blackbird

The Reformation led to freedom of conscience and beliefs in the countries where it succeeded. That led to democracy and human rights in Europe and then north America. These things never happened in the countries where there was no Reformation like Spain, Portugal, Italy, central and south America. They pretty well remained in darkness in many areas even to today. Communist revolutions were common. Totalitarianism in Spain. Honduras just now is establishing close relations with Communist China and cut off relations with Taiwan.

The 35 million dollars was to pay for he Pope's visit which involved organizing events. That's all part of the Pope's visit to benefit the Roman Church and papacy. As far as Romanism is concerned, they have 1,700 years of history of brutal treatment of the world. You have a problem. You can't squirm out of it by false accusations.

Bible-believing churches don't believe that either. I am not sure where you got that idea, but evangelical churches do not believe that kind of thing. It looks like you have been lied to in the extreme. Churches in genera are quite laid back about what people wear. Many dress very casually these days. Even many ministers wear casual clothes when the preach. Some churches are more formal. The idea of the Sabbath is not part of evangelical church's beliefs. The Sabbath was mainly a Jewish religious day and still is. The Seventh Day Adventists, which some say are a bit of a cult, follow the Sabbath, which is Saturday. They hold their services on Saturday. Reformed churches sometimes call Sunday a Sabbath and generally discourage their members from working on Sundays, which they usually refer to as the Lord's Day. But the Bible does not impose any particular day as a holy day on Christians and it actually speaks against it. Here is a little information on the Inquisition. "The Inquisition was a powerful office set up within the Catholic Church to root out and punish heresy throughout Europe and the Americas. Beginning in the 12th century and continuing for hundreds of years, the Inquisition is infamous for the severity of its tortures and its persecution of Jews and Muslims. Its worst manifestation was in Spain, where the Spanish Inquisition was a dominant force for more than 200 years, resulting in some 32,000 executions." " The Job of Inquisitors Inquisitors would arrive in a town and announce their presence, giving citizens a chance to admit to heresy. Those who confessed received a punishment ranging from a pilgrimage to a whipping. Those accused of heresy were forced to testify. If the heretic did not confess, torture and execution were inescapable. Heretics weren’t allowed to face accusers, received no counsel and were often victims of false accusations." There is a lot more to it on the history website: Inquisition - HISTORY Other sources say the Inquisition lasted 400 years or more. There are horror stories that occurred in the 20th century revealed in the book Smokescreens by Chick Publications.

Most major denominations are apostate, gone far from the Bible, or not real churches. That is proven by the fact they are into a social gospel (Socialist leaning), accepting same-sex marriage, abortion, and MAID or at least not opposing those things. Bible-believing churches have always been the small evangelical, independent, or fundamental type of churches.

"The prime minister’s family vacation to Jamaica over the New Year cost taxpayers nearly $160,000, according to documents obtained by the National Post — including just under $14,000 in support costs from the Privy Council Office." Seems like the Liberal government can throw millions of dollars around for everything under the sun with no problem and no questions asked. 35 million for the Pope's visit, 160 thousand for the PM's holiday trip to Jamaica. Everyone else has to pay for their holidays out of their own funds. Then there's the governor generals trips we hear cost hundreds of thousands to take the GG entourages.

Did you agree with taxpayers paying 35 million dollars for the Pope's visit to Canada?

Well, I believe what the Bible says. I plead guilty. If I had been a Bible believer in the Inquisition days, I would have been tortured, burned at the stake, or thrown into prison. That's what happened to Bible believers as they were condemned as heretics by the Papist system. There were thousands upon thousands of victims over at least 400 years. So what side would you have been on in those days?

There is probably some truth in what you say. Mankind has been brutal to each other. That is a fact. But the Romanist system was an autocratic, totalitarian system that people had to struggle to break free from. In some countries like France and Ireland, Papists were in the overwhelming majority and the consequences of that for the Protestants were deadly. "On August 22, 1572, the bloody St. Bartholomew's Day massacre began. This was to be one fatal blow to destroy the Protestant movement in France. In the first three days, over ten thousand Protestant Huegenots were killed. A similar massacre occurred in Ireland in 1641. The conspirators picked October 23, the feast of Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the Jesuit Order. They planned a general uprising for the whole country. All Protestants would be killed at once. ..." 40,000 Protestants were massacred by the Papists. -from the book Smokescreens by Chick Publications and verified in Foxes' Book of Martyrs. You can get some booklets on these things from the website for Chick Publications.

I have my doubts about that. There is far more to it than can be said in one sentence like you said. The story covers centuries and centuries and requires a lot of detail. I can tell you I have been reading some books, and watching videos on youtube, etc over the last 40 years and learning quite a bit although my memory is not very good. For one thing we need to understand how Rome ruled the western world for 1,500 years up to the present, but especially the 1,000 years up to the Reformation in the 1,500s. They started the Holy Roman Inquisition somewhere around 1,200 A.D. and it lasted for at least 400 years and killed thousand upon thousands of heretics. You can download the Kindle book off Amazon "The History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages" written by I believe a Catholic scholar, Henry C. Lea. The Inquisition was a horror story. I am not saying what you claimed is untrue, but I don't know the details or extent of it. I know the Reformation resulted in the Thirty Years war in Europe in the 1600s I believe. I heard a million people mostly in Germany died in that war. The thing is the Romanist system denied freedom of religion and beliefs to everyone for a thousand years at least until the Reformation. Everyone was forced to accept the teachings of Rome and gradually a lot of "heretics" according to Rome's definition evolved in Europe and they needed to be dealt with. The answer was the Inquisition in the about the 12th century. The belief that led to the Reformation was that every person should have the right to believe in God according to the Bible, not by the Church lording it over everyone. The Reformation followers believed the Romanist church was not a true church and that everyone can access God themselves without the Priest or Church acting as the mediator. Actually, the Roman Church denied the common people the right to read the Bible until fairly recent times. They forbade it to be translated in the common languages of the people. When Bibles finally did start to come out around the time of the Reformation, they hunted them down and burned the Bibles they could find. But they could not stamp them out completely. The printing press was invented and Bible printing took off, which really helped change the world. So the Reformation broke the stranglehold that Rome had over the population for a thousand years.

Are you not doing the same thing to me? I prefer civil conversation, but when I made a simple statement that the prayer was not a Christian biblical prayer, you attacked me.

According to the Bible teaching, there is no access to God except through His Son, Jesus Christ. So the prayer is meaningless from a Biblical Christian point of view.

No, I am not cherry picking. Biblical Christianity does not fit into today's more tolerant society if you mean agree with society. But Biblical Christianity is a belief system, not a political system. It is nonsense to try to say it must fit in with society's views on anything. The world is in general an evil system. The Bible gives the answer to that and what an individual must do to be saved. Everyone must choose whom they will follow. You've made your choice.

No, I wasn't. This was a public, national memorial service. Therefore it is reasonable to comment on the fact the prayer was not a Christian prayer in my view. It was a politically-correct prayer and therefore open to comment on, whether you agree or not. Naturally someone who is not Christian is going to see it differently as you do. That's fair too, but you are mistaken in thinking nobody has a right to comment on it.

The Bible does not advocate harassing, persecuting, insulting those who do not believe the Bible and are not Christian. Jesus said to love thy neighbour as thyself. The way I interpret pluralism is it means freedom of religion or no religion. I don't think the Bible is saying not to respect pluralism. You seem to be trying to invent something that is not there. Are you on a continuing crusade to undermine or discredit the Bible? You are failing in that. The Bible does teach Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven and that there is only one God, the God of the Bible. But it does not say to harass or persecute anyone who does not believe it. That is a false claim you are making. Every religion has their beliefs. But Christianity / Bible does not teach to spread its message by force. It only advocates the preaching of the gospel, which is peaceful. That does not deny pluralism. I don't think you understand the difference.

I respect pluralism, the right of the individuals to choose their faith (or not). But that does not mean everyone should lose their freedom of speech and not able to comment on matters of faith. You say you believe in freedom of religion, but not freedom of expression, Strange.

I apologize for saying that. I was probably overheated after some comments you threw at me. Better if we try to keep it civil I admit.

First I apologize for accusing you of devil worship. Shouldn't have talked like that. Please tell us how it is an oversimplification. Do you have a different set of facts? The 1,700 is just a rough figure from the time the Emperor Constantine legalized Christianity in the Roman Empire. The Papal system formed over time. If it wasn't roughly 1,700 years, when did the Roman church actually start in the way we know it now with a Papacy? Prior to about 313 A.D. Christianity was illegal in the Roman Empire and Christians were thrown to the lion's den in Rome if caught. There were no Popes until roughly 200 years after 313 A.D. The Roman Ceasars believed Christianity was a real threat to the rule and power of the Roman Empire. That is why they killed them. When Emperor Constantine had a claimed vision around 313 A.D., he claimed to be converted to Christianity (although many would dispute that claim), he legalized Christianity in the Roman Empire around 315 A.D. - 325 A.D. Then gradually Rome took control of Christianity in the empire and started the Papacy with the first Pope around roughly 500 A.D., about 1,500 years ago. Prior to that there were no Popes as such. The Papal system developed over several centuries and introduced their unbiblical dogmas over the past 1,500 to 1,700 years. - see the book Roman Catholicism by Lorraine Boettner Of course this history of what happened in the last 1,500 or so years is likely not taught or talked about in the public or Catholic school systems. So I am not blaming you for not knowing about it. You were likely never taught the true history. Most people don't know what went on in the past centuries with churches/religion in the western world. Even most evangelical church people don't know. In order to learn those things, one must go out of his way to find the right sources and books to find it. It would be interesting to know exactly what they really do teach young people in the public schools on history, besides sexual orientation and gender identity. I met a Jesuit priest on an internet forum a number of years ago. Part of his job was to go around to bookstores, libraries, etc. and remove or have removed any books or material that shine a poor light on the Papal system. He was a very aggressive character. It was a Christian political forum. I can't find the forum since then. Wonder if he got it shut down.

The memorial service was broadcast on CTV (and probably CBC) and I heard the man myself say the prayer from the podium and took note of the omission. Odd that you would categorize me that way, yet you have claimed to be a Christian in the past.

You absolutely amaze me. I never thought I would run into someone who knew absolutely nothing about the history of the Roman Church or the Papacy. After 1,700 years of false religious dogma such as the worship of idols, the worship of Mary and the Saints, the unbiblical Mass, the unbiblical Priesthood and confession, the sale of indulgences down through the centuries. Not to mention the at least 400 years of the Holy Roman Inquisition where heretics were imprisoned, tortured, and burned at the stake for questioning the Church's teachings and dogmas, most of which are completely contrary to the Bible. Have you not read anything? Guess you never heard of the Reformation when the UK, the Netherlands, part of Germany, and Scandinavia broke away from the yoke of Romanism and formed Protestant churches. Have you never heard what it was all about? How for 1,700 years Rome ruled the western world and intimately controlled everyone's life, extorted their money from them and built the richest institution on earth worth countless billions of dollars in various holdings and real estate around the world. Have you never heard of the history of many past Popes, and clergy and how they indulged in immorality and exploited the people? The Reformation 500 years ago was all about breaking free from the controlling Roman system and a return to the Biblical belief that Christianity is all about a relationship between an individual and God without the Church being the mediator and controlling one's life. It was a revolution and set millions of people free. It led the way toward human rights, democracy and Parliamentary government which we have today. Without the Reformation, there would be none of that because we would all still be slaves of the Papacy.

Western civilization is built on Christian principles already, but liberals are trying to change it. We will move backward if we must worship Mother Earth and consult the spirits of birds or animals to decide on resource projects. Liberals are so screwed up there is not much hope.

Do you not find a problem with the government giving equal weight to indigenous knowledge and science for approval of resource projects? And the fact they say indigenous knowledge is confidential unless the source wants to release it.

Ordinary natives probably have nothing much to do with fighting for native rights. That is done by red power activists and FN activist leaders who demand more and more. But we are talking about indigenous knowledge. Much is made of "knowledge keepers" but little is defined or explained on it. The federal government has bought into it as they do always to placate people for votes.

No, I don't know much about him. Why would I? I am not a Romanist. I am studying a large book about Romanism versus Protestantism. I may look into Thomas Aquinas but it is not really relevant. He was a priest and a monk and supposedly a great thinker or theology philosopher who mixed Aristotle with Christianity. Doesn't sound very Biblical right there. But you can't really blame him. Romanism has not been biblical since it began about 1,700 years ago. It is largely a long list of invented dogmas.

I have been accused of that many times before for defending the Bible and reading it literally. That's fine. I don't care. We know who the accuser of the brethren is. I think you know too. " Yet as we will see today, there is someone who wants nothing more than to get you on a technicality. But there’s good news to all of us. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever and His blood bought us back from the wages of sin. Now death and hell have no sting to those who are in Christ Jesus! " Who is the "Accuser of our Brethren"? | Revelation 12:10 KJV - THE WORD

Not true. I am only telling you what the Bible itself teaches. If you don't want to believe it that's your choice, but it is factually true. Again, a false statement. It's not my message. The Bible says there is only one God and one religion, that is, Christianity as taught in the Bible, (New Testament). You are free to believe it or not. Looks like you don't True Biblical Christianity is opposed to violence and hate. Jesus said to love thy neighbour. So you are not telling the truth. Pope Francis is not a spokesman for Biblical Christianity. He is the leader of Romanism. Romanism rejects the Bible and has invented it's own religion. Most of their teachings were invented in the last 2,000 years long after the Bible was written. Yes, I know there are a lot of natives who are Christians. I said nothing against them. I know they are far better Christians than I am. I have listened to their program on TV from northern Sask. sometimes. I am a fan of them. That is not what we are talking about here.