Category Archives: Articles

Various Topics

Pain Can Be Good!

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by Mike James

“Only great pain is the ultimate liberator of the spirit…. I doubt that such pain makes us ‘better’; but I know that it makes us more profound.”—Frederich Nietzsche.

“To live is to suffer, to survive is to find some meaning in the suffering.”—Nietzsche

“That which does not kill us makes us stronger.”—Nietzsche

I don’t know if Nietzsche read his Bible, but he seemed to know a bit about pain and suffering.

One of the primary arguments non-believers make against Christianity is that if God is good and defined as love, why does He allow so much pain and suffering in the world? Obviously, since He is God, He would have the capability to remove the pain and suffering. This is a bigger question than I have the room to address in this short blog, but I want to provide a partial answer by addressing the positive side of pain.

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At One With God Now?

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by Mike James

I recently had a discussion with some ministers in the Church of God, Seventh Day (COG7D). The meeting addressed why we keep the holy days and why they do not.

I would like to address a couple of their scriptural reasons for not keeping the holy days so we can better prepare ourselves for doctrines that are contrary to our own.

The first scripture their primary speaker addressed to say why they don’t need to keep the holy days was Romans 5:11. Here is what this scripture says: “Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation” (NIV).

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Least of the Commandments

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by Mike James

In the Gospel of Matthew 5:19 we read this interesting verse: Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. The question I’d like to answer here is what is meant by “these least commandments.”

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Placebos and Faith

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by Mike James

You have probably heard of the placebo effect. The “placebo effect” has to do with a patient taking a pill that has no medical properties, yet in many cases, taking that pill leads to an improvement for a physical or mental issue. You usually hear of this effect taking place without the patient’s knowledge of whether the pill had medicine or not.

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Why the Decrease in the Percentage of Christians in the US?

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by Mike James

In the past I have written a couple of blogs on the decreasing impact of religion and Christianity in the Western world and some other places. This trend has been ongoing since the 1950s in the United States (US) and is even more dramatic in some predominantly Christian nations in other parts of the world. Back in the 1950s, over 90 percent of the US population claimed to be Christian, with those numbers down to over 60-some percent claiming Christianity now.

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Are You, or Aren’t You a Christian

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By: Bill Watson

You have probably heard this before, but at the risk of being redundant let me ask: Is there enough evidence to convict you to be a Christian? Could a court of law prosecute you as being a follower of Jesus Christ? Do you live like Christ? Lead like Christ? Do you respond and/or act or react like Jesus Christ would, when confronted with certain circumstances?

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