I wouldn't make too much of this 666 business. Some early manuscripts have 665.

The earliest fragment we have of this part of Revelation gives the beast a numerical value of 616.

http://www.csad.ox.ac.uk/POxy/beast616.htm

White man has always had power, and the minorities couldn’t help it, right Edia? The could never fight back or anything!  It isn’t like African tribes sold their dark skinned brothers as slaves to the white man, right? Or that Native Americans commonly joined the white men of one countries, so they could team up and slaughter the Indians and white men of other countries, right? Or that the Indians outnumbered the British 10 to one, but choose not to fight for their homeland, right? Oh, wait...

What exactly are you getting at here? You seem to have an understanding of American history that you gained as a child.

Black people are to blame for being enslaved? Native Americans are at fault for not slaughtering the British colonists? They had much more to contend with than the British, BTW. By the time the Mayflower landed, the Spanish had already exterminated thousands of entire tribes.

As for the culture that wrote Genesis...it wasn't a culture that wrote Genesis - it was Moses.  The culture from which Moses came was most unique in the world of that day.  Yes they borrowed social practices, but their faith was an entirely different matter.

The cultures of the day were polytheistic.  Israel was monotheistic.  

Sorry, but that is incorrect. The Israelites of Moses'  day were henotheistic. They believed in the existence of other gods, but that Yahweh was the most powerful God.

Knox, I might be mixing you up with someguy. One of you said you were here to debate. If I am, I greatly apologize. There have been so many posts that it's hard for me to keep track of who said what. Again, if you didn't say that, i greatly apologize. In any case, if you are here to look for answers, please look to God for them. He is the only one who can give them to you. If you aren't here for answers, could you tell us why you are here? Thank you.

I don't know why you would apologize for that, Heidi. You have yet to acknowledge my repeated requests that you stop calling me an atheist. The fact that you can't tell one poster from another is not looking good for you. At the very least you could see whose name is on the post you are responding to. If you cared. I don't believe that you are witnessing at all. I think you are just another self-absorbed internet junkie.

Knox, How do you know I don't? Besides, people who take the time to come to this forum are seeking, including you, even though you might now know it. The ones who are being drawn by God are the ones whom God has chosen. (Christ's words).

Well actually I hope you aren't posting on other forums too. 346 posts in two weeks! You claim to be happily married, with children. Where would you get the time to post on other forums? Where do you get the time to make all these posts here? Why are you here, anyway? You're not seeking. You've shown time and again that you really pay scant attention to what other people say. You rarely if ever have anything positive or uplifting to say. How did you spend your days before you discovered Christians Unite, anyway?

If that is your 'ministry', Heidi, why are you wasting your time here, badgering one poor Catholic who has clearly rejected your message (whatever it is)? Wouldn't your time doing the Lord's work be much better spent on other forums where there are more than one or two Catholics? I mean there are forums where what you have to say will be read by hundreds of Catholics. I already gave you a list of Catholic forums, think of it! Your message can be heard by Catholics numbering in the thousands! Why wait? Start now.

I think ebia is right, for better or for worse. Evangelical Protestants, or 'born-again Christians', though they are very vocal, and very active on the internet, are a minority in the Christian world at large. The vast majority of Christians are only dimly aware of the controversies that seem to obsess white North American Protestant Evangelicals.

I don't agree that the teachings of the Catholic church are none of my business. Whose business are they? Just the Catholics? Why do they not want others to know what they're teaching?

You can't be serious. The RCC is the largest Christian organization on the planet. They are not a secret organization. There are any number of places you can go to find out what their doctrines are. The fact is that anyone who wants to know will find that Catholics are eager and willing to tell them. The Catholic church in your neighborhood probably offers classes. Meanwhile, haven't you about beat this to death?

I think the tense is wrong. This man already made the earth tremble. Figuratively speaking.

Anyway, Easton's Bible Dictionary agrees that Lucifer refers to a king of Babylon

http://bible.crosswalk.com/Dictionaries/EastonBibleDictionary/ebd.cgi

Nave's Topical Bible says that Lucifer refers to Nebuchadnezzar

http://bible.crosswalk.com/Concordances/NavesTopicalBible/ntb.cgi?number=T3128

 The Japanese civilians on Okinawa "believed" that the Americans were evil and were coming to kill them, so women jumped over cliffs, with their babies--filmed on 16mm b&w that can still be viewed in a museum there.  

I have a video of some of the women on Okinawa jumping off a cliff. It is heartbreaking.

But anyway, this is kinda on the subject - an Egyptian lawyer is planning on sueing the world's Jews for plunder that they stole from in Egypt that is recorded in Ex 12:35-36. I think he is trying to see if the Bible, or that part of it anyway, will stand up as a historical document. What do you think his chances are, I wonder?

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/09/11/1063191483613.html

[Is this the man that made the earth to tremble]

There are 2 verses that have always made me feel that Lucifer and Satan are the same. They are.
"How you have fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning." [Is. 14.12]. And, "I saw Satan fall like lightening from heaven." [Luke 10.18]. You could also add, "So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan..." [Rev. 12.9]. Please also read the surrounding verses in all of these.
Love in Christ.  Roy.

OK in reading the surrounding verses, please note that in Isaiah 14:16 this Lucifer is seen to be a man.

"They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms..."

Yes, PhilMun, that's a good overview.  Thank you.

I've read somewhere that a copy of Isaiah, dated to 150 B.C., found with the Dead Sea Scrolls, is reflected virtually identically in our current copies of Isaiah, attesting to the faithfulness or accuracy of the scribal profession down through twenty one centuries.

While the average Christian is unaware of it, it is a fact that early Christians tampered with scripture.

In the 2nd century,  the Pagan philisopher Celsus charged that Christians "have changed the original text of the Gospels three or four times or even more, with the intention of thus being able to destroy the arguments of their critics".

Quoted by Origen in Contra Celsum. Origen doesn't deny the existence of such changes. In fact Origen himself wrote:

"It is an obvious fact today [third century CE] that there is much diversity among the manuscripts, due either to the carelessness of the scribes, or to the perverse audacity of some people in correcting the text, or again to the fact that there are those who add or delete as they please, setting themselves up as correctors".

Origen, In Matthaeum (Commentary on Matthew)

I read the KJV, which appears to be the most read translation of this forum (see translation thread).

Well the KJV translators acknowledged a debt to St Jerome's translation. And anyway, what KJV do you have where Lucifer appears in Ezekiel?

A Minister, a Priest, and a Rabbi walk into a bar.

The bartender looks at them and says, "What is this, some kind of joke"?

do Catholics still use the confession box?If so why?

Here is a link to an article from the Catholic Encyclopedia that will answer your question.

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11618c.htm