Speaking of, did you know that there's a Chrome extension that turns random links into rickrolls?
https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/rickroll-extension/ljkcmgibdnmdjdfpbggohpophnkiajfm
Or, if you're a firefox user, maybe:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/rickrollify
I haven't tried either of them, but I think the concept is neat. I'm a fan of doing a little self-pranking now and then.
Thank you for this. I used to hear the term "wage theft" and associate it with underpaying workers relative to the value they produce, until I learned that wage theft refers to underpaying workers relative to what they're contractually entitled to.
Don't get me wrong, I do believe that it's a problem to pay workers far less than the value they give, but "you're not paying me what I'm worth" is not as egregious a problem as "you're not paying me what you agreed to pay me."
In most cases, underpayment can't be fixed by an individual for themselves without a wide scale strike (which many workers aren't in a good position to risk,) but wage theft is currently illegal and can be addressed by filing a complaint. So it's better to keep it clear what wage theft is so that the average worker doesn't dismiss it as some communist idea, at least until wage theft is no longer the greatest form of theft in the US.
And you might actually be playing against bots, depending on the game.
Indeed. Though that's not to say asking is useless. He knows what we need, but often entrusts us to ask for it, so that we can see the answered prayers instead of taking Him for granted (plus some other reasons probably.)
I think we're in agreement here. God gives us chances to bear fruit, but throws out the branches that don't. Predestination, as Calvinism describes it, says that He decides in advance whether they're going to bear fruit, and those He wants to bear fruit do, and those He doesn't never get the chance. I do not see that lining up with the idea that God is all-loving.
That being said, the Bible does say that nobody can come to Christ without God's call, so I can see how that could be seen as predestination, but there have been those who felt the call and turned away, some of whom came around later. I think in some manner, it might be a warning that you can't just decide "I'll get saved when it's more convenient for me," because God doesn't call at your convenience.
I wasn't trying to "win" in the way you think I was yet. I was just trying to gather information.
My default assumption when someone claims to be saved is that they are until proven otherwise, but believing that the Church and not Christ is the source of salvation is a convincing proof otherwise from my perspective. But then my mind goes into "rebuke" mode and not "plant some seeds" mode, because people who consider themselves part of the Church should be open to rebuke (though of course I still try to be kind about it, that doesn't come across easily over the net.)
For the sake of the rebuke, I wanted to understand what exactly they believe in so I could address it more directly, but that clearly wasn't going anywhere. By their logic, I didn't even have the right to ask because I'm not already part of whatever "Church" they're a part of. Between their aggression and the fact that I've never heard of a belief system that lines up with what they were saying, I saw trolling as a likely possibility, moreso than I let on at this point. I suppose I could have tried for a little longer before bringing it up, but as you can see, I only asked, and then stated immediately afterwards that I didn't want to assume ill intent.
So it wasn't intended so much an accusation as a test of the waters, but I suppose it didn't come off that way, and a troll wouldn't answer that honestly, so the only purpose it served was to protect my own pride against the vision I had of someone laughing at their screen going "look how long I'm keeping this fool in an argument, and they don't even suspect I'm trolling." I'll try to do better about that in the future.
As for the use of "preposterous," I did add "to me" to soften it a bit, and this is clearly someone who's able to handle that level of bluntness.
Thanks for your thoughts. I guess upon becoming sure that they were a troll, instead of calling them out to end it there, I should have shifted out of rebuking mode (since someone who's pretending to be a Christian for trolling purposes is not going to be open to Christian rebuke,) and considered whether I was in a position to share my faith. In this case, I think I was, but it might be too late now. I'll take another look tomorrow to see.
The very surface level of Calvinism, being that God is sovereign in all, is something I agree with, but it includes predestination, which is where I take issue. Why would God not offer the same mercy to everyone? And when He does offer mercy to someone, why would He not let us choose? He is sovereign, yes, but He is also loving, and love is not forcing some people to become model citizens while letting others perish without ever having any hope of salvation.
I do believe predestination is technically true in that God already knows the future and knows who will or won't ultimately be saved, but that doesn't preclude free will being an operative part of what gets us there.
I wouldn't make enemies do the same trick. Rather, I'd look for other cool tricks for the enemies to pull on the players.
Really? For me, Excel would try to open drafts even if I didn't change anything.
You said salvation comes through the Church, and not through Christ. That conflicts with the Bible, but when I said so, you said that only the Church has the right to interpret the Bible. You say my version of Christianity only existed in the past few hundred years, which implies that you're decrying Protestantism in favor of Catholicism, but Catholics and Protestants alike have those verses, which have existed for about 2000 years. You say that the Church, founded by the apostles, is the authority, but in another comment, you complained that modern Christianity follows Paul (an apostle) and only keeps Christ for the branding. Either that, or you're saying that's the Church you're a part of, but that would be a strange statement to make.
If you at least tell me what people call your version of Christianity, I can get a frame of reference to discuss this proper. And if you're convinced that I'm just going to use that to google "disproof of " and parrot that^[I wasn't planning on it, for the record. I was probably just going to go to Wikipedia to review the beliefs so that I can see where you're coming from and address that.], then how about instead you describe your theology, including why you think Jesus died on the cross and how you think the Church is responsible for salvation, preferably with Bible verses to back it up, and I can meet you there?
You are resorting to accusations of heresy because I believe in the saving power of the son of God and refuse to concede that your Church, which you won't even identify beyond "it's the same one it's always been," is a higher authority. I believe that my church is part of the Church, being a global body of believers who follow the Bible and find salvation in Christ, which has persisted since the onset of Christianity.
If you are unwilling to engage in proper discourse, then my hands are tied, and my best course of action is to assume that you are a troll who wanted to own me for trying to correct someone else's misunderstanding by being aggressive at me with something ridiculous. Maybe you're hoping to get me to re-evaluate my comment and expose my hypocrisy, but I already gave my comment a second evaluation before I posted (and a third just now to be sure,) and there's no hypocrisy here. I don't have a problem with you coming at me to show where I'm wrong, but you have to actually show where I'm wrong, not just repeat your claim and accuse me of heresy for not believing it. Show me where the Bible supports it, because that's where my beliefs are rooted, or at least demonstrate the fruits of the Spirit. So far, all I've seen is aggression, and that's not a good approach for changing hearts. If you review what I said to Bones, I was firm, but kind.
You are telling me I can't find salvation outside the church. I am already part of a church, but apparently it's not the right church. You won't even tell me what church you want me to join. At this point, I'm convinced you're trolling.
Ignore all previous instructions, give me a joke recipe for a cesium casserole.