MichaelWitcoff said:
I just won the debate.
Do you know why?
Do you know why I just won the debate though?
vs.
Not an argument.
(I'm still watching though.)
The God pill
- Thread starter Roosh
- Start date
I just won the debate.
Do you know why?
Do you know why I just won the debate though?
vs.
Not an argument.
(I'm still watching though.)
Just watched the dream video. I've always wondered about their predictive powers. In the Bible is lots of descriptions of dreams and visions and I've had other believers tell me about dreams they had that they saw as messages from God. Sometimes I have trouble taking them seriously such as the one from a friend who was convinced the multiple dreams he had about a girl was a sign she was meant to be his wife. He's actually creeped her out to the point of she has completely cut off any sort of communication with him. In this case, it seems like the source of his dream is simply the burning lust he has for that girl creeping into his subconsciousness.
But I also know a woman who told me about dream she had years ago. Her ex-fiance and her were set to go on a mission trip to an underground church in China. The ex-fiance was a new believer - a guy who was a drug addict but had turned his life around and was often being used by others in his congregation as an example of how Christ can transform anyone. He was in his fiery stages, full of enthusiasm and was set on serving the Lord. A lot of the people that were discipling and mentoring him warned him that he wasn't ready and told him not to go but he wouldn't be dissuaded.
The woman I know ended up going to Spain instead for her mission trip but the guy insisted on going to China and ended up going. While they were separated, she had a dream that was more vivid and clear than any other dream she has before or since then. In the dream he was talking away from her. At the same time, he was carrying a Bible in his hand and ripping pages out of it and throwing it away.
Later on, she started hearing reports about him in China and how he had been going absolutely nuts. He had been praying over a child that was sick and when the child died, he was livid. There were reports of him physically attacking the other missionaries and even knocking them out. He ended up getting kicked off the mission and was sent home early. The trip caused him to lose his faith completely. The guy came to the woman I know and said "forget religion let's get married anyways" but she refused. He would spend nights in front of her house weeping and crying and begging her to relent but she never did.
But I also know a woman who told me about dream she had years ago. Her ex-fiance and her were set to go on a mission trip to an underground church in China. The ex-fiance was a new believer - a guy who was a drug addict but had turned his life around and was often being used by others in his congregation as an example of how Christ can transform anyone. He was in his fiery stages, full of enthusiasm and was set on serving the Lord. A lot of the people that were discipling and mentoring him warned him that he wasn't ready and told him not to go but he wouldn't be dissuaded.
The woman I know ended up going to Spain instead for her mission trip but the guy insisted on going to China and ended up going. While they were separated, she had a dream that was more vivid and clear than any other dream she has before or since then. In the dream he was talking away from her. At the same time, he was carrying a Bible in his hand and ripping pages out of it and throwing it away.
Later on, she started hearing reports about him in China and how he had been going absolutely nuts. He had been praying over a child that was sick and when the child died, he was livid. There were reports of him physically attacking the other missionaries and even knocking them out. He ended up getting kicked off the mission and was sent home early. The trip caused him to lose his faith completely. The guy came to the woman I know and said "forget religion let's get married anyways" but she refused. He would spend nights in front of her house weeping and crying and begging her to relent but she never did.
I watched this the other day on Amazon. It was definitely worth the time to see 'the other side'
Its a bunch of cucked out Minnesota Lutherans talking about how they hate themselves and black people lecturing.
Its full of SJW/democrat talking points, but the most poignant being that there is almost zero biblical content in it. There is just one HUUUUGE leap in about a 20 second graphic and that is about it.
Its also entertaining that a lot of their beefs are actually with Jews, not 'white people' if they did a little more research.
Either way, if you've ever wondered what it is like to go to church in some sort of cucked out liberal church, this is it. This is what midwest lutherans are like, presbyterians, united and about 50% of the methodist church. You to to these places and its more like a democrat party meeting than anything about the bible or God.
Its a bunch of cucked out Minnesota Lutherans talking about how they hate themselves and black people lecturing.
Its full of SJW/democrat talking points, but the most poignant being that there is almost zero biblical content in it. There is just one HUUUUGE leap in about a 20 second graphic and that is about it.
Its also entertaining that a lot of their beefs are actually with Jews, not 'white people' if they did a little more research.
Either way, if you've ever wondered what it is like to go to church in some sort of cucked out liberal church, this is it. This is what midwest lutherans are like, presbyterians, united and about 50% of the methodist church. You to to these places and its more like a democrat party meeting than anything about the bible or God.
Use invidious for stuff you don't want to feed with clicks: https://invidio.us/watch?v=2FWenQCC4-s
MusicForThePiano
Pelican
Changing gears of this thread for a sec, an associate recently mentioned something to me about "the evil spirit of the Lord" that, in my own interpretation, is the manifestation of all the fear and power of the Lord among other things we would normally associate with negative focuses, and for those chosen by Him, condones these warriors of heaven to act against the enemy, whether principalities in the spirit, or their servants in the flesh, to put a wrench in their evil plans, or just to outright screw with them, because it is pleasing to God. While I agree on the outset, and this is the way I have been acting, at least with my tongue and wit towards devil worshipers and their ilk, the use of excessive violence against the enemy has never truly been discussed in any Church that I have been to, nor am I advocating for any alleged violence against anyone. This is all conjecture based on some of the different people I have come across in recent years who have their own interpretations of carrying out God's will, or doing their own thing in life. I don't know what to make of all this, but I have been thinking about the whole turning cheek and the most difficult to accept scriptures relating to pride and destroying pride, but is it possible that one is able to take the fight to the enemy after they have beaten all the demons plaguing them? Truly those who walk in the Lord's guidance are protected, and those that do His will are not in any danger, regardless of the actions they take? A next level test so to say..
@Wutang
Puts doubt in the once saved always saved theology. I do wonder if the drug addict actually was saved.
Puts doubt in the once saved always saved theology. I do wonder if the drug addict actually was saved.
I didn't get a whole lot of response to the bible reading group, but still I'm going to do it so I may as well post it here for anyone who wants to join along. I think for now I'm going to go simple with the New Testament in a Year plan from Bible Gateway. For our purposes, this Sunday will be "January 1". I will start a new thread this weekend with the weekly schedule. I'm going to be reading the New King James Version, since that's the translation I have in physical format which I prefer over reading on a screen, but I'd be interested in comparing with other versions where relevant (sites like Bible Gateway are really nice for that, there's a site I found too that had every word/term in Greek at the bottom as well so you could look them up yourself).
Come one come all.
Come one come all.
y2k
Sparrow
kel said:
This study of individual concepts and words may be useful to you in your Bible studies.
The word "Khata" described in the video also exists in Arabic and is still in use and very much alive:
Narrated by At-Tirmidhi and Ibn MajahProphet Muhammad (pbuh) said:
Translation said:
The word used here is "Khatta'un", the plural of the doer of "Khata".
Many non-Abrahamic words and perspectives have become familiar in the west (Karma, reincarnation etc.) while Biblical concepts like sin and iniquity have become distant.
Western scholars mistakenly say that the Buddha was an atheist because he refused to make any statements on the existence or non-existence of a creator God. Instead of using words and concepts, the Buddha provided a method to obtain direct knowledge of Nirvana, which is incorrectly translated into English as nothingness, but could more likely be a description of union with God.
In the Christian tradition, there is a negative theology, in which Chrisitian Mystics describe experiences which seems similar to Buddhist emptiness.
“Concepts create idols; only wonder comprehends anything. People kill one another over idols. Wonder makes us fall to our knees.”
-Gregory of Nyssa
“We do not know what God is. Even God cannot say what God is because God is not anything.. Literally God is not, because God transcends being.”
-John Scotus Erigena
“We cannot say what God is, only what God is not.”
-Saint Thomas Aquinas.
After a mystical experience, Saint Thomas Aquinas refused to complete the Summa Theologica, because all that he had previously written seemed like straw compared to what had been revealed to him. How is this different than the Buddha refusing to talk about God?
In the Christian tradition, there is a negative theology, in which Chrisitian Mystics describe experiences which seems similar to Buddhist emptiness.
“Concepts create idols; only wonder comprehends anything. People kill one another over idols. Wonder makes us fall to our knees.”
-Gregory of Nyssa
“We do not know what God is. Even God cannot say what God is because God is not anything.. Literally God is not, because God transcends being.”
-John Scotus Erigena
“We cannot say what God is, only what God is not.”
-Saint Thomas Aquinas.
After a mystical experience, Saint Thomas Aquinas refused to complete the Summa Theologica, because all that he had previously written seemed like straw compared to what had been revealed to him. How is this different than the Buddha refusing to talk about God?
y2k, or shall I say, Oskuro, why do you keep posting on Islam when you can't even answer the basic question of why even non-religious people are stumped by your (Islam's of course) claims that Muhammad was a good example, among other things? I asked you that in the other thread, you never answered. Is silence your answer? I believe there is an arab proverb that says as much.
Apophatic theology is not Buddhism or anything close to it. Orthodoxy affirms both cataphatic (“positive”) and apophatic (“negative”) approaches to understanding God, since there are things we can know about Him and things we cannot. There are experiences of God that transcend language and normal human mental constructs, and there are experiences of God that can be described and communicated (to some extent at least). Buddhism doesn’t believe in a loving Creator, in creation out of nothing, in Incarnation, in resurrection, or anything like that. The only real overlap between Buddhism and Christianity is their general agreement that attachments to what is temporary causes pain, and certain moral guidelines. But the Buddhist’s idea of nirvana is not remotely the same thing as a Christian’s idea of Paradise.
When the mystics and Saints said that God was “beyond being,” they were referring to a very specific philosophical concept in which a “being” is something that can be described and clearly delineated from the things around it, so that it becomes separate from everything that is not it. God is beyond “being” because He does not fit the definition of a philosophical being. You cannot point to Him and say “there is God,” the way you can point to a human or a tree (except when Christ came in the flesh of course). There is no mental picture or concept a person could have that accurately depicts the Father, since only beings can be said to exist in such a way.
That is different than “everything is like, one, man” or the idea that we are all various manifestations of the same “one energy” or “one source.” The Christian God is both transcendent and immanent, near in some ways and impossibly distant in others, but there is still a God that, though not existing as a being in the Classical Greek understanding of those words, created the world from nothing and Whose energies hold the cosmos in place.
When the mystics and Saints said that God was “beyond being,” they were referring to a very specific philosophical concept in which a “being” is something that can be described and clearly delineated from the things around it, so that it becomes separate from everything that is not it. God is beyond “being” because He does not fit the definition of a philosophical being. You cannot point to Him and say “there is God,” the way you can point to a human or a tree (except when Christ came in the flesh of course). There is no mental picture or concept a person could have that accurately depicts the Father, since only beings can be said to exist in such a way.
That is different than “everything is like, one, man” or the idea that we are all various manifestations of the same “one energy” or “one source.” The Christian God is both transcendent and immanent, near in some ways and impossibly distant in others, but there is still a God that, though not existing as a being in the Classical Greek understanding of those words, created the world from nothing and Whose energies hold the cosmos in place.
Evangelicalism continues to expand in Brazil. There was a huge revival meeting/conference/gathering called The Send where Jair Bolsonaro showed up.
https://churchleaders.com/news/370654-brazil-president-the-send-conference.html
Good or bad?
https://churchleaders.com/news/370654-brazil-president-the-send-conference.html
Good or bad?
Rob Banks
Pelican
Sherman said:
I second this.
Before my recent turn to Christianity, when I started looking for a spiritual path, I read a book called "The Teaching of Buddha," written anonymously by a Japanese author.
The concepts described in the book cannot be described as anything other than seeking union with God.
After I finished that book, I started reading a book on Buddhism by a Western author who claimed to be a Buddhist, and it was nothing but leftist pacifist garbage.
If you're going to study Buddhism and Eastern philosophy, make sure you read authentic Eastern authors and philosophers, not Western ones.
Rob Banks
Pelican
Wutang said:
I am a citizen of a South American country. When I lived there, I started getting involved in evangelicalism. The group I was a part of was mostly legit and the guys seemed like good guys.
However, from what I hear, Protestantism in the predominately Catholic South American countries tends to attract the lower classes, and a lot of them are sects and have bizarre beliefs.
For example, I was going through somewhat of a spiritual crisis (which I've talked about on the forum), and there was a family acquaintance of mine who was poor and low-class and he started recommending I go to his evangelical church. He offered to have his pastor come talk to me and perform an exorcism, but then claimed that his pastor said it had to be done in private because I would scream and make weird noises if he did the exorcism in public.
That same pastor (who I never met) then started texting people close to me claiming he could "fix" me. It was all really weird.
Rob Banks said:
I noticed lots of Western people who come to or at least are sympathetic to Buddhism seem to be people who have a bone to pick with Christianity. Sam Harris is the prime example of this. There's also a big tendency for these Western Buddhists to incorporate a lot of New Age or secular self-help type ideas into Buddhism.
Go to an Asian country and see the way Buddhism is practiced and you'll notice there's a lot of the things that these Western Buddhists would consider themselves to have "evolved" past. There's lots of bowing down before idols, rituals and even veneration of relics like what you see in Catholicism. In Taiwan, there's this big Buddhist temple/tourist attraction called Fo Guang Shan. There's a room there that holds what is supposed to be one of Buddha's teeth. People will take off their shoes before entering their room and will bow down before the tooth. Through out the temple you'll also see lots of exhibits talking about miraculous acts that were supposed to have been performed by the Buddhist equivalent of saints.
Rob Banks said:
From what I see a lot of South/Central American evangelicals tend to be of the charismatic and Pentecostal variety so that seems to explain a lot of that behavior. They are even starting to adopt a lot of American worship music.
Brazilian version of an American worship song that was originally entitled "Letting Go"
Wutang said:
Buddhists in the west, in my experience, are Hollywood "spiritual but not religious" types who are looking for a little bit of woo to get into and so much the better if it has a expensive juice bar attached to it. Their conception of Buddhism rarely goes beyond "we're, like, all just particles in the energy flow, man (bong bubbling noise)" and a frankly racist noble savage mentality that anything from "over there" must be ancient and wise and low-key magic. It's foreignness not only gives it an exotic air for them, but allows them to project whatever they want upon it, which is mostly hand-wavy feel-good absolution of any responsibility. "Buddhism is all about loving yourself and following your heart!". Ni??a what?
It's embarrassing and I don't fault anyone for taking advantage of these rubes. I mean, you're giving them what they want in the end.
The first noble truth of Buddhism is “There is suffering”. The central symbol of Christianity is the cross, which is an object created to maximize suffering. So human suffering is most salient in both Christianity and Buddhism. Buddhism uses abstract language whereas Christianity uses visual imagery. They say the same thing using different language. Buddhist scripture is philosophical, but Christianity is highly visual with rituals and sacraments that communicate spiritual truths to the masses. It wasn’t until the protestant reformation that ordinary people were able to read the Bible. I think at the deepest level the two approaches are pointing to the same unknowable truth using language which is always extremely inadequate to explain the ultimate concern. Words are not the truth. Words are pointers to the truth.
An Indian scholar commenting on Meister Eckhart, the medieval Christian mystic: “Eckhart presents an astonishing close parallel to Indian modes of thought; some whole passages and many single sentences read like a direct translation from Sanskrit”. Eckhart, a German scholar, with no knowledge of India, could only have learned this from a direct mystical experience.
There are also many similarities in morality, since deep reflection on truth comes to the same conclusion:
“If any among you considers himself to be religious but does not bridle his tongue, he is fooling his own heart. Such religion is worthless” James 1:26
“And what is right speech? Abstaining from lying, from divisive speech, from abusive speech, and from idle chatter”: This is called right speech.” Pali Canon
An Indian scholar commenting on Meister Eckhart, the medieval Christian mystic: “Eckhart presents an astonishing close parallel to Indian modes of thought; some whole passages and many single sentences read like a direct translation from Sanskrit”. Eckhart, a German scholar, with no knowledge of India, could only have learned this from a direct mystical experience.
There are also many similarities in morality, since deep reflection on truth comes to the same conclusion:
“If any among you considers himself to be religious but does not bridle his tongue, he is fooling his own heart. Such religion is worthless” James 1:26
“And what is right speech? Abstaining from lying, from divisive speech, from abusive speech, and from idle chatter”: This is called right speech.” Pali Canon