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Originally posted by @fmfSure thing.
You were more interesting, more engaging, more generous of spirit, and seemed more genuine with the voice you had before.
However my life since the start of 2018 has been like Pandora's box: once opened there is no closing it.
I've always pursued spirituality above worldly ways my whole life, often to my apparent detriment. Now I reap the rewards of my faith.
I will continue to speak honestly and will never be intimidated by those who seek to belittle me nor those who seek to curry my favor.
To die and return last week was my final blessing. Now more than ever I have absolutely no fear of anything life can throw at me. I am not above any human frailties in the slightest. I feel every sling and arrow as sharply as anyone else. However I know that I've refined my experience enough to know that everything I do or say is now completely true, no matter who perceives it.
BTW you may now see a pic of my guitar I promised long ago to show you. (I hope you dont mind sharing) You should be able to see a pic on my facebook page (Charlie Aczel) or on JEB designed facebook page. (I couldn't show you until now because the artist was not ready to release his pics on line until just recently. ) enjoy the only guitar he ever made. I am proud to be the owner!!
Originally posted by @karoly-aczelWell, it's been detrimental in so far as your forum persona is concerned.
[b]However my life since the start of 2018 has been like Pandora's box: once opened there is no closing it. /b]
Originally posted by @karoly-aczelI'm not interested.
BTW you may now see a pic of my guitar I promised long ago to show you. (I hope you dont mind sharing) You should be able to see a pic on my facebook page (Charlie Aczel) or on JEB designed facebook page. (I couldn't show you until now because the artist was not ready to release his pics on line until just recently. ) enjoy the only guitar he ever made. I am proud to be the owner!!
-Removed-I do not answer personal questions and neither do I ask them. Asking personal questions is a ploy used by some to derail the topic. I dont get caught in that. But I will try to address the question of what it means to 'know Jesus'.
Some Christians boast of their professions of faith and they equate that with knowing Jesus. The bible says no such thing. Professions of faith simply means that the believer believes that Jesus existed and / or that Jesus died and was resurrected. That alone is insufficient for eternal life in the Kingdom of God and this simple fact was stated over and over by Jesus and the Apostles.
John discusses the idea of knowing Jesus:
And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him. (1 John 2:3-5 KJV)
And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us.
(1 John 3:24 KJV)
These are not isolated passages. They are all over the teachings of Christ and Paul.
Christians have denied that keeping the commandments is critical for eternal life. They have said in no uncertain terms that nobody can keep the commandments and that keeping the commandments are not necessary. All that is necessary is faith.
How can they therefore know Jesus. Jesus condemns professions of faith without works. In the story of the Good Samaritan the Samaritan KNEW Jesus because he followed the commandments of Christ. He did not 'know' Jesus in the Christian hypocritical sense The Priest and the Levite knew God but they did not follow Gods commandments. They knew neither God nor Jesus Christ.
If I can be of further assistance in understanding the concept of what 'knowing Jesus' entails please do not hesitate to ask. Personal questions will be ignored.
Originally posted by @fmfMake unbiblical statements which are preached by the church and when questioned and challenged they dodge and insult. They are a bunch of liars and hypocrites
You have dodged my question and tried to deflect with personal remarks.
You said "One must receive Jesus otherwise one remains in the dark and inherently evil." In whose eyes are people no longer "inherently evil", to your way of thinking?
Originally posted by @karoly-aczelNo, you were never popular. But before you weren't the nasty little pretentious potty-mouth lightweight that you have become.
If populism is anything to go by then yes, you are absolutely right. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. My forum persona has been damaged. Such is life 🙂
Originally posted by @fmfI value your opinon.It is not washy washy or borne of malice. . . You do know quite simply that it is absolutely irrelevant to my spirituality, right? I am beyond trying to give you the most basic of points. When you revert back to popular opinon , your personal distaste or misguided value judging you only hurt yourself.
No, you were never popular. But before you weren't the nasty little pretentious potty-mouth lightweight that you have become.
Originally posted by @rajk999That's a huge amount of diversionary bluster trying to get out of answering one simple question.
I do not answer personal questions and neither do I ask them. Asking personal questions is a ploy used by some to derail the topic. I dont get caught in that. But I will try to address the question of what it means to 'know Jesus'.
Some Christians boast of their professions of faith and they equate that with knowing Jesus. The bible says no such thing. ...[text shortened]... what 'knowing Jesus' entails please do not hesitate to ask. Personal questions will be ignored.
https://pjmedia.com/homeland-security/u-s-couple-murdered-by-isis-fell-victim-to-lefts-fantasy-world/
The above is a story about a couple of Leftists who thought that people are basically good and did not believe all the "fake news" about Islam and ISIS, so they went for a little vacation and were murdered.
The story has invited more derision than sympathy for the victims: a couple that ridiculed the idea that “the world is a big, scary place” was murdered by Islamic State (ISIS) jihadis while biking through Tajikistan. But those who are mocking Jay Austin and Lauren Geoghegan for their naivete are being too harsh.
The responsibility for their deaths lies not just with ISIS, or with this starry-eyed couple, but also with the Leftist world in which they moved and lived. The Left’s leaders constructed a fantasy world, because Leftist ideas are dead on the drawing board without it.
In their fantasy world, Islam is peace. Borders and nation-states are unwelcome relics of a bygone age, because people are good everywhere -- with the exception of Donald Trump and the “far-right.”
Austin, an employee of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and Geoghegan, who worked at Georgetown University, decided two years ago to leave their jobs and go on a bike ride around the world. They kept a blog about their journey, on which Austin wrote last April:
You watch the news and you read the papers and you’re led to believe that the world is a big, scary place. People, the narrative goes, are not to be trusted. People are bad. People are evil. People are axe murderers and monsters and worse.
I don’t buy it. Evil is a make-believe concept we’ve invented to deal with the complexities of fellow humans holding values and beliefs and perspectives different than our own -- it’s easier to dismiss an opinion as abhorrent than strive to understand it. Badness exists, sure, but even that’s quite rare. By and large, humans are kind. Self-interested sometimes, myopic sometimes, but kind. Generous and wonderful and kind. No greater revelation has come from our journey than this.
Yes, Austin and Geoghegan were unwise to carry this Pollyannish philosophy into Muslim Central Asia, but they didn’t originate it. In this sad episode, ISIS is not the only one with blood on their hands.
Where did Austin get the idea that “evil is a make-believe concept"? Perhaps in today’s universities, which are saturated with moral relativism, contemptuous of absolutes, and dogmatically convinced that there is no dispute between people that can’t be settled by mutually respectful “dialogue.”
This perspective dominates contemporary culture, and is taken for granted even at the highest level. When Barack Obama and John Kerry entered into negotiations with the Islamic Republic of Iran, they were working upon the assumption that it was wrong to think that people “are not to be trusted” and that “people are evil.” Obama and Kerry were essentially embracing the idea that “evil is a make-believe concept.” That the mullahs were perhaps “self-interested sometimes, myopic sometimes,” but ultimately good-hearted. The Leftist intelligentsia was and still is unanimous in applauding that initiative.
Now does this back the claims of the Bible about people not being good or evolution with natural selection?
So confusing isn't it.
Originally posted by @rajk999Psalm 51:5 ESV / 246 helpful votes
Jesus was the true Light, which [b]lighteth every man that cometh into the world.
(John 1:9 KJV)[/b]
Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.
Ecclesiastes 7:20 ESV / 175 helpful votes
Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.
Psalm 58:3 ESV / 171 helpful votes
The wicked are estranged from the womb; they go astray from birth, speaking lies.
Romans 5:12 ESV / 168 helpful votes
Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—
Romans 3:23 ESV / 145 helpful votes
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
Genesis 8:21 ESV / 93 helpful votes
And when the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, the Lord said in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done.
Romans 5:19 ESV / 82 helpful votes
For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous.
Romans 3:10 ESV / 73 helpful votes
As it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one;
Jeremiah 17:9 ESV / 64 helpful votes
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?
1 John 1:10 ESV / 57 helpful votes
If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
Ezekiel 28:15 ESV / 56 helpful votes
You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created, till unrighteousness was found in you.
Ephesians 2:3 ESV / 51 helpful votes
Among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
1 John 3:4 ESV / 50 helpful votes
Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness.
1 John 1:9 ESV / 50 helpful votes
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Job 15:14-16 ESV / 42 helpful votes
What is man, that he can be pure? Or he who is born of a woman, that he can be righteous? Behold, God puts no trust in his holy ones, and the heavens are not pure in his sight; how much less one who is abominable and corrupt, a man who drinks injustice like water!
Ezekiel 18:20 ESV / 39 helpful votes
The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father, nor the father suffer for the iniquity of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.
Genesis 6:5 ESV / 36 helpful votes
The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
1 Corinthians 15:22 ESV / 35 helpful votes
For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.
Matthew 18:3 ESV / 34 helpful votes
And said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
Psalm 51:1-19 ESV / 33 helpful votes
To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet went to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba. Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. ...
James 4:17 ESV / 32 helpful votes
So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.
Romans 6:23 ESV / 32 helpful votes
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 5:8 ESV / 32 helpful votes
But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Job 15:14 ESV / 32 helpful votes
What is man, that he can be pure? Or he who is born of a woman, that he can be righteous?
Job 14:4 ESV / 32 helpful votes
Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? There is not one.
Hebrews 4:15 ESV / 31 helpful votes
For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.
Ecclesiastes 7:29 ESV / 31 helpful votes
See, this alone I found, that God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes.
Romans 5:12-21 ESV / 28 helpful votes
Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned— for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come. But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man's trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. And the free gift is not like the result of that one man's sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. ...
Proverbs 22:15 ESV / 28 helpful votes
Folly is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline drives it far from him.
Matthew 19:14 ESV / 23 helpful votes
But Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.”
John 3:16 ESV / 22 helpful votes
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
Isaiah 7:16 ESV / 22 helpful votes
For before the boy knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land whose two kings you dread will be deserted.
Genesis 1:27 ESV / 21 helpful votes
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
1 John 3:6 ESV / 20 helpful votes
No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him.
1 John 1:8 ESV / 20 helpful votes
If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
Romans 2:14-15 ESV / 19 helpful votes
For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them
1 Corinthians 6:9-10 ESV / 18 helpful votes
Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
Psalm 14:1-3 ESV / 18 helpful votes
To the choirmaster. Of David. The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds, there is none who does good. The Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man, to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one.
Galatians 5:19-21 ESV / 17 helpful votes
Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Romans 5:18-19 ESV / 17 helpful votes
Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous.
John 3:3 ESV / 17 helpful votes
Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
Job 14:1-4 ESV / 17 helpful votes
“Man who is born of a woman is few of days and full of trouble. He comes out like a flower and withers; he flees like a shadow and continues not. And do you open your eyes on such a one and bring me into judgment with you? Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? There is not one.
Romans 5:14 ESV / 16 helpful votes
Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.
Luke 18:19 ESV / 16 helpful votes
And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.
Isaiah 55:8 ESV / 16 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.
Psalm 22:9-10 ESV / 16 helpful votes
Yet you are he who took me from the womb; you made me trust you at my mother's breasts. On you was I cast from my birth, and from my mother's womb you have been my God.
Deuteronomy 24:16 ESV / 16 helpful votes
“Fathers shall not be put to death because of their children, nor sha...
