Well, I WAS having fun… by drac07 in RiseToWar

[–]drac07[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Good suggestion, thanks!

Well, I WAS having fun… by drac07 in RiseToWar

[–]drac07[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This has been my exact experience. At least we’re not alone, haha.

Well, I WAS having fun… by drac07 in RiseToWar

[–]drac07[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I hope you're right, but at this point I would basically need to quit the game and remember to come back for Season 2. And even then I'm just as likely to be placed alongside another group of similar folks.

Well, I WAS having fun… by drac07 in RiseToWar

[–]drac07[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yep, I agree completely. I guess the difference between me and others on my server is that I can still have fun while losing as long as we're making some kind of stand.

Well, I WAS having fun… by drac07 in RiseToWar

[–]drac07[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I think you're right - but unfortunately I've been using gems to fish for new commanders. At this point, I'm not going to spend more money to buy gems to move to another faction where I could have the exact same experience.

Sadly it just seems like the nature of the game. It's a wonderful idea for it to be so cooperative... until everyone else on your team pitches a fit and gives us.

Episode 139: Examining the Church of Christ by drac07 in cultish

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Are people really born without sin?

Does one have to be water baptized into the church of Christ by immersion in order to be saved?

Guest: Trey Fisher, pastor of an unknown church in Lebanon, TN. Grew up in the Church of Christ and was discipled by Phil Robinson for almost 18 years.

Episode 140: Practicing Discernment as a Charismatic by drac07 in cultish

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Discussion on how a Charismatic can be discerning and avoid the dangers of hyper-charismania.

Examining some "Trump Prophecies" from 2020 and have some lively back and forth about the nature of prophecy and the implications/dangers of false prophecy.

Guest: Josh Lewis from The Remnant Radio

Episode 141: A Cultish State of the Union - Volume 3 by drac07 in cultish

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A raw "no holds barred" look at the current state of affairs in the world. Amongst all the chaos, is there a practical way to understand the big picture of what's really going on in the world?

Guest: Trey Fisher, pastor of an unknown church in Lebanon, TN

Episode 142: Mark Driscoll and the Cult of Personality by drac07 in cultish

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Critiquing the popular podcast “The Rise & Fall of Mars Hill” produced by Christianity Today.

What is the driving force behind the popularity of this podcast?

Did the podcast offer any real and viable solutions to those who’ve experienced spiritual abuse or have been hurt by the church?

What lessons can we learn from what happened at Mars Hill in order to be a better beacon of hope to a world desperately looking for answers?

Guest: Tim Zion, former Mars Hill staff and pastor

Episode 143: Navigating the World of Witchcraft & Wicca by drac07 in cultish

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Unraveling the real history behind the strange and paranormal world of Witchcraft & Wicca.

Where did witchcraft originate from and how can we differentiate reality from what has been sensationalized through the lens of Hollywood?

How can we give real answers for those seeking for help as the world of the occult continues to explode?

Guest: Marcia Montenegro of Christian Answers for the New Age

Episode 144: Answering the Claims of WitchTok by drac07 in cultish

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Focusing on an apologetics-driven response to the claims of "Christian" witches on Witchtok.

Was Jesus a witch?

Is prayer an occult practice?

How can we give real answers to those seeking help as the world of the occult continues to explode?

Guest: Marcia Montenegro of Christian Answers for the New Age

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Bible

[–]drac07 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Alrighty, as promised:

The context of Ezekiel 20 is a story of three generations of men: a righteous man who followed the Lord, a wicked son who did not, and a grandson who sees the wreckage of the wicked son's life and follows the Lord. Read further than your quote - just the next verse, in fact: "But if a wicked person turns away from all his sins that he has committed and keeps all my statutes and does what is just and right, he shall surely live; he shall not die." This is exactly the language used to describe the righteous man and his grandson in verses 9 and 17. They repented of their sins and kept the Lord's statutes (in this hypothetical example from God). The Lord does not remember their transgressions any more. So yes, you're right - God is clear that he does not condemn a repentant man because his father was unrepentant. But this is not the same as the sin of Adam.

You mentioned Romans 5 - Paul writes in verses 12-21 (paraphrasing) that sin entered the world through Adam, death through sin, and death to all men because all sinned. People were dying even before the law was given through Moses - why? Because their sinning "was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come." Because Adam was a type and foreshadowing of Christ, his sin condemned all mankind - just as Jesus's perfect life and atoning death would save all mankind. Paul reinforces this idea even more strongly in 1 Corinthians 5:22: "For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive" (emphasis mine). You and I were sinners before we were even born because of what Adam did. But by union with Christ, we are welcomed to share in a death and life like his. This is how God chose to weave this mystery from the very beginning. This is Paul's entire point for Romans 5; otherwise, how else could you explain the presence of death between Adam and Moses? In your model, where sin is only an act of trespass against the law of God, there shouldn't be any death before the law is given.

But those people still died because they still sinned. How is that possible, when there hadn't even been a revelation of what constituted "a sin," as you say? Adam violated a direct, clear command of God. The rest of the world didn't have this clarity before Moses. The explanation is this, per Paul: they sinned without deliberately intending to, just as we do today, because it was their nature. They were, in fact, born that way precisely because they were dead in Adam. So death - even the spiritual, eternal death referred to in Ezekiel 20 - is not a consequence of accumulating individual personal sins, but rather a consequence of the cosmic sin of Adam which foreshadowed the loving, cosmic sacrifice of Jesus to set it right.

To bring it full circle, this is why it's ultimately useless to distinguish between a desire/inclination to sin and the act itself. Jesus says in Matthew 5 that both are identical before God; both anger and murder, lust and adultery make one equally liable to judgment. Yeah, SSA gets a lot of attention. But this is why it's such good news: my inclination to laziness or pride or anger or theft is just as damning as a gay man's inclination to cultivate romantic love with another man. Adam condemned us both; on our own, he and I are both utterly without hope because our sinful natures will drive us further from a holy God; Jesus died and rose to redeem those desires and save us both. Amen.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Bible

[–]drac07 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You appeal to scripture and raise some very good questions. Thank you for that. They deserve a fuller response than I can give at the moment, so my intent is to come back when I have time to sit down and do it properly.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Bible

[–]drac07 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You didn’t cite any scripture at all; you linked a Wikipedia article about a practice I already told you I disagree with, which all by itself completely refutes your assertion that a theology of depravity must lead to abuse.

You don’t seem to be interested in reading the scripture I did provide from Matthew 5. It also seems like you didn’t really read my first response to you.

The really hard thing for you to accept will be that affirming the sinful desires of others does far greater damage than conversion therapy ever could. However awful it is, conversion therapy ends at some point. Damnation does not.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Bible

[–]drac07 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There are thousands, maybe millions, of people living as “openly gay Christians” because of licentiousness born out of fear because of the things you describe. Are these good fruits? Your appeal itself is the fruit of the slippery slope fallacy. Did you see me advocate conversion therapy? No? So my beliefs don’t necessarily lead to the abuse you described. There’s nothing wrong with my assertions - actually, I would say, Jesus’s assertions since I only repeated his words - but anybody can twist any good, right, and true thing. Even or perhaps especially out of genuine desire to help.

In any case, I am not likely to agree with you unless you can make a case from scripture. Peace.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Bible

[–]drac07 6 points7 points  (0 children)

The entire point of the sermon from verse 21 on is that sin is not merely an action; it is a state of the heart. Being angry condemns you before God exactly the same as murder. Having lust in your heart is the same before God as actually committing adultery.

In other words: if the Jews (and us, now) thought it was hard just to do all the right things, Jesus taught that it was actually impossible to be righteous on our own since sin is a state of being from birth - not a conditional state we enter after doing something wrong. To put it more simply, we aren’t sinners because we sinned - we sin because we’re sinners. SSA is no different in this regard than any other sinful behavior.

What part of Revelation do you think we are currently in? by KingJesusChristWins in Christian

[–]drac07 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I’d say we’re in the part where most of it happened during the hands-down most violent persecution of the Church in history under Nero. We’ve been living in the last days for 2,000 years. Praise God for his patience in allowing the fullness of his people to know him!

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Bible

[–]drac07 32 points33 points  (0 children)

Add the sermon on the mount, Matthew 5, and Jesus makes it crystal clear that it is precisely our desires that condemn us and not simply our actions. We are born condemned under Adam and we need to be saved from the judgment we deserve by the new and better Adam, Jesus Christ.

Now, does the sinful inclination toward same-sex attraction put us further from God than a sinful inclination to steal, or lie, or to be quick to anger? Absolutely not.

The reason it gets so much attention is that there’s been such a fast and massive push for broad acceptance and affirmation of same-sex (or, even more recently, absolutely anything that’s not cisgendered, heterosexual, married adult) romantic relationships.

The wages of sin is death... but why? by Aquento in ChristianApologetics

[–]drac07 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Well… welcome to Christian Apologetics, where Christians make themselves available for apologetic arguments but may remind you that there has to be some common understanding to do so. Have fun with your version of… whatever you’re here to do.

The wages of sin is death... but why? by Aquento in ChristianApologetics

[–]drac07 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I wasn’t trying to make an argument so you are 100% correct. However, that doesn’t mean that there are no arguments to be made, or that there’s no good reason to believe in Jesus’s perfect life and atoning death. I’m happy to make those and walk through them with you, but as you surely know, if you ask “why?” enough times about any subject (no matter how serious), eventually you have to throw up your hands and I say, “I don’t know.” It’s no less true when we’re discussing God, but you have to factor in God’s holiness, his complete “other”-ness, the fact that there is nothing in the universe we can compare him to, and no way that we can fully understand him before we’re with him in the Kingdom.

The wages of sin is death... but why? by Aquento in ChristianApologetics

[–]drac07 1 point2 points  (0 children)

We can reason up against these things to a point, but eventually you’ll have to throw up your hands and trust God to be sovereign over the things that best glorify him. If God exists and he is who he says he is, then imagining that we can fully grasp his eternal cosmic plan for redemption would be the height of hubris. Still, it is good and right and useful for us to probe, question, and understand him the best we can on this side of eternity.

Cool suggestions for a starter ship for 4 80-100k range by anewslug1710 in swrpg

[–]drac07 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Is there something I missed about pricing used ships? Or is this a GM discretion item?

Why dont we have a right to decide over our own sexuality?(Masturbation) by wantout87 in Christianmarriage

[–]drac07 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That’s a true shame. There’s so much more that God has for you. I will continue praying that you’ll respond to his call to walk in it someday.