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Danny Carlton

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Everything posted by Danny Carlton

  1. Your observation falls in line with another thread pointing out that too much freedom can be bad. Without real persecution (especially for being a nominal Christian) makes people weak in their faith.
  2. All you have to do is read the book God's Smugglers to see how the ungodly have been trying to wipe out the Bible for a very long time. https://www.opendoorsusa.org/about-us/history/brother-andrews-story/
  3. I'm trying to remember how many current events I was familiar with when I was a teen? That would be the late 70s. I remember hearing about stupid things Carter was doing and when Reagan became president the whining by Liberals of everything he did. I paid ore attention when I was in college, but I believe I was a bit more up on the news than my peers in highschool. I think that Leftists misusing the new media has now backfired and made the younger generation simply mistrust it all, and ignore any and all "news". While this doesn't make them blindly obedient to Leftists, it does leave them oblivious and politically naïve, which still feeds into the Left's plan, since the less people know, they easier they are to manipulate.
  4. I've been getting a lot of requests from people who run ministry sites for help, or data that will allow them to create their own online Bible on their site. So I decided to make it more readily available. I grabbed the domain https://osBible.org which now redirects to my GitHub repository containing a number of MySQL table downloads as well as a few simple scripts for accessing the data. I'll be adding more scripts as I have time.
  5. You understand that the term "COVID cases" refers to individuals who have tested positive using the notoriously faulty COVID test, which produces an abundance of false positives. In addition, many doctors have been bypassing the test and declaring patients as COVID+ (meaning they get more money from the government) based solely on "hunch" rather than any valid form of medical test. The number, therefore, is completely meaningless. You might as well tell us how many unicorns are grazing on the White House lawn. It's all political theater.
  6. Literal. In fact as I listen to Jews like Ben Shapiro, Dennis Prager, Don Feder, etc. I see very much how a group of 144,000 Orthodox Jews, realizing that Christianity was right all along, convert and devote their lives to Evangelizing the earth in the midst of a despotic, anti-Christian regime. And an event like the Rapture could logically be the catalyst for such a mass conversion of Christian-friendly Jews like we see today.
  7. This is a good thing. I can't remember how many times on Facebook I got into a discussion and the other person because rude and hateful, only to delete the entire conversation and suddenly I'm finding friends involved unfriending me. Apparently, they deleted the conversation, then lied about what was said.
  8. I think the crux of the problem in regards to -isms, is that rather than starting with Scripture, then applying Logic, we have people embracing slogans and vague concepts and only then trying to fit Scripture and Logic in, and limiting both to what conforms to the original precept. Whether that -ism is Calvinism, Hyper-Calvinism or a blind rejection of anything that labels itself Calvinism. Labels can help us identify important aspects of an original document, but too many -isms place the label as more important than the original document, to the degree that the original is tossed and the labels alone remain.
  9. Again, does this definition actually conform to Calvin's writing? I know lots of people who call themselves Calvinists, that believe a lot of varied things regarding the entire ZTULIP thing. Ultimately there are only three opinions that matter: What do I believe is true (which should conform to scripture), what did Calvin himself teach and ultimately, what does the Bible say. It's dangerous to latch onto a raw concept and defend it while disregarding everything else. That's what (who I call) Hyper-Calvinists do. It seems like what you are doing, too. I started this thread to discuss the scriptural backing for Total Depravity. Calvin's teachings themselves come second to that and are ultimately only important in defining what Calvinism is or is not. Whatever Calvinism actually is, is at best secondary to scripture. The concept of TULIP, to me, is useful only as it is defined by scripture, not by Calvinists, Hyper-Calvinists, Ne-Calvinists, Arminians, or any other group. But isn't saying "Faith comes by hearing" similar to "To make a cake you need flour"? Hearing the gospel is a vital ingredient, but not the only ingredient. I agree that the idea that we contribute absolutely nothing to our salvation is flawed in the face of both Scripture as well as Logic (by what, then, is God basing His decision to choose us on?) I'm not saying you're wrong, just pointing out that that verse is part of the answer, but a part Hyper-Calvinists ignore.
  10. So you can know for sure that what people say about him is actually true. Wouldn't you want people to read your writings in the event someone started calling you a heretic? Since it bears his name, it would be logical that true Calvinism would adhere to what John Calvin wrote, not what other people, using him name, claim it means. We certainly don't let just anyone define Christianity. You can't define it, but it's false. Seems to me you've just defined what you claim can't be defined.
  11. Odd that you say it can be defined in many different ways, then proceed to give a definitive definition. I would say that to claim any particular believe is real Calvinism, you'd need to show where in Calvin's Institutes it teaches exactly that. It sounds like you are basing your definition of Calvinism on one or two people, who may or may not actually be true Calvinists. Again, Calvin's Institutes would be the source to go to to find what is or isn't Calvinism, not what some guy said who claimed to be a Calvinist.
  12. The first problem is using the word "Calvinism" to describe things random people say, without regards to how well they line up with what John Calvin himself taught. Whatever label you want to call yourself, we can always find someone, spouting nonsense, under the same label. It doesn't mean that everyone who uses that label believes the exact same. What you seem to be describing as Calvinism actually sounds like Arminianism, the polar opposite theological belief. The believe that we offer absolutely nothing at all to our salvation is in fact Hyper-Calvinism. And is illogical as I describe in the original post.
  13. I can't fly in and of myself, but I can buy a plane ticket and ride in a plane as it flies. (Flying, in this metaphor, being salvation.) Arminians* (if I understand them correctly) seem to agree up to that point that we don't save ourselves, but we choose to "get on the plane". (And, they would argue, we can choose to get back off.) Calvinists, however, take it further and would say, not only can I not fly, I have no money for the ticket, so it must be purchased by someone else. I agree. Going even further, some Calvinists would say that I'm also incapable of walking and must be carried onto the plane. Even this, I can agree with. Going even further, Calvinists would say that the entire idea of flying was introduced to me by someone else, and I wouldn't have even bothered had I not been made excited about the idea. This too, I have no problem with, and agree completely. With each of these scenarios, there remains an element of personal choice, diminishing as it may be, it's still there. So each of these steps within the Calvinist' scenario presume my choice to get on the airplane (just my inability to fly, afford a ticket, actually walk onto the plane or come up with the idea on my own.) Hyper-Calvinists (as I will call them) take it a step further and say even my choice to get on the plane is made by someone else, so, like a 2-year-old, I'm told I will fly on the airplane, am carried to the plane, and placed in my seat and buckled in. In the end, it seems the concept of Total Depravity very much depends on how absolute you define the term "Total". None of my pets could, on their own, go to the vet. If I go outside, open the car door and say, "In!" My dogs, more than likely, would jump into the car, excited to be going somewhere. My cat (when I had one) would need to be crated, in the house, and carried, hissing and spitting to the car and then we could drive to the vet. Thus the distinction between Calvinism and Hyper-Calvinism. I see what we call Calvinism as emphasizing how small our part in our salvation is, while still acknowledging there is at least a small part we play. I am introduced to the idea of salvation. I am encouraged toward the choice. Once made, I am comforted and strengthened by the Holy Spirit in that choice as I grow. The choice places me within the ability to receive the sanctification purchased on the cross. My part seems very trivial and small, but nonetheless, it is still there, as minuscule as it may be. It becomes tempting, when embracing Calvinism, to try to push it further, but that leads to an illogical conclusion, which in the end makes God into a blindfolded guy reaching into a basket of apples, randomly selecting a few. It robs God (metaphorically) of His choice, since without any consideration of our contribution, it logically must be arbitrary and random. *Being unfamiliar with the arguments Arminians make, I'm only assuming I'm representing them accurately here.
  14. Wow, unbelievable. A. Yes, obviously he's going to run. He has to be careful about announcing it, because as soon as he does there are FEC requirements he's bound by. B. The sooner the better. Trump did an awesome job.
  15. The Media like to create that illusion, but in the end it will be the voters that decide. Unlike the DNC, which brazenly cheats, the GOP still relies on the democratic process.
  16. The GOP are not a monolithic group. There are some good people in the rank-and-file as well as in the leadership. The problem is that it's not dominated by one, single, ideological faction, therefore its decision-making processes are a bit hamstrung. When it comes to any group of people, one allowing disagreement is preferable to one which does not.
  17. The GOP isn't as intolerant of diverse ideas as the Democrats are. There is a wide array of viewpoints within the GOP and even in the leadership. Conservatives are still a strong part.
  18. I set up https://SpurgeonsMorningAndEvening.com a few years ago. It's an autoblog that posts twice a day, and also has an email you can sign up for that sends the devotion twice each day. I was really surprised the domain was available. The site gets about 250 visitors a day and there's about the same number of people signed up for the email.
  19. I hope this is in the correct forum. A friend just finished a romance novel and has labeled it a "Christian romance novel". Most of the main characters are Christian, There is no sex, bad language or adult themes. But it doesn't mention Jesus or present the Gospel. Is it actually a Christian book?
  20. So you're judging Trump by some of his followers? Could you be more specific about what it was that Trump did that you didn't like?
  21. A check of the actual 1956 Republican platform shows that the claims are false. https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/republican-party-platform-1956 There is no mention of low-income communities. It does mention supporting states in dealing with economic problems, not the Federal government doing it themselves. "We shall continue to seek extension and perfection of a sound social security system." does not mean "extension of social security" because SS was very different back then. It hadn't been raided by Congress so it meant preventing it from becoming a political slush fund. Now that it is, any "expension" means continuing its use as a slush fund, and ignoring whether or not it's sound. The "refugees" they referred to were people escaping communist countries. Democrats today try to hamper them from coming here, and welcome people who would rather feed of America's prosperity than work toward making their home country better. Extending the minimum wage laws did not mean raising the minimum wage, but making sure all businesses obeyed it. The wording for these promised were to make each of these more efficient, not to wildly expand them and throw taxpayer money at problems (making sure there would be enough kick backs for the politicians pushing the added spending) Claiming this is like the DNC today is like saying a drug addict is the same as gramma picking up some aspirin at the grocery store.
  22. If you want to check out the progress on my newest project I whipped up a development mirror to show the current status. If you go to https://dev.notforsaking.com/ you can see what I have so far. --Monday I got the page to load all Tulsa churches. --Yesterday I changed it to a static page and loaded the churches via ajax. --Today I polished the design and made it look better. --My next step is to start zoomed out showing the entire US and show grouping markers for the states, with a count of how many churches are listed in each state. --After that I'll allow grouping markers for cities as the map is zoomed in. --At the city level it will show what it is showing now, but for every city. --I'll then create a filter. So far the only criteria I have other than location is denomination, so that will be the filter. --I'll then create a form for adding more information about each individual church. I'll try to do it the way Wikipedia does and allow anyone to offer data and keep an eye on it for spammers (new data would need to be approved, by me) That way there's more chance of data being added. I'll be requesting: worship style, average attendance, photos, etc. --I'll also have to add data for the denominations to explain them more to people unfamiliar with them. --And I'll add a directions feature, where the map will display direction from your current location to the church you've chosen. I have over 100,000 churches in my database all index to one of the 149 denominations. Hopefully with the denominational data each entry can have a bit more information about what theology is being taught at each individual church.
  23. Come Thou Fount or There WIthin My Heart. I also have a site at https://CountryHymns.com where I have hundreds of hymns, scores, audio and video.
  24. Awesome. Just added it to my phone. I was needing something to add ot the stuff I do when I watch TV at night. Facebook censors the content on their mobile app and page, so I only see a fraction of what's there. This will be very useful. BTW, how hard was it to create? I've been wanting to make apps for my ministry sites ( https://dannycarlton.org/#ministry ) but haven't been able to figure out how.
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