Recent content by Brother James

In order for there to be free will, doesn't there have to be the possibility to choose to do wrong? Could a universe containing no possibility of evil every be one of free will? Wouldn't that make all men merely automatons / robots who lack free moral agency? I'm aware that some do not believe...

It bothers me to hear people make up sins that are not in scripture. The make inferences from things that are actually in the bible to make arguments to bind people in much the same way the Pharisees did - a group Jesus denounced more than any other. For example, if masturbation is truly a...

This would have come as news to Abraham and Sarah...

Science really is nothing more than investigating why things are the way they are. If I ask "why does warm air cause a balloon to rise?", I could say "because God intends warm air to rise" but it is in the nature of people to investigate further. It is not wrong to do that because God has...

Vaping wasn't a "thing" in 2003 when I quit - or more accurately, when God delivered me from the bondage of smoking and nicotine addiction. I used the nicotine gum to break the habit of smoking, and then I gradually broke the nicotine addiction. That was the hardest part. I smoked for 35...

I believe I should attend church, but I find it very hard. The failing is in me, though, and I pay the price...

This is one of the reasons I stay away from this board for such long stretches. I try to discuss something in good faith, and somebody decides it is more important to make another person feel small or somehow less rather than engage in respectful, thoughtful discussion. Oh well, I tried...

Thanks everyone. I don't think there is any "right" answer that can be fully supported biblically. I think God transmits his truths to us in the way that He does for a reason. When he said, "Tell them, I Am, has sent you" He chose the present tense on purpose. He could have said, "I Am, I Was...

I'm interested in hearing other people's thoughts on Jeremiah 1:5 when God told Jeremiah, "“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.” Do you think this passage applies solely to Jeremiah, because of God...

Consider two political philosophers, Thomas Hobbes and John Locke. Hobbes said it is a very dangerous world, lots of scary criminal types that mean us harm, and that men organize governments to protect them from the natural state of man which is war and chaos. He argued that we have to give up...

I think it is important for each one of us to recognize that he has an imperfect understanding of God's truths. God has revealed Himself through His holy scriptures, but He certainly has not given me perfect understanding of them, and I believes He allows for my imperfection. In fact, I'm...

It's in my heart to praise Him. To thank Him. To worship Him. I didn't really have to be taught this, it just the relationship I have with Him. Now, there was one time when I told another Christian man that I didn't know what to pray because I was in the depths of a valley, and he suggested...

On my best day I can't be good enough. It's simply not in me. That's why I need a Savior. Unfortunately, every thing men put their hands to they tend to corrupt. That can be especially true when it comes to church, religion, and "recovery". Men will always fail us. For me personally, I had to...

I don't know anyone who demonizes gay people. Those pushing an agenda create these strawmen so they can tear them up, but that's par for the course. Until Christians proclaim "the bible doesn't teach that homosexual behavior is a sin", the gay political activists will not be satisfied. So they...

There is, unfortunately, an appeal to the thought that, "you don't seem able to make the right choices that are in your best interest, so I (we?) will take care of you since you don't seem able to do it yourself..." It doesn't seem to occur to the person assuming that attitude that it is...