Oh, the ways this could go wrong!

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So apparently, China is starting a new program - a social scorecard , a rating system for all its citizens where your score determines what kind of things you have access to.  

 Yeah ... I don't see how this could go wrong at all, do you!?! 

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Updated: Alana L. 5R (no freedom needed)

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Point #5 still (updated) :   R:  "Sovereign, sovereign, sovereign, sovereign."     [A continuation of the last post on  "robots" , with more quotes to show what I mean.]   Not only do Calvinists believe that God - in His "sovereignty" - predetermines/orchestrates our sins but then punishes us for sinning, but they also believe (and this is downright crazy to me) that true human freedom is  not even a necessary condition  for accountability and responsibility.  They  don't think that  we need to have the real ability to make real free decisions among real options in order for God to hold us truly responsible for what we do.   But they think that we can be held accountable for sin simply because we had  the desire to disobey God, because we did what we "wanted" to do - even though, in Calvinism, God determined we'd want to do it.    Reformed commenter  Tiny-Development3598  said this in a...
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One Pastor's Prophetic Dream of Things to Come

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I am not one for listening to other people's prophetic dreams or visions.  Far too many people over the years have thought God gave them some sort of special insight, which proved to be false or unimportant.  I am especially wary now since everything seems so "end timesy."  It's far too easy to get caught up in sensationalizing or over-spiritualizing everything.  But sometimes, someone's account of their dream or vision makes you go, "Hmm."  And while I still don't put much stock into other people's "God told me X,Y, or Z" stories, I do think some things are worth listening to and storing in the back of your mind.  Just in case.  These are strange days and, if we are really headed into the end times soon, then things will probably only get more "supernatural."  And if that's the case, then anything's possible.   (On a different note, having nothing to do with this pastor's dream, but speaking of "strange d...
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My "When Anxiety Strikes" Playlist

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In the post "Getting through the 'broken' times," I said that I had made a CD to listen to when anxiety hits.  It has some of my favorite Christian songs on it.   Here are as many of the songs as I could find online, plus some extra.  Listen to some of them when anxiety threatens you.  It really does help to hear godly truths spoken out loud (and to speak them out loud yourself).  And personally, I think godly music helps repel evil, giving you some extra spiritual protection when you are most vulnerable.  They don't like to hear God being praised and Truth being sung! (FYI: Videos are constantly being removed from online.  So if the video is no longer available, type in the name and artist and see if you can find it.  I simply can't keep up with replacing links.) From The City Harmonic: Love, Heal Me  - The song that inspired the title of one of my blogs, Love, Heal Me - my heart's cry for the past year. Fell Apart  - One...
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Anyone Worn Out?

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Can anyone relate to the idea of being exhausted from the energy it takes to just keep breathing (first song link below)?  I've been there, too.  It's probably why I long so much for eternity.  I long for the day when we can finally rest from our troubles.  But until then, I cling to the Lord and take each day as it comes, with His grace, help, strength, and wisdom to get me through.  Worn by Tenth Avenue North Healing Begins by Tenth Avenue North By Your Side by Tenth Avenue North Hold My Heart by Tenth Avenue North Love, Heal Me by City Harmonic Fell Apart by City Harmonic Praise the Lord by City Harmonic Honestly by City Harmonic Oh, What Love by City Harmonic   I AM by Crowder Paralyzed  by NF I'll Keep On  by NF Lord, for those struggling to hang in there, to keep their faith, to keep on living ... surround them with Your heavenly angels to protect them from evil.  Comfort them and guard them while the...
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Many are Called, Few are Chosen (Tony Evans' Interpretation)

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 There are some verses in the Bible that will always be confusing and cause disagreement.  And the "many are called/invited, few are chosen" verse is one of them. Matthew 22:1-14:   "The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son.  He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come.... So his servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, both good and bad, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.  But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes.  'Friend,' he asked, 'how did you get in here without wedding clothes?' The man was speechless.  Then the king told the attendants, 'Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.' 'For many are invited, but few are chosen.'" Some people th...
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Healing your soul from Calvinism's damage (repost)

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[updated April 2024] For the 6 years that the new Calvinist pastor was at our church, subtly teaching his Calvinism, my soul was starving.  I'm not kidding; I could feel it starving.  Shriveling up dry.  It wasn't  dying -  because I have a very strong faith, and my faith is in  God , not in some preacher - but it was starved for truth and encouragement and joy, etc.  (See  "Why Is Calvinism So Dangerous?" ) And it wasn't just because of what he was teaching, but it was also because of what he  wasn't  teaching.  He hardly talked about God's love for us, how God cares about us, how He helps us in the hard times, etc.   There was no real encouragement, compassion, grace, love,  hope, etc.  At least not in my eyes.   Instead, it was often lofty, academic knowledge for the head, hardly ever comfort for the heart.  (I think he was more "professor" than "shepherd," more "this is what I think a...
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Review of "Once an Insider, Now Without A Church Home" - A Look At How Churches Go Wrong

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I was recently asked to review this book – Once an Insider, Now Without A Church Home: One Couple’s Faith Crisis Due to the Infiltration and Spread of Authoritarianism, Calvinism, Complementarianism, and Covenants in the Am Evangelical Church, written by Amanda Farmer.   (Click here to go to the author’s website or click here to order her book on Amazon .) I am not getting paid or reimbursed in any way for this review.   But after reading it, I am happy to do it because I think it’s a message that needs to get out there as much as possible. For me, I will focus particularly on the “Calvinism” part of it, seeing as how it’s also recently taking over the church my family has attended for almost 20 years. I found this review of the book online by another blog-owner.   And since that blog owner did a great job of giving a thorough synopsis of the book, I will focus more on giving my impressions of it, how it affected me, and what it made me think. For starters,...
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Giggle Translate #1: Random Facts About Me (Skydiving, Flashlights, and I'm a WHAT!?!)

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I'm bored.  So I've been running some paragraphs I've written through a bunch of randomly-chosen languages in a row with Google Translate and then back into English, just for giggles.  (I'm not serious, uptight, and a deep-thinker all the time.)  It's like a funny, terrible game of "Telephone."  (FYI: Bad word ahead.  Not my fault.  Blame Google Translate.  But I did bleep out a couple letters.)   Here are a few of the first ones I've done so far (the original writing was taken from my post  "Random Facts About Me, Just For Fun" ):
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#19 Modern-Day Pharisee (shortened)

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            (For full version of this Bible study "lesson," click here .  But I couldn't really shorten this one much anyway, except for the questions.)             “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” Matthew 12:7             “For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.”   Matthew 5:20             There’s an older couple in our area.   They are a nice enough couple, but the wife is the kind of person who likes to comment on everyone else’s business.   On which plants you should get out of your yard, on how you should keep your outside lights on for safety, on which neighbors voted and which didn’t, and on how you shouldn’t be up that high on a ladder.               But her ...
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Does Ephesians Teach Predestination?

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(Today's four posts are the long, unbroken-up versions of my "predestination vs. free-will" series.  If you want the smaller posts, find them, along with other links, in "Links To Other Anti-Calvinism Posts."   They contain most of what you find in these four posts, just in smaller, easier-to-digest pieces.) (Slightly updated August 2020) I looked at Romans in the last post.    This time, I want to specifically consider Ephesians, the other book that is most used to support predestination.    Once again, while there is a lot in this book that can sound like predestination, I do not think it actually teaches that God decides who to send to heaven and who to send to hell. The first chapter of Ephesians gives us what seems like the strongest support for predestination. Ephesians 1:4,5, 11 :    “For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.    In love he predestined us to b...
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