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A man may say he follows Christ, but his actions are of the devil. As i understood, these men who came to escape persecution also persecuted in their new lands, which were not theirs to begin with, however they saw fit to claim and divide up amongst themselves the land already inhabited, swarming America. Is it really so great a thing? No America is not the source of all evil, mankind and his ego is however the source of all evil. Just because there are churches in every city doesn't say a thing about how people actually lived and worked. Perhaps many if not most Americans were decent people, but this country was started by a group of privileged men who where not commoners by any means.
T
As I wrote earlier, "you've been reading too much revisionist history." <smile>
Sure there were some unscrupulous men around who were unfair to the Indians, there's always people like that, but it was far from universal. Our family came to these shores with absolutely nothing, that’s zero, zip, nada, that kind of nothing, but by the 1800s we were building and owning clipper ships and in the China tea trade. I know the history of my own family in detail, you can even buy a book about them on Amazon: "The Skolfields and Their Ships."
Thet got where they did by hard work, not by stealing from anyone or oppressing the natives, LOL, cracks me up that people believe such nonsense. When steam ships replaced the clippers, our family lost everything so grandfather ended up a Grand Banks fisherman. Dad used to clean fish on the Portland docks for 50 cents a day.
We didn’t whine, complain or point fingers at others for our troubles; nor did we want or expect a Government bailout. Unthinkable. By and large, people who were rich eared every penny by hard work. Those big churches were built because most people believed in the Lord and most of those churches still stand today. But as I wrote in my first post, our people have so changed that what was true back then has long since been replaced by greed, hedonism and self aggrandizement and in no way do I defend unrighteousness.
Sure there were some unscrupulous men around who were unfair to the Indians, there's always people like that, but it was far from universal. Our family came to these shores with absolutely nothing, that’s zero, zip, nada, that kind of nothing, but by the 1800s we were building and owning clipper ships and in the China tea trade. I know the history of my own family in detail, you can even buy a book about them on Amazon: "The Skolfields and Their Ships."
Thet got where they did by hard work, not by stealing from anyone or oppressing the natives, LOL, cracks me up that people believe such nonsense. When steam ships replaced the clippers, our family lost everything so grandfather ended up a Grand Banks fisherman. Dad used to clean fish on the Portland docks for 50 cents a day.
We didn’t whine, complain or point fingers at others for our troubles; nor did we want or expect a Government bailout. Unthinkable. By and large, people who were rich eared every penny by hard work. Those big churches were built because most people believed in the Lord and most of those churches still stand today. But as I wrote in my first post, our people have so changed that what was true back then has long since been replaced by greed, hedonism and self aggrandizement and in no way do I defend unrighteousness.
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allow me to play devils advocate for a moment and suggest the following... Rather than talking about all the problems in the US, or comparing it to 80 years ago, how about you start praying that God will bring a change in the hearts of those in the so called free world.
As it is I believe that within the next 10 years the West will be in a shooting war with the entire muslim world. There is simply no common ground between the two, and at some point the west will have to choose what they believe in, God or themselves.
As it is I believe that within the next 10 years the West will be in a shooting war with the entire muslim world. There is simply no common ground between the two, and at some point the west will have to choose what they believe in, God or themselves.
T
My dear brother, about 35 years ago, the Lord led me to write my first book on the coming conflict with the Islamic world. After it was published, I visited upwards of 300+ churches, giving each of the pastors a copy. I was shocked to find that they couldn't have cared less!!! The USSR was the final enemy and Gorbachev was the Antichrist, everyone knew that. Islam is nothing, and besides, we're all going to be raptured out before anything really bad happened, don't you know that? <yawn, yawn>
Since then, I've written five more books on the subject, proving from the Bible that it wouldn't be more that a handful of years before our financial systems collapse and the Lord returns. Also proving from Scripture that Islam is the final enemy of the church and Israel, and that Islam is here in America now, destroying our liberties with the death of a thousand cuts.
And guess what I find? The church still isn't interested.
Got any suggestions?
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I was under the impression that constant vigilance for terrorist attacks was already necessary since 2001. Oh wait, that was Nazi Germany not the US. The Us government has gotten sidetracked by terrorists. They are criminals not the boogyman. Mass murderers, not religious fanatics, although there is an element of that, they act out of politics not religion. Or rather those telling the nuts to act are acting out of politics and power not for any religious purpose. I've said before that islam is a religion for the poor and ignorant, and I maintain that belief. Anyone who adheres to a religion that encourages slavery and condones murder in the name of God as its base tenants is wrong. Period. I will say again, the west will have to choose between following God's law or not. I've been reading Jeremiah lately and its once ruler after another being told directly by God through Jeremiah how to avoid destruction and bad things, yet they held to their pride because they thought they knew more than God. Destruction followed.
Its too bad the Western supposedly Christian world hasn't learned this lesson.
Its too bad the Western supposedly Christian world hasn't learned this lesson.
Oh I think it has been necessary, but to a different degree than, say, Israel where they have had to deal with buses and supermarkets being wrecked. Most Americans by comparison do not know what it is like to live under such a constant threat. Lord knows I don't.
Sad but true, sometimes it takes a disaster that effects every level of society before a civilization holds to a set of ideals. Likewise notions already present in a society effect how its people will conduct themselves in crisis. It is not a question of either/or, but a feedback loop.
Sad but true, sometimes it takes a disaster that effects every level of society before a civilization holds to a set of ideals. Likewise notions already present in a society effect how its people will conduct themselves in crisis. It is not a question of either/or, but a feedback loop.
T
Ah, the man has his head screwed on straight! <grin> Thirty years ago, I wrote my first book about the West's coming conflict with Islam. I was laughed out of town as a heretic. Everyone just "knew" the USSR was the final enemy of the Church, and Gorbachev had to be the Antichrist. What's more, the Seven-year tribulation is going to start any day now . . . we can PROVE all this from the Bible, ROTFLOL . . . makes me sick!
Those same false prophets are still hawking those fables today and most people still follow them like a flock of blind geese.
Over the following years, it became obvious that Bible prophecy had been sovereignly sealed by the Lord until the new nation of Israel was established (1948) and Jerusalem was freed of Gentile control (1967) Those two events exposed all earlier prophetic views as false doctrines, but let’s march in lockstep and not look at the possibility that our traditional views might have been sovereignly updated by the Lord God almighty.
Now retired pastors here and there say they owe me an apology . . . but they're saying it way too late because by their earlier lethargy, Islam has gotten a foothold in federal and local governments that will be unbelievably difficult to dislodge.
Fortunately for those with ears to hear, all of Revelation that needed to be fulfilled before the Lord's return has already been fulfilled and we await the imminent collapse of our civilization followed by the return of the Lord, but few can hear it. They would rather debate ridiculous eschatological minutia, most of which can now be proven wrong. Reading Revelation now is like reading a newspaper if one can break away from his Preterist or Dispensational traditions, both of which are now destined for the ash heap.
. . . and there is my $.99 answer. Love you in the Lord, brother. <smile>
Those same false prophets are still hawking those fables today and most people still follow them like a flock of blind geese.
Over the following years, it became obvious that Bible prophecy had been sovereignly sealed by the Lord until the new nation of Israel was established (1948) and Jerusalem was freed of Gentile control (1967) Those two events exposed all earlier prophetic views as false doctrines, but let’s march in lockstep and not look at the possibility that our traditional views might have been sovereignly updated by the Lord God almighty.
Now retired pastors here and there say they owe me an apology . . . but they're saying it way too late because by their earlier lethargy, Islam has gotten a foothold in federal and local governments that will be unbelievably difficult to dislodge.
Fortunately for those with ears to hear, all of Revelation that needed to be fulfilled before the Lord's return has already been fulfilled and we await the imminent collapse of our civilization followed by the return of the Lord, but few can hear it. They would rather debate ridiculous eschatological minutia, most of which can now be proven wrong. Reading Revelation now is like reading a newspaper if one can break away from his Preterist or Dispensational traditions, both of which are now destined for the ash heap.
. . . and there is my $.99 answer. Love you in the Lord, brother. <smile>
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D
Actually it isn't about politics, the Islamic terrorists are just doing what the quran instructs them to do.
Sura 9:29-33 “Make war upon such of those to whom the Scriptures have been given as believe not in God, or in the last day, and who forbid not that which God and His Apostle have forbidden, and who profess not the profession of the truth, until they pay tribute out of hand, and they be humbled.”
“Take not the Jews and Christians for friends ... slay the idolaters [infidels] wherever ye find them. ...Fight against those who ... believe not in Allah nor the Last Day” (Sura 5:51; 9:5,29,41).
Sura 4:95 “Allah has granted a grade higher to those who strive and fight with their goods and persons than to those who sit at home.”
The islamic people who wage Jihad are waging a holy war it has nothing to do with politics but instead the elimination of all who refuse to submit to their antichrist belief system.
Sura 9:29-33 “Make war upon such of those to whom the Scriptures have been given as believe not in God, or in the last day, and who forbid not that which God and His Apostle have forbidden, and who profess not the profession of the truth, until they pay tribute out of hand, and they be humbled.”
“Take not the Jews and Christians for friends ... slay the idolaters [infidels] wherever ye find them. ...Fight against those who ... believe not in Allah nor the Last Day” (Sura 5:51; 9:5,29,41).
Sura 4:95 “Allah has granted a grade higher to those who strive and fight with their goods and persons than to those who sit at home.”
The islamic people who wage Jihad are waging a holy war it has nothing to do with politics but instead the elimination of all who refuse to submit to their antichrist belief system.
A
one would truly hope not 
the past should not be idealized.
if you want to address the break down of family and Christian values, it should not be placed on multiculturalism but upon the laziness of an average church goer to actually read their Bible and care for things of the Spirit versus chasing after power, prestige, money and material wealth and happiness.
slavery and the slaughter of Native Americans is awful and should not be trivialized. Yes the US is founded on Bible principals and that is why the ideals of freedom and equality ring true. However that does not mean all past laws were based upon the Bible.
1 Corinthians 12:13
For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit.
Galatians 3:28
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
Colossians 3:11
where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all.
the past should not be idealized.
if you want to address the break down of family and Christian values, it should not be placed on multiculturalism but upon the laziness of an average church goer to actually read their Bible and care for things of the Spirit versus chasing after power, prestige, money and material wealth and happiness.
slavery and the slaughter of Native Americans is awful and should not be trivialized. Yes the US is founded on Bible principals and that is why the ideals of freedom and equality ring true. However that does not mean all past laws were based upon the Bible.
1 Corinthians 12:13
For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit.
Galatians 3:28
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
Colossians 3:11
where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all.
I don't think he is arguing either of these, though is diction could lead one to believe so. What he did was give us a recollection of a piece of the past that is pretty well-documented. The streets were safer. People did hold moral values (generally speaking) in common. The social ills he speaks of confound even secular social scientists.
Americans were never perfect (see Gordon S. Wood), but we have certainly done better before.
Ross Douthat made a similar argument in his recent book Bad Religion that I'm currently slogging my way through. It is indeed a very good point. Heresy has killed this country's religious life. But I am one who believes in multiple causes and multiculturalism has been part of the problem of the Church's breakdown. You cannot separate the growth of heresy from the growth of multiculturalism.
Neither can be trivialized, but they also cannot be viewed as irredeemable black spots. Almost every nation in existence right now is built on enslavement and displacement of people. The wonderful part about the United States is that her people do not trivialize them shortly after their founding. We try to do our older brothers and sisters on the world's stage one better.
Americans were never perfect (see Gordon S. Wood), but we have certainly done better before.
Ross Douthat made a similar argument in his recent book Bad Religion that I'm currently slogging my way through. It is indeed a very good point. Heresy has killed this country's religious life. But I am one who believes in multiple causes and multiculturalism has been part of the problem of the Church's breakdown. You cannot separate the growth of heresy from the growth of multiculturalism.
Neither can be trivialized, but they also cannot be viewed as irredeemable black spots. Almost every nation in existence right now is built on enslavement and displacement of people. The wonderful part about the United States is that her people do not trivialize them shortly after their founding. We try to do our older brothers and sisters on the world's stage one better.