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100% agree with that. For a while I've been thinking that the very stance that the Egyptians are now taking might be exactly what Israel wants, so they can claim the entire Gaza strip and not let the Palestinians back in. What will be left of Rafah after the final battle between Hamas and IDF - not a lot I suspect, judging by the amount of destruction elsewhere.
No my impression of you, although perhaps unfair stems from the link you posted about the Turkish politician dropping more or less dead for calling out Israel and invoking Allah. You seem quite happy with this? To me, it reads like you're suggesting your 'God' struck him down as a punishment? This view seems a little way off my understanding of Christianity which admittedly is very limited?
Regarding Hamas I think they're massive cuunts, I've said so previously. I also think the current Israeli coalition government are too.
Impressions can be way off, particularly when you've only read snippets of what someone has written. I've often made that mistake based on limited information.
I showed what happened in Turkey simply to show that Genesis 12:3 was not only true in the past, but it remains true. On a national scale, Egypt was once a world power, it acted against Israel and it's now no more than a third world country.
So Almighty God simply acted on a declaration he made via Moses when he wrote the book of Genesis, and my reaction to that event or any other individual who has been blessed or cursed because of that promise is therefore irrelevant.
Obviously your impression of Christianity is yours alone, and like anyone who isn't a Christian it will be formed by what you've read, heard and seen; sadly for the majority of non-Christians I've met and discussed Christianity, they have mainly obtained their opinion by observing people who have claimed to be Christian but are anything but.
Religious people would put anyone off and are the main cause of most people not finding Christ Jesus.
Which is a book written by a born-again Christian - namely J. R. R. Tolkien.
Here is one section from the above link >> The pagan stories, Tolkien insisted, are God expressing himself through the minds of poets: They are “splintered fragments” of a much greater story. The account of Christ and his death and resurrection is a kind of myth, he explained. It works on our imagination in much the same way as other myths, with this difference: It really happened. Perhaps only Tolkien, with his immense intelligence and creativity, could have persuaded Lewis that his reason and imagination might become allies in the act of faith.
Lewis’s objections melted away, like ants into a furnace. “The old myth of the Dying God, without ceasing to be myth, comes down from the heaven of legend and imagination to the earth of history,” he wrote after his conversion. “We must not be ashamed of the mythical radiance resting on our theology.”
The modern mind, buttressed by science and psychology, seems either ashamed or baffled by this radiance. Even many church pulpits have transformed the historic teaching of the resurrection into a homey metaphor of springtime renewal: an unwitting nod to pagan religion.
Yet herein lies the startling, nonnegotiable claim of the Christian faith, the event that turned a disillusioned band of followers into the most resilient and transformative religious community in history. At its heart, it is the story of the God of love on a rescue mission for mankind: Christ has died, Christ is risen.
The resurrection is the foundation on which Christianity stands. If anyone can prove that it never happened I will happily renounce my faith!
No mention on BBC news regarding possible refugee camp being prepared in Egypt.
As I've said, NO religion is great at all, as they all offer false hope.
Jesus isn't a religion, He is a Person; we either know Him or we don't.
A sure way of listening out for someone who doesn't know Him or who He is will be their language. Do they use His Name as a swear word for example, if they do they are 100% not a Christian.
As for being a fundamentalist and not a liberal, a liberal will look to appeal to men while the genuine Christian will want to live for God and will adhere to God's Word, the Bible.
Believe me, you would not want to be a liberal on the Day of Judgment, their plight would be worse than that of an agnostic. So in short, a fundamentally thinking religious person is a problem to others and themselves. Whereas someone who takes God at His Word is wise.
I'm happy to hear your opinions, findings and discoveries re the biggest questions in life.
I meant BBC TV news actually. Would reach a much wider audience. I saw it first on Al Jazeera a few days ago - definitely the best channel for news on Gaza. Clearly heavily biased rhetoric towards Palestinian side of course but they do have reporters on the ground in Gaza so I tend to trust the pictures they show.
I suppose it all depends on what you mean by a "fundamentalist". As TP has stated, Christianity is all about faith in a person not a philosophy. To me, as a Christian, faith in Jesus is fundamental so I suppose by that definition I must be a fundamentalist! Unfortunately these days the term fundamentalist has taken on a more sinister meaning - someone who is very judgemental, intolerant and in extreme cases violent to those who do not agree with them (especially in the U.S.A. it seems). These are not the attributes of a real Christian.
Jesus warns about being judgemental:
"Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. "Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, `Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye. (Matthew 7).
Of course, I believe that this is not to say that as a Christian I cannot have opinions but I leave judgement to God. Each one of us is responsible for our own actions/decisions. I try to live the life Jesus expects me to live but I will never be perfect and will fall far short of what is expected, but at least I recognise that fact and at the end of the day must rely on the grace of God.
P.S. Maybe we need a new thread on this topic rather than keep hijacking this one!
I see Wes Streeting has decided 35,000 + dead at the hands of the Israeli Occupation Forces is enough (if you count the thousands of children and their families buried under the rubble and not yet in the 'dead' column).
He was OK with 25,000. But now Israel has gone too far! Starmer agrees with him (sort of).
Fantastic to have such principled people leading the main political opposition.
Hear hear!
Streeting is repugnant. He's an embarrassment.
Well it wasn't your dyslexic dog, so the only possible answer is Israel - the state that has occupied most Palestinian land since 1967 (if not 1948) and (with a little help from Egypt) turned Gaza into an open air prison for 2.3m people. The location, scale, and deliberately indiscriminate nature of the genocidal revenge attack since 7 October is all Israel.
No excuses for any of the atrocities carried out by Hamas or others who crossed the fence on 7 October - but the last four and a half months of mass murder and ethnic cleansing were not carried out by Hamas.
It wasn't so long ago that you were very loud and proud of Israel's drive to pen, humiliate, dispossess, imprison without trial and kill any Palestinians who remained on the land wanted for Greater Israel. You kept talking about a real estate deal between a supernatural being and his 'chosen people' as described in the Old Testament - a book you seem to treat as 100% literally true. Your main comment on the recent history of ethnic cleansing and apartheid was that Israel was showing 'restraint' (your word if I remember correctly).
They are not showing restraint now (they never were) but are still intent on blaming someone else for their crimes. As are you.
No excuses for any of the atrocities carried out by Hamas or others who crossed the fence on 7 October - but the last four and a half months of mass murder and ethnic cleansing were not carried out by Hamas.
Well thanks for acknowledging the hideous spark to this conflict. While Hamas hasn't physically caused most of the deaths of the citizens who voted them into power, they DID decide that the hospitals and tunnels (paid for by their citizens and other less peaceable muslims across the middle east) would be the key areas of conflict.
You know very well that if the civilians were living away from the military bases etc and the hostages were away from them too, then the only casualities would be hamas themselves. But just like Saddam, they are to be used to create the sort of reaction that you and so many others have predictably provided.
....the Old Testament - a book you seem to treat as 100% literally true.
Wrong again, I read the Bible like any other book in it's given context. Some parts are actual history, other parts are poetry and illustrative. The context is always clearly defined, and only people who dive into and out of a statement in isolation will get confused.