First Temple seal found in Jerusalem

#180
#180
T-TownVol said:
DING>>DING>>>DING!!!!!!!!!

Even went to Lipscomb, only because of a baseball scholly.

Didn't start thinking for myself until about 5 years after I left there.
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You may want to hold on just a bit...because I may have you here, I grew up in a church called a Baptist Church of Christ, I do not jest....and they will not release you from their membership to even join another Baptist church, but...they don't expressly prohibit dancing (but music...oh geez...look out)
 
#181
#181
T-TownVol said:
I have many family members that went there. The C o C has built "extra fences" around the basic commandments of the Bible. These grey areas have become LAW for them. It is maddenning. The act of baptism being the moment of salvation is but one example.
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But...I'm pretty sure they would claim that the Bible is clear on these issues.
 
#184
#184
vader said:
Where are you, TennTradion? I missed where you mentioned?
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Trondheim, Norway on the western coast ... mid-latitude within the country. I was up until 5 last night.....I'm hoping to convince myself to go to bed a bit earlier tonight...I just can't seem to adjust this time.
 
#186
#186
OrangeEmpire said:
What is Norway like these days?
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I love this country, in general. Today was an "old" Norwegian day. The temperatures were cold and wind brisk. Many days here now are warmer here on the coast, and the snow much less. However, in the last few days we've had some snow fall..but much more with a little elevation (as little as 100 m elevation on the surrounding hills is enough). The Norwegian people are a great group - and it is still an easy country for an American to be in.

With the clear, cold day - we were excited that the northern lights might start dancing tonight....but, it began to warm after sunset (which is before 4:00) and the skies became less clear. I'm hoping that they'll dance tomorrow night.
 
#188
#188
OrangeEmpire said:
That would be something I would love to experience.
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This is my first trip to Trondheim in the winter, and I haven't experienced it yet either! It is agonizingly close...but there is never a guarantee, apparently. We were hopeful today, though - so that was a bit of a letdown. Another problem is that being in a city, you can apparently miss them if you don't look closely (and then move away to less light - where they are brilliant).

Edit: I've come back to add something because I think it is way to sweet not to tell. I got to throttle a freaking jet engine experimental rig today...the flame shooting out was off the wall amazing and even though you couldn't feel the thrust (because it was fixed in position)...you could still feel the power when throttling. I set the record in the group by getting it up over 100,000 rpm (I think that is what it was, anyway)...even with that awesome event of the day I was still bummed about no visible northern lights :)
 
#189
#189
TennTradition said:
You may want to hold on just a bit...because I may have you here, I grew up in a church called a Baptist Church of Christ, I do not jest....and they will not release you from their membership to even join another Baptist church, but...they don't expressly prohibit dancing (but music...oh geez...look out)
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Those are not keys to salvation issues. They are issues that the group of believers in that congregation set up for themselves.
As I have said, Religions are man made through different interpretations of the Bible. You join the Church when you accept Christ. You place membership with a group of "like faith" believers.
 
#190
#190
T-TownVol said:
Those are not keys to salvation issues. They are issues that the group of believers in that congregation set up for themselves.
As I have said, Religions are man made through different interpretations of the Bible. You join the Church when you accept Christ. You place membership with a group of "like faith" believers.
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As I said last night, you jumped to "salvation issues" after the original discussion started. We were discussing whether the bible was all truth or just some truth (because I seriously doubt that anyone could reasonably argue that it contains no truth).

My point (not in the quote you posted, but another by it) was that if you ask those believers about these gray areas, I'm not so sure they would use their church as their backup on it - I'm pretty sure they would quote some scripture. And, the fact that this scripture is seen as the gospel to them and gray area to you supports my whole point, really....
 
#192
#192
T-TownVol said:
That is correct and I am not their judge. You had to make the decision if the Bible backs up what they practiced or change Churches.
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This implies that the bible is subject to interpretation, does it not? I don't disagree with this - and I agree whole heartedly that you must think about what the bible says, apply historical perspective, whatever to better understand what you can accept as the meaning, intent, purpose, etc. The crazy thing is that both you and the COC member regard the bible as the word of god - and yet you act differently, so one must not be following the word of God.

I'm not presenting this as a reason not to believe - but just something that is at the center of the paradox of faith...through one's faith he/she is "right," but often through others' faith, he/she is "wrong."
 
#193
#193
TennTradition said:
As I said last night, you jumped to "salvation issues" after the original discussion started. We were discussing whether the bible was all truth or just some truth (because I seriously doubt that anyone could reasonably argue that it contains no truth).

My point (not in the quote you posted, but another by it) was that if you ask those believers about these gray areas, I'm not so sure they would use their church as their backup on it - I'm pretty sure they would quote some scripture. And, the fact that this scripture is seen as the gospel to them and gray area to you supports my whole point, really....
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Calling something grey area does not mean that I think it is not valid. The words of the Bible are true. What I am pointing out is that the different styles of religion have come about by man's interpretation of the word.
Jesus came to establish one Church and that Church comes in many different shapes and forms.

I do keep going back to the salvation issue because that is what really matters. All the other stuff is what keeps the debate going.
 
#194
#194
T-TownVol said:
Calling something grey area does not mean that I think it is not valid. The words of the Bible are true. What I am pointing out is that the different styles of religion have come about by man's interpretation of the word.
Jesus came to establish one Church and that Church comes in many different shapes and forms.

I do keep going back to the salvation issue because that is what really matters. All the other stuff is what keeps the debate going.
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As for the gray area....if the bible is the literal word of God...then I would have to think that he meant what he said. So, this would mean that if you accept the literal word, and if the COC are actually on the side of what God meant...then you would be wrong. While you view this as a gray area, wouldn't you agree that the COC don't? They think it is very clear. You can expand this thinking (although it stretches this discussion some, I will admit) to question what our interpretation of the word is today versus those in the past. And, if God worked through those who wrote the bible, and he meant what he said, then how can that change? Obviously it wouldn't. It is actually more plausible to imagine the word changing to reflect a revisionist's interpretation of "what the bible really means." In that case, you have to wonder what the literal word really means.

In the end, my position is that these factors force each believer to be honest with himself/herself and give the bible or whichever book they follow the thought it deserves. Asking these questions about what the bible means, and even asking questions about how the bible has changed, and what those changes mean is not a bad thing, IMO. I guess that I have faith that God would find that a perfectly reasonable thing to do.....
 
#195
#195
I fully respect your opinion and I believe that we agree on more than you think. You are much more articulate than I am.
I am just glad that you are thinking about it and hope you continue to grow in your Faith. I will leave it at this: Romans 10: 9 & 10 sum up how easy it is to be saved. every thing else we can ask God when we see him.
Travel safe...my son's basketball game is about to start and I have to go.
God Bless
 
#196
#196
T-TownVol said:
I fully respect your opinion and I believe that we agree on more than you think. You are much more articulate than I am.
I am just glad that you are thinking about it and hope you continue to grow in your Faith. I will leave it at this: Romans 10: 9 & 10 sum up how easy it is to be saved. every thing else we can ask God when we see him.
Travel safe...my son's basketball game is about to start and I have to go.
God Bless
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Have fun...and thanks for the discussion.
 
#199
#199
Here's a funny story, I grew up in the CoC. Made me into what I am today. Somewhere along the lines I lost all the conservatism, but none of the fascism. :)
 
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