MereChristian, I sympathize with what you are saying, but there's another side to this issue. If those of us who are Jesus' own disappear from sites like these, who is then left to present God's Word in truth? We must continue to believe that God can, and will, use us in touching the lives of someone out there who is still questioning. Don't give up, but stay the course.

Sure hope you're right, DP. In the meantime, wonder which other feds will decide to put this federal law on hold......

philia comb. form meaning "friendship, fondness," from Gk. philia "affection," from philos "loving." Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper

Orientation: 6. basic beliefs or preferences: sexual orientation. World English Dictionary.

If you read up on narcolepsy, and current treatment options, you'll see that too often that is not the case. Of course, not knowing the details, one can't say for sure. However, unless proven otherwise, I would say in most instances that narcolepsy could definitely put both teacher and kids in comprising situations. Besides, USA has made an excellent point about religious institutions being abl...more

If you read up on narcolepsy, and current treatment options, you'll see that too often that is not the case. Of course, not knowing the details, one can't say for sure. However, unless proven otherwise, I would say in most instances that narcolepsy could definitely put both teacher and kids in comprising situations. Besides, USA has made an excellent point about religious institutions being able to make their own calls.less

The severity of the narcolepsy and symptoms associated, along with response to drug treatment, is also a definitive factor.

tj, 1Cor 11:5 says "But every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head.....", so obviously 14:34 cannot refer to women not being able to literally "speak". My commentary notes that, in light of 11:5, then 14:34 appears to be referring to judging the prophtic utterances and speaking in tongues that Paul is forbidding.

Jane, you said "LSC: Are you sure the narrow and wide gates scriptures are referring to our individual destinies....". What do you think is referred to in this verse?

I'll answer that Jane, since I am the one that pushed the #3 abuse. What both DP and believer have said are quite true, and are a big part of my reason. I might also add that Jesus is not a zombie, but rather gloriously living at the right hand of the Father. However, in truth I know where p&h got his quote. He got it from a poster named Bob/Human Ape (and a jillion other names), who was banne...more

I'll answer that Jane, since I am the one that pushed the #3 abuse. What both DP and believer have said are quite true, and are a big part of my reason. I might also add that Jesus is not a zombie, but rather gloriously living at the right hand of the Father. However, in truth I know where p&h got his quote. He got it from a poster named Bob/Human Ape (and a jillion other names), who was banned time and again and finally now has not appeared again for awhile. That poster was a negative, hateful, pathetic person who gloried in ugly speech to Christians. For p&h to be able to produce a quote from Bob/Human Ape shows just where his mind and heart are -- you have to wonder why someone would save quotes from such a poster. In any case, the original poster was banned for the use of just such phrases; p&h is subject to the same criteria.less

I think USAtoday would surprised to learn that they are manipulating facts in order to ally themselves with the Chrisian camp.

No. In verse 27 God tells Moses to write down what He was telling him in the way of laws (in the previous verses). They were not the 10 commandments. And you and I couldn't live for 40 days and nights without food or water, but in the presence of God that fact of need could have certainly been overridden. Just as Jesus was 40 days and nights without food or water, Jesus walked on water, Jes...more

No. In verse 27 God tells Moses to write down what He was telling him in the way of laws (in the previous verses). They were not the 10 commandments.

And you and I couldn't live for 40 days and nights without food or water, but in the presence of God that fact of need could have certainly been overridden. Just as Jesus was 40 days and nights without food or water, Jesus walked on water, Jesus arose from the dead. In the presence of God, many things natural to our world can, and do, change.

Consider this.....we can actually live quite a while without food, but anything over 3 days without water becomes more and more iffy. Do you know that they rescued a 16 year old boy and his 80 year old grandmother in Japan who were still alive? 9 days without water.......that's huge. How much more can be accomplished in God's presence; since he created the rules, he can certainly override them.

You seem to be searching like crazy for reasons not to trust the Bible as God's word. You want to attribute things like God's marriage ordination in Genesis to simply a man's (Moses') writings. But if God took Moses onto a mountain and wrote the 10 commandments on a tablet for him, then He was certainly capable of using Moses' mouth to verbalize His commands to the people and his hand to write His story of creation and plans for humans. The same goes for the writers of the NT.

You have a very limited, very fallible idea of who God is. Consider this: if He is indeed the Creator, then He is a being capable of doing ANYTHING. If He is not the Creator, then He is no more than, at the most, a very talented person and was created Himself by someone, or something, greater. Who is your God?less

Your contentions and your and society's ideas of cultural norms are not relevant to God's Word. That is the difference between sinful man and God. We do not have to "try and determine what was part of accepted culture of the time". Jews lived under OT laws in total, biblically based, so sexual morality would have been based on God's word. Letters written by Paul and the others would have addre...more

Your contentions and your and society's ideas of cultural norms are not relevant to God's Word. That is the difference between sinful man and God. We do not have to "try and determine what was part of accepted culture of the time". Jews lived under OT laws in total, biblically based, so sexual morality would have been based on God's word. Letters written by Paul and the others would have addressed issues based on the Hebrew understanding. That's all we have to know -- the Hebrew understanding, which is OT law as God laid it down. As far as sexual issues went, God's idea of okay is found in Genesis, period, because that is what He ordained.

Gd, you are going round and round in order to try to find justification for what you want to believe. You have the choice of getting into God's Word AFTER getting on your knees to Him, or not. So far you have chosen not. You appear to be very enamored of this world, and I will certainly agree that that is an easier, more convenient stand to take, because it is always easier to "go with the flow". But easier is usually not the same thing as right in God's eyes, at least in our time. I will leave you to cogitate on the things I have presented, and I hope you will, because God is able to work on the heart of anyone, no matter how stubborn. The catch is that at some point you have to open your heart to Him in order to start receiving His conviction. And I will pray that day will come for you.less

Read what I wrote below gd.

It's porneia, which is what the greek word means. We translate it fornication, or sexual immorality (which I believe you said "whatever that means" in one of your posts), but it's meaning is the same = porneia, sexual sins which includes all sexually based activities outside of God ordained sexual relationships between a man and a woman in "two shall become one" unification, which we call marriag...more

It's porneia, which is what the greek word means. We translate it fornication, or sexual immorality (which I believe you said "whatever that means" in one of your posts), but it's meaning is the same = porneia, sexual sins which includes all sexually based activities outside of God ordained sexual relationships between a man and a woman in "two shall become one" unification, which we call marriage (i.e. husband and wife). Whether that makes you comfortable or not in your culturally-based morals is not really the point. The point is that that is what the Bible is referring to. You don't have to live that way or agree with that principle, but that IS the biblical principle.less

God gave the 10 commandments to Moses, gd. He wrote them on tablets, and when Moses came down from the mountain with the tablets, he became so angry when he found the people worshiping a golden idol they had made that he broke the tablets. When he went back up the mountain and confessed that he had broken the tablets, God had him write them himself. Now, do you think this same Moses was capable...more

God gave the 10 commandments to Moses, gd. He wrote them on tablets, and when Moses came down from the mountain with the tablets, he became so angry when he found the people worshiping a golden idol they had made that he broke the tablets. When he went back up the mountain and confessed that he had broken the tablets, God had him write them himself. Now, do you think this same Moses was capable of writing down for posterity what God wanted him to? Because it was Moses that wrote these things we are discussing.less

It constituted sexual relations, and it constituted oral intercourse. If it's sexual in nature, and it's intercourse in nature, that would make it sexual intercourse. Intercourse that is sexual in nature is sexual intercourse.

And does that constitute sexual relations?

". I'm arguing with the persons who thought they were writing for God." Tell me, who did God give the 10 commandments to?

Do you agree? Did he, or did he not, have sexual relations with her?

Christ didn't work for an insurance company gd. God gave man spiritual responsibility for the woman. Not only did Adam not try to "reason" with Eve, he went along with her, abdicating his God-given responsibility. He wimped out in other words. If you want to argue with God go right ahead, but it won't get you any farther than it did with Adam and Eve.