a John Oliver

@JoshuaBarzon Being that Universal owns the rights to the show, I could totally see this at one of their theme parks...and would definitely eat there!

My wife and I had a crazy business idea. A restaurant franchise called “The Office,” themed after…. the TV show "The Office." Here’s how we would make it happen: • The space would be styled like Dunder Mifflin. You would check in at Pam’s reception desk. • TVs throughout the restaurant would loop episodes of The Office all day. • The staff would be dressed like office workers. • Even the napkins would be printer paper. • All of the tables would be designed like large rectangular office desks, paired with comfortable leather office chairs. • Coffee would be served in World’s Best Boss mugs. • The walls would be covered in quotes from The Office. • Once a week we would host a half-price appetizer trivia night called Dundies Night, with questions entirely based on the show. The menu would include: • Kevin’s Famous Chili • Pretzel Day appetizer • Dwight’s Beet Salad • Michael’s Fettuccine Alfredo • Pizza by Alfredo’s I am half joking, but also not at all. Be honest. Would you come dine at “The Office” if we started this restaurant?

@Nichola24370291 @darwintojesus No, we have clear revelation from God that answers all these things and makes sense of them. The atheist doesn't. That's the point. Just saying it can't be God is not an argument; it's just a weak assertion. We don't say we don't know therefore God.

@darwintojesus So we don't know therefore god did it? Is that the best you got?

If there’s no God it would mean: >Rationality came from the nonrational >Morality came from something amoral >Intelligence came from something unintelligent >Free will comes from something determined >The person comes from the impersonal >Highly complex information systems come from chance >Consciousness comes from something unconscious That requires a level of faith I don’t think is humanly possible.

@DefiantBaptist LDS and Catholicism are very similar on many points. They often speak very favorably of them, in my experience.

After nearly two hours of discussion and debate, mainly centered around the Marian dogmas, Lila Rose finally realized she was overmatched by Gavin Ortlund. So, she opted for a purely emotional and subjective argument: “Have you ever asked God, ‘If it is true, give me the grace to believe it’?” Lila is very fortunate that Gavin was so kind to her here. This sounds like something you’d hear from an LDS elder.

@furious4hope @Jules31415 No, I get that Dan, but Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. God does not change. My point is, He has ordained some pretty harsh things, with no violation to His eternal nature. This is the Bible's teaching not Reformed.

I get it that it’s the way reformed Christians are taught. And unfortunately many think that way, but we’re in a new covenant. The Old Testament is to point us to the greater truth revealed in Christ alone. God is not burning anyone’s house down or causing cancer, etc., for some “greater good.” That is nowhere to be found in life of Jesus. Jesus was the only person to fully reveal the will of his Father on earth. And in that will, was always life, not death. He made it rather clear that death loss and destruction are not anything caused by God. So your argument is with him not me.

Billy Bush tells Spencer Pratt that Tucker Carlson texted him asking, "Can he win?" "I said he absolutely can win," Bush replies, calling Pratt "a unicorn." When asked if he was spiritually motivated to run for LA mayor, Pratt says he's been praying and is "locked in on destiny mode."

@furious4hope @Jules31415 Dan, have you read the Old Testament lately? God ordains a lot of death and destruction. Always for good a glorious reasons, but I think it’s over shooting a bit to say those things are not ordained by God.

Just to be clear, Jesus said it is the thief who kills, steals, and destroys, not God. So death, loss, and destruction, are not God ordained. What God does in his incredible brilliance is take our losses in life and bring something good out of it, if we’ll allow him to use us to do so. This perspective completely aligns with the restorative loving nature and character of God that Jesus fully revealed. Makes perfect sense right? 👍

@aspin3 @RevReads289 Right, that's what I did, Aspin. I know precisely what would happen if I answered those questions (which I already have, repeatedly). You would just say I haven't. It's tedious and unproductive. Sorry, I just don't have the time to continue this endless circle of pointlessness.

That is not true John. You kept talking in circles and not dealing with the scripture I provided. In order to rectify the merry-go-round we were on I broke them into specific numbers with questions/assertions that you would be forced to deal with. It doesnt surprise that it is at this point when you would havee to answer directly that you would want to leave. John, it is not a hard concept. Even a grade 4 student and up would know that if something created something else that they did not come into existence at the same time. The fact that you have fooled yourself into believing that is concerning.

There is a certain comfort in knowing that if I am wrong about Reformed Theology and their view is the correct interpretation of Scripture, God has ordained my errors and being wrong is His will for me.

@aspin3 @RevReads289 Hey, Aspin, I think we're done. You have repeatedly ignored clear answers to your questions and assertions. I even spoke directly to the meaning of saved by/through faith in my last response, and you twisted to mean something completely different than what I wrote. Grace to you.

Two things I have been saying over and over again and you will not address: 1. Yes there is a logical succession AND that logical order as I have provided over and over again which you will not deal with is that we are raised to NEW LIFE THROUGH FAITH. Faith has to be there first. Colossians 2:12 That we have new life so as to believe John 20:31. Again, stating we have new life before we are saved is something other than Christianity. 2. Second piece of this is it cannot be simultaneous and state that one begets or creates the other. It CANNOT be. Period. to beget or create something requires the creator to be there first. This is pretty simple logic John. 3. Scripture DOES NOT ever teach that we have new life that brings on the faith. Again that is something other than Christianity. Notice how you have us being in Christ first and having the Holy Spirit before faith. That goes against the very saved THROUGH faith alone. Again faith has to be there in order to go through it. As for who's faith it is who does the believing...yikes...pretty scary that you have now removed the believeing/faith from the individual. It mocks the word of God. Christ said to the apostles. YE of little faith...he rebuked them for their lack of faith. He never said...sorry guys, never gave you enough faith. To the bleeding woman Christ said that it was a result of her faith in him that she was healed. To the centurion he said he had not seen faith that great in all of Israel. he did not say I did not give faith that great in all of Israel. Finally it says God credited Abraham's faith to him (Abraham) as righteousness.

@aspin3 @RevReads289 4. Thus, when the Bible says we are saved by faith, it doesn't mean because of our faith, but BY faith, a faith that comes with the new life from God's gracious Spirit. It is a singular event. New life, faith, born again, new creation, all are one and in Christ.

@aspin3 @RevReads289 3. I think the issue is, you believe faith is something that "flips the switch" as it were on God's grace and turns on the faucet of His kindness to the one believing. I believe Scripture teaches that the new life God freely gives brings the faith.

@CherylSchatz @iamrjknight Uh, don’t forget the sell all of your possessions part. He was tapping in on the first and greatest command to have no other gods and to love God supremely. It says he went away because he had great wealth. Religious people often mask their rebellion. He uncovered it.

We have all sinned, but that does not mean every person is in "total depravity". When Jesus spoke to the rich young ruler, He did not dispute the young man’s testimony that he had kept the commandments dealing with human relationships from his youth. Jesus specifically listed commandments related to how we treat others, and the young man said he had kept them. Jesus did not begin listing the commandments concerning wholehearted love and devotion toward God. Instead, He told the young man that he lacked ONE thing. That one thing was a true relationship with God. That is why Jesus said to him, “Come, follow Me.”

Every effort to tone down total depravity only proves the very doctrine being denied. The heart of man does not want to be exposed. It wants to soften the charge, reduce the guilt, protect some imagined goodness, and leave room for boasting. Scripture gives no such room. “The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9). That is not a light wound. That is a diagnosis from God Himself. Man’s problem is not merely bad habits, poor choices, or weak discipline. His problem is a corrupt heart before a holy God. This is why the Bible says, “There is none righteous, not even one; there is none who understands, there is none who seeks for God” (Romans 3:10-11). Fallen man is not spiritually sick and waiting to be helped. He is dead in sin and in need of resurrection grace. “And you were dead in your trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1). So when men try to make depravity less offensive, they are not defending human dignity. They are defending human pride. The truth is painful because it strips us bare. But only when man is shown as truly ruined does grace appear as truly glorious. Christ did not come to assist the morally wounded. He came to save the dead, cleanse the guilty, and give a new heart to those who could never change themselves. “Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you” (Ezekiel 36:26).

@aspin3 @RevReads289 Aspin, this is getting tedious. We both keep saying the same thing. You don’t need to “something there ahead of time” if both things happen simultaneously. I don’t know any clearer way of saying it. There is no lack of logic or contradiction in that statement.

You keep contradicting yourself. You said simultaneously and synonymous yet you say new life creates faith. Ypu need something there ahead of time in order for it to create something John. You know better than that. You cannot maintain any form of logic and still cannot address the scripture I provided

@furious4hope @RevReads289 “Whoa, had no choice!? You didn’t make the choice? It was thrust upon you? Someone moved your hands to do these wicked things? Bailiff, take him away….” That’s how the judge would rightly respond. Why is it you nullify the volition God gave to His creatures?

@RevReads289 lol, good one. I wonder if that has been used in court? “Hey Judge, it was all part of God’s plan for me to rape and kill those children, he ordained it all, I had no choice in the matter, he will go predetermining before I was ever born, therefore I’m innocent! Blame God!”

@aspin3 @RevReads289 No, Aspin, believing and being born again are synonymous, they happen simultaneously. When we are born again we believe, when we believe we are born again. Belief is not mere assent, it is a heart change a submission to, and that requires a new nature, a new creation.

Yes faith does bring us into the kingdom of God at which time we see life. Born again=saved....and yes we cannot see or enter the kingdom of God unless we are saves. Born again is not a pre-regeneratiin before faiths and salvation. We are born again, a new creation, a new creature, saved when we believe. Again you contradict the clear teaching of scripture that days believe so as to have new life, and we are raised to new life through faith.

@aspin3 @RevReads289 Aspin, I’m must not be explaining my position well, because I haven’t changed at all. I stated multiple times that all of these things a simultaneous. That all of these things are different words for the same moment when life enter us, making us born again, new creations, etc.

Btw, which is it John? You spent many posts saying it is the same time until I show you what you said earlier that you stated new life creates faith in order to be saved. The whole time you agreeing we dont have new life before we are in Christ you just flushed down the toilet

@Duke456521 @RevReads289 Right, I know. And I'm never going for agreement, just better understanding of each other's position. I recognize that there are somethings we'll never agree on until we are in glory. Then we'll all have perfect doctrine!

@Johnno366 @RevReads289 We argue the gospel is always able to save by convincing man to believe. Some choose not to even if they are able. But you'll never agree with Shawn on anything else as long as you disagree with him on faith and election.

This is important to remember. God loves those that we are unwilling to love with the Gospel.

@Duke456521 @RevReads289 Feel the same about you, Duke! Yes, I'm convinced that a right heart conviction about Christ and therefore trust in Him, i.e. faith, is a gift, completely undeserved and thus a sign of new life.

@Johnno366 @RevReads289 Always a pleasure John! I appreciate you as one of the more solid and polite people on here. I can agree with most of what you said. The issue seems to be that you have election to receive faith as opposed to election to receive grace. Do you perceive faith as a grace?

@Duke456521 @RevReads289 Hey, Duke! Long time no chat! I hope you're doing well. Yes, I do believe that God elects those whom He will save. I don't believe anyone would have saving faith apart from God's grace giving it to them.

@Johnno366 @RevReads289 All of your comments assume God elects who will and will not believe. Maybe even going as far as who will hear the gospel. God elects (chooses) to save all believers. How can anyone believe the gospel when the gospel is not preached?

@aspin3 @RevReads289 Yes, Aspin, I do think Scripture teaches that life creates faith. In that famous talk with Nicodemus, notice that Jesus say you can't see or enter the kingdom of God before being born again. Would you not say that faith is what brings us into the kingdom of God?

@Johnno366 @RevReads289 See your comment below. This is WRONG. That is what I am saying. Scripture says NO NEW LIFE before in Christ. We BELEIVE SO AS TO HAVE NEW LIFE. That is what I am saying. you have it backwards.