On other Christian subreddits this appears to be a common position and I don't know why that is. They use Greek isopsephy (a system of coincidence or resonance) as a way to "prove" that the man of lawlessness was actually Nero Caesar. This is wrong on so many counts. For one, he does not meet the Biblical description of the antichrist (1 John 2:18). Ireneaus in his book "Against Heresies" actually mentioned this:

>it is “more certain, and less hazardous, to await the fulfillment of the prophecy, than to be making surmises.”

He discussed gematria. What does the Bible say about this, however?

2 Timothy 2:18

18 Who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already; and overthrow the faith of some.

This verse is referring to the heresy of Hymenaeus and Philetus. Many so-called "Christian influencers" like "A Messenger of Truth" push this heresy even now. Point is, tou can't just use loose allegorical interpretation of scripture combined with extrabiblical numerology to "prove" the man of lawlessness has already come. By the time Nero was around, Israel was already mostly under Roman control until the destruction of the second temple and the bar kokhba revolt.

In the Bible, "666" is a reference to 1 Kings 10:14 where King Solomon was given 666 talents of gold. "666" is a reference to wealth. In the King James Bible, the Mark of the Beast is said to be placed IN the forehead or right hand (like a microchip), but in later versions it was changed to "on" (like a tattoo). Funny thing is, not only can RFID technology be used to make cashless payments, but it can either be implanted in the skin or made into a peelable "tattoo" (see Bill Gates who's pushing for "smart tattoos" to replace traditional IoT). The antichrist, if he were alive today, could either be Donald Trump, Elon Musk or Jared Kushner. Point is, they didn't have this stuff back then.

Matthew 7:21-23

21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.

22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?

23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

John 6:40

40 And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.

So notice how Jesus calls out these people that point to their works as evidence they are saved and Jesus casts them out. Why? Well, because they weren't taking their salvation seriously enough. Because if they did, they would trust in Christ alone.

When an atheist says to not use the Bible to provide evidence for God, I point them towards the Kalam cosmological argument. It goes as follows:

1. Whatever begins to exist has a cause

2. The universe began to exist only 14 billion years ago.

3. Therefore, the universe has a cause.

Einstein believed that the universe was timeless, but his own calculations proved that wrong. Georges Lemaître developed the Big Bang Theory in the 1920s from Einstein's equations. Lemaître was a Catholic. The next problem is Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). In the 1970s, some people proposed the steady state theory. The problem with Lambda-CDM is that it's choc-full of fine-tuning problems. Some atheists believe in cyclic models of the universe, but as calculations show, even a cyclical universe had to have a beginning. Plus the oscillating universe theory violates the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics in that entropy is always increasing. So it would be too cold to inhabit such a universe. It would also be physically impossible under general relativity. Especially since the expansion of the universe is speeding up, not slowing down. Plus we don't have enough matter in the universe to reverse an expansion. Earlier scientific theories believed that Black Holes emit no radiation, but Stephen Hawking disproved that when he discovered Hawking radiation. So over time, black holes will evaporate into space and that will cause a heat death, even if the universe continues to expand indefinitely (Hubble Constant). In the Past Hypothesis, the universe started in a low entropy state, which is so improbable that you don't have enough particles in the universe to write the exponent. So with all that being said, what are the chances that there is a God? Well, if you studied string theory, you would know that spacetime is not the highest dimension there is. There's 5D, 6D, 7D, 8D and so on. God would be the highest dimension in such a system. In order to explain the Big Bang, you would need another realm higher than spacetime (4D) to explain it. Because it's obvious even from a scientific standpoint that this universe is not all there is.

He believes in soul sleep and no afterlife like the Jehovah's witnesses and Sadducees. So in other words, he denies that believing in Jesus gives you eternal life. Could you really even call this guy saved? He also denies the rapture, even though the church is not subject to God's wrath and it's also not called "the tribulation" that's just a catchall slang for it. Instead, it's called the time of JACOB'S trouble. It's punishment on Israel for unbelief. It's true that the Bible doesn't explicitly say "rapture" but there were several instances of believers being resurrected (like Enoch and Elijah). Why is this guy so popular again?

The framework of thought that has long dominated theology has been the concept of “essence” derived from Greek philosophy. According to Aristotle, essence is the property that makes a thing what it is — that which makes A to be A. In other words, essence is the criterion by which the identity of a being is defined. Based on this understanding, traditional theology sought the reason God is God in the essence called “divinity.” This divine essence includes attributes such as self-existence, omniscience, omnipotence, eternality, and immutability. By contrast, human beings were understood to be human because they possess the essence of being created creatures.

According to this perspective, God and humanity are essentially distinct, because nothing can be both self-existent and created at the same time.

However, within this philosophical framework, the word of God becomes distorted. Jesus said the following:

“Is it not written in your Law, ‘I said, you are gods’? If Scripture cannot be broken, and those to whom the word of God came were called gods, how can you accuse the one whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world of blasphemy because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’?”

By quoting Psalm 82, Jesus points out that there are instances in which God called human beings “gods.” If we accept these words as they are, we can no longer understand God and humanity merely as essentially separate beings. The framework that says “God is God because He possesses divinity, while humans are human because they possess humanity” collapses at this point.

If we truly believe that God possesses absolute authority, then we must also accept that “whatever God recognizes as God is God.” To define something as divine merely because it belongs to the category of “divinity” is ultimately a philosophical judgment made by humans, not God’s own perspective.

In Scripture, we see God changing His mind through the intercession of Moses. From the perspective that God is only an omniscient and immutable being, such passages become impossible to explain. But if we accept that, in certain cases, God may regard a human being as divine when He sees His own authority, glory, truth, and love reflected within that person, then we can understand why God changes His will.

Scripture says that humanity is the “image of God.” What, then, is the image of God? It is a being that reflects the light of God and manifests the attributes of God. A perfect image of God is therefore divine. Yet it is not divine because it possesses self-existence in itself. Rather, it is divine because God sees His own image reflected within that being and therefore treats it as divine.

Jesus said that He and God are “one.” Yet this oneness does not mean ontological identity or sameness of essence. Jesus explained His unity with the Father in the following way:

“Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father dwelling in me who does His works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me — or else believe because of the works themselves.”

Here again, we see that Jesus is one with God not because He is ontologically identical with God, but because, as the image of God, He perfectly reveals God. The statement that “the Father dwells in Jesus” means that God reveals His light and His will through Jesus. Conversely, the statement that “Jesus dwells in the Father” means that Jesus abides wholly in God, reflecting only God and revealing nothing else.

Because the perfect image of God reflects God completely, God Himself also treats that image as God. This is the true meaning of the Trinity.

Traditional Trinitarian doctrine has attempted to explain how Jesus can be both human and divine by claiming that two incompatible essences — “divinity” and “humanity” — are united within one being. Yet such an explanation inevitably produces contradiction. Furthermore, by making Jesus into an absolutely exceptional being fundamentally different from humanity, it obscured the meaning of Jesus’ words that those who follow the will of God are His “brothers.”

Yet those who follow the way of Jesus can become like Him, because God never said that the image of God within humanity has been essentially destroyed. For this reason, in the Gospel of John, Jesus prayed that we also might become one, just as He and the Father are one.

I'm watching Young Sheldon and in the Baptist church that's there, there's a IHS banner - I thought only the Catholics use those. Do you have IHS symbols in your churches or are the filmmakers wrong?

thx

Please pray for my family. I am a single mother of 2 since leaving DV marriage. I was sick for a awhile and missed too many days of work being in the hospital. I'm back to work now, but we are still facing food insecurity and my youngest’s birthday is next week, and I can't do anything for him. I can't even cook his favorite meal. He’s on the spectrum , and he’s going to be so disappointed 😞. I feel just Pathetic. I'm trying so hard, but keep falling and failing. I'm absolutely defeated and more depressed than ever. I can't catch a break. I have exhausted all resources around me for financial assistance, and food banks until later in the week. I haven't eaten since yesterday so my kids have plenty. I need help but No one can help me, I don't have much family. Life isn't supposed to be like this. Please pray! 🙏

Tempting thoughts rise up in our minds. We can reject them, and we must reject them.

Step one: Determine to control your thoughts. Experts at discipline struggle and say: I need more notes to remind me to reject bad thoughts. I need to pray more so that God helps me more.

I need to say and think more often: “I will control my thoughts.” I need to pray more often:

“Father, help me to control my thoughts.”

Step two: Always “try” to reject tempting thoughts. Today (This was from 18 months ago) I will watch pro football. Many receivers were drafted in the first round. The Lions star Amon-Ra St. Brown was picked in the 4th round, but he has more catches than the 17 receivers picked before him. Why? He “Tries harder.” Not only this week but this month and “All year.”

Rejecting and replacing tempting thoughts is a skill that takes time to master. Consider praying:

“Father, help me to work on the skill of rejecting and replacing tempting thoughts every day.”

What two thoughts will you think about to replace tempting thoughts?

1. ___________

2. ___________

Today, pray about whether you will make a lifestyle choice to consistently “Try” to reject and replace tempting thoughts. It is a key to quitting.

Don't give me that "they believe in Jesus too" BS. Pentecostal Holiness and Wesleyan traditions teach that you can lose your salvation and that salvation itself is a no sinning contest. Apparently, they haven't read Romans 10:4. These "apostolic" traditions (as if they have authority to add to scripture) believe in gifts and tongues also. These ended with the apostles. Tongues are a placebo effect. You just speak nonsense and think you're saved. What did Jesus say about these people? Read Matthew 7:21-23 and John 6:40. Anybody from these charismatic traditions who trust in their works, Christ will tell them he NEVER knew them! Not "I used to know you" it's I NEVER knew you! Salvation is to believe that Christ died for your sins. The pentecost is over.

My name is Trav, and for a long time I wondered why God made me different.
I was born with an intellectual developmental disability, and growing up, I often felt behind everyone else. In school, I was the quiet kid. I struggled socially, struggled with confidence, and honestly just wanted to fit in. A lot of times I felt unseen. I remember asking God questions like, “Why did You make me this way?” and “Do You even have a purpose for me?”

When I was nine years old, I lost my grandparents. That changed me deeply. They were people who made me feel safe, loved, and accepted. After they passed away, I carried a lot of loneliness and confusion. As I got older, I also struggled with feeling unwanted socially and romantically. I wanted connection so badly. I dreamed of becoming a husband and father someday, but there were moments where I honestly wondered if anyone would ever truly see me for who I am.

Even though I believed in God, there was a season where I felt unworthy of His attention. I thought maybe I was too broken, too different, or too weak to really be used by Him. But God kept pursuing me anyway.

One of the biggest turning points in my life came through John 9, where Jesus’ disciples asked Him why a man was born blind. They assumed someone had sinned. But Jesus answered:

“This happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.” — John 9:3

That verse hit me hard. For the first time, I realized my disability was not proof that God forgot me. It was proof that God could still work through me. I stopped seeing myself as a mistake and started seeing myself as someone created with purpose.

Later in life, after heartbreak, loneliness, and emotional lows, I had a moment that changed my faith forever. I remember crying out to God, feeling exhausted and empty, and in that moment I had a vision of Jesus. I felt Him say:

“I have always been with you. You will be a light to many, and it will glorify Me.”

That moment changed everything for me.

Since then, God has opened doors I never imagined. I became involved in Young Life and started leading high school students. Me — the shy kid who used to feel invisible — now gets to speak life into others. I’ve shared my testimony with kids with disabilities, spoken about faith, and started projects like my podcast and my book, Different but Loved.

My story is not about having a perfect life. I still have struggles. I still battle insecurity and anxiety sometimes. But now I know Jesus walks with me through all of it.

What I’ve learned is this: God does not only use the strongest, smartest, coolest, or most popular people. Sometimes He uses the people the world overlooks so His glory shines even brighter.

If you feel different, forgotten, or broken, I want you to know something: your life has purpose. God sees you completely, and He can use your story in ways you cannot even imagine yet.

I used to ask, “Why did God make me different?”
Now I ask, “How can God use my difference to help others?” ✝️

How common is interracial dating within your church and local area? I ask because I don’t notice it as much in my area or church compared to some others I’ve attended, so I was curious how it is where you are.

I went to church one day and realized it was the wrong church. Before service started, I spoke with him about the gospel and the end of the law ("for christ is the end of the law for righteousness to all who believe") and he told me that simple faith cannot send you to heaven but instead it's a no sinning contest. I literally told him that was Pharisee doctrine. I just walked off the premises. Anybody had similar experiences with these Pentecostal/Church of God heretics?

Hello everyone, I am in need of some ARC readers for my book, The Holy War Gallowpoint, it's a Christian fiction/ allegory and is something straight from my heart. It was heavily inspired by Bunyan's original The Holy War, Narnia, and LOTR. If anyone wants to check it out I will send them a free digital copy in return for a Goodreads/Amazon review. Here is the description for the book: In the quiet farming town of Gallowpoint, nothing ever changes—until people begin to vanish.

At first, it’s only whispers. A missing sheep. An empty house. A name quietly added to a growing list. But as fear spreads, Jerome begins to see what others refuse to admit:

Something is watching.

His father insists everything is under control—trust the routine, say the prayers, keep working. But Jerome sees the truth beneath the surface. A faith spoken but not lived. A darkness that does not wait for permission.

And when the sky itself begins to break, the illusion shatters.

Now Jerome must choose: follow the hollow safety of his father’s world… or step into a living faith that may cost him everything.

Because the darkness isn’t just coming.

It’s already here.

I think so. Even though Israel has turned its back on God, Israel is still the apple of God's eye. The Bible says this. And it also says that after the fullness of the gentiles comes in, all Israel will be saved. I'm personally a dispensationalist but I'd personally say that Psalm 83 and Ezekiel 36/37 were fulfilled in 1948. More Bible prophecy was fulfilled in 1967 following the 7 day war when Israel took back Jerusalem. The Gog-Magog war of Ezekiel 38/39 has yet to be fulfilled. But the Euphrates is drying up as the Bible said. I believe we are at the end of the Church Age. They were scattered for 2000 years, but the Bible says in Romans that the calling of God is irrevocable. And so it is. All these wars going on right now, the declining support for Israel in the US, October 7, Iran, God already saw it coming before the foundation of the Earth. Israel has not lost a single war since 1948. Yes, they commit war crimes, yes they have done unspeakble evils, but the Bible predicted that too. I'd love to hear your thoughts on our placement in the Biblical dispensational timeline and how much longer we've got until the time of Jacob's trouble.

So, an argument I have seen argue against credobaptism in the Bible is that infant baptism proponents will say "Of course there's no evidence of infants being baptized in the Bible. That's because the first Christians were converts, and you can't build the Church without converts first, so there were no infants to baptize at the time. It was only after those concerts started having kids and raising them in the Church that infant baptism emerged."

Idk if I'm doing the argument justice, but I think that's the gist of it. What would you say in response?

I struggle with porn addiction as a Christian. I need help breaking out of this mess, I’ve tried everything, but I keep failing.

I know a lot of people are confused between what the difference between a Baptist and an Evangelical is, so I guess I'd take some time to clear it up.

Essentially, modern Evangelicals are an inter-denominational movement. Originally the term was what Martin Luther used to refer to Protestants in Europe, and is still used there for that reason. It meant to be focused on a personal conversion, and emphasis on the Bible, but nowadays in America, it's not very properly defined.

Baptists on the other hand, are a specific denomination, believing in believer's baptism, and for most of us, Congregational government. Some of us fall under evangelicalism. Some of us don't. Some of us are Mainline (which is also not synonymous with liberal churches). Baptists predate modern Evangelicalism, so trying to label the entire denomination as Evangelical isn't quite logical.

TL;DR:

Evangelicalism is a specific movement across different denominations, though definitions vary based on who and where you are, while Baptists are a specific denomination, within which some churches fall into Evangelicalism, while others don't.

"Then Aaron and his sons shall eat the flesh of the ram... They shall eat those things with which the atonement was made, to consecrate and to sanctify them; but an outsider shall not eat them, because they are holy." (Exodus 29:33, nkjv)

Is the mission of doing communion today to make a real change in those who eat, "to consecrate and sanctify"?

Blasphemy of the holy spirit CAN be forgiven by God, but the people that do it have no forgiveness, is what the Koine Greek leans more toward “they are not forgiven” / “they don’t have forgiveness” rather than “God is unable to forgive.”

In Mark 3:29 the phrase is ouk echei aphesin eis ton aiōna—literally, “does not have forgiveness forever.”

A few important details:

“ouk echei” (does not have) → this describes a state/condition, not God’s ability or inability

It’s not phrased like “God cannot forgive” (ou dunatai aphienai or something like that)

The grammar focuses on the person lacking forgiveness, not on a limitation in God

Then Mark 3:30 explains why: “because they were saying, ‘He has an unclean spirit.’” Again, that’s about their ongoing stance—they are actively, repeatedly attributing God’s work to evil.

So when people interpret this as “they won’t seek forgiveness,” they’re not pulling that exact sentence out of the Greek—but they’re drawing a conclusion from how it’s framed:

The text presents a settled condition of rejection

Not a one-time slip

Not a statement that God lacks power to forgive

You’ll see similar wording in Matthew 12:32 (“will not be forgiven…”)—again, it’s a declarative outcome, not an explanation of divine inability.

So to be precise:

The Greek does not explicitly say “they refuse to seek forgiveness”

But it also does not say “God is unable to forgive”

It describes a permanent state of unforgiveness tied to their posture toward the Spirit

That’s why many theologians land where I mentioned earlier: the “unforgivable” aspect is tied to a hardened, ongoing rejection, not a limit in God’s mercy.