What do you understand a FUNDAMENTALIST to be?

[Gofer Blue]

Truthpaste has taken to presenting himself as one half of a Christian double act with Gofer Blue.

They may indeed both be Christians, both willing to argue their case on a football messageboard, and both say they are anti religion (by which I take it they see organised Christianity plc of whatever type as antithetical to what they take to be 'Christ's teachings') - but there is a world of difference between Gofer and Truthpaste.

Gofer is humble and respectful of others, responds to other posters' actual views, explains himself without hammering others over the head with random biblical quotes, and shares his doubts and faith journey. Truthpaste shares none of those qualities.

I have nothing in common with Gofer's beliefs and faith - but I find his posts interesting and sometimes thought provoking. He adds to the board. Truthpaste doesn't.

I have never met Truthpaste but in a way I envy his rock solid Christian faith. I may be wrong here but I get the impression that he has never had any doubts on his faith journey. I wish I could say the same but as a scientist I struggled in the early days and I suppose you could say that I was dragged, metaphorically speaking, kicking and screaming to faith in Jesus. I never had a “Damascus road “ experience during those days and it was researching more about the resurrection that finally convinced me of the truth.

Shortly after I committed myself to faith in Jesus (when I was about 35 or so) I was baptised and sometime after that I did have a very strange experience which I subsequently discovered was very similar to that described by John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist church, back in the early 1700's. He described that he felt his heart being suddenly “strangely warmed” * which is exactly what I felt. I have no rational explanation for this as I was driving along in my car, alone, on a dual carriageway near home, just concentrating on my driving. At the same time suddenly my heart experienced a warming sensation, an overwhelming sense of peace came over me and I felt a kind of reassurance that everything was ok.
I had never experienced anything like it before or since.

*(These are the words Wesley wrote in his diary: I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death). (Ref: Journal 24 May 1738).

P.S. I do try to ensure that I too provide the references to Biblical statements that I quote despite the fact that I am often ridiculed by one particular contributor for doing so!

[truthpaste]

I have never met Truthpaste but in a way I envy his rock solid Christian faith. I may be wrong here but I get the impression that he has never had any doubts on his faith journey. I wish I could say the same but as a scientist I struggled in the early days and I suppose you could say that I was dragged, metaphorically speaking, kicking and screaming to faith in Jesus. I never had a “Damascus road “ experience during those days and it was researching more about the resurrection that finally convinced me of the truth.

Shortly after I committed myself to faith in Jesus (when I was about 35 or so) I was baptised and sometime after that I did have a very strange experience which I subsequently discovered was very similar to that described by John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist church, back in the early 1700's. He described that he felt his heart being suddenly “strangely warmed” * which is exactly what I felt. I have no rational explanation for this as I was driving along in my car, alone, on a dual carriageway near home, just concentrating on my driving. At the same time suddenly my heart experienced a warming sensation, an overwhelming sense of peace came over me and I felt a kind of reassurance that everything was ok.
I had never experienced anything like it before or since.

*(These are the words Wesley wrote in his diary: I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death). (Ref: Journal 24 May 1738).

P.S. I do try to ensure that I too provide the references to Biblical statements that I quote despite the fact that I am often ridiculed by one particular contributor for doing so!

Great to hear your testimony, and the experience of the Holy Spirit warming your inner being and giving you the assurance that is for time and eternity.

It's true that I've had no serious doubts re who Christ is (Almighty God) and what He has done for me, granting me complete forgiveness and an opportunity to serve Him now, and throughout eternity.

The certainty I have is nothing to do with anything special about me at all, but maybe I have been given it because of the type of ministry God has given me? One day I will know the answer to that. What I do know is this, all good things come from God.

I'm glad to hear that your scientific mind prompted you to keep asking questions, until you came to the rock solid evidence that demanded a verdict, I pray that others in South Wales and beyond will have similar courage on their journey.

"Seek and you will find"

[Gofer Blue]

Number plate from U.S.A.

[Gofer Blue]

A little bit of philosophy I came across recently:

What you give your attention to is the person you become. Put another way: the mind is the portal to the soul and what you fill your mind with will shape the trajectory of your character. In the end your life is no more than the sum of what you gave your attention to. That bodes well for those apprentices of Jesus who give the bulk of their attention to him and to all that is good, beautiful and true in his world.

The above resonates with what the apostle Paul says in his letter to the church in Philippi (Philippians 4:8):

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things.

[truthpaste]

Number plate from U.S.A.

Spot on

[jon1959]

And later on the 'Gofer - Truthpaste' channel, a documentary on mutual back patting entitled 'The BOGOF ticket to heaven'.

Don't miss it!

pat on back.jpg

[truthpaste]

And later on the 'Gofer - Truthpaste' channel, a documentary on mutual back patting entitled 'The BOGOF ticket to heaven'.

Don't miss it!

pat on back.jpg

Up to now, you have missed it

Matthew 13:11-13
Jesus replied, “You are permitted to understand the secrets of the Kingdom of Heaven, but others are not. To those who listen to my teaching, more understanding will be given, and they will have an abundance of knowledge. But for those who are not listening, even what little understanding they have will be taken away from them. That is why I use these parables.

[jon1959]

A bit more reading for the US Christian fundamentalists - now that the Trump Bible ($59.99) has hit the streets!

https://www.theguardian.com/commenti...launches-bible

MAGA MAGA MAGA!

[Gofer Blue]

A bit more reading for the US Christian fundamentalists - now that the Trump Bible ($59.99) has hit the streets!

https://www.theguardian.com/commenti...launches-bible

MAGA MAGA MAGA!

Beyond parody. Only in America........!

[Gofer Blue]

I have been keeping an eye on this thread and it is quite interesting to observe the number of replies vs the number of visits. The former has remained constant at 108 for the last week whilst the latter has gone up from 4518 to 4672, an increase of about 150 which is quite a lot when you consider the thread is well down the list now and out of sight, out of mind. For a "non-subject" to most posters on here, I find it interesting that some folk are minded to take a look at it.

[jon1959]

I have been keeping an eye on this thread and it is quite interesting to observe the number of replies vs the number of visits. The former has remained constant at 108 for the last week whilst the latter has gone up from 4518 to 4672, an increase of about 150 which is quite a lot when you consider the thread is well down the list now and out of sight, out of mind. For a "non-subject" to most posters on here, I find it interesting that some folk are minded to take a look at it.

It might just be one obsessive folk?

[Gofer Blue]

It might just be one obsessive folk?

Uhm, you think so - 150 more views with no further replies? Does a person have to be logged in order for their view to be added to the total number of views? I often take a look at some of the threads on the forum but without bothering to log in first.

[stevo]

Bots, search engines, all kinds of non-human stuff trawling the web.

[truthpaste]

I have been keeping an eye on this thread and it is quite interesting to observe the number of replies vs the number of visits. The former has remained constant at 108 for the last week whilst the latter has gone up from 4518 to 4672, an increase of about 150 which is quite a lot when you consider the thread is well down the list now and out of sight, out of mind. For a "non-subject" to most posters on here, I find it interesting that some folk are minded to take a look at it.

Having worked with the general public for over 40 years and taking into account the publics general indifference to Church related conversations, I was shocked to discover that most people have some spiritual element to their lives. Also those that don't place their lives in such well known faiths have trusted an individual or individuals - this could be a well known scientist, a philosopher or guru. Many would trust someone like David Attenborough, who never acknowledges that God is the Author of the wonders of nature, yet when asked the question, wouldn't nail his colours to the mask, and declared himself an agnostic.
So who we trust and what we trust is crucial and is something we should not take lightly.