When UFOs Arrive

www.popularmechanics.com ^ | February 2004 | BY JIM WILSON

[Darksheare]

LOL!
There was a short story up on my bio page once upon a time many months ago with a joking allegorical account of how I ended up in NY state.
(By dimensional warp portal, only it collapsed with a mind shattering shriek.)

But it's become a joke and such among my friends.
(Some humorless types, however, think I'm being serious.)

But they'll get my phaser from my vaporised ahses!

[50sDad]

You know, that six-wheeled assault vehicle in the article reminds me of Ed Bishop and UFT, the great Gerry Anderson live series...

I can sleep better knowing that SHADO is on the job!

[RightWhale]

The only thing about that Shado is there is a human pilot. It will be robotics all the way. Humans will NOT be operating the machines. Humans will be advanced managers, not servants of the machines.

[Darksheare]

Space! 1999.
*chuckle*
Memories..

[JoJo Gunn]

[realpatriot71]

I notice you convienetly left out an explantion of the "sons of god" who came down and came into the daughters of men, from the story of Noah who were these they arent called angels but I suppose there is some strange translation problem eh? And how is it God goes from sons plural to a only singular son ?

The "Sons of God" are the men decnended from Seth - the monotheistic people - those who followed the Lord. The "daughters of men" are the women from the decendants of Cain, who killed his own brother. Cain started the wickedness that eventually leads to the flood. You see, when the men of the monothesistic people would marry a woman from the decendants of Cain, this allowed the corruption to find its way into the people of God, until it was such an evil world that the Lord could find only 8 people to be saved and start over again.

[goldilucky]

That's amusing! Thanks for the laughs.

[goldilucky]

"And, were I in an abduction context wherein my praying in tongues was somehow not so effective, I'd certainly be quoting Scripture to them at every fitting moment."


Such as the Lord's prayer.

"I was reared on the KJV. And my memory work was done in it. But it is so archaic, the younger generations have little appreciation for it. And, a lot of nuance is lost to us because it is not our mother tongue. "

I have been rearing myself on the KJV. In my youth, my folks didn't think it was "appropriate" to force religion down us kids. How wrong they were. Now, I am educating my folks.

[Quix]

OKAYYYYYYYYYY.

Thanks.

[Quix]

There's SOME laughs amidst the topic. Some folks report getting abducted out of their showers or sleeping in the nude. And being alongside a higheway at some point with cars going by and clearly the people in the cars are not seeing them.

Don't recall any other big laughs. Just recall that along the way there have been several.

Maybe some others can relates some funnies.

Most of it is pretty sobering, IMHO.

[Quix]

As you know, THE WORD instructs parents to

TRAIN UP A CHILD IN THE WAY THAT CHILD SHOULD GO . . .

I do encourage you to read other translations from time to time. They can add richness, depth to the understanding of The Word.

I think the New Living Translation is worth while, too.

[goldilucky]

It is amusing but even more so to hear about been abducted while in the shower. This is really funny.

[goldilucky]

Thanks for the tip on the New Living Translation.

A few years ago, I purchased "The Defined KJBible Uncommon Words Defined". It is the authorized KJV and is unaltered and translated out of the original tongues. I often refer to it when running into text I cannot decipher.

[realpatriot71]

A few years ago, I purchased "The Defined KJBible Uncommon Words Defined". It is the authorized KJV and is unaltered and translated out of the original tongues. I often refer to it when running into text I cannot decipher.

Stick with your KJ version. Ironically, the KJ versions actually reads at a lower reading grade level, than other "more enlightened" versions. Well meaning or not (it's very debateable), the new versions are like an exploration of the thesaurus. Because new versions are copy-righted Bibles sold for profit, there has to be significant enough change in the wording or structure as to allow money to be made off of each individual version. The is no copyright on the official KJ. Fruthermore the KJ translation is more consistant with the now known majority manuscripts. As well as this, the official KJ's underlying greek codex, The Texus Receptus, is markedly more consistant with the now known majority manuscripts. The underlying greek codex for all new versions is markedly different (altered), when compared to the majority texts or The Texus Receptus - only in agreement with a small minority of ancient texts and manuscripts.

[Quix]

Sounds good. Please check out THE MESSAGE translation by Peterson, too. It's my current favorite.

It really captures the idiom, the vernacular, the nuance and flavor of the original Hebrew and Greek according to the experts. Certainly it has much more of the flavor of God The Father and Jesus that I know.

[PureSolace]

weird

[goldilucky]

I'm sticking with the KJV because many of the new versions and international revised versions have taken and twisted the Word of God around and deleted text.

One time I brought the KJV to class for bible study and the teacher told me that bible was not acceptable in his class. When I told this to the bible bookstore manager, they said that professor didn't know what he was talking about.

So I dropped the class!

[goldilucky]

I'm sorry but I'm not certain I understand what you meant by THE MESSAGE translation by Peterson. Is that the name of the book?

[Quix]

That's the name of the current translation of The Bible I am reading.

I usually mark portions I read with up arrows and down arrows (without the arrow's tail). When I read all of a chapter, I circle the chapter number. Eventually, I read the whole Bible in that translation.

The NIV is the standard reference source for me, though I still also use a DAKE's KJV. One of the NIV's is a Thompson Chain Reference Bible--also a great resources, as, of course is the BIBLE GATEWAY website.

But for my daily reading currently, THE MESSAGE version is wonderful. The Psalms particularly are so much more alive--as are Proverbs and the prophets. They just sound so much more like FATHER GOD in a lot of subtle to not so subtle ways. I encourage you to check it out. It's much more of a FACE TO FACE with God sort of translation instead of a 'lofty, stiff, scholarly' sort of translation. And the accuracy of the translation is wonderful according to experts I've read.

I hope that clarifies it.

[Cvengr]

The destruction of Earth and the heaven above by fire will occur in the future. My understanding is that the particulars point to a post millenial destruction after the Gog-Magog revolt of Armeggedon. This would occur after a thousand year reign of Christ, after His Second Coming, after the Great Tribulation after the Rapture.

There are those who interpret Scripture differently, but I encourage studying Prophecy from this perspective, not reading into the Word of God, but allowing Him to speak to the reader by His Word.

With respect to being 'dead' in the spirit, God is a God of the Living. Whosoever believes in Him through Christ, the Spirit of God abides in him. If the believer then turns away from God, that is if we are separated from God by a postsalvation sin, then we must repent, turn away from that sin and return to Him, in order to return to a fellowship with Him. He is faithful and just and once saved, neither height nor depth, life or death, power or angel or authority will separate His love from us.

Once saved, we are spiritually alive. Once saved, we are tricotomous, composed of body, soul and spirit. Once saved we are positionally sanctified through faith in Christ and royal family members with Christ seated at the right hand of the Father in Heaven. Even if we are confused or not cognizant of our status, the faith of Christ carries and maintains our status truthfully as royal family members and yes, we are alive in Him.

Now other possibilites exist to also explain certain situations.

Let's begin basically by understanding these groups,...angels, man, and God. All three have volition, free-will, able to decide between divine good and anything that counterfeits God's good. God's policy is grace, the Adversary's policy is evil. Man is a third player, so to speak, in the angelic conflict.

In the Garden of Eden, when man was created perfect, in body, soul and spirit, Adam disobeyed God by choosing to eat the fruit. Eve was deceived. Even after this had happened, they remained alive in the soul and for many years alive in the flesh or body. They became spiritually dead however as did all mankind until the appropriate sacrifice could be made to return man to life in the spirit. Even after the redemption had been made, a change of state is still required which is provided by God through His grace to man, namely to the believer who has returned to God through faith in Jesus Christ who paid the penalty for all sin of man. In the Garden, it's interesting to note that Satan had tempted this creature made in the image of God, God's favorite. Satan, thinking this would be a marvelous coup to make himself as God to God's favorite creature and to corrupt what was perfect, also sustained punishment for his involvement and his sin, worse than man's. Namely, even though man was destined to work and woman to have pain in childbirth and man who might be bruised in the heel by the serpant, the serpant would be bruised in the head by man AND Man would have enmity for the Adversary in his heart.

Care needs to be taken not to blame all sin or evil on Satan. Man also has volition. Lucifer actually was created the most beautiful, most knowledgable, loftiest position of all angels as an intermediary between the Creation and God. When he declared his 5 'I wills' and became Satan and fell with a third of the angels, he sought to counterfeit God's plan and will.

Almost every attack possible of God's decisions has been favored by Satan, although Satan also seeks to advance and exalt himself as God. Accordingly, as a creature, Satan produces some of the most skillful, deceitful, strongly established plans posible independent of God to advance his counterfeit agenda.

Man, as a third party, when he sins or is disobedient to God, even in commiting a morally good act, has that good parlayed into evil by Satan in a counterfeit plan to God's.

God's policy is grace. God allows this to occur even though the counterfeit plan is doomed from the start. But also, man is a third party, even now with enmity in his heart towards Satan as this is now how man is created.

There will be a natural proclivity for man to hate anything satanic, (although we still have an old sin nature which scars our ability to identify when we are not in fellowship with Him) but still unless man believes in God through Christ, he still will remain simply a third player, already condemned unless man by faith receives God's grace. There may be many things man does which even Satan hates, independent of God, because man bumbles into Satan's plans, even corrupting them. Satan hates believers and he really doesn't care for unbelievers. He merely looks for tools to advance his own agenda.

In this light of good and evil, there are basically three players, Angels, Man, and God.

Messengers of God, or angels which didn't rebel, might perform any number of tasks in obedience to God. God still created us, but we have inherited an old sin nature. We are not independent of His ordinances. He still may act upon unbelievers, although He will not violate the free-will or volition of His creatures, but if His will differs from our will, He is still Soveriegn and omnipotent. We would be the only loser.

On the other hand, fallen angels, demons, might also appear to be angels of light. Simply because man rightfully perceives and discerns an angellic being from another man, doesn't mean we've discerned the deceiving angel from the faithful angel. So if a man is en communicato with angels, discernment must also be properly made if those angels are fallen or indeed messengers of God. Again, remember that Satan wills to make himself as God, so to the fallen angels, they might even speak of Satan as though he were God in their counterfeit schemes.

Regardless this discernment, the existence of body, soul, and spirit, does not make it impossible for man to suffer the consequences of actions in any of these domains.

If we are asleep, but dreaming, making decisions in our soul, and somebody stabs us in the heart while we are lying in bed, and we physically die, we don't avoid physical death simply because we were dreaming.

Likewise, we maybe dead in the spirit or separated from God in the Spirit, but hat doesn't mean a spiritual domain doesn't exist.

Death doesn't imply nonexistence. Death is a state of separation. When we die, our souls are separated from our bodies. Those who believe today, upon death are face to face with the Lord. We will receive interim bodies and later a ressurection body.

Nebuchanezzar saw the handwriting on the wall. He was being communicated with, not merely by an angel, but by God. He still wasn't a believer. He still was dead in the spirit or separated from God the Holy Spirit.

There are many, many unbelievers today who still are very, very 'spiritual'. They simply dabble in dead spirits. Ask any Wiccan. They steadfastly refuse to honor God, yet are very fearful of spirits,(...go figure how much more blinded one could ever become).

Demonic possession and influence are both worth studying after one has better understood and received salvation. Another interesting discernment is between demonically inspired behavior vs simple man-inspired behavior. Another interesting discernment is between the types of demonic influence upon man's behavior. A challenging discernment is between a less obvious demonic influence and a human morally good volition, yet independent of God. Keeping things simple, most find it more fruitful to first master or mature through studies in Christ, the Father and the Holy Spirit, than waste time on those things already condemned, although the study of such things might help to fish for believers, so to speak, in the witnessing of the Gospel to unbelievers.

Just as a freemason who ceases to place faith in God through Christ in all things, and turns instead to performing good works in a service organization, might indeed produce many himanly good works, his works are good for nothingness (Poneros) if not performed through faith in Christ. Likewise, there maybe many deceiving spirits, whom are preoccupied with morally good works, but again independent of God and not holy. Where those deceiving spirits might influence man, the man might be perceived as being very good, even labeled as being very saintly, when if not in faith with God, is actually demonically influenced.

In order to discern these things and remain obedient to God, one always must insure they are in fellowship with God on His grounds and continue to grow in faith. As we mature in faith, that further sanctification is brought about by studying Scripture and metabolizing the doctrine or 'written faith' and changing one's thinking more and more as metabolized doctrine or mature faith.

BTW, some of the most powerful displays of God's love and our secure relationship with Him, is performed by the most innocent of all of these things, yet who have simple faith in Him.