although she HAD had five (in the past). (Presumably, she had been married five times, and divorced five times, and was now living with a sixth man without being married). exzucuh: In Jesus's day, it was lawul for an engaged couple to have relations. Any resulting child was deemed to be a legitimate child of the fiance (hence, Jesus was legally Joseph's son, even though Mary was pregnant before they were legally married).

Is Pretending Considered Lying

Casey: With a separate email, you aren't conning your pastor into something he wouldn't do for anyone anyway. You're not pretending to be a specific person (i.e. identity theft), you're just choosing to be anonymous. People here use nicknames that don't say say who they are, and even if they use real names, that doesn't identify them without their last names. This is only a problem if they deliberate choose a nickname used by someone else. The Bible has several examples of this. The prophet Nathan told a story where he omitted that it was about David, to get David to condemn himself (1 Samuel 12). In the New Testament, we "entertain angels unawares" (Hebrews 13:12) - angels don't reveal who they are either.

Fort Hood Terrorism Attack

Jim2: The State of Hawaii issues birth certificates for people born there. On at least two separate occasions, the highest officials in the State of Hawaii have decreed that Obama's birth certificate is genuine. If you won't believe the people who actually have the sole authority to issue such birth certificates, then who will you believe? This is the same kind of obstinacy that Jesus talks about in the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus (Luke 16, esp. verses 27-31) - that some people are so obstinate about refusing to hear the truth, they wouldn't even believe it if someone came back from the dead to preach it right to their face.

Meet-Ups In Houston Texas

exzucuh: I personally have nothing against people getting together, nor do I have anything against what the Holy Spirit is doing. I was just pointing out the dangers of pride that can happen when people use certain exclusionary language. In an unrelated example, consider a breakfast cereal that has the label "Contains no cancer-causing phosphates". While this statement is certainly true, it also falsely implies that other cereals DO contain such chemicals, giving the false impression "ours is therefore better than theirs".

Is Pretending Considered Lying
	Casey: Do you mean something like "I have this friend who..." when you really mean yourself? Because the prophet Nathan did this same exact thing when he asked David about a question of law - because the person who he was asking about was David himself, but didn't want David to realize this. So, presumably, it's OK in such a situation.

Properity Gospel Biblical
	Rod: That's not good at all. For all their faults, I can't imagine TBN allowing such a message of explicit deception on their network. Do you remember the speaker's name?

Is Pretending Considered Lying

kevin: Theft has traditionally involved taking something that doesn't belong to you, thus depriving the rightful owner of its use (causing them inconvenience, or worse). In England, horse theft used to be punishable by death - if a man used a horse in his livelihood, and you took his horse, he would lose his livelihood and likely starve to death, so it could be tantamount to murder. Most people who commit identity theft today do so to obtain goods and services (and usually money) on false pretenses - thus stealing from vendors, lenders, and ultimately from the identity theft victim when the defrauded companies go after him. Not only that, but it also deprives him of his reputation. This is fraud of a particularly heinous type.

Break Off An Engagement

The reason we have engagements in the first place is to have graduated steps on the path to marriage, instead of jumping into a lifelong commitment all at once. Engagement represents a commitment, but not an irrevocable one such as marriage. It's an opportunity for both parties to make absolutely sure that they will be able to live up to their vows before taking them, and to be able to back out if they find that they can't.

Cyber Churches Gaining

Donna: Satan is the god of this world. It has always been so. In any Christian venue, whether a flesh-and-blood church, or a TV ministry, or a Christian web site, there will always be wheat and tares. This has also always been so. If you truly believe that the internet is Satan's domain and that God doesn't want people here, then you should get off this web site and unplug your computer from the internet. The fact that you still chat here means that at some level you DO believe that some useful fellowship can come out of it.

Fort Hood Terrorism Attack

Pastor_Jim: There are probably many virgins in hell. Otherwise, if virginity was a guaranteed passport to heaven, it would mean that people could be saved by works, one single work in particular (i.e. keeping one's pants zipped). NurseRobert: Tony Alamo may be a self-styled evangelist, but he's also a polygamist and a cultist, and most people treat polygamist cultists as wackos, not associated with more traditional evangelists.

Meet-Ups In Houston Texas

exzucuh: That's my point. You CAN'T tell what kind of fruit people have just by their names. Unfortunately, when people use exclusionary terms, they ASK you to judge them by their names alone. For example, if a group calls themselves "The True Church of Christ", "true" implies that one should distinguish them from other churches which AREN'T true. That's fine for those who ARE true, but those who AREN'T may well lie and say the same thing. When I get an email that says "Certified virus free", how can I know if that's a virus scanner's seal of approval, or if it's a virus lying and pretending to be safe? I must ignore any such claims, and judge it solely on its own merits (i.e. by scanning it myself).

Meet-Ups In Houston Texas

exzucuh: It is one thing to call oneself Christian (i.e. one who follows Christ). This is an inclusive term that embraces the entire Body of Christ. It is another thing to call oneself "remnant" which is generally an exclusionary term (i.e. "of all Christians, I'm one of the few genuine ones, and you're not"). Unfortunately, many people use "Christian" this way as well. Similar nuances apply to terms like "God's chosen", etc. For example, this may be used by people God specifically chooses to do a task (like an apostle or prophet - I believe Paul used it this way), but many false teachers use such terms as well, as do many genuine believers who nevertheless have delusions of self-importance.

Meaning Of Transfiguration

Lee1538: I know Cluny personally, and know that he doesn't believe that he has that kind of infallibility. However, he does frequently use sarcasm and reductio ad absurdum - when someone says "God told me this" (and it's clear that God could not possibly say that, since it would clearly contradict what God has said elsewhere), he sometimes shows how absurd such an assertion is by retorting with "God told me the exact opposite" (which is often implicitly true, based on what God has revealed elsewhere).

Why Are Pastors Having Affairs

Rod4Him: You missed my point. Cluny and Ignatus (and I as well) pointed out that pastors, like everyone else including even the Apostles, are human and subject to sin. None of us suggested that this implies that any of the above are therefore necessarily guilty of adultery. At best one could conclude that pastors, like everyone else, have feet of clay, and are just as succeptible to any sin, incidentally icnluding adultery, as anyone else (hopefully not much). Paul could have humbly remained silent about his rights (just as Jesus did before Herod). While he had every right to assert them, perhaps there was some pride there? In any case, this decision ended up ultimately getting him killed, so at best it wasn't the wisest choice.