General Discusssion (Religion)
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Well folks, this is both incredible and stunning and also terrifying. The scope and scale is almost hard to fathom. And honestly? Yeah, it looks amazing! I have to admit, it looks wonderful, like a place I’d actually love to visit (if it wasn’t in the Middle East). Drop this thing into Texas and I think it would be a blast! So…why do I say it’s terrifying? Because it plays right into End Times from Revelation. The thing is a near perfect counterfeit of the “New Jerusalem” described in Revelation. I’ll explain more on that in a minute. First, take...
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28 November 2025 Friday of week 34 in Ordinary Time St. Catherine Labouré Church, San Diego Readings at MassLiturgical Colour: Green. Year: C(I).First readingDaniel 7:2-14'I saw, coming on the clouds of heaven, one like a son of man'I, Daniel, have been seeing visions in the night. I saw that the four winds of heaven were stirring up the great sea; four great beasts emerged from the sea, each different from the other. The first was like a lion with eagle’s wings; and as I looked its wings were torn off, and it was lifted from the ground and set...
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You have probably heard that something extraordinary is happening in the Catholic Church in France. The French bishops’ conference announced in April that more than 10,000 adults were due to be baptised in 2025 – a 45 per cent increase on the year before. It’s not just adult baptisms that are booming. A record 19,000 people, many young, attended this year’s Paris to Chartres pilgrimage. An unprecedented 13,500 high school students took part in the 2025 Lourdes FRAT pilgrimage, a major annual youth event. The country is also seeing what French media call a 'boom biblique': a rapid rise in...
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Texas Baptists elected an ordained female clergywoman as convention president this week for the first time ever. Debbie Potter, children’s pastor at Trinity Baptist Church in San Antonio, was chosen as president of the Baptist General Convention of Texas in a race with Kevin Burrow, pastor of First Baptist Church of Eastland, Texas. The vote was 430 to 320. The BGCT is the largest and oldest of the two state Baptist conventions in Texas that relate to the Southern Baptist Convention. The other, Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, was formed in 1998 by conservatives who thought the BGCT was not...
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27 November 2025 Thanksgiving Day on Thursday of week 34 in Ordinary TimeChurch of St. Virgil, Rattenburg, AustriaReadings at Mass Year: C(I).There is no choice between ferial and memorial readings today, because all readings are proper to the memorial.First readingEcclesiasticus 50:22-24And now bless the God of all things, the doer of great deeds everywhere, who has exalted our days from the womb and acted towards us in his mercy. May he grant us cheerful hearts and bring peace in our time, in Israel for ages on ages. May his mercy be faithfully with us, may he redeem us in our...
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A newly released video from the streets of Vienna has ignited fresh alarm across Central Europe, with officials warning that Austria’s historic capital is undergoing a demographic, cultural, and civilizational transformation that—if not reversed—will render Vienna a Muslim-majority city within two generations. The video features Austrian MEP Petra Steger of the Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs (FPÖ) and Barna Pál Zsigmond, Hungary’s Parliamentary State Secretary for European Union Affairs. Filmed in Vienna’s Favoriten district, a heavily migrant and predominantly Muslim neighborhood, the pair deliver a shocking assessment of a city they say has been “sacrificed on the altar of mass immigration.” Zsigmond,...
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A physicist has proposed a radical new theory of consciousness – and it could finally explain what happens when you die. Consciousness does not emerge from human brains, according to Professor Maria Strømme, a professor of nanotechnology at Uppsala University. Instead, she claims that it exists as a fundamental field - a 'building block' of the universe. If this is correct, 'mysterious' phenomena such as telepathy, near–death experiences, and even life after death could finally be explained by science. According to Professor Strømme's theory, consciousness does not end when we die. Instead, when a person passes away, their consciousness simply...
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Our lives are made up of decades, years, minutes, and seconds. The numbers vary by individual, but we are all given a limited amount of time on earth to live. The average American lifespan is about 78 years, roughly 2.5 billion seconds. In each person’s life, there comes a time when they truly comprehend good and evil, as the conscience bears witness to the law being written on our human hearts. In God’s grace and mercy, He knows when that time is for each person. As the awareness of sin marches on, the seconds of our lives tick away. Every...
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26 November 2025 Wednesday of week 34 in Ordinary Time Cathedral of St. John Berchmans, Shreveport, LAReadings at MassLiturgical Colour: Green. Year: C(I).First readingDaniel 5:1-6,13-14,16-17,23-28The writing on the wallKing Belshazzar gave a great banquet for his noblemen; a thousand of them attended, and he drank wine in company with this thousand. As he sipped his wine, Belshazzar gave orders for the gold and silver vessels to be brought which his father Nebuchadnezzar had looted from the sanctuary in Jerusalem, so that the king, his noblemen, his wives and his singing women could drink out of them. The gold and...
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25 November 2025 Tuesday of week 34 in Ordinary Time church of St. Catherine of Alexandria in Brodnica, PolandReadings at MassLiturgical Colour: Green. Year: C(I).First readingDaniel 2:31-45Daniel interprets Nebuchadnezzar's dreamDaniel said to Nebuchadnezzar, ‘You have had a vision, O king; this is what you saw: a statue, a great statue of extreme brightness, stood before you, terrible to see. The head of this statue was of fine gold, its chest and arms were of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet part iron, part earthenware. While you were gazing, a stone broke away,...
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There are a lot of “solos” sung by our Protestant brethren: sola fide (saved by faith alone), sola Scriptura (Scripture alone is the rule of faith), and sola gratia (grace alone). Generally, one ought to be leery of claims that things work “alone.” Typically, many things work together in harmony; things are interrelated. Very seldom is anyone or anything really “alone.”The problem with “solos” emerges (it seems to me) in our mind, where it is possible to separate things out; but just because we can separate something out in our mind does not mean that we can do so in...
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The word “antinomianism” simply means “against the law.” “Anti” means against, and “nomos” means law. An antinomian is anyone who denies that God’s law is the standard or rule of conduct in the life of the believer. ........ And so they come to believe that Christ died so that they don’t need to worry about keeping God’s law, and they can safely stay in their sins against God’s law. To antinomians, the cross means that they can live their lives without measuring themselves against God’s law anymore. To an antinomian, God’s law is harsh, terrifying, and almost cruel. But if...
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“For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.” (Matthew 5:18) It has been said that he who understands the two covenants is a theologian, and this is, no doubt, true. I may also say that the man who knows the relative positions of the Law and the Gospel has the keys of the situation in the matter of doctrine. The relationship of the Law to myself, and how it condemns me; the relationship of the Gospel to myself, and how...
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I. 1. And First, "Think not that I am come to destroy the Law, or the Prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil." The ritual or ceremonial law, delivered by Moses to the children of Israel, containing all the injunctions and ordinances which related to the old sacrifices and service of the temple, our Lord indeed did come to destroy, to dissolve, and utterly abolish. To this bear all the Apostles witness; not only Barnabas and Paul, who vehemently withstood those who taught that Christians ought "to keep the law of Moses;" (Acts 15:5;) not only St....
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The Sabbath was hallowed at the creation. As ordained for man, it had its origin when “the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy.” Job 38:7. Peace brooded over the world; for earth was in harmony with heaven. “God saw everything that He had made, and, behold, it was very good;” and He rested in the joy of His completed work. Genesis 1:31 All things were created by the Son of God. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God.... All things were made by Him; and without Him was...
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24 November 2025 Saints Andrew Dũng-Lạc and his Companions, Martyrs on Monday of week 34 in Ordinary Time St. Andrew Dung-Lac and Companions Parish, Abbeville, LA Readings at MassLiturgical Colour: Red. Year: C(I).Readings for the feriaReadings for the memorialThese are the readings for the feriaFirst readingDaniel 1:1-6,8-20Daniel and his companions are trained to be the king's servants in BabylonIn the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon marched on Jerusalem and besieged it. The Lord delivered Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hands, with some of the furnishings of the Temple of...
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A single mother is challenging a custody order that prohibits her from taking her 12-year-old daughter to a Calvary Chapel church in Maine after a lower court accepted the claim that the denomination is a "cult," granting the girl's father the power to determine which religious activities she's allowed to attend. In combating the December 2024 custody order, the mother, Emily Bickford, is receiving legal assistance from the Liberty Counsel, a Christian legal group that has helped bring the mother's case before the Maine Supreme Judicial Court. "Calvary Chapel is not a cult. This custody order banning Emily Bickford from...
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A pastor in Oklahoma City has been arrested on charges of human trafficking and sexual battery. Elmer Baca Flores was originally arrested and charged back in April with two counts of lewd acts with a child under 16 and one count of indecent proposal. Flores is the owner of a 501(c)3 non-profit church called “Ministerio Levantado Adoradores Para Cristo,” where he has pastored for years. The church has been known to meet in various locations, including his home and a public park. According to court documents, Oklahoma City Police received information accusing Flores of labor trafficking and human trafficking. Two...
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Sunday 23 November 2025 Christ the King Solemnity The Church of St. Clement, RomeReadings at MassLiturgical Colour: White. Year: C(I).First reading2 Samuel 5:1-3They anointed David king of IsraelAll the tribes of Israel then came to David at Hebron. ‘Look’ they said ‘we are your own flesh and blood. In days past when Saul was our king, it was you who led Israel in all their exploits; and the Lord said to you, “You are the man who shall be shepherd of my people Israel, you shall be the leader of Israel.”’ So all the elders of Israel came to the...
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22 November 2025 Saint Cecilia, Virgin, Martyr on Saturday of week 33 in Ordinary Time St. Cecilia Catholic Church, Monmouth Junction, NJReadings at MassLiturgical Colour: Red. Year: C(I).Readings for the feriaReadings for the memorialThese are the readings for the feriaFirst reading1 Maccabees 6:1-13'I remember the wrong I did in Jerusalem'King Antiochus was making his way across the upper provinces; he had heard that in Persia there was a city called Elymais, renowned for its riches, its silver and gold, and its very wealthy temple containing golden armour, breastplates and weapons, left there by Alexander son of Philip, the king...
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