Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
DebateIsland.com is the largest online debate website globally where anyone can anonymously and easily debate online, casually or formally, while connecting with their friends and others. Users, regardless of debating skill level, can civilly debate just about anything online in a text-based online debate website that supports five easy-to-use and fun debating formats ranging from Casual, to Formalish, to Lincoln-Douglas Formal. In addition, people can improve their debating skills with the help of revolutionary artificial intelligence-powered technology on our debate website. DebateIsland is totally free and provides the best online debate experience of any debate website.
Debra AI Prediction
Post Argument Now Debate Details +
Arguments
The USSR anti-religious campaign of 1928–1941 was a new phase of anti-religious persecution in the Soviet Union following the anti-religious campaign of 1921–1928. The campaign began in 1929, with the drafting of new legislation that severely prohibited religious activities and called for a heightened attack on religion in order to further disseminate atheism. This had been preceded in 1928 at the fifteenth party congress, where Joseph Stalin criticized the party for failure to produce more active and persuasive anti-religious propaganda. This new phase coincided with the beginning of the forced mass collectivization of agriculture and the nationalization of the few remaining private enterprises.
Many of those who had been arrested in the 1920s would continue to remain in prison throughout the 1930s and beyond.
The main target of the anti-religious campaign in the 1920s and 1930s was the Russian Orthodox Church, which had the largest number of faithful. Nearly all of its clergy, and many of its believers, were shot or sent to labour camps. Theological schools were closed, and church publications were prohibited.[1] More than 85,000 Orthodox priests were shot in 1937 alone.[2] Only a twelfth of the Russian Orthodox Church's priests were left functioning in their parishes by 1941.[3]
In the period between 1927 and 1940, the number of Orthodox Churches in the Russian Republic fell from 29,584 to less than 500.[4]
The campaign slowed down in the late 1930s and early 1940s, and came to an abrupt end after the commencement of Operation Barbarossa.[1] The challenge produced by the German invasion would ultimately prevent the public withering away of religion in Soviet society.[5]
This campaign, like the campaigns of other periods that formed the basis of the USSR's efforts to eliminate religion and replace it with atheism supported with a materialist world view,[6] was accompanied with official claims that there was no religious persecution in the USSR, and that believers who were being targeted were for other reasons. Believers were in fact being widely targeted and persecuted for their belief or promotion of religion, as part of the state's campaign to disseminate atheism, but officially the state claimed that no such persecution existed and that the people being targeted - when they admitted that people were being targeted - were only being attacked for resistance to the state or breaking the law.[7] This guise served Soviet propaganda abroad, where it tried to promote a better image of itself especially in light of the great criticism against it from foreign religious influences.
In 1928 the Soviet People's Commissar for Education, Anatoly Lunacharsky, pressured by leftist Marxists, agreed to an entirely anti-religious education system from the first grade up, however, he still warned against a general expulsion of teachers with religious beliefs due to the shortage of atheist teachers.[citation needed] In 1929 an Agitprop conference resolved to intensify anti-religious work throughout the education system. This led to the setting-up of anti-religious sections at all research and higher-education teaching institutions. A special anti-religious faculty was instituted at the Institute of Red Professors in 1929.
A campaign was led[by whom?] against schoolteachers of the old intelligentsia who were asserted to be working against the system and were even allowing priests to spiritually influence schoolchildren. Teachers accused of such could be fired, and in most cases the Soviet authorities imprisoned or exiled them.
The antireligious press identified by name believers among the ranks of top Soviet scholars. This labeling led to the 1929–1930 purge of the Russian Academy of Sciences, in which up to 100 scholars, their assistants and graduate students were arrested on forged charges and given sentences that ranged from three years of internal exile to the death penalty.[8][need quotation to verify] Most of them subsequently perished in camps or in prison. One of the aims of this purge was to take away the church's intellectuals and to assist the propaganda that only backward people believed in God.[9]
In one instance the famous Soviet historian Sergei Platonov was asked why he appointed a Jew named Kaplan to the directorship of the Pushkin House, and he replied saying that Kaplan was not a Jew but an Orthodox Christian; on this basis Kaplan was sent to a concentration camp for five years.[10]
The Central Committee called off "administrative measures" against religion from 1930 to 1931, which weakened the anti-religious educational work, but another resolution in September 1931 re-instituted active anti-religious education.
Most of the bishops arrested between 1928–1932 were arrested for reasons surrounding opposition to Metropolitan Sergius and his notorious declaration of loyalty. The state did officially maintain the line that church and state were separate in the Soviet Union during this time, despite the many arrests of people for not following their religious leaders. The GPU often cynically questioned arrested believers "what is your attitude to 'our' Metropolitan Sergii, heading the Soviet church?".[11]
Opposition to Sergius was used as a pretext to close many churches and sending clergy to exile. The last officially functioning anti-Sergiite church in Moscow was closed in 1933 and in Leningrad in 1936.[12] After these churches were closed, they were usually demolished or turned to secular use (rather than being given to Sergii's jurisdiction as though they were really being closed simply for the reason of their opposition to Sergii). This campaign greatly diminished the number of functioning churches in the country.
Although officially anti-Sergiite churches were destroyed, many unofficial underground church communities existed and formed what was called 'The Catacomb Church'.[13] This underground church movement claimed to be the true legitimate continuation of Orthodoxy in Russia.[13]
Twenty percent of inmates at the Solovki camps in 1928–1929 were imprisoned in connection with these affairs. Between 1928 and 1931, at least thirty-six bishops were imprisoned and exiled, and the total number surpassed 150 by the end of 1930.[11] This did not mean, however, that clergy loyal to Sergii were safer for they were also widely attacked and arrested.[14]
Metropolitan Sergii told foreign press in 1930 that there was no religious persecution and that Christianity shared many social goals with Marxism.[7] A large number of clergy had made peace with Sergii by 1930.[12]
Due to the massive number of bishops being arrested, both the Orthodox and the Renovationists consecrated bishops secretly who could take the place of arrested bishops and continue the apostolic lineage.[15] Also as a result of this massive arrest of bishops, the Orthodox Holy Synod ceased functioning in 1935.[16]
According to the anti-religious press, priests would wander from village to village surreptitiously performing religious services in the homes of believers, while being disguised as wandering repairmen, or some other profession. It also claimed the young people were being attracted to Christianity by clergy who hired themselves out free of charge to youth parties as games organizers, musicians, choir directors, readers of secular Russian literature, drama-circle directors, etc.[17] It also claimed that many believers were keeping themselves away from churches and priests due to shame of observing religious ritual overtly, and that in response to this many priests performed religious rituals in absentia; this meant that marriage ceremonies were performed over rings that were then sent to absent bride and groom, or that funeral services were performed over empty coffins in which the corpse was later laid in a secular funeral.
  Considerate: 100%  
  Substantial: 100%  
  Sentiment: Negative  
  Avg. Grade Level:   
  Sources:   
  Relevant (Beta): 100%  
  Learn More About Debra
None of what you quoted addresses my point: that national-socialism is based on fantasy stories, just like religion is. You are not big on writing your own thoughts and prefer to quote others' words; but be, at least, so diligent as to respond to what people are actually saying, instead of generically reposting the same 10-15 quotes and memes with no regard to what was said.
We have a religious state very similar to Hitler's Germany today: Iran. The similarities are staggering: extreme nationalism, dancing with socialism and corporatism, collectivism to the bone, secret police, hatred of Jews... Only concentration camps are not present. Yet what is the official ideology? Shia Islam, a religion strikingly similar to the Medieval version of Christianity.
Religion only differs from other totalitarian ideologies in that its focus is on suffering now for being happy in the afterlife, while other ideologies focus on suffering now for being happy later in life, or for one's children/grandchildren being happy. In both the alleged greater good is paramount, and the individual interest is irrelevant.
  Considerate: 100%  
  Substantial: 100%  
  Sentiment: Negative  
  Avg. Grade Level:   
  Sources:   
  Relevant (Beta): 100%  
  Learn More About Debra
The symbol experienced a resurgence in the late 19th century, following extensive archeological work such as that of the famous archeologist Heinrich Schliemann. Schliemann discovered the hooked cross on the site of ancient Troy. He connected it with similar shapes found on pottery in Germany and speculated that it was a “significant religious symbol of our remote ancestors.”
In the beginning of the 20th century the swastika was widely used in Europe. It had numerous meanings, the most common being a symbol of good luck and auspiciousness. However, the work of Schliemann soon was taken up by völkisch movements, for whom the swastika was a symbol of “Aryan identity” and German nationalist pride
This conjecture of Aryan cultural descent of the German people is likely one of the main reasons why the Nazi party formally adopted the swastika as its symbol in 1920.
The Nazi party, however, was not the only party to use the swastika in Germany. After World War I, a number of far-right nationalist movements adopted the swastika. As a symbol, it became associated with the idea of a racially “pure” state. By the time the Nazis gained control of Germany, the connotations of the swastika had forever changed.
In Mein Kampf, Adolf Hitler wrote: “I myself, meanwhile, after innumerable attempts, had laid down a final form; a flag with a red background, a white disk, and a black swastika in the middle. After long trials I also found a definite proportion between the size of the flag and the size of the white disk, as well as the shape and thickness of the swastika.”
The swastika would become the most recognizable icon of Nazi propaganda, appearing on the flag referred to by Hitler in Mein Kampf as well as on election posters, arm bands, medallions, and badges for military and other organizations. A potent symbol intended to elicit pride among Aryans, the swastika also struck terror into Jews and others deemed enemies of Nazi Germany.
Despite its origins, the swastika has become so widely associated with Nazi Germany that contemporary uses frequently incite controversy.
Reprinted from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Holocaust Encyclopedia.
https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/the-swastikas-origins/
  Considerate: 100%  
  Substantial: 100%  
  Sentiment: Negative  
  Avg. Grade Level:   
  Sources:   
  Relevant (Beta): 100%  
  Learn More About Debra
Let me say once more: atheism is not a worldview. There is no atheist doctrines or tenets. So...all this talk about "abortion; sexual perversion; socialism; open borders" etc., etc., is an indication of ignorance rather than an indictment against atheism.
FWIW, believers and non-believers can be found on all sides of the issues you raise. Open your mind to the real world, and do your part to make the world (and your life) better - educate yourself.
  Considerate: 100%  
  Substantial: 100%  
  Sentiment: Negative  
  Avg. Grade Level:   
  Sources:   
  Relevant (Beta): 100%  
  Learn More About Debra
Let me say once more: atheism is not a worldview. There are no atheist doctrines or tenets. So...all this talk about "abortion; sexual perversion; socialism; open borders" etc., etc., attribute to atheism is an indication of ignorance rather than an indictment against atheism.
FWIW, believers and non-believers can be found on all sides of the issues you raise. Open your mind to the real world, and do your part to make the world (and your life) better - educate yourself.
  Considerate: 100%  
  Substantial: 100%  
  Sentiment: Negative  
  Avg. Grade Level:   
  Sources:   
  Relevant (Beta): 100%  
  Learn More About Debra
Let me say once more: atheism is not a worldview. There are no atheist doctrines or tenets. So...all this talk about "abortion; sexual perversion; socialism; open borders" etc., etc., attribute to atheism is an indication of ignorance rather than an indictment against atheism.
FWIW, believers and non-believers can be found on all sides of the issues you raise. Open your mind to the real world, and do your part to make the world (and your life) better - educate yourself.
  Considerate: 100%  
  Substantial: 100%  
  Sentiment: Negative  
  Avg. Grade Level:   
  Sources:   
  Relevant (Beta): 100%  
  Learn More About Debra
Let me say once more: atheism is not a worldview. There are no atheist doctrines or tenets. So...all this talk about "abortion; sexual perversion; socialism; open borders" etc., etc., attribute to atheism is an indication of ignorance rather than an indictment against atheism.
FWIW, believers and non-believers can be found on all sides of the issues you raise. Open your mind to the real world, and do your part to make the world (and your life) better - educate yourself.
  Considerate: 100%  
  Substantial: 100%  
  Sentiment: Negative  
  Avg. Grade Level:   
  Sources:   
  Relevant (Beta): 100%  
  Learn More About Debra
Let me say once more: atheism is not a worldview. There are no atheist doctrines or tenets. So...all this talk about "abortion; sexual perversion; socialism; open borders" etc., etc., attribute to atheism is an indication of ignorance rather than an indictment against atheism.
FWIW, believers and non-believers can be found on all sides of the issues you raise. Open your mind to the real world, and do your part to make the world (and your life) better - educate yourself.
  Considerate: 100%  
  Substantial: 100%  
  Sentiment: Negative  
  Avg. Grade Level:   
  Sources:   
  Relevant (Beta): 100%  
  Learn More About Debra
Let me say once more: atheism is not a worldview. There are no atheist doctrines or tenets. So...all this talk about "abortion; sexual perversion; socialism; open borders" etc., etc., attributed to atheism is an indication of ignorance rather than an indictment against atheism.
FWIW, believers and non-believers can be found on all sides of the issues you raise. Open your mind to the real world, and do your part to make the world (and your life) better - educate yourself.
  Considerate: 100%  
  Substantial: 100%  
  Sentiment: Negative  
  Avg. Grade Level:   
  Sources:   
  Relevant (Beta): 100%  
  Learn More About Debra
  Considerate: 100%  
  Substantial: 100%  
  Sentiment: Negative  
  Avg. Grade Level:   
  Sources:   
  Relevant (Beta): 100%  
  Learn More About Debra
  Considerate: 100%  
  Substantial: 100%  
  Sentiment: Negative  
  Avg. Grade Level:   
  Sources:   
  Relevant (Beta): 100%  
  Learn More About Debra
Due to the obvious severe depletion of grey matter in his brain, I doubt he is capable of being able to educate himself.
  Considerate: 100%  
  Substantial: 100%  
  Sentiment: Negative  
  Avg. Grade Level:   
  Sources:   
  Relevant (Beta): 100%  
  Learn More About Debra
  Considerate: 100%  
  Substantial: 100%  
  Sentiment: Negative  
  Avg. Grade Level:   
  Sources:   
  Relevant (Beta): 100%  
  Learn More About Debra
He still won’t get the message I’m afraid as he’s to far gone
  Considerate: 100%  
  Substantial: 100%  
  Sentiment: Negative  
  Avg. Grade Level:   
  Sources:   
  Relevant (Beta): 100%  
  Learn More About Debra
  Considerate: 100%  
  Substantial: 100%  
  Sentiment: Negative  
  Avg. Grade Level:   
  Sources:   
  Relevant (Beta): 100%  
  Learn More About Debra
  Considerate: 100%  
  Substantial: 100%  
  Sentiment: Negative  
  Avg. Grade Level:   
  Sources:   
  Relevant (Beta): 100%  
  Learn More About Debra
  Considerate: 100%  
  Substantial: 100%  
  Sentiment: Negative  
  Avg. Grade Level:   
  Sources:   
  Relevant (Beta): 100%  
  Learn More About Debra
  Considerate: 100%  
  Substantial: 100%  
  Sentiment: Negative  
  Avg. Grade Level:   
  Sources:   
  Relevant (Beta): 100%  
  Learn More About Debra
  Considerate: 100%  
  Substantial: 100%  
  Sentiment: Negative  
  Avg. Grade Level:   
  Sources:   
  Relevant (Beta): 100%  
  Learn More About Debra
  Considerate: 100%  
  Substantial: 100%  
  Sentiment: Negative  
  Avg. Grade Level:   
  Sources:   
  Relevant (Beta): 100%  
  Learn More About Debra
  Considerate: 100%  
  Substantial: 100%  
  Sentiment: Negative  
  Avg. Grade Level:   
  Sources:   
  Relevant (Beta): 100%  
  Learn More About Debra
You know what you've interpreted from your personal experience through the lenses of your own biases. You would need to establish that atheism is a worldview, and that would require more than subjectivity.
As an atheist, who doesn't identify with most of your assumptions and who is aware of statistics which flatly deny the views you've assigned to atheism, I recognize the extreme ignorance (and broken thinking) in your arguments.
You have two choices at this point: adjust your views to match the facts or continue to drive people away from Christianity. There is a reason people are leaving organized religion in droves...and it has everything to do with the latter choice.
  Considerate: 100%  
  Substantial: 100%  
  Sentiment: Negative  
  Avg. Grade Level:   
  Sources:   
  Relevant (Beta): 100%  
  Learn More About Debra
  Considerate: 100%  
  Substantial: 100%  
  Sentiment: Negative  
  Avg. Grade Level:   
  Sources:   
  Relevant (Beta): 100%  
  Learn More About Debra
I totally agree. Imagine accepting that god “granting” babies cancer was moral and just? Bet he would whistle a different tune if it was his child
  Considerate: 100%  
  Substantial: 100%  
  Sentiment: Negative  
  Avg. Grade Level:   
  Sources:   
  Relevant (Beta): 100%  
  Learn More About Debra
If, in order to follow Christianity, one needs to have "faith", then Christianity is not going to be a choice of any logical thinker. And if you believe that logical thinking is a perversion, then you have divorced reality and married fantasy. Which is your right, and which might not even be a wrong choice under certain circumstances - but which will have consequences.
You constantly talk about consequences of our actions after death, which really is an intangible topic and nobody can demonstrate their position to be right on. But you are completely missing the discussion on the consequences of our actions right here, in this life, which is a topic that absolutely is available for discussion and analysis. And the actions you are taking on this forum are going to have pretty negative consequences. You do your best to turn everyone away from you, aside from a very narrow subset of human population that operates on dogmas and has zero self-respect. You are not going to succeed in life if you do so; whether you like it or not, networking is an essential part of human life and is a prerequisitve of any degree of success, and you are terribly failing at it.
Taking all atheists, of which there are hundreds millions living just at the present moment, and prescribing some deeply negative qualities to all of them - that is not logic, that is emotions. Notice how nobody here does the opposite, grouping, say, all Christians together and calling them liars, sexual perverts, etc. Once again, you are the worst at following Christian teachings around here compared to anybody else, including all the atheists. Think about it some. Ask yourself if Jesus would just as much write these posts and call hundreds millions people names, or if he would keep saying the same that he did in life - that one must love everyone regardless of anything.
  Considerate: 100%  
  Substantial: 100%  
  Sentiment: Negative  
  Avg. Grade Level:   
  Sources:   
  Relevant (Beta): 100%  
  Learn More About Debra
  Considerate: 100%  
  Substantial: 100%  
  Sentiment: Negative  
  Avg. Grade Level:   
  Sources:   
  Relevant (Beta): 100%  
  Learn More About Debra
>>We have a religious state very similar to Hitler's Germany today: Iran. The similarities are staggering: extreme nationalism, dancing with socialism and corporatism, collectivism to the bone, secret police, hatred of Jews... Only concentration camps are not present. Yet what is the official ideology? Shia Islam, a religion strikingly similar to the Medieval version of Christianity.
There is no such thing as a medieval version of Christianity. Many cults have tried to align themselves to look like Christianity. Like a chameleon that has changed its color to resemble something commonplace and nonthreatening like a leaf or the bark of a tree, these usurpers understand that the more they appear to be a branch of a familiar institution, the more easily they'll be able induce unsuspecting followers into their cult. Undoubtedly what you are referring to here is the cult of Romanism, the religion of Babylon, otherwise known as Catholicism.
You do bring an important point in the comparison between Hitler's Germany and Romanism. The SS organization was indeed modeled after the Jesuit Order, many Jesuit priests doubling as SS agents. The goal was to bring about a new "Holy Roman Empire". It is why they kept the crown jewels of the past "Holy Roman Empire" in their spiritual capital, Nuremberg, Bavaria, along with what they claimed to be the "Spear of Destiny". Their temple courtyard entrance being fashioned in the shape of the spear itself, led to the throne room, which was to be the seat of power for the new emperor. Nazim was in fact was born in the predominatly Catholic province of Bavaria. Hitler told his friends I can see Himmler as our Ignatius Loyola". The German Secret Service, or Gestapo, had been consitituted by Heinrich Himmler, according to the principles of the Jesuit order, the militant arm of the Roman Catholic church from where we get the "Black Pope".
Hatred of the Jews however did not being with Nazi germany, but was seeded many centuries ago by the Catholic Church, which adopted the false belief of "replacement theology", where the Jews no longer were the chosen people of God, but that the Roman cult became the new chosen people and the Jews were to blame for the death of Jesus, this hatred manifested itself many times throughout history culminating in the holocaust of WWII.
Anti-Jewish riots had already taken place in Europe during the Middle Ages. Jewish communities were targeted in the Black Death Jewish persecutions of 1348–1350, in Toulon in 1348, in Barcelona as well as in other Catalan cities, during the Erfurt massacre (1349), the Basel massacre, massacres in Aragon and in Flanders, as well as the "Valentine's Day" Strasbourg pogrom of 1349. Some 510 Jewish communities were destroyed during this period, extending further to the Brussels massacre of 1370.
The outbreak of violence against Jews (Hep-Hep riots) occurred at the beginning of the 19th century as a reaction to Jewish emancipation in the German Confederation.
Yet even after the War had ended and the Jews were given back their freedom, they were treated as pariahs, outcasts by the rest of Europe, left to their own demise.
Although the plans of the Vatican did not culminate in a new "Holy Roman Empire", the Nazi beast that they created could not be tamed and it cast off its scarlet clad rider. They had their "Catholic man" in Germany, Hitler (though an occultist was raised Catholic), their "Catholic man" Franco in Spain, "Catholic man" Mussolini in Italy, and Ante Pavelić, their "Catholic man" in Croatia, from where we get the infamous "Ustaša". See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_clergy_involvement_with_the_Usta%C5%A1e
“Never argue with an id'iot They will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.” ― Mark Twain
  Considerate: 100%  
  Substantial: 100%  
  Sentiment: Negative  
  Avg. Grade Level:   
  Sources:   
  Relevant (Beta): 100%  
  Learn More About Debra
The Mass; The Sacraments; Transubstantiation; Purgatory; The Rosary; Statues in Worship; The Perpetual Virginity of Mary as the Goddess of Heaven; The Idolatry of Mary Worship; calling Catholic Leadership as "Father"; Confessing sin to a Priest; The Magisterium; Indulgences; these are NOT Scriptural and undermine the purity and simplicity of salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ as Lord; thereby, leading the innocent millions/billions in the way of deception and hopelessness. http://www.eaec.org/cults/romancatholic.htm
Without Jesus Christ as Lord in the heart of the majority, America will surely die in religion.
  Considerate: 100%  
  Substantial: 100%  
  Sentiment: Negative  
  Avg. Grade Level:   
  Sources:   
  Relevant (Beta): 100%  
  Learn More About Debra
>>Catholicism has never been Christian. Catholicism was founded by Constantine in 312-313AD via the Edict of Milan by merging Babylonian Paganism/Roman Paganism with elements of Christian and non-Christian (Apocrypha) doctrine in order to make the pagan cult more palatable to the masses.
Constantine indeed brought things together, but the seeds of this insidious institution were planted much earlier in the deserts of Egypt. Remember the "Coptic Church" is older than Catholicism and stood as a model for the continued apostasy of Rome. They share in all the heretical doctrines of Rome including Mary worship and have gone through 118 of their own Popes so far.
Anthony the Great, known as the father of "Christian" monasticism, is the most revered of the Desert Fathers. According to Athanasius, the devil fought Anthony by afflicting him with boredom, laziness, and the phantoms of women, which he countered by becoming a hermit and isolating himself for years inside a tomb. He communicated with the outside world through a crevice that enabled him to receive food and to offer spiritual advice. Supposedly, the devil, upset by his holiness, would come and beat him unmercifully.
Not unlike the false prophet of Islam whom received revelations from a so called angel of the Lord, Abba Anthony 'Father of Monks" also seems to have received a similar visitation.
"It was an angel of the Lord sent to correct and reassure him. He heard the angel saying to him, 'Do this and you will be saved.' At these words, Anthony was filled with joy and courage. He did this, and he was saved. - THE SAYINGS Of THE DESERT FATHERS - Cistercian Publication 1975
...he said to them before they could ask him anything, 'How was it that the little donkey died on the way here?' They said, 'How do you know about that, Father?' And he told them, 'The demons showed me what happened.' - THE SAYINGS Of THE DESERT FATHERS - Cistercian Publication 1975
While still living in the palace, Abba Arsenius prayed to God in these words, 'Lord, lead me in the way of salvation.' And a voice came saying to him, 'Arsenius, flee from men and you will be saved.'
The advice this demon gives to Abba is clearly in direct contradiction with the following Scripture.
You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a basket. Instead, they set it on a lampstand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.... (Matthew 5:15)
Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us. (1 Peter 2:12)
My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. (John 17:5)
He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation." (Mark 16:15)
..not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world (1 Cor. 5:10)
Anyone with any bit of discernment will see that the advice that these "angels" are giving the so called 'desert fathers' are in direct contrast with what we read in the Word of God.
But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God's curse! (Galatians 1:8)
The so called "desert fathers" don't seem to be preaching the gospel of Christ, or explaining Scripture to anyone, but rather relating the ideas that these angelic visitations have given them. Scripture says it best:
If anyone teaches another doctrine and disagrees with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and with godly teaching, he is conceited and understands nothing. (1 Timothy 6:3)
The ascetic practices self-denial in order to earn God's favor or somehow purge himself from sin. This shows a misunderstanding of grace; no amount of austerity can earn salvation or merit God's love. The correct answer to Anthony would of been to quote Scripture;
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God not by works (Ephesians 2:8-9)
The Bible tells us to test the spirits and compare what they say to the Word of God.
Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. (1 John 4:1)
Monasticism, is not biblical in that it ignores our responsibility to go into all the world and preach the gospel as well as the doctrine of Grace vs works. While we are not part of the world, we are in it, and the church was never intended to be isolated from people in need of Christ.
God calls on those still trapped by their abominations to get out while they still can.
Then I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues; for her sins are heaped high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities. (Rev. 18:4-5)
Catholicism has indeed never been Christian, nor has the line of institutionalised so called "Christian Churches" that it was cloned from to its so called orthodox split and onward to its wayward daughters in many so called "protestant churches" eg. "Anglican Church" and many more who continue to veil themselves in a Christian like mask to hide their true pagan identity and demonic roots.
Again the cycle sadly continues...
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge,... (Hosea 4:6)
“Never argue with an id'iot They will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.” ― Mark Twain
  Considerate: 100%  
  Substantial: 100%  
  Sentiment: Negative  
  Avg. Grade Level:   
  Sources:   
  Relevant (Beta): 100%  
  Learn More About Debra
The swatstica is associated with India , Greece, Rome and other morons.
You're as uneducated as always.
  Considerate: 100%  
  Substantial: 100%  
  Sentiment: Negative  
  Avg. Grade Level:   
  Sources:   
  Relevant (Beta): 100%  
  Learn More About Debra
Are you Christian and acknowledge Jesus is God and Litd?
  Considerate: 100%  
  Substantial: 100%  
  Sentiment: Negative  
  Avg. Grade Level:   
  Sources:   
  Relevant (Beta): 100%  
  Learn More About Debra
  Considerate: 100%  
  Substantial: 100%  
  Sentiment: Negative  
  Avg. Grade Level:   
  Sources:   
  Relevant (Beta): 100%  
  Learn More About Debra
>>Are you Christian and acknowledge Jesus is God and Litd?
Yes, non-denominational, sola scriptura.
Jesus is the Light in the World.
“Never argue with an id'iot They will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.” ― Mark Twain
  Considerate: 100%  
  Substantial: 100%  
  Sentiment: Negative  
  Avg. Grade Level:   
  Sources:   
  Relevant (Beta): 100%  
  Learn More About Debra
  Considerate: 100%  
  Substantial: 100%  
  Sentiment: Negative  
  Avg. Grade Level:   
  Sources:   
  Relevant (Beta): 100%  
  Learn More About Debra