Read Revelation 18 and consider the traits spoken of the Babylon God judges in that chapter. America seems to fit that profile. Of course, America is one of the isles spoken of generally is Scripture also.

  Baker--a very good post. Thanks. One of my favorite scriptures where Paul says that He has also raised us up together and made us (even now,in Christ) sit together with Him in heavenly places. Such thoughts bring our minds to God's highest ultimate purpose for us, whicxh is to be conformed to the image of Christ. Let us then glorify Him and put away impurities from ourselves. If His highest purpose is our conformity to Christ, it must also be OUR most fervant wish also. Praise unto the King who saves His people from their sin.

  Alice--concerning your post #7: capital punishment and slavery. First, the Old Testament was a revelation of God's justice under the law. God showed throughout the OT that He was serious about death as the penalty of sin. The New Testament writer said of that period, "every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward" and that God, by demonstrating the severity of judgment due to transgressors, was teaching the people that life could not be by the law, that they had to have a better way. So the NT apostle Paul said, "the law was a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ." So despite the severity of the punishment, God was just in fulfilling His right to deal with lawbreakers. Notice that the fruit of the tree in itself was good. It was the transgressing of God's law that brought death. God's penalty of death upon some very minor (seemingly) offenses demonstrated with greater effect God's seriousness about the evil of transgressions than would be demonstrated by executing people for crimes which we ourselves believe should be punished by death. This demonstrates that God's standards are very much higher than our own. Remember that there was an element of grace in the law in that by demonstrating His wrath against sin, He was in effect mercifully leading them to Christ the Deliverer.
  Concerning slavery--if you study the instances of slavery in the Bible, you will find that Biblical slavery was altogether different from the abomination of slavery practised earlier in America. In many instances it was indentured servitude wherein the "slave" had agreed with his master to work  off an honest debt which he owed the master. In other instances,
slavery was used to control those people who had risen up against Israel. As carollee pointed out, it was more merciful
than just killing them. Slavery as practiced in America had none of these distinctions, period. It was evil, only evil continually.
  Don't let unbelievers who refuse to observe these distinctions make false accusations against God for the way He dealt with indebtedness and the enemies of God by claiming OT slavery was the same as what took place in this country. It was by far different, but unbelievers love to misrepresent it as identical with the evil practice in the U.S.
  Concerning evolution--I heard a major scientist not long ago state that scientists were abandoning the "theory" called evolution by droves because modern science has been finding multitudes of new wonders which rule out the possibility that such complexities could come into existence without an intelligent designer. He stated that unfortunately it would be many years before some scientists awakened to the fact that new discoveries have proven evolution to be an impossible explanation for what modern scientists have been discovering.
  As a test of your friends involvement in real cutting edge
science, ask him what he thinks of the Nebraska Man, Neanderthal man and piltdown man. Real scientists have acknowledged for years that they are NOT real. If he hasn't learned that, we could say (as a pun) that he is really into "stone age science." There are new books out now about some of these hard science discoveries that are turning
REAL scientists away from evolution. Ask your pastore or a good Christian book supplier about them.

  Of course, the old covenant was the law. The New Covenant superceded the old covenant, but the New Covenant was also the everlasting covenant. It was from everlasting. Its terms were in effect from everlasting. By that covenant of grace Abraham and the patriarchs were saved just as we are today--"Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness." The covenant of grace had just not yet been revealed. God dealt with the nation of Israel upon the terms of the law. The law came by Moses, "but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." Jesus  openly ushered God's people into the covenant of grace which was operative to old testament saints who hoped in the Messiah who was to come. As Jesus said, "Abraham saw my day and he rejoiced to see it." The fact that it was called the New Covenant did not mean its full benefits did not exist before then, but merely that it was new in respect to its discarding of the old covenant.

  The soteriology of RCC faith, in its kernal, is Arminian as are the majority of protestant denominations. Only the Reformed churches (which many call Calvinistic) disagree with Arminian doctrine. So if the Arminian protestants are concerned about RCC soteriology (salvation doctrine), they must also be concerned about themselves. Of course, no protestant denomination agrees with the RCC's belief that Mary and the saints are in anyway mediators between God and man. We believe, according to the Scripture that "There is one Mediator between God and man, the Lord Jesus Christ."
  BUT, BUT, BUT--I have fellowshipped with some RCC people
and their expressed enjoyment of Christ as their Saviour; their confidence in His work of atonement as their sole hope of reconciliation with God and their interest in Him as a sanctifying influence in their life convinced me that they were regenerate. We must remember that we are saved not by properly understanding Bible doctrine, but by Christ Himself and we come into that salvation in Him by realizing our own unworthiness, our need of His righteousness, and casting all our hope on Him. A person can be a Roman Catholic and truly believe in Christ. Martin Luther was clearly both a Catholic and a Christian at the time he was trying to stay with the RCC
and just correct its erroneous doctrines. I say let us not judge one another harshly. Fellowship with those who have a love of Christ. Fellowship in every point upon which we are in agreement, but do not ever yield on those points in which we have scriptural grounds for saying, "You do err, my brother."

  As John indicated, Jesus was morally perfect in every way and on His account needed no baptism; but Jesus was acting on behalf of those in Him. They were His sheep, chosen in Him before the foundation of the world. But they were also, in themselves, sinners. Thus the baptism of Jesus by John was essential to His fulfilling the law on their behalf. For that reason Jesus said, "suffer it to be so now, for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness." The "us" Jesus spoke of was Himself as a federal representative of those in Him.
He used "us" as a reference to Himself and all those in Him. By His obedience He fulfilled "all righteousness" not only by being baptized, but by every act of obedience throughout His life.
THAT is a righteousness we can fully rely upon as making us acceptable to the Father.

  Let Disney die. Disney tried to honor homosexuality by recognizing and honoring them. Christian people need to demonstrate that there is a price to pay for degrading society. Let Disney die its well deserved death.

  The methodist church is one of many protestsnt denominations. Cokebury book stores have materials on Methodist doctrines and practice. Call a metnodist church and they can probably direct you to the nearest one.

  The reason so few have a biblical worldview is that the heretical doctrines of Arminianism are CONTRARY to a biblical worldview. That can be changed only by God giving His people a heart to learn the TRUTH of scripture.

  Sammy thinks that after death, there is only oblivion. I wonder--what is his authority for believing THAT? Does he believe that he has an authority on the afterlife that is greater than the authority of Christ, who raises the dead?
  Sammy should change his question. Rather than ask, "who wants to live forever," he should ask, "who wants to live in the uttermost depths of iniquity forever?" because without Christ, he will enter into an eternity where there is no longer any common grace from God to restrain the heart of man which is "deceitful above all things and desperately wicked."
  If Sammy thinks that there is some goodness in him which Hitler or Stalin did not have, he needs to realize that God, in his common grace has merely restrained him from the level of evil to which He has allowed the most evil of men to descend. But once he is dead without Christ, all help of any restaint is gone, and it is gone forever. Sammy, turn from sin to Christ, or else enter into an eternity where there is no hope of escape from wickedness, the depths of which you have not dared to think of before. The weight of your nature without God's goodness restaining you will soon have you living next to Hitler, Stalin, and Jeffery Dahmer. And you won't be able to leave the neightborhood.

  John 1:12, 13; John 3:3. Very clear. VERY clear.
  "But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God which were born..."
"Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."

  ONE THING THAT WE COULD DO THIS WEEKEND TO FIGHT FOR THE TRUTH--there will be at ten commandments rally on the grounds of every state capitol this saturday the 22nd. Lets all show up for our states. Texas' rally begins at 1pm in Austin.

  Remember God's testing of Job? God's motive was to prove that some honor, obey, and glorify Him. That is to the praise of the glory of His grace; and Job proved faithful.
  ! Peter 1:6,7 refers to the testing which we are faced with today.
  Paul said in Romans 8 that ALL things work together for good to them that love God. The outcome of testing is, of course, included among those things.
  The apostle said, I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy of being compared with the glory that will be revealed in us.
  Always remember that God's first purpose for the outcome of His work in us in this life is that we be conformed to the image of His Son. Even our failings work together for good in this regard because after failure, there is chastening and the result to that is that it "yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness." Therefore, while those who oppose God
rejoice because they saw our foot slip, their laughter will be turned to shame, because the result of chastening is stronger resolve on our part to be obedient.
  Always remember that God is immutable. That means that those things seen of Him in the OT still are marks of His works today. I believe we should view every day as a test of our faithfulness. Every moment contains the opportunity to live it to the greatrest advantage for God's glory, which is to us a test to do that which most glorifies Him.

  However content with their present life someone may be, they should never let that contentment keep them from considering the possibility that things can change suddenly.
  In Psalm 73, the psalmist was envious of those who prospered even though they had not turned to God. Then God opened his eyes--"...then I understood their end. Surely you set them in slippery places; you cast them down to destruction. Oh, how they are brought to desolation, as in a moment! They are utterly consumed with terrors. As a dream when one awakes, so, Lord, when you awake, you shall despise their image." (vv.17-20)
  That realization ended the Psalmists envy of them because
he knew that unlike those in slippery places, he was continually with the Lord who held him by his right hand.(v.23)
  The only reason the Psalmist was not in slippery places himself is because he was always with the Lord who was holding his hand--not because he in himself was better than those who were always in danger. Let no one have a proud look--any difference in people is strictly from God who shows mercy. Therefore, the Psalmist gives all praise and glory to God for his better footing: "He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my steps." (Ps. 40:2)
  The slippery places refers to the nature we were all born
with--the adamic nature and its natural bent to evil. We were all born with it, none of us in ourselves better than the next.
I was born with the same nature Hitler and Stalin, and every other evil person was born with. It is God who makes men to differ--not what they are in themselves. That I did not do as Hitler or Stalin is not to my credit, but it is because of God's goodness to me. Want to know what Jeremiah meant when he said, "The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked."? Look at history and see in it the catalog of evils that human nature in itself is capable of; but "who can know it?" We cannot know it because God in mercy and in common
grace even to unbelievers holds people up, preventing their fall into the sins cataloged in human history.
  But unless people have been taught by Him to prefer Him over evil, He may awaken and despise their image, leaving them to plummet suddenly into depths which earlier they would not have cared to venture into. When the publican beat upon his breast and cried out, "God me merciful to me the sinner" he did not have hell in mind, but the morass of wickedness which Jesus saves His people from. Those who truly turned to Jesus were among the worst of men. They sought deliverance not from hell, but from sins which were destroying them.

  Friends, Malificent has already linked an enjoyment of her present lifestyle with estrangement from God. That is in her favor. Many don't have that much understanding, so let's not
discount her understanding that much.
  The primary first proclamation concerning Christ was that He would save His people from their sin. Malificent's understanding that is more valuable to her than any threats of hell that you can hold over her. He did not come to save people from hell. He came to deliver us from evil. How important that is may be guessed from the extent God was willing to go to to deliver us. If any of us believe that the benefit Christ came to offer is escape from the flames, there is a real possibility that such a person doesn't understand
the gospel as well as Malificent.
  And BTW--to any who have questioned her name: that is a  wonderful name. Check your dictionary.