The VC “Lockdown Christian Fellowship”

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Interesting observation @Douglas Summers

One thing that occurs to me is whether the speaker shies away from tough material and promotes the “best life now” kind of message, or perhaps the (perhaps) understandable human knee jerk reaction of trying to deliver a serious message (at perhaps one of the most serious moments the world has been at) by displaying an element of dry humour. I believe it is an old habit of doctors reflections on a day of amputations or lawyers (as Andy was) dealing with traumatic cases. That doesn’t “excuse” levity over a serious topic but in my experience of human nature would explain it...
I understand the human nature part, but when the Lord gives me a teaching, His Spirit never leaves me to myself but with Thus sayeth the Lord. That is how The Spirit gives me the Spirit of discernment....But that's just me? Did that makes sense?
 

JoChris

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Maybe he will and maybe he won’t..


Unforgivable?
by Phil Johnson
Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Several years ago in a live Q&A session, someone asked John MacArthur if taking the mark of the Beast during the Great Tribulation would be an unpardonable sin. His answer, in short, was no. Though there is a stern warning against taking the mark of the Beast in Revelation 14, the sin is not categorically said to be unpardonable. (That would contradict Matthew 12:31.) The point of the severe language in Revelation 14 is to make clear what an utterly reprehensible sin it will be to swear an oath of willful loyalty to Antichrist.
Someone posted John MacArthur’s reply to that question on YouTube with a melodramatic one-word title in all caps: “OUTRAGE.” Gossip-mongers on the Internet got hold of it, apparently, and within days someone wrote to our ministry saying, “I saw pastor John on a YouTube video saying the way to be saved in the Tribulation is to take the mark of the Beast.”
Well—no.
If someone listens to Pastor MacArthur’s reply and imagines he was saying it’s no great sin to receive the mark of the Beast, listen again; that grossly twists what he actually said. The question is not (as one writer suggests) “How Far Can You Go and Still Be Able to Repent?” The point John MacArthur was making is about the extremes to which God’s grace will reach in order to seek and save a sinner.
Yes, Revelation 14:9–11 says, “If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, he also will drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is mixed in full strength in the cup of His anger; and he will be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever; they have no rest day and night, those who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name.” Clearly, receiving the mark is a sin that will send those who commit it to hell.
But the Bible also says, “Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Corinthians 6:9–10). In short, all sin carries the threat of eternal doom, and some particularly heinous sins have a built-in hardening effect that makes them particularly dangerous. Scripture occasionally singles out common sins that have this peculiarly soul-destroying effect.
On the other hand, only one very specific sin is ever said to be unforgivable. Any sin that is repented of is forgivable. Immediately after declaring all fornicators, drunkards, and swindlers unfit for heaven, the apostle writes, “Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God” (1 Corinthians 6:11). After saying, “Whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven,” Jesus famously forgave Peter, who denied Him before men.
Jesus Himself said, “Any sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven people, but blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven ” (Matthew 12:31, emphasis added). The one unpardonable sin was the sin of those who had seen His miracles with their own eyes; they knew He was the true Messiah; they were part of the generation to whom He was personally sent. And yet they attributed His powers to Satan. That was unforgivable because it was such a hard-hearted, willful expression of utter rejection from fully enlightened hearts, who punctuated their rejection with an extreme blasphemy. Those Pharisees had stood in the presence of the living embodiment of all truth; they heard His words and saw His works. All the mysteries of Christ had been unveiled before their very eyes. And yet they spurned Him. There was nothing else that could be shown to them to enlighten them further. They were not deceived; they knew full well what they were doing. That’s why their sin was unpardonable (cf. 1 Timothy 1:13).
Revelation 19:20 indicates that multitudes will take the mark of the Beast because they are deceived. Scripture does not say that they are thereby automatically hardened forever against repentance. That is not the point of the strong warnings.
This whole issue suddenly became a matter of intense controversy when it was mentioned on a provocative radio program. It’s certainly not worth all the ink that has been wasted and all the bandwidth that has been consumed by angry people demanding explanations and retractions. This much should certainly be clear from the biblical text (and I think would be affirmed by all sides): Taking the mark of the Beast is high treason against Christ and will be judged by God accordingly. Meanwhile, the Lord is “good, and ready to forgive, and abundant in lovingkindness to all who call upon [Him]” (Psalm 86:5).
On the mark of the beast issue I also believe MacArthur is almost flippant.
However this video is the best in-detail explanation of the full **Gospel** I have ever seen.

No Christian preacher is 100% perfect. No preacher will agree with you 100% unless YOU are the preacher.
There would be quite a few conspiracy preachers that are good on Book of Revelation teachings that would have polar opposite positions on interpreting other doctrines (to yourself). Are you going to reject them as well?

Again, this is the best example of Gospel preaching I have seen, and a message that all bible-believing Christians of all denominations will appreciate.
This COVID19 era is when Christians should be getting firm in their faith so they can explain the Gospel as clearly as possible to people who would never think about God in ordinary times.
 

floss

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“His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself.”
‭‭Revelation‬ ‭19:12‬ ‭KJVA‬‬

Is this the name of the Holy Spirit? What do you guys think?
 

Lisa

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“His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself.”
‭‭Revelation‬ ‭19:12‬ ‭KJVA‬‬

Is this the name of the Holy Spirit? What do you guys think?
Why do you think that?
 

Lisa

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Mar 13, 2017
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20,288
On the mark of the beast issue I also believe MacArthur is almost flippant.
However this video is the best in-detail explanation of the full **Gospel** I have ever seen.

No Christian preacher is 100% perfect. No preacher will agree with you 100% unless YOU are the preacher.
There would be quite a few conspiracy preachers that are good on Book of Revelation teachings that would have polar opposite positions on interpreting other doctrines (to yourself). Are you going to reject them as well?

Again, this is the best example of Gospel preaching I have seen, and a message that all bible-believing Christians of all denominations will appreciate.
This COVID19 era is when Christians should be getting firm in their faith so they can explain the Gospel as clearly as possible to people who would never think about God in ordinary times.
He does have many followers...hopefully they know he’s flippant...he sounded serious to me...and he should really come out and clear it all up if he was flippant. In that day..people might remember that he ok’d taking the mark and might take it themselves seeing as it would affect their ability to buy and sell.
 

floss

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Why do you think that?
We know the name of the Father and Son but God never reveal the name of the Holy Spirit. It's interesting why He said "no one knew, but he himself". The Holy Spirit does not get praised enough but in reality He is the one making everything happen after Jesus to glorify Jesus. Even til the end His name is still not revealed that tell me He's not about himself. If the HS revealed his name then Jesus wouldn't be as glorified. I think it's an amazing characteristic of the HS. He is good.
 

Lisa

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I think you and I agree on the fact that in the last days “perilous times will come”, and that while it is good to listen to others, there is no substitute for developing your own relationship with God. I remember someone once told me you need, in a spiritual sense, to “dig your own well” and “plough your own furrow”.
Yep...but many others take the preacher substitute as he knows what he is talking about. Not to say they should but many do...and hopefully your teacher knows about this verse..
James‬ ‭3:1‬ ‭
Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we will incur a stricter judgment.​
‭‭
 

Lisa

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We know the name of the Father and Son but God never reveal the name of the Holy Spirit. It's interesting why He said "no one knew, but he himself". The Holy Spirit does not get praised enough but in reality He is the one making everything happen after Jesus to glorify Jesus. Even til the end His name is still not revealed that tell me He's not about himself. If the HS revealed his name then Jesus wouldn't be as glorified. I think it's an amazing characteristic of the HS. He is good.
I agree..the Holy Spirit doesn’t get enough credit..but then all the credit is supposed to go to the Father..and the Holy Spirit and Jesus don’t mind that. I think that’s an interesting idea that you have that the Holy Spirit would reveal His name..but He is also called the Helper.

I think it might be another name for Jesus having to do with the battle He wins because of verse 13
Revelation‬ ‭19:13‬ ‭
He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God.​
‭‭
 

Red Sky at Morning

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A friend of mine write this...

“Sitting in the garden the other day just praying listening to some worship (joining in) I looked at the garden table next to me and saw this reflection. Here’s the thought that came with it “what are we reflecting in the mirror of our lives” Just a thought.”

D2D69FC0-B97E-44C2-BB85-3AB29B2D5574.jpeg
 

Helioform

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OK why not, I am in. From Montreal, Canada.

I was born in a Catholic family and I am sad to say that I have been a "lukewarm" Christian for most of my life, even going away from it to embrace Gnosticism and related ideas. But with the recent events I have been drawn back to reading Bible verses and see the book of Revelation being played out before our very eyes.

I did all the Catholic rituals as a kid, first communion and confirmation. But I never really got into Christianity until a friend of mine, at 18, brought me to a Bible store and suggested I buy one. I started reading it and was fascinated by it rapidly, reading it completely in a couple of months. I cannot say I really understood it, especially the OT, but the NT made sense to me with all the nature related parables. Jesus made sense to me. More than the Catholic stuff.

Then later on in that year I have met some new Christians who rapidly became my friends. They introduced me to the NWO/Mark of the Beast prophecies. I was fascinated by the fact that the UPC barcodes seemed to contain the number 666 in them. That was back in 1995.

Then in 1996 I got the internet both at home and at university and I have met on IRC a strange individual, who seemed to adhere to Christianity but also incorporated some other more Eastern Religion elements such as chakras and meditation. He pointed me to his website and at first I scoffed at most of the stuff that was on there. But I kept coming back to read it and there was various things about the Babylonian Brotherhood (Masonry/Illuminati), exotic physics theories that involved zeropoint energy and anti-gravity, UFOs, mark of the beast microchip, time travel theories, various alien species such as the reptilians which at the time looked like demons to me, Montauk Project, Philadelphia Experiment etc. All a bunch of conspiracy theories that looked quite insane to me at first but I kept an open mind and kept reading. His webpage led me to a deep rabbit hole that I never fully got out of yet. There was a few predictions on his site and the main one was that there was going to be a major event happening around the year 2000 that would be used to justify police state measures. He claimed to have been consulted by Orthodox Jews to tell them about what was going to happen soon and later. That event occured in 2001 with the 9/11 attacks. I was totally astounded that this crazy man seemed to know so much about the future. He said that this event was really to help unify the world against a coming "alien invasion", which in his book was actually the good guys, or a group of interdimensional beings known as angels, led by Jesus himself (the second coming). The malevolent aliens were already in control of this planet and were trying to put weapons in space (part of the Star Wars program introduced by Reagan) to repel Jesus' coming. Which was the real reason and not just a one world government conspiracy for the sake of a NWO.

Anyway I don't think I would believe in conspiracies such as the NWO, demons and secret societies in high places etc, if I did not have a Christian faith. I am pretty sure in fact. Most Atheists reject "conspiracy theories" because they do not have the scriptural background to back them up. When you know that Satan is really temporarilly running the show on Earth those conspiracies become much more believable.
 
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OK why not, I am in. From Montreal, Canada.

I was born in a Catholic family and I am sad to say that I have been a "lukewarm" Christian for most of my life, even going away from it to embrace Gnosticism and related ideas. But with the recent events I have been drawn back to reading Bible verses and see the book of Revelation being played out before our very eyes.

I did all the Catholic rituals as a kid, first communion and confirmation. But I never really got into Christianity until a friend of mine, at 18, brought me to a Bible store and suggested I buy one. I started reading it and was fascinated by it rapidly, reading it completely in a couple of months. I cannot say I really understood it, especially the OT, but the NT made sense to me with all the nature related parables. Jesus made sense to me. More than the Catholic stuff.

Then later on in that year I have met some new Christians who rapidly became my friends. They introduced me to the NWO/Mark of the Beast prophecies. I was fascinated by the fact that the UPC barcodes seemed to contain the number 666 in them. That was back in 1995.

Then in 1996 I got the internet both at home and at university and I have met on IRC a strange individual, who seemed to adhere to Christianity but also incorporated some other more Eastern Religion elements such as chakras and meditation. He pointed me to his website and at first I scoffed at most of the stuff that was on there. But I kept coming back to read it and there was various things about the Babylonian Brotherhood (Masonry/Illuminati), exotic physics theories that involved zeropoint energy and anti-gravity, UFOs, mark of the beast microchip, time travel theories, various alien species such as the reptilians which at the time looked like demons to me, Montauk Project, Philadelphia Experiment etc. All a bunch of conspiracy theories that looked quite insane to me at first but I kept an open mind and kept reading. His webpage led me to a deep rabbit hole that I never fully got out of yet. There was a few predictions on his site and the main one was that there was going to be a major event happening around the year 2000 that would be used to justify police state measures. He claimed to have been consulted by Orthodox Jews to tell them about what was going to happen soon and later. That event occured in 2001 with the 9/11 attacks. I was totally astounded that this crazy man seemed to know so much about the future. He said that this event was really to help unify the world against a coming "alien invasion", which in his book was actually the good guys, or a group of interdimensional beings known as angels, led by Jesus himself (the second coming). The malevolent aliens were already in control of this planet and were trying to put weapons in space (part of the Star Wars program introduced by Reagan) to repel Jesus' coming. Which was the real reason and not just a one world government conspiracy for the sake of a NWO.

Anyway I don't think I would believe in conspiracies such as the NWO, demons and secret societies in high places etc, if I did not have a Christian faith. I am pretty sure in fact. Most Atheists reject "conspiracy theories" because they do not have the scriptural background to back them up. When you know that Satan is really temporarilly running the show on Earth those conspiracies become much more believable.

hey thats pretty awesome, pretty similar to myself, im a backslider myself, its cool God is reaching you in this time. I hope your relationship can be strengthened.
 

JoChris

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Messages
6,168
OK why not, I am in. From Montreal, Canada.

I was born in a Catholic family and I am sad to say that I have been a "lukewarm" Christian for most of my life, even going away from it to embrace Gnosticism and related ideas. But with the recent events I have been drawn back to reading Bible verses and see the book of Revelation being played out before our very eyes.

I did all the Catholic rituals as a kid, first communion and confirmation. But I never really got into Christianity until a friend of mine, at 18, brought me to a Bible store and suggested I buy one. I started reading it and was fascinated by it rapidly, reading it completely in a couple of months. I cannot say I really understood it, especially the OT, but the NT made sense to me with all the nature related parables. Jesus made sense to me. More than the Catholic stuff.

Then later on in that year I have met some new Christians who rapidly became my friends. They introduced me to the NWO/Mark of the Beast prophecies. I was fascinated by the fact that the UPC barcodes seemed to contain the number 666 in them. That was back in 1995.

Then in 1996 I got the internet both at home and at university and I have met on IRC a strange individual, who seemed to adhere to Christianity but also incorporated some other more Eastern Religion elements such as chakras and meditation. He pointed me to his website and at first I scoffed at most of the stuff that was on there. But I kept coming back to read it and there was various things about the Babylonian Brotherhood (Masonry/Illuminati), exotic physics theories that involved zeropoint energy and anti-gravity, UFOs, mark of the beast microchip, time travel theories, various alien species such as the reptilians which at the time looked like demons to me, Montauk Project, Philadelphia Experiment etc. All a bunch of conspiracy theories that looked quite insane to me at first but I kept an open mind and kept reading. His webpage led me to a deep rabbit hole that I never fully got out of yet. There was a few predictions on his site and the main one was that there was going to be a major event happening around the year 2000 that would be used to justify police state measures. He claimed to have been consulted by Orthodox Jews to tell them about what was going to happen soon and later. That event occured in 2001 with the 9/11 attacks. I was totally astounded that this crazy man seemed to know so much about the future. He said that this event was really to help unify the world against a coming "alien invasion", which in his book was actually the good guys, or a group of interdimensional beings known as angels, led by Jesus himself (the second coming). The malevolent aliens were already in control of this planet and were trying to put weapons in space (part of the Star Wars program introduced by Reagan) to repel Jesus' coming. Which was the real reason and not just a one world government conspiracy for the sake of a NWO.

Anyway I don't think I would believe in conspiracies such as the NWO, demons and secret societies in high places etc, if I did not have a Christian faith. I am pretty sure in fact. Most Atheists reject "conspiracy theories" because they do not have the scriptural background to back them up. When you know that Satan is really temporarilly running the show on Earth those conspiracies become much more believable.
Yours is a great testimony. Thanks for sharing! :)
 

JoChris

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Mar 15, 2017
Messages
6,168
I was thinking during this time of lockdown that we should encourage and support other, to see our changed situation through God focused lenses, at seeing things from a glass half-full perspective.
The biggest change I have had since COVID19 situation started is that my husband is now working at home until until his department believes it is safe for all staff to be working in same area. (He works in marine traffic safety, if one gets sick all would be sent home, absolutely disastrous for a port city.)
Now I can see firsthand why he gets so stressed. So much paperwork, so many interruptions, difficult interactions with people... It has given me insight into why he is the way he is sometimes.
I am thankful that despite it all my husband still does a difficult job well. I will definitely seek to be more tolerant and do more to ensure I am giving him support that he needs.
 
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