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I love my Canon Pixma Pro-10 It uses pigments instead of dyes and makes beautiful prints.

Elsi,

I always appreciate your comments and read them all and the links. As I attend their several meetings and watch their conference talks I never see most of what you talk and link about.

My understanding of their “Whore of the whole earth” comments is all organizations other than “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.” They by the way donate large sums of money to Catholic Charities and The Salvation Army, what their detractors would say they call the Whore of the whole earth.

While most Christians don’t think they need any help from Mormon Temples and baptisms for the dead I think most realize it doesn’t hurt them and that the Mormons are just trying to be kind by taking the time to do that work, certainly that is the way I see it. Religionists in the 19th century said a lot of things we don’t agree to here in the 21st century.

To me they are nice people who travel the world telling people about The Savior Jesus Christ. Their definition of God may seem a little different but I don’t see how it hurts me. For the most part they seem to be very honest God fearing people.

And, like any good multi-level marketing program, the more you save under you, the higher up the ladder you go.

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BS

First nobody is forced to do anything, period. Most kids look forward to the time they can go to the temple to do baptisms for the dead. Nobody keeps track of how many people you go through for. My wife and kids are LDS they have never had a complaint about the church except that they didn’t want to follow all the rules.

There is no immodesty, they wear a heavy undergarment that completely covers their entire torso and then a heavy white jumpsuit over the top of that.

The idea that someone doing something like a baptism ceremony for someone who is dead being a problem is silly. If you don’t believe in it why should it bother you. If it isn’t approved by God then what difference does it make. I don’t care if someone makes a Voodoos doll of me and sticks pins in it.

I think the motive is pure they want to make sure everybody is baptized. They think it is necessary to enter Heaven. Catholics believe that and many protestant religions believe it. If you don’t believe it then make fun it if you will but don’t label it evil.

It seems many people who leave the Mormon faith have to defend their leaving and bring others with them.

It’s ideal to get a 15 year mortgage, but a 30 year mortgage gets you a bigger better house and it’s better than renting.

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And just why is it better than renting?

If you have a low income and the furnace goes out what do you do, you put your repair on the credit card. If you buy you also have insurance of two months of house payment or rent payment on average.

Ramsey is correct. Live as cheap as you can until you have enough money to pay cash for a house, fix it up and trade up until you get what you want. It works.

You have to be crazy to refinance to a higher interest rate.

I lost a lot of money in the stock markets of 2003 and 2008, Mutual funds that were supposed to be safe. They weren’t. I took money out of the market and invested in rental properties. I either paid cash up front or got them all paid for by the time I retired. I wish I had started sooner. I have 8 properties and find them a lot more advantageous to have than my Social Security. Yes sometimes they cost money. You have replace roofs floors appliances but collecting 16k each a year gives me enough padding to pay for those things. I figure two to three months rent each year for expenses including taxes and insurance. If I get a good tenant I may have no extra expense for several years.

If I sold out I have to pay terrible capital gains tax but then I would have to figure out what to do with the money to give me the same income. It would cost me a good 50k a year.

I love my rental properties and recommend everyone young enough to get them paid off for retirement to do so.

I used a TI-59 with the printer in my business until I retired about 10 years ago. I still have a software TI-59 on my desktop computer and on my cell phone. Best calculator ever. I have a few slide rules, I loved them but the TI-59, boy that did some great work and they were programmable, you could store 1000 commands and store them on a magnetic strip so that you could run different programs for different calculations you were doing. It is true I could have done the same thing, even better in just about any programming language and there were some calculations I would program to do but for the most part every day calculations for heating a variety of materials in a particular amount of time, the old TI was fantastic.

Yes I still have a few slide rules but mostly they are gathering dust. Every once in a while when I bump into one I will do a few calculations and then put it back. They were great when that was all we had but now we have better.

Trump didn’t make these, Trump didn’t design these, Trump didn’t sell these or did he get the income from the sale of these sneakers. The organization who manufactured these shoes and sold them paid a license fee to use Trumps name.

So my understanding is that while the Different Faith traditions are read into the script they don’t have any veto on the content. At the end of the day Dallas Jenkins decides what ideas end up in the screen

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I’m sure Jenkins has the last word but I have seen the actors telling how they have influenced different scenes, especially the character of Jesus. He is a devout Catholic and has ideas that don’t always jibe with Jenkins. I think it is a community affair so to speak but maybe Jenkins has a heavy hand, I don’t really know.

And THIS is precisely the type of conversations that this show is encouraging!

Great analysis - as a fan of the chosen I still think the creepy John line is brilliantly funny.

If for no other reason many people will read your analysis and still find the line brilliantly funny.

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As long as people are intelligent enough to realize this is simply someone’s idea of “historical” fiction I don’t see it as a religious problem. The problem is when people who are not familiar with The New Testament start believing that these stories presented are factual.

The portrayal of the Apostles, John, other disciples and even Jesus as unkempt dirty is revolting to me. Jews were fastidiously clean people, even in the first century. Jesus was a carpenter. He was a house builder, perhaps not wealthy but hardly poor. He would have worn clean clothes, well kept clothes. His clothes would have been hemmed not frayed. His clothes were in such good condition that the Roman Soldiers cast lots for them after the cross, they all wanted them.

Jesus Christ was raised in a family of royal descendants of King David. These were people of pride in their heritage.

I’m not crazy about making up stories surrounding the life of The Savior but it has been done over and over again. This is just another of many and there are many errors in it’s telling of the story of Jesus.

There are several faiths involved in these productions, I’m curious how they ever decide on a story that placates all involved.

I don’t see the mystery. Christ asks His Father for His Apostles to be one with Him just as He is one with His Father. The one refers to unity not physicality. Christ also expects us to be one with Him and His Father.

From John 17

Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are. . . . . . .That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.

What is it about the Trinity that you reject? Is it because our finite minds cannot begin to grasp the infinite? I’ll give you that, but there are MANY things we believers accept by faith and without faith, it is impossible to please God.

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I don’t reject the Trinity, I reject the way it is defined by most of Christianity today. I rather have much respect for first century believers.

I certainly believe in The Father, The Son and The Holy Ghost. I pray to The Father in the name of The Savior Jesus Christ and when I receive what I think is inspiration I believe it is through The Holy Ghost, but; I believe that there are three individuals in The Godhead. Christ certainly didn’t pray to Himself, He prayed to His Father which was in Heaven even while The Savior was on the earth. I believe Jesus when He said that after He left them He would send The Comforter or The Holy Ghost. Christ didn’t say He would send Himself. Not only did He say He would send The Comforter but that He would send Him from The Father.

When the prophet John the Baptist baptized Jesus it was not Jesus that came up out of the water declaring that He was proud of Himself, it was His Father from Heaven declaring to John and any who heard that He was well pleased with His son.

To me the most vivid proof of the error of the current belief or definition of The Holy Trinity is that Christ did not want to drink the bitter cup His Father had given but decided He would do His Fathers will instead of His own. Christ does what His Father sent Him to do. Christ has a will but He conforms His will to His Fathers will. It is the same thing He has asked us to do.

Christ makes it clear that He and His Father are distinct individuals when He tells Mary at the tomb on Easter morning that He had not ascended to His father. He makes it clear by saying that He is ascending to “My Father and your Father, to My God and your God”. I don’t see any other way to interpret these words.

In John 17:17 Jesus prays to His Father to give Him the Glory that He had when He was with Him. I will quote, “Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You, as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him. And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do. And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.”

I realize I have not studied these things in seminary but I believe that there are some things that are plain.

I hold no malice to those believers who hold to the popular belief of The Trinity. I don’t know if it matters.

I am in my 8th decade on this earth. While I am not a seminarian I do have some life experiences that form what I truly believe and understand. I do not believe The Emperor Constantine was inspired by God to organize The Church the way his government was organized. Until Constantine each local church was independent. While Apostles walked the earth they could settle disputes after they and those they ordained left life on earth I think The Church wandered.

This is not to say I have anything against Constantine, I think he likely did more good than harm to The Church certainly he stopped much of the persecution but he was not a Christian. There is a tradition that says he was baptized before he died but it is a doubtful tradition.

I have spoken to many priests and pastors of various religious beliefs. Most of these people are trying to serve The Lord. This is important, splitting hairs perhaps not so much. I’m not sure that the definition of the Holy Trinity is splitting hairs but what ever it is my belief is sincere.

Further Christ explains in John 17 what it means when He says He and His Father are one when He says that He and His apostles are one. I hope to be considered one with Him just as He and His apostles are one and just as He and His Father are one.

It is from the “first century believers” that we have the divinely inspired New Testament Scriptures they wrote which teach the Triunity of God both as Jesus taught as well as that revealed by the Holy Spirit. Where else would the later theologians gather the proofs in order to describe/define it? Many, many places in the Old Testament also teach it. Though it may have taken a few centuries for the religious leaders to get around to defining the doctrine in precise theological terms, it was taught and accepted by the Apostles, their disciples and passed down to other Christians. That’s not to say there weren’t controversies and disagreements but there is more than enough in Scripture that God has provided us to prove the truth of the doctrine.

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Actually the first written Gospel was not written until about 40 years after the Death of Christ. First century Christians for the most part had no written Gospels for a number of reasons. While it is true that the Gospels started to be written some 40 years after Christ it took time for them to be copied and shared with other congregations. Most proselyting was done by believers who either heard Christ or His associates or those who heard personally from those same people.

While Mark likely wrote his Gospel in 70AD or so Matthew and Luke likely both wrote their Gospels in approximately 80AD with John writing his in about 95AD.

Mark was a very young man or shall we say teenager when Christ died. While it is possible that he heard Jesus speak we have no record of that. Mark was however a traveling companion of Paul. Paul while not being an associate of Jesus while Jesus was in Mortality did personally meet Him on the road to Damascus. Paul’s writing more than any other Apostle was likely heavily influenced by the Old Testament since he was an educated Jew who was also a Roman Citizen. Paul and Mark traveled extensively and likely heard stories in the congregations they traveled to of the others who had come to those congregations telling what they knew of the Christian stories, the stories of Jesus.

My point being that early Christians did NOT have the New Testament Scriptures to base their theology on, mostly they had oral tradition and occasionally perhaps a partial copy of one of the Gospels or letters of one of the Apostles late in the century. There are many letters however that we don’t have written by associates of the Apostles that were burned at about the same time as the Nicaean Council of 325AD.

During the first two centuries The Church was often in hiding and enduring much persecution so that promulgating copies of the Gospels was next to impossible. Brave souls having acquired a piece or a copy of one of the Gospels would travel from city to city and read what they had to congregations they could get to.

Much of what we have of the first and second century writings are beautiful but theologically some of them are woefully uninformed.

The Canonization of the scriptures in 393 while not the earliest compilation of the New Testament (likely about 350AD) is when intellectual study of the theology of Christianity really took off and came into it’s own. With canonized scripture priests and scribes started copying the “New Testament” in earnest so that many congregations could have part or all of the New Testament.

We don’t now know what was rejected when the books we have now were officially accepted by “The Church” we do know that Canonization of the scriptures stopped much of the confusion and infighting of which doctrine was correct.

The Trinity as we now accept it mostly universally was not anywhere near universal at any time in the first century. As I said earlier, the Council in 325AD made it mandatory but even then it took several more decades for it to be universally accepted.

Not sure what it is your stating you think is controversial.

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In a conversation with a Roman Catholic last week we talked about this very issue, that is the doctrine of the Trinity. He Explained that the God of the Old Testament, Jehovah was one form of God, that the Being of Christ Jesus was another form of the same God and that now in Heaven is Elohim which again is the same God in another form, that is spirit. That there are three names but one God. To me that is controversial. To most Christians I suspect it is not.

I would of course wonder, what happened to the body, the physical body that people touched after over 500 people watched it ascend into Heaven? I would also ask who it was that the martyr Stephen saw as he was being stoned sitting on the right hand of God. I would be curious whose voice it was from Heaven as Jesus Christ was being baptized in the river Jordan by John proclaiming that this was His Son in whom He was well pleased. I would of course wonder who was it that Jesus often prayed to but in particular in the Garden of Gethsemane begging to have the bitter cup removed from Him but that He would not do His(Jesus’) but instead His Fathers will.

I know there are places that support the Catholic view such as Christ explaining that when they see Him they have seen The Father and while I have a view of that I’m not sure it is a good explanation. There are others that are used to support the Catholic view but to me do not really such as John explaining; In the beginning was The Word and the Word was with God and The Word was God. To me that one is easy. Christ has been since the beginning. He was with The Father from the beginning and He like His Father is God. People say that would mean that there is more than one God. I say of course it does. In Genesis it says “let Us go down”. Not everyone sees things the way I do, controversy.

In the 24th Chapter of Luke Christ Jesus after being resurrected from the dead assures His Apostles that He is not a sprit but is flesh and bone and proves it by eating broiled fish with them.

Christ who had previously explained while in mortality that He was The “I AM” or “Jehovah” of the Old Testament was handled by many people after His resurrection. He had people put their fingers in the nail prints of His hands and feet and feel the scar of the sword in His side.

There are three entities of “The Godhead”, The Father, The Son and The Holy Ghost. In Luke 24 Christ reminds The Apostles that He would do as His Father had promised (sending the Holy Ghost) Christ told us He would send The Comforter, or The Holy Ghost to us after He left.

Prior to the first universal Christian council of The Church which the Emperor Constantine convened in 325AD the Trinity that we preach now was nowhere near universal but originated in Greece and migrated west slowly. Constantine liked the Doctrine the eastern church had of the Trinity, it was a perfect way to meld the beliefs of multiple gods with the doctrine of one god. Constantine was the defacto leader of a different religion by virtue of being Emperor so he had to walk a fine line concerning religion. I don’t envy Constantine for trying to keep a large nation together while in religious flux. He had his hands full.

Constantine in that council made the confession of the Trinity doctrine something that all Christians must confess and made the bishops in attendance of the council agree to it. Many bishops would not adhere and left the council under severe threats of punishment. Later Constantine relented and did not “force” bishops to teach the doctrine of the Trinity but later in 385 another council was convened where the doctrine be came mandatory under threat of death or banishment. There were minor differences in the Trinity doctrine of the eastern churches and the Roman churches for a few hundred years but now most if not all of the churches who call themselves catholic, including protestant churches have the same profession of faith including the same doctrine of The Holy Trinity.

First century believers would find the current popular Christian teaching on “The Holy Trinity” very confusing and would likely be repulsed by it.

There are many confusing verses in The Bible that make the current teaching of The Holy Trinity plausible or possible but there are also others that completely discredit that doctrine.

There are 3 distinct entities in The Godhead. We know for certain that at least one of the entities, Christ, has a physical body.

I believe that in order to communicate with God our spirit communicates with The Holy Ghost who is a being of spirit who communicates with God and we do that in the name of Jesus Christ.

I know my views are not considered kosher by the vast majority of Christians, certainly my views don’t adhere to what the Catholic Church (being the universal church not a particular church) describes when defining God. I read The Holy Bible for the first time cover to cover when I was 15 years old and have read it many times since. When I speak to priests and ministers of different churches (being a singer I used to sing in many churches) they tell me that I can’t possibly understand The Holy Bible because I haven’t been to Seminary. Perhaps, but the early Apostles didn’t go to seminary either.

Does any of this make a difference. I don’t know how important it is to know the mechanics of the being of God. I know it is important that Christ took upon Himself a physical body and came to earth to suffer for my sin and be punished to death to atone for my sins. I know that if I confess that and confess that Jesus Christ is The Son of God and is My and the worlds Savior then I can qualify for His Grace and spend eternity with Him. I know that we prove that we follow Him by our actions in this life of mortality.

Many people still believe in the hockey stick, including me, but I personally doubt CO2 is the main cause, partially due to radiation absorption graphs and because CO2 does not appear to prevent temperatures from dropping rapidly in Florida after 3pm.

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I’m sure that many people do indeed believe in the hockey stick but it is a lie. The main driver for data that says temperatures have risen dramatically in the last half of the 20th century is from old climate monitoring stations that while once in rural areas have been absorbed by cities with air conditioners and asphalt surrounding them.

Our climate has indeed increased in warming in the last 50, 100, 200years, and longer, it is a representation of our coming out of the last ice age. Hundreds of climate data centers have been removed in rural areas especially in the far north, removed because they did not show warming.

Satellite climate data shows no dramatic warming, only the steady, slow increase since the end of the last ice age.

Do the houses belong to you personally or to a corporation you control?

They are mine, in both my wife’s and my name.

I have several rental houses. I have nice albeit small homes, 1000sqft, 3 br 1 bath. Most have covered front porch and a back deck in good neighborhoods. My rents are about 20% or so lower than the market will sustain but I usually lease the first or second day I put it on the market. I could easily charge a few hundred dollars more each month but having a property vacant is not good and a few months vacancy can take years to make up in rent. Local property taxes take the first month and a half rent and insurance takes another month and a half, so my first three months of rent are not mine. Of course there is income tax on the rent which amounts to about $3000 a year between Federal State and Local. If I had to make payments on the house I would have zero profit unless I raised the rent and then it would be a close margin if there were any costs associated with the property I could lose money.

I was fortunate, I was able to pay cash for my houses but even paying cash is a cost. One benefit of paying cash is that inflation is eating up any cash reserves right now but housing valuse rises with inflation so your investment is safe. I received an offer on a house I paid $60,000 for 20 years ago, they guaranteed $160,000 and maybe more. I could not have made that much money in the stock market or in any kind of interest bearing account. Of course, I haven’t really made any money, it’s all inflation but at least I still have my money and have collected rent (interest) all this time. I have collected 4 times the original value of the house in rents and still have the house.

I have tried to show my renters how they could do the same thing I have done but they like their big car payments, their fancy IPhones and cable. They like their Starbucks on the way to work and ordering fast food delivery etc.

I like the income I collect although some years on some houses I’m lucky to break even. Bad renters can cost you a fortune. I fortunately don’t have many of those but it does happen. When a tenant loses a job or gets a divorce it can all go sour.

I like that I provide a service and get income from it and recommend that everybody who can to procure 10 or more houses to rent for retirement income. After you get two or three it gets easier to get the rest.

I suspect that the Federal government will try to make it more difficult for people like me, they will consider it unfair for me to own 10 houses and the people I rent to to own none, but for now it works.

The JWT has for sure introduced some new ideas into the question. I don’t believe we can have any idea how large the universe is, we can only deduce how far we can see objects in it away from us and that currently happens to be about 13.8.billion light years. Before James Webb it was about 13.5. The universe didn’t grow because of the Webb telescope but we can see a little farther out into it.

The JWT can also see a longer wave of light than other telescopes so that light that would have dropped off our ability to see is now visible to JST. To double the distance that we can see, that is add one directions visibility to the opposite directions visibility would give us 27 billion plus light years. We know from what we can see however at 13.8 billion light years that it is larger since we can see formed galaxy’s and stars at that distance. If the big bang theory is correct we should see large gas clouds and no individual stars before we get to the edge of what we are calling the universe.

Chuck,
I have been a Freeper well over twenty five years. I’m sorry you feel as strongly against the church that brought you to faith in The Lord Jesus as you do. I know many good Catholics who know that Jesus is The Lord, The great Jehovah of the Old Testament and the literal Son of God in the flesh. They may have a few facts wrong but they are trying their best and will know Christ The Lord when they meet Him, more importantly Christ will know them and welcome them home.

I agree, in part anyway, with what he is talking about.

Christ was just explaining to Peter that he received the knowledge of the validity of Christ being The Son of God via the Holy Ghost or by revelation. This ability to receive revelation from God is what Christ was talking about. The rock therefore is revelation. Every person can know that God is real and that He sent His Son into the world to save us from our sins. We can only “KNOW” that by revelation. We can have faith that it is true and by following the precepts of the Gospel we can be sure of it’s truthfulness. We can only know by revelation since we can’t transport ourselves into the past and see for ourselves.

As for statements of others leading people to Hell, I have different thoughts. Firstly, anyone who teaches that Jesus is The Christ is not leading someone to Hell. Secondly anyone who teaches that Jesus is not The Christ is indeed trying to lead people to Hell.

Perhaps the Roman Catholics are teaching a different description of Christ than what Chuck Ness, the writer of the article professes but it is the same Christ. Whether Christ has blond hair, black hair or brown hair matters not in the grand scheme of things. When we meet Him perhaps we will say something stupid like “Oh I didn’t know You had white hair”, but who will care, whatever your belief it got you to the throne of God. Presbyterians teach a different Christ than I know but I don’t think they are leading anyone to Hell. I think the Mormons, the Catholics, the various protestants and all who teach Christ are Christian. The differences will be sorted out later.