Oh No Not Another Apocalypse Thread By Chrysostom

chrysostom

Well-known member
Hall of Fame
When this book was first written, the time was near for the first coming. Now the time is near for the second coming.

Come Lord Jesus.
Why prophecy? To prove God is in control. To comfort those not in control who are suffering. You don't need to understand it but it is there if you need some kind of assurance. The Apocalypse has concepts not addressed in any other place in the bible. Like the second death. Who talks about that? Like New Jerusalem. Who talks about that without putting it in the future. The future is for those who can't find prophecies already fulfilled in history. Many don't even bother looking. Most don't know how to connect history and prophecy. I use numbers and colors. Words you can trust. All the other words can be mistranslated or misinterpreted by men who are not necessarily inspired. That is why we have over 60 English bibles each with many revisions. Who can you trust? What can you trust? The Church does not have an official explanation for the Apocalypse which allows us to speculate. Nothing wrong with speculation if it is reasonable. So what is reasonable?
 

Clete

Truth Smacker
Silver Subscriber
In a thread that has apparently been deleted, you told Lon goodbye forever and that you were done with TOL
So, I did! I reserve the right to change my mind.

In this case, I hadn't actually changed my mind per se. I had taken everyone I could find off my ignore list, including you, just in case there was someone on that list who wanted to participate in the "Ask me anything" thread I started. I haven't placed anyone back on it unless and until they did something new to deserve it.

As for everything else you wrote. I didn't read it and won't.

I literally could not care less about anything you have to say about anyone or anything. As is the case with very nearly every person on this website.
 

chrysostom

Well-known member
Hall of Fame
Why prophecy? To prove God is in control. To comfort those not in control who are suffering. You don't need to understand it but it is there if you need some kind of assurance. The Apocalypse has concepts not addressed in any other place in the bible. Like the second death. Who talks about that? Like New Jerusalem. Who talks about that without putting it in the future. The future is for those who can't find prophecies already fulfilled in history. Many don't even bother looking. Most don't know how to connect history and prophecy. I use numbers and colors. Words you can trust. All the other words can be mistranslated or misinterpreted by men who are not necessarily inspired. That is why we have over 60 English bibles each with many revisions. Who can you trust? What can you trust? The Church does not have an official explanation for the Apocalypse which allows us to speculate. Nothing wrong with speculation if it is reasonable. So what is reasonable?
What is reasonable? To say the Apocalypse, written 2000 years ago, is about the second coming is not reasonable when it says the time is near. To say it is about the first coming could be reasonable if it was written before Jesus. We have reason to believe there is a version of the Apocalypse that didn't have the seven churches. Eusebius and Victorinus are not aware of them. John the Baptist was preparing the way for the lamb, a word found 27 times in the Apocalypse. We also have Irenaeus mentioning ancient copies of the Apocalypse.
 

chrysostom

Well-known member
Hall of Fame
How long have you been working on this?
Twenty eight years.
How long have you been online?
Twenty years.
Are you satisfied with what you did?
Very satisfied.
 

Idolater

"Matthew 16:18-19" Dispensationalist (Catholic) χρ
How long have you been working on this?
Twenty eight years.
How long have you been online?
Twenty years.
Are you satisfied with what you did?
Very satisfied.

Islam has always been belligerent.

Islam: You have to live by our rules.

People: But I don't really want to.

Islam: TOO BAD

Can Islam change, or is it as if we are saying Islam cannot exist without being belligerent?
 

Clete

Truth Smacker
Silver Subscriber
In a thread that has apparently been deleted, you told Lon goodbye forever and that you were done with TOL so I'm not going to spend much time replying to your post except to say that for anyone reading your above, I'd recommend they look for themselves into how chatbots hallucinate, and why and what that means for factual accuracy.

And for the love of Pete, already I wish people would stop relying on chatbots to do their thinking for them. I've seen too many forum members here and elsewhere give some variation on "I sent your post through chat GPT to understand/respond to it" and then insert their own biases into the prompt ensuring them AI would give a summation that would confirm their negative opinion of the other poster and justify their own response.

Now it's "I asked chatGPT this" and "I had this conversation with chatGPT" and now people are relying on chatGPT for things in all kinds of categories for which they used to use their own brain. And no, it's not like using a calculator instead of a pencil or doing a Google search, people are literally and mindlessly allowing chatGPT to do the heavy lifting of the simplest things, including trying to understand what someone has just said to them.

When I see someone say "I used/asked/prompted chatGPT" to compose a post, I've begun ignoring those posts. Bullet points? Several key categorical headings, followed by a conclusion? Dead giveaways, even if they don't say they used it upfront, which at least you have done, but not everyone does. Forums seem like a last vestige of the old internet, but if users are mostly chatGPT regurgitators then why bother?

Sorry @chrysostom for my part in taking your thread off-topic.

Edited to add: The thread is back, I guess maybe it was temporarily hidden.
I ended up noticing this post this moring and read most of it before I realized what I was reading. It deserves at least some sort of response...

I totally use Chat GPT all the time! I'm not the least bit ashamed to say that precisely because I DO NOT use it as my surrogate brain. I use it for editing my posts, not creating them. I tend to write posts that are entirely too long and when I am frustrated it's all but impossible for me to write anything that doesn't display that frustration. I use GPT to both shorten and tone down my posts, as well as to correct typos and grammar issues.
I also use it whenever there is a post that just seems to be rambling to the point that I find myself having to read it multiple times to follow what is being said, as in the case of Lon's drunken stupor post from the other day.
GPT also makes for a great research tool. Way better than Google, Wikipedia and BlueLetterBible.com. Not that any of those are awful but GPT catches everything there and a whole lot more in a much shorter period of time and in a manner that is already coherently organized.
And I have found no more effective way of checking my own logic. If you're brave enough to ask for it, GPT will shred your faulty reasoning with brutal honesty. It’ll hold your feet to the fire, but only if you want it to. None of you fools would dare! You'd sooner accuse it of being artificially bias and blow the whole technology off as a destructive waste of time than make any effort to use it as the tool it was intended to be used as.

One last point....

I DO NOT CARE WHAT YOU THINK!!!!

That is the thing you idiots really should make some effort to get through your thick heads. I know none of you. Nearly all of you aren't worth the time it takes to write any of these posts - this one in particular! None of you - NONE - will take and use anything I've said here and make any attempt to modify the way you think, speak or act, and I know this in advance! That isn't why I do it and you wouldn't understand why I do! Nearly every single one of you are, and have been, a play thing that I use for MY OWN benefit. A role GPT has been doing a much better job fulfilling of late, I might add.

There are clear exceptions, of course, and they know who they are. The further back in time you go, the more what are now exceptions used to be the norm, but since Knight left, this place has declined steadily (i.e. that is not a commentary on the management of the site but on internet chat forums in general). My participation has been more a product of habit than anything else over the last couple of years. I've spent a much greater amount of time writing theological essays and interacting with people I actually care about via email about real life ministry issues. Slowly replacing this hobby with other things that scratch the same intellectual itch.

There have been a few times when someone new shows up. Those people I care about - a lot! I treat them with the kind of respect that I desire to have for everyone here! Oh, that this place was full of people I could respect! I'd never get any real life work done! Most of them don't stick around for whatever reason and most that do prove to be just as intellectually dishonest as the majority here and my respect for them is gone with the wind. Seems like the only new people that show up and stick around for longer than two posts are Trinity denying morons or flat Earther conspiracy theorists that know when they show up that they aren't going to convince anyone of their stupidity and are just looking for any venue at all where they're allowed to present it.

In short, this place is really, by almost any measure, a near complete waste of time and my motivation for sticking around is wearing quite thin. Not that you'd care if I went away. Indeed, you're stupid and conceded enough to count that as some sort of win on your part. So be it.
 

chrysostom

Well-known member
Hall of Fame
How long have you been working on this?
Twenty eight years.
How long have you been online?
Twenty years.
Are you satisfied with what you did?
Very satisfied.
Don't get lost in the weeds. Step back and get a look at the big picture. Who are the major players and what are they trying to do?
Jesus, Mohammed, Marx, and the rest. If you are with the rest, pay attention, you will be dominated by one of the big three. If you are free to move and want to stay free, go where Jesus is still in control. The other two don't think you should be free. Just look at where they are all moving. There is a good reason. They want to be free.
 

Derf

Well-known member
So, I did! I reserve the right to change my mind.

In this case, I hadn't actually changed my mind per se. I had taken everyone I could find off my ignore list, including you, just in case there was someone on that list who wanted to participate in the "Ask me anything" thread I started. I haven't placed anyone back on it unless and until they did something new to deserve it.

As for everything else you wrote. I didn't read it and won't.

I literally could not care less about anything you have to say about anyone or anything. As is the case with very nearly every person on this website.
Why would we go to your ask me anything thread when uou just ask Chat GPT. It's like having to go through a negotiator--just to talk to artificial intelligence. What does that make you, assistant to the artificial intelligence?
 

chrysostom

Well-known member
Hall of Fame
Don't get lost in the weeds. Step back and get a look at the big picture. Who are the major players and what are they trying to do?
Jesus, Mohammed, Marx, and the rest. If you are with the rest, pay attention, you will be dominated by one of the big three. If you are free to move and want to stay free, go where Jesus is still in control. The other two don't think you should be free. Just look at where they are all moving. There is a good reason. They want to be free.
Getting attention nowadays is not easy. Everyone needs help doing that. Thank you Clete for bringing your readers to my thread. I need all the help I can get. The end is near for me. Fighting the good fight, finishing the race, and keeping the faith has been my goal of late. Thank you Paul. I hope I have not wrested your words.
 

annabenedetti

like marbles on glass
Getting attention nowadays is not easy. Everyone needs help doing that. Thank you Clete for bringing your readers to my thread. I need all the help I can get. The end is near for me. Fighting the good fight, finishing the race, and keeping the faith has been my goal of late. Thank you Paul. I hope I have not wrested your words.

One of my favorite verses is Mark 10:21:

Jesus looked at him and loved him.
 

chrysostom

Well-known member
Hall of Fame
Getting attention nowadays is not easy. Everyone needs help doing that. Thank you Clete for bringing your readers to my thread. I need all the help I can get. The end is near for me. Fighting the good fight, finishing the race, and keeping the faith has been my goal of late. Thank you Paul. I hope I have not wrested your words.
Are you working on another Apocalypse thread?
Yes
So what is new?
A little more detail.
What about the second death?
Will cover that.
You didn't cover it here.
I did mention it.
But not in detail.
That is for the next thread.
Why not here?
It may help me get more views in the next thread.
You can get more views by showing who will post in the title.
Good idea.
So what about the second death?
 
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