What Counts For Spiritual Abuse?

[_Nightlion]

Indeed. So the question has to be: Do you KNOW you are his? And how do you know it.

Indeed, yes it is something I do know.

1 Peter 1:3-5

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who in his great mercy gave us a new birth to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you who by the power of God are safeguarded through faith, to a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the final time.

In short, I have faith in Jesus Christ, have been baptized, and in Him is my Salvation.

But that was not my point. The Lord knows who are his, it is not our job to gaze at others with condemnation, but with love, kindness and joy at what God has done for *them* as well as ourselves. It is not for us to judge who belongs to God and who does not, but live our lives in belief, that we are His.

Did you read 2 Timothy 2?

Peace.

An apostle has a responsibility to bring people unto Christ. For me in my work this means get them to where they are visited of the promise and power of the Father after their wholehearted repentance in the depths of humility where it is all they can do to subject their will to the will of the Father by faith in Jesus Christ and this counts for taking upon yourself the name of Christ, when done without hypocrisy the Lord will answer as he has with all saints with the baptism of fire and of the Holy Ghost which is your conception/birth as a child of Christ at which all three of the Godhead participate just as they did when you first came into existence before the foundation of the world.

Mormons repudiate this event
Evangelicals repudiate this event
Catholics repudiate this event

So you can imagine how tuff it is for me to advocate what all pride must despise.

And yes it is for me to judge. Like it or not. I have the burden to discern the lack of this event and see to its advocacy at all hazards, which militates against pretense and pushes me towards being counted for the offscouring of the world. Such is my burden.

I do not have the luxury of a comfy unaccountable distance from which to only be nice.

[_madeleine]

Well, you are wrong, about most things, but I have no doubt that you belong to God.

[_ludwigm]

The Lord knows those who are his.

Crusades-Encyclopedia - Arnaud Amaury
The Abbot Arnaud Amaury, head of the Cistercian Order, is most notable for the possibly spurious statement attributed to him during the battle at Beziers, the first and bloodiest combat of the Albigensian Crusade. He reportedly told confused crusaders who could not distinguish between Catholics and Albigensians [Cathars] to "Kill them all. God will know his own." (Caedite eos! Novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius)

In August 1209 the crusaders captured the small village of Servian and headed for Béziers, arriving on July 21. Under the command of the Papal Legate Arnaud Amaury they started to invest the city, called the Catholics within to come out, and demanded that the Cathars surrender. Both groups refused. The city fell the following day when an abortive sortie was pursued back through the open gates. The entire population was slaughtered and the city burned to the ground. Contemporary sources give estimates of the number of dead ranging between fifteen and twenty thousand. The latter figure appears in Arnaud-Amaury's report to the Pope.

Have a good'n!

[_madeleine]

The Lord knows those who are his.

Crusades-Encyclopedia - Arnaud Amaury
The Abbot Arnaud Amaury, head of the Cistercian Order, is most notable for the possibly spurious statement attributed to him during the battle at Beziers, the first and bloodiest combat of the Albigensian Crusade. He reportedly told confused crusaders who could not distinguish between Catholics and Albigensians [Cathars] to "Kill them all. God will know his own." (Caedite eos! Novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius)

In August 1209 the crusaders captured the small village of Servian and headed for Béziers, arriving on July 21. Under the command of the Papal Legate Arnaud Amaury they started to invest the city, called the Catholics within to come out, and demanded that the Cathars surrender. Both groups refused. The city fell the following day when an abortive sortie was pursued back through the open gates. The entire population was slaughtered and the city burned to the ground. Contemporary sources give estimates of the number of dead ranging between fifteen and twenty thousand. The latter figure appears in Arnaud-Amaury's report to the Pope.

Have a good'n!

No one expects the Spanish Inquisition.

I can't say, as a former atheist, that pointing out Catholics who have put themselves at the center rather than God makes much of a point for me. Especially when it is an atheist is who is doing the pointing. Sad irony is what I see.

An atheist (moi) finds faith and now seeks to put God at the center of her life. The Catholic Church is no different. All sin and fall short. The Good News is, Jesus Christ. We return, wounded, to Him. The Church being His, as our head, with us as the Body of Christ. Like Christ, fully human and fully divine. Unlike Christ, who showed us perfection, the Way to God and never fell short. We fall short, sometimes, extremely so. We hold no idea that the human aspect of Christ's Church is as perfect as Christ Himself. That is a Mormon idea, and a secular idea of what it means to be human while seeking to be a disciple of Christ. Somehow, we either must become super human, and never fell, or we've become less human, and must always fail.

I couldn't resist the "Have a Good'n", it is actually an annoyance to me when a store clerk tells me "Have a good'n". So yeah, I was doing my own little private joke of annoyance. I'm glad you gave it back.

Beyond that, you seem to be implying that I'm playing conquistador with Nightlion. I have no belief that says God is not working in his life. I can only speak from my own experience, which is, God is working in everyone's life. The Holy Spirit searches the hearts of all, and calls to them. I cannot judge whether or not God has chosen someone for a particular reason or not. That is what I mean by, "God knows who is his."

I take exception with Nightlion's claims that he judges who belongs to God and who does not. That seems to be the center of everything he says, which, for me sends up red flags and sets off warning bells. False prophets and layers of lies. MCB notices now and then my PTSD in regards to religion, which is fitting for a thread titled "Spiritual Abuse". I don't doubt that Nightlion is sincere, but from my POV, he is using the wrong decoder. There is nothing more spiritually abusive in this world than to say, "God does not love you". I don't care who is saying it or why.

I'm a simple Catholic, really. Gratitude, is my main orientation towards God. I guess you could say that Nightlion must first claim that God has failed, which is counter to the gratitude that is due to Him. The Mormon paradigm requires the failure of God, so it doesn't surprise me when individual Mormons go all firing-up-my-own-church.

That's it. I'll leave Nightlion to God.

[_Nightlion]

I don't doubt that Nightlion is sincere, but from my POV, he is using the wrong decoder. There is nothing more spiritually abusive in this world than to say, "God does not love you". I don't care who is saying it or why.

I'm a simple Catholic, really. Gratitude, is my main orientation towards God. I guess you could say that Nightlion must first claim that God has failed, which is counter to the gratitude that is due to Him. The Mormon paradigm requires the failure of God, so it doesn't surprise me when individual Mormons go all firing-up-my-own-church.

That's it. I'll leave Nightlion to God.

How can you conclude that I say God does not love you. I am his servant and here I am striving to teach you the way. That's a lot of love. Interesting comment about God has failed. How so? You hold that by living God owes you salvation? If you are not saved then it is God who has failed? Is this your notion?

When I say, as I often do, that none please God and all have gone astray, all are lifted up in the pride of their own estimation of themselves, I am not saying God does not love you. I am saying you do not love God enough to get humble and meek and contrite and seek his kingdom at all hazards and accept every cost to enter the depths of humility which is the ONLY place salvation can occur.

Do educated people just assume that they qualify for God's grace.....how does that figure. Salvation is God changing us from our vile natural self to a new creature. That is an act of creation. Only God CAN do that.
No church can do that, world's without end.

Which WAY (church, teacher, what have you) teaches people to encounter God upon God's commanded terms to get this new creation precisely as Jesus commanded the Jews right before he left them alone?

??????

??????

??????

That's right, I am the ONLY voice on the planet saying this. So you got me and the scriptures that agree. Nobody else wants it this way. Why is that. Because they stink at it. They do not know how to get close. They have probably thought about and thought themselves into a fog or relativistic BS which they manage to count for the same thing. These seem to be able to get others to go along with their BS and people are much relieved.

I am not in the business of seeing to it that the people feel relief from their spiritual anxiety.

You say I am wrong all the time. Okay, show me I am wrong with this?

This is the gospel of Acts Chapter One:
The minister (Christ in this instance) bears down upon the people bringing them into the depths of humility because of their faith in Jesus Christ wanting to partake of his gospel. The promised transformation.
Then the people "stay" in that depths of humility posture before the Lord for as long as it takes the Lord to finally answer with his power and the baptism of fire and of the Holy Ghost event comes upon them.
They become the children of God. They are brought by ordinance into the kingdom of God.
They have been added upon with many gifts that excel what they were moments before.
If they continue to remain alive in Christ and endure to the end they can count back that they were saved at this very moment. They would not have to live another second or prove another thing to God. Their names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life.

People who do love God might think getting their name written in the Lamb's Book of Life worth a shot.

If you would like to read through a more precise and deliberate telling of this procedure read Mosiah 2-5 in the Book of Mormon.

[_ludwigm]

No one expects the Spanish Inquisition.

I am a fan of Monty Python.

Sad irony is what I see.

The only thing can help us in our mad world.

"Have a good'n". So yeah, I was doing my own little private joke of annoyance. I'm glad you gave it back. .

We should look for some cousinhood.
Familysearch may help.

I am sorry for graphic of naked breasts. That is a caricature only.
(FYI And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. Aprons. Nothing was said about bra...)


During Olympic, our innocent young children can watch real ones.
... censored ...
see "Shocked NBC viewers watch as Olympic water polo player's breast is exposed underwater" (our world is not only mad, it is hypocrite)