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poormeowmeowcollector · 3 years

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Let me give you my life

Pairing: Loki x Tesseract

Warnings: Major Character Death, Mourning, delusions, mental illness, alcohol, Original Character Death, Odin, fantastic racism

Summary: After Frigga's funeral, Loki starts hearing a voice. It changes their life completely.

Chapter 3: Verse 3

Chapter warnings: math, fantastic racism, death (not graphic)

Chapter summary: the orders

Previous chapter, AO3, next chapter

If I'm a pagan of the good times / my lover's the sunlight

Loki storms the library once again, this time searching everything about the Tesseract and this Entropy they call him all the time.

Entropy still remains a mystery, but there are even more writings about the space stone than the ones they've seen before.

"It says here that they worshipped you," Loki says, but only internally. He's in public, speaking to the walls would make him appear mad.

"People express loyalty in different ways," they answer, always softer since the deal.

"Is that what you want? Loyalty?"

"Among other things, yes. But mostly trust that I will not hurt you, cause I won't," they promise. Loki already knows this.

Can't break something that's already in pieces.

"Brother!" Thor yells as he walks in. Loki's shoulders tense, this idiot never warns them.

"Tho-thor," he answers, eyes on Thor as they drab a chair and side beside him. "How come you be i-i-in here? You ha-ha-hate books," they raise an eyebrow at their brother.

"I'm here to see how you're doing. You've been acting oddly lately," he answers, those blue eyes scanning Loki.

"People grie-grie-grie-grieve in different ways, Th-thor. I a-a-a-assure you, I'm fi-fine," he hums, turning back to the book.

"Loki. After all this, just remember that I'm here for you, eh? You needn't face anything alone," Thor insists, placing a big and steady hand on Loki's shoulder.

Loki's body nods, and smiles, watching as Thor smiles back before leaving. Loki's mind wonders if this is all a mistake. Thor was, is grieving too. Maybe this is all too much…

But Thor wasn't there when Gæirasson offended Loki, neither time. In fact, Thor has been a ghost since Frigga's death.

"You have my trust and loyalty, until the end," Loki decides, feeling in their core how relieved the Tesseract is by the answer.

"Allow me to show you another secret then. Look at your hands but don't touch anything and don't let it spread," they answer.

Loki lets the book and brings his torn from the picking hands under the table, always watching them. Black ropes start appearing and tangling themselves on their fingers, creating a calming sensation and demanding more ground, but Loki doesn't allow it. Out of all kinds of magic, this is by far the most powerful one he has ever seen.

And the most chaotic.

To keep the Goddess on my side / she demands a sacrifice

Like every day, the official Tesseract session is late at night, while Loki should be sleeping. Signs of their decreasing amount of sleep are becoming more and more visible, but they don't care.

"The o-orders?" he asks.

"You need to know some things first. In order to keep you from dying, King Laufey made a deal with one of us. Your life for acts of service. You need to do some things before being free," they do speak like they did on the first days, but somehow still softer.

"Acts of s-s-service?" he questions. So, the stone just needs hands and will borrow theirs?

"Yes. There are things that will keep the stones safe from those who seek them to do harm. Asgard has two, and you need to make sure that some things are set to their protection. It's just one thing, really. But you need to use your new powers to do so,"

Loki nods, the movement small and cut, like a soldier's.

"Ready to-to comply,"

Drain the whole sea / get something shiny

"First order. Free yourself from everything, good and bad," the Tesseract says. Loki blinks in confusion.

"H-how?"

"What bad do you carry into you? The possessiveness, the jealousy, this ego you named pride, all this fury… you don't need them from now on. Let them go," they insist.

"L-let them go?"

"Act as if they don't exist, don't give them your attention. The same thing goes for your bright side. You faith in your moral compass, your deep feeling for everything you care about. Both of those sides will keep you from moving on. You mustn't listen to them anymore," they explain, as if it's something easy.

"So… y-y-you want me to be-to be your li-little m-m-minion?" he raises an eyebrow. Is that what they agreed on? Being a tiny pawn but just on a different chess board?

“No. Not exactly. You are not to abandon them for my own good, but for yours. The acts might hurt these sides of you, you need them in one piece,” their voice softens.

Loki takes a breath, in and out as slow as possible, and nods again. “What-what sh-sh-should I-I do?” even though the stutter stays, he refuses to let his voice break.

They swear they can feel the stone smiling.

“Listen to me, and don’t act upon them. Also, learn how to control possibility magic,”

Possibility magic? Is that what the black ropes are?

“Learn how Midgardians think of possibilities. It’s close to how your new abilities work,” they advise him. So, this is what being under the orders of a stone is like? Homework and pretending? it’s nothing they don’t know how to do for hundreds of years…

“And after the-the week?”

“the fun starts.”

Loki smiles wide, wider than he has ever smiled even before Frigga’s death.

something meaty for the main course / that’s a fine looking high horse

The week passes peacefully. Loki doesn’t have to worry about how to do what, the Tesseract is there to help them with it and lets them just decide how to do what and, oddly enough, the Midgardian science was calming.

At least, more calming than war theory. And less graphic.

He was chilling on the training grounds and working on the newfound magic, until the Tesseract came.

“It’s time,” they say moments before a blinding blue light covers Loki.

With the blink of an eye, they’re at a castle’s yard, hiding behind a bush.

“Prevent the war, you know how,” the Tesseract says again.

On the contrary, Loki has no idea where he is and what he has to do.

At least not until a guard passes by, near the bush, their armour bearing Gæirasson's symbol.

They smirk, moving from shadow to shadow and into the castle, where they cast an invisibility spell to navigate without worrying about getting caught.

What you've got in the stable? / We've a lot of starving faithful

In the grand hall, Loki finds the old lord. They're discussing an attack, in which he is the main character, of course. They're to strike tomorrow evening.

Loki has to hold himself not to laugh. Instead, they sit and wait. Wait until Gæirasson ends the council and heads to their bedroom. And Loki follows. Until the corridors make a room, with six doors to navigate through.

It would be such a shame if they suddenly closed shut, locking the two foes inside.

The old fool chuckles. "I know you're here, Frost Giant. I can smell your people's blood," he looks around.

Loki chuckles back and drops the spell, standing right in front of the man.

"Is it this? Or do your aged joins hurt with the cold?" he titles his head, showing his signature mischievous smile.

"Why are you here? To negotiate? We've been past this part," they growl. Loki doesn't break the smirk, but lets a glow pass their eyes. Green, but with icy blue undertones, and a pitch black shadow.

"No. We are here to talk about monsters. For, as you can smell, the blood of my siblings who you slained are screeching for it"

That looks tasty / that looks plenty / this is hungry work

"Do you know anything of my people's belief regarding the Norns?" Loki asks, circling around the man like a predator waiting to strike.

"Why should I care about the opinions of monsters?" he spits, trying to mimic the glare.

"Oh, because it's interesting. We believe in the norns, like you do. But they don't create the strings, they knit them. Twisting and turning and combining and separating people, and letting us choose where to go on each knot. Fascinating. Oddly enough, the mortals have a similar way of thinking, at least the ones who are closer to science. They name it possibilities, and write it with numbers,

"Let me give you an example. There's a fifty percent possibility that I will continue this conversation with my normal face," Loki speaks, letting the Æsir glamour fade and rising to his Jötunn height. "But I won't choose this path because your ceilings are low and I would have to bend my neck," they continue, after walking a few steps and letting their horns scratch the ceiling. The glamour appears again, bringing him to his Æsir skin.

"And there's always the possibility that you die, because of your old age and the stress of the war you created. And the only reason people remember you is as an example of why not to piss me off," he grins, the black ropes tangling around his wrists.

"And the possibility, in Midgardian terms, is one hundred percent," they leap closer and grab the old man by his collar, staring right into the fear in his eyes.

"I have a message for my people in Hel, deliver it when you see them. Tell them to rip this old cunt apart, yet keep one piece for me for when I arrive," he spits, watching as the ropes tangle around their throat and mummify them in front of his eyes, making the fear and anger burn out.

They throw the corpse on the floor and open the doors as the Tesseract casts another light, revealing Loki's chambers as it fades away.

"You shouldn't have scratched the ceiling with your horns," they say, worried.

"And? I laughed at the face of one old fool already, what's a second one? And if I am to join my family, let at least my exit from the hypocrites be dramatic," he laughs, ready for the guards to storm in and take him to the dungeons.

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blacksunscorpio · 4 years

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And Venus opposite Mercury in Synastry? Or Mercury opposite Neptune synastry? I can hear BAD COMMUNICATION already lol

Venus Opposite Mercury in Synastry...

Venus is the planet of love and romance while Mercury is the planet of the lower mind/all things cerebral/communication. When these two team up in opposition, things can get tricky.

Why?

Because Mercury is all about logic. He’s cool and detached. Analytical and unemotional, while Venus is warm, joyful and full of romance. As a result, the Venus person may misinterpret the Mercury person’s emotions, while the Mercury might view the Venus person as vain/superficial or hyper-sensitive. When the Venus person feels amorous, the Mercury person feels logical and unemotional. So yes, you’d be right to assume ‘bad communication’ could occur with this particular interaspect. Both Mercury and Venus can find it challenging to communicate about the emotional issues, period. There’s just this base-level lack of understanding of each other’s feelings. Mercury can often hurt Venus’ feelings or offend Venus very easily. In addition, because we’re talking about Venus which rules what we appreciate, an opposition between the mind and our tastes can mean there may be differences in musical or cultural interests. It can be hard to find common ground. There’ll be a bit of competition in trying to get your points across to each other [there will be lots of conversations though]. Those with this interaspect simply need to listen to each other, Balance is needed.

Mercury Opposite Neptune “Liar liar, pants on fire...”

Yes, this is what I call this aspect. I’ve said it before, Neptune aspects are known for their deceitful nature. I honestly believe that Neptune aspects in synastry can harm us even more than difficult Pluto aspects. As spiritual as this planet is, its highest manifestation simply cannot be reached with disharmonious aspects like the square and opposition. There will be trouble trusting, typically on the part of the Mercury person. There’s a deep attraction here, yes. Again we’re talking about Neptune that just puts the rose-colored Ray-Bans on everything. However, there’s always this nagging feeling that something is not right about the partner but you just can’t put your finger on it. Typically, the Mercury person is the one who will receive this energy [typically, but synastry can go either way]. There can be an immense amount of suspicion on the Mercury person´s side.

A timeline?

This Interaction initiates – as with all Neptune aspects – quite idealistically. While you are fascinated by each other's minds, delusions are always lurking. Mercury is just soooo impressed with Neptune. Neptune just seems larger than life to Mercury. So knowledgeable, cultured, and a little too good to be true. It really seems that Neptune has all the answers to Mercury. Hence, where the idealization sets in. But after a while, Mercury, analytical as they are will begin to notice inconsistencies with Neptune. The omission of details will begin to play out as half-truths which will then graduate to whole-lies after a while. Mercury may find the Neptune person too abstract or ambiguous, while Neptune may find Mercury over-analytical and lacking imagination. Neptune has a need for empathy, caring, and spirituality that Mercury may not feel they can provide In fact they may see it as unrealistic or stage-5 clingy. Over time, Mercury’s trust may fade for Neptune, and Neptune may feel very misunderstood by Mercury. The communication is there yes, but things will be hidden. Omitted. Covered up. Embellished, etc. Again, this is synastry so this can go both ways, however, remember, you can typically trace these things back in the natal chart. See which person has this aspect natally and at what orb [0-3 degrees are the closest and tend to be felt quite potentially.] From there, check where the Mercury person’s Mercury is in their birth chart, The house and aspects made to Mercury will be the areas that the Neptune person lies about.

Ex 1.

If Mercury is in the 5th, there will be lies about being faithful but Neptune will flirt with have casual partnerships with others and probably fucking them on the side as well.

Ex 2.

Mercury in the 2nd house? Neptune will lie about their resources/ income and at their worse, even take money from Mercury, or Mercury can wind up supporting Neptune financially. Adversely, Neptune can hide resources from Mercury, causing Mercury might feel taken advantage of. So though this particular interaspect is less the combative ‘bad communication’ [that would be Mars/Mercury in hard aspect] and more akin to deceptive communication. Again, I have to warn you, since Neptune is involved, please be careful. This aspect can also cause those to turn to substance [Neptune] abuse [Opposition] to alter the mindstate [Mercury] just to keep the fantasy [Neptune] alive. Make sense? Now, this is just one aspect [out of two] so balance can be achieved if there are favorable aspects to Saturn [that restricts and can shut down some of this Neptunian fog] or even healthy Pluto to add some discernment and investigative skills. Please remember broken hearts are avoidable. Conscious awareness and the need for honesty is paramount between the two planets if harmony is ever to be reached.

#Mercury opposite Neptune #Venus Opposite Neptune #Synastry #anon #asks #mercury #neptune #astro asks #bruja tips #bruja musings #my writing #astrology advice #interaspects

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travllingbunny · 4 years

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The 100: 7x05 Welcome to Bardo

Here’s finally my belated review of 7x05. I was too busy last week (with actual work) so I couldn’t write it before 7x06 aired. Then I got a bit distracted with my Dark rewatch and Dark season 3 dropping. But I’m taking a break from it to finally post this review and then, hopefully, 7x06 not long after. It’s good that I did a couple of rewatches because I could notice more details. (The review was already halfway over a week ago, so I added some remarks in italics that are things I only think now after seeing 7x06.)

This was an episode I was looking forward to and I enjoyed it, because it finally brought us to Bardo, in the belly of the beast so to speak (note: I wrote this sentence before I saw 7x06, and now I want to keep it because it’s just too funny that 7x06 put Clarke and co. in the literal belly of the beast), where the main action is likely to be, advanced the main plot of season 7 quite a lot, tied a few storylines and showed us Octavia in the present for the first time this season, and - not gonna lie - the highlight of the episode, 1 minute appearance of Bellamy, the first one since the first scenes of the season premiere.

However, I have to say that I wasn’t really impressed with the part of the episode that should have been the most interesting - Octavia’s flashbacks showing what happened to her when she was first taken to Bardo. It served its purpose by filling in the blanks, or rather confirming what I had already figured out, but for one thing, I didn’t get too much character focus in this episode, except for a touching Octavia-Hope scene and Echo’s disturbing actions in the end, which made for a pretty strong scene. And this time I was really bothered by the sloppiness of the details: from just how inconsistent the time dilation rules (rules? what rules?) seem at this point (already a problem before, but this episode made it even worse, especially since it focused on the timeline so much) to the messy selection of flashbacks in the Memory Capture scenes (while the timeline is the writers’ fault, this was obviously a case of the editor being really lazy). Maybe this is just nitpicking, but I find it really annoying when I can’t analyze details to come up theories because I have no idea which detail is a part of the plan and which is just a screw-up.

:Like everyone have some theories, including those about what really happened to Bellamy after his “death”. (At least they’re not even trying to make us believe Bellamy is dead on social media and in Inside the Episode features, like they tried last season with Clarke.)

This is why it ended up being an episode I liked less on rewatch, and I rank it behind 7x02, 7x04 and 7x01, although ahead of 7x03 (and, it turns out, 7x06). Even though the Sanctum portion of the episode was really strong and interesting this time.

Prepare for a lot of nitpicking of plot holes, and me about to incur the wrath of many t100 fans by explaining why I really dislike like the idea of an Octavia/Levitt endgame romance (it’s mostly because of their interactions in this episode).

This was the second episode this season where Marie said “Previously on” (I’m curious how many different cast members do it this season) and I think it’s the first time we saw the opening titles that were released before the S7 trailer, the ones that start with the Bardo Stone Room.

Sanctum

The deluded brainwashed folks in Sanctum who still worship the Primes have a name they have given themselves - the Faithful. And it seems that they call the people who aren’t brainwashed ‘the Fallen’. Has the show ever had such an annoying character as Trey, their leader?

I must say I related to Murphy when he suggested that maybe they should just let them burn themselves if that’s what they want, instead of letting them exert control that way. Yes, I know it’s bad. But that’s one of the things Murphy is good for, to sometimes say things that we all kind of think but would feel ashamed of saying aloud - at least if it was real life. However, Murphy - and I’m sure everyone - changed his mind when he saw they were going to burn children. And the father of the child who was about to be sacrificed (who we now know is called Jeremiah) looked confused and terrified. Maybe it’s just Trey and a couple of other fanatical people influencing and manipulating the others. Unfortunately, real life examples of people doing horrible things - even to their own children - in the name of what they believe in, to make me hesitate to call this too extreme to be plausible. But what is going on in the heads of these people? At least before, when the people of Sanctum were sacrificing their children or other loved ones or themselves, they believed it meant living forever and being one with the gods, but this?

Nelson is becoming quite a likable character even though he has only had a brief scene or two here and there. (And then the show goes and does... whatever the hell they’re doing with him in 7x06.) Like this time, when he was the only one who tried to save the Faithful woman who set herself on fire, explaining that the people of Sanctum are still their people, even the Faithful. (Now this is a much nicer face of the Children of Gabriel. Where was he when CoG were killing Nightblood people/potential hosts, even though that’s not the most efficient way to stop the Primes - as opposed to killing the Primes and destroying their mind drives?)

Great little character moment for Emori when she asked Nelson: “Even though they cast you out?” He probably doesn’t even know how much that resonates with her. Is this foreshadowing her storyline this season? Will she have to interact with or do something for the Grounders - or even specifically her clan, Sangedakru (which also happens to be the clan where Sheidheda was from - and the most likely to follow him if/when they find out who he is, since they seem to consider him their “greatest champion’)? (The latter seems slightly less likely now that Indra seems to have made them respect her authority... but I doubt it’s going to be that easy...)

BTW, speaking of Emori. let me just address the speculation that she’s pregnant - apparently based on the fact she threw up?! She threw up because she got radiation poisoning, FFS. If she were pregnant, the fetus would at least be in huge danger of not surviving. Maybe the writers of The 100 didn’t know or didn’t expect the audience to know about the effects of radiation, but come on, they must be aware that everyone has seen Chernobyl.) And Jackson, a doctor, examined her right there.

Murphy being snarky: “I’m tired of being a hero”. Hmm... when was the last time, Murphy, you were a hero without someone roping you in first, or without you following Emori’s lead or making a last moment decision? However, while Murphy likes to claim he doesn’t want to be a hero, Bellamy told him in 5x01 that Murphy’s problem on the Ring was that he actually wanted to be a hero and felt useless because he didn’t have the opportunity. Still, he’s come a long way since season 1, when he wasn’t exactly that protective of children.... Granted, Charlotte was not an innocent, but she was still a child. And he was 17 at the time, now he’s an adult.

I’m enjoying watching Indra in her new leadership role and her stand-offs with RussHeda. It’s very fortunate that Adina is not busy with AHS anymore, and JR Bourne makes for a fantastic villain - in a completely different way than Russell was. Russell was soft and emotional while also pompous and hypocritical and seemed to believe his own BS, which made him all the more annoying. Sheidheda is much smarter and has no delusions about being a good guy. He’s scary and dark but he also knows how to turn the situation to his benefit and has very rational remarks about how ridiculous the Faithful are with their tactic. He clearly has nothing but contempt for them. “My, my, what foolish little lambs you are.” (Which ties into this season’s themes of Shepherd and the flock.)

We learn more about Indra’s backstory, and this is the most I’ve been interested in Grounder history since... ever?

It’s also quite dark how she manipulates Jackson with his desire for revenge, by keeping the truth from him that RussHeda is not Russell. But Jackson’s dark side of his thirst for revenge for Abby has made him the most interesting that he’s ever been as a character.

I think that this storyline will eventually somehow tie with the main storyline. If nothing else then because Sheidheda and Madi are connected to the knowledge from the Flame, which is connected to Becca and ALIE and events from the prequel. Especially since it increasingly seems like the “great war” that’s being talked about may have something to do with AIs...

Bardo

Timeline and time dilation

Let me get this off my chest first... The timeline of this episode was confusing for some viewers in terms of the sequence of events. That isn’t the case for me - the problem is that the amount of time that was supposed to pass makes the time dilation seem really inconsistent.

So, chronologically, things happened like this:

in 6x08 (some 4 or 5 Sanctum days ago): Diyoza goes into the Anomaly; ends up on Skyring

Octavia goes into the Anomaly 6 seconds later, ends up on Skyring, 3 months (Skyring time) after Diyoza arrived. she gives birth.

Octavia and Diyoza spend 10 years there raising Hope.

Octavia sends a message to Bellamy in a bottle, not realizing the bottle ended up on Bardo (apparently, the default setting of the Anomaly, is: you go from Sanctum to Skyring and from Skyring to Bardo). Disciples capture her and Diyoza and take them to Bardo.

While Hope spends 10 more years on Skyring with Dev, before jumping to Bardo, Octavia is taken to Bardo, tried to run away, then is taken to Memory Capture. This is 45 (Bardo) days ago. She resists at first, but 34 Bardo days ago, she allows Levitt access to her memories and he starts watching them in a more coherent and chronological manner. 31 Bardo days ago, after he’s seen her memories up to the season 3 finale, Hope comes to rescue her.

Levitt helps them and Octavia is sent back to Sanctum, losing her memories, and runs back into Gabriel’s arms (no, I don’t mean it like that and I don’t ship them) - 10 Sanctum seconds after she ran into the Anomaly! (This is still 6x08)

7 Bardo days ago (which is some 2 days ago on Sanctum) or 6x13, Hope (who had probably been immediately captured when trying to save her mother - I guess she and the Disciples spent 24 days waiting for Octavia to enter Hope’s mind code into the Anomaly Stone...) is sucked into Sanctum, stabs Octavia with the tag which pulls her to Bardo. Octavia is brought to MCap again, and apparently Levitt talks to her and then she is brought to the Stone Room to talk Bellamy down. Something happens to Bellamy and Octavia is made to believe he’s dead.

in the present, Hope, Echo and Gabriel (after spending 5 years on Skyring, which was somehow 2 days on Sanctum (?)) jump to Bardo, kill some people, pretend to be DIsciples and listen to Anders’ speech, find Octavia, and see the memory of whatever happened or did not happen to Bellamy.

Now this means that the time differentials between planets have been like this:

Sanctum: 6 seconds = Skyring: 3 months

Sanctum:10 seconds = Skyring: over 20 years (because Hope spent 20 years on Skying and at least a few hours on Bardo, all in those 10 Sanctum seconds)

Sanctum: a few seconds (under 10 seconds, probably a lot less) = Bardo: 14 days (from “45 days ago” to “31 days ago”)

Sanctum: about 2 or 3 days = Bardo: 24 days

Sanctum: 2 days = Bardo: 7 days

Sanctum: a little over 1 day = Skyring: 5 years

See the problem here?

@justbecauseyoubelievesomething pointed out before that the time differentials may vary a lot because of planets orbiting their suns (and Sanctum orbiting its planet and the suns) in elliptic orbits, so distances from the black hole change. However, the problem with this is that 1) they haven’t said that on the show and instead keep talking about the time differentials as if they are at least roughly the same or similar all the time, and 2) these fluctuations vary way too much for it to make any sense? If it was just 1:3 and then 1:7, for instance, OK - but how the heck does the time differential between Sanctum and Bardo go from 1:200,000 to 1:3?

How is this supposed to work? Do people on Bardo go:

“We’re sending a team to Sanctum!”

“Understood! We will need just an hour to retrieve the target!” “But Sir... they’ll return in 20 years! We have to wait till next week, then an hour will be just 7 hours here!”

“All right, we have to wait for the next week then!”

And do these fluctuations happen just between Sanctum and Bardo or Sanctum and Skyring, or also between Bardo and Skyring? The latter would make their prison system quite complicated and tricky!

A couple of other pieces of info -

Levitt put the “Trust Bellamy” note in Hope’s arm during his MCap session (because he knew what Bellamy was to Octavia), but Anders apparently did not realize why Hope was bleeding or that it had something to do with Levitt, though he was the only one who could’ve had any contact with her?

One thing I don’t get is the part where Anders says: “it’s why you’re a prisoner dressed like a savage so you can get close to Aunty O”. Why did they have to dress Hope in Grounder-like clothes, exactly?

We also see that Meredith’s team was told to go to Sanctum and find Clarke - though it’s unclear why they waited so long to send them. Or why Meredith’s team waited about a day and a half to contact Clarke. We see Anders telling Meredith: “Because of the time dilation, no one will come for you if you fail” - and I have no idea that’s supposed to mean, especially since I don’t know what time differential it was supposed to be at the time.

Octavia in Memory Capture

...And I’m gonna nitpick some more.

Maybe it’s not a big deal that many of the scenes we saw as Octavia’s memories didn’t make sense, because they were either scenes she wasn’t present for or scenes from the future (relative to the moment when she was on Bardo the first time), but I expected better, after the wonderful attention to detail in last season’s Nevermind and Matryoshka, where neither the prop masters nor editors and sound editors made any mistakes with what we saw and heard of Clarke’s memories.

So, 45 days ago, when Octavia was first brought to Bardo, and Anders and Levitt were seeing random memories against her will, the first thing she’s told is to imagine someone holding out a hand to her to help her, and we see brief flashes of various memories (aka scenes from the previous seasons) before her mind settles of many different images of Bellamy:

Aurora with baby Octavia

Lincoln, just before his death

Indra - when Octavia finds her and talks to Clarke and Lexa (3x05) - of course this is there because of Indra, but I don’t know if Clarke is also supposed to be one of the people O thinks of: we see her quite clearly as she’s saying she must talk to Bellamy to save their people

and then a bunch of images of Bellamy - which is where things start not making sense, because while we see him

in the Pilot on the dropship (that makes sense)

in season 5 when he argued with Octavia (also makes sense)

but we also see him dressed Gabriel’s cardigan, which he only wore after reuniting with Octavia in 6x10, after she came back from Bardo, and one of the images is definitely from 6x13 when Hope came from the Anomaly (future scenes!)l

we also see the scene where Bellamy was looking for Octavia and talked to Clarke in 1x06 (where Octavia was obviously not present for! It’s also the scene right after the Aurora flashback - the editor were obviously being super lazy)

and Bellamy in an anti-radiation suit in 4x13 when he had to leave Clarke (the only way Octavia could remember that is if she had a telepathic link to her brother!)

Other memories include Murphy in Pike’s class (clearly just as a cool transition from a Murphy scene in Sanctum), but it was really funny how horrified Octavia seemed when Levitt asked her if he was her lover. ;) Levitt clearly got a bunch of images of her friends - including Raven, Clarke (from the Pilot!) and Indra, whose images we see on screen in addition to Bellamy - and he finally sees a bunch of memories of Hope on Skyring, which is what she was trying to hide the most.

At this point, Octavia desperately tries to make a deal with Levitt - he doesn’t mention Hope in his report, and lets her go later, and she’ll let him into her memories. Just before Levitt starts watching her memories in the chronological order, we hear some more of Octavia’s memories in her head (they aren’t showing on the screen, where the same flashbacks as before are playing):

banishing Echo in 4x11

Bellamy deciding to leave her in 6x03 (“Are you out of your mind? You didn’t need to kill anyone!”)

Miller saying “Blodreina gave that honor to me!”

Octavia yelling “You’re dead to me!” to Bellamy (in that disturbing scene in 3x10) and...

Hallucination!Pike telling her she caused a world to be destroyed and herself yelling she wanted “REDEMPTION!” - which is another inconsistency, because comes from a red toxin hallucination that she’ll only have after she returns to Sanctum (in 6x09)! At least you could say this was already in her subconsciousness, but these were supposed to her memories!

When she starts cooperating, Levitt basically binges the first 3 seasons of The 100 - or rather, a version of it where Octavia is the main character and everything is only from her POV - ending with 3x16, which is probably pretty significant, as they showed several moments right before Clarke destroyed the City of Light and the moments after she came back. We see Bellamy telling everyone what to do as they were fighting chipped people to protect Clarke, Clarke on the throne in the City of Light, Pike fighting chipped!Jaha, Pike saving Octavia, and, and after the destruction of the COL, Murphy and Emori hugging, and finally - Octavia stabbing Pike.

This is where Levitt goes “Yes!” - which makes me (and Octavia) feel real tonal dissonance. He reveals himself to be a true Octavia stan, the kind who thinks their favorite character simply cannot go wrong and who doesn’t just defend her and have an understanding and empathy for her motives and emotional states (which is great), but cheers even the bad things she did (which is not great). Now, if Levitt is meant to be a representation of a typical stan, that’s great. The show has, this season in particular (and even in S6 to a point - through Jordan) been dealing with the idea of Clarke, Octavia and other main characters as living legends. And a lot of t100 fans - including every single YouTube reactor I’ve seen - always cheers and says they’re happy when she kills Pike. I didn’t feel that way, so there’s that. And sure, some of that is because I didn’t hate Pike. But what’s more important is: that moment was never portrayed as a triumphant one. (It it was meant to be, it would have been Octavia killing Pike in a battle, or something similar to the scene where Lincoln killed Cage Wallace in 2x16, not Octavia stabbing Pike when he didn’t expect it, after they had fought together and right after he had saved her life. It wouldn’t have shown Bellamy and Clarke worried about Octavia, or made it her ‘start of darkness’ moment that led to her becoming a murder-obsessed assassin in season 4. And 6x09 made a point that Octavia herself saw this act as a wrong one - that she thinks she didn’t have the right to murder someone in cold blood even though she had legitimate reasons to hate him. The show generally doesn’t portray revenge-murder as a good thing. And that is true in this scene, too: we see flashbacks of Pike at his most heroic (fighting chipped Jaha and Pike right after he saved Octavia’s life) before the scene of her stabbing him, and while Levitt is like “YES!”, Octavia seems upset to see that moment again and a tear is falling from her eyes.

So why, then, is the show apparently portraying Levitt’s uncritical stanning of everything Octavia does as a great thing, and why are so many fans and reviewers convinced that Levitt is a great new love interest for Octavia, possibly her endgame love interest, because of his adoration of her and the praise her gives her? (And 7x06 has made me think that, yes, the show is definitely portraying him as a potential love interest.) Yes, I agree that Octavia needs someone to help boost her self-esteem and tell her she’s not a monster, that she’s a good person at heart, that she’s worthy of love. But it would mean so much more if it came from someone who was able to relate to her as an equal and also acknowledge her dark side and be critical of the bad things she did. “I understand why you did this and it doesn’t make you a terrible person” is different from “Everything you did is right and awesome.” I liked what he said about her as a child, how she was even then being responsible and protecting her mother and brother and not just herself by hiding. But it’s absurd to tell someone “You’re not a killer, you’re a warrior” right after you’ve seen them murder someone out of revenge in what most definitely wasn’t a battle or a fight. The fact is that Octavia is both a warrior and a killer. They all are - she, Clarke, Bellamy, all of them. Having a good heart and understandable motives doesn’t change that fact.

If Levitt is supposed to just be a Disciple with a crush that makes him help Octavia, fine, but I can’t see a potential romance there - it would be like a relationship between a celebrity and an obsessive fan.

World-building

This episode was full of world-building info, probably what I liked about it the most:

Levitt seemed particularly interested in Clarke and the fact she was in the City of Light, which makes me think that the reason why she is ‘the key’ in the eyes of the Disciples has something to do with Becca’s tech and ALIE in particular, and that the enemy they’re afraid of may be some sort of an AI.

We finally saw Bardo. Not that it was surprising since we already knew from the opening titles and 7x04 that the compound was underground and that it was a dome with artificial atmosphere and that it included an arboretum, Stone Room, which is on the way to the cells, etc. I checked to see if it matched the layout drawn by Orlando. I had assumed that the numbers were levels in the structure, but while Orlando put Arboretum as 1, it is on level 2.

It seems that all the Disciples were either black or white clothes. (Fits with the black and white way of thinking.) From what we’ve seen so far, it seems that the military, so to speak (fighters/those who jump to other planets) wear black, while the Stone Conductors, people who do the Memory Capture, other scientists, as well as other personnel (like janitors or gardeners/groundskeepers) wear white. Anders himself, the First Disciple, wears white, so I suppose he is one of the “civilians’.

Anders claims that the Disciples have risen above “lesser emotions” and learned to value the collective rather than the individuals. But from what we’ve seen of other Disciples, that’s BS. That may be their ideology, but in fact, they’re just the same as anyone else and just as prone to developing feelings of love and bonds of friendship as anyone else.

Levitt is Level 11! Which makes you wonder how hard the Disciples really check how ‘devout’ the Disciples are. But maybe he’s just too important as an expert,

We see the MCap technology at work. But we also see that it’s not easy to extract memories from an unwilling subject. Levitt has apparently mostly done this to the Disciples themselves (you’d think most of them would be willing, but obviously some were not, since they sound like they already have experience with unwilling subjects.) Levitt tries to get Octavia to comply because he’s a Good Cop by telling her that they may get his colleague instead, who will “burn right through” her brain. (But as we see from the Diyoza flashback in 7x06, that’s not true - the other guy, Kirsch, doesn’t do that when Diyoza is uncooperative. I don’t think they are actually able to do that.)

The Disciples usually send teams every 30 minutes (but these 30 minutes are drastically different on Sanctum and on Skyring!)

More about how the Anomaly Stones work: while Dev told Hope that all you need to do Is think where you want to go and the helmet will do the rest, it’s not actually that magical - in fact, you actually need someone (normally the Conductor) to push the buttons on the Anomaly Stone.

According to Levitt, pulling someone from another planet through the Anomaly is “ safe 8 out of 10 times". What happens the other 20% of times? Is it really being “turned inside out” as Hope said in 7x02?

It’s also confirmed that people lose their memories if they travel without the helmets from a faster to a slower time dilated planet (which I had already figured out based on the fact that the danger only seemed to exist when travelling from Skyring/Bardo to Sanctum and from Skyring to Bardo, but not the other way round).

When Hope was about to leave to save her mother, Levitt tried to tell her: “They have helmets, too, that means that…” – what? That they can see her? Meredith’s team didn’t see Raven, so it can’t be that. But do they have some other way of communicating? Do you have to be actively thinking for them to detect you? Whatever it is, she should’ve listened as she quickly got caught.

Eyes are important as it’s through them that the biometric signature/mind code is made. And the Disciples have a very quick way of painting/tattooing the code on someone’s back.

What exactly is the problem with the atmosphere on Bardo? There is a biohazard alert as Octavia is brought in and she’s checked for some sort of an infection (“she’s clean”). It seems that the problem is with some kind of a disease (especially with what we hear from Levitt in 7x06).

In the category of revelations that weren’t a surprise at all since the fandom has figured them out weeks ago, Gabriel realizes that there is a Stone on Earth (as we saw in 7x04 and in the opening titles - it’s the offline planet), by listening to Anders’ speech where he mentions that the Shepherd delivered them by a stone. (Confirming the theory that Disciples are Second Dawn even before that was technically confirmed in 7x06 and that Cadogan led them through the Anomaly some time after the Apocalypse and after burning Becca. I suppose they disconnected the Stone so unbelievers could not follow them.)

There’s a ton of new info about the history of Bardo. According to the Disciples, the compound was built by “Native Bardoans”, who went extinct before the Disciples got there. And they were supposedly giants, but were turned by something called “Gen9″ into “crystal giants”?! Levitt says that the whole min code could fit on a Bardoan’s arm? (How does he know that?) I call BS on that. The rooms and doors in the compound are tall, but wide enough just for a human-sized person to pass through. (And there are plenty of human buildings with very tall doors and ceilings.) The retinal scans are fitted to the human eye, all the technology is human-sized, and, most importantly, the keys on the Anomaly Stone are the size of a human finger. The whole thing reminds of many legends that various big ancient buildings were built by giants. I still think Eligius III people were the ones who built the compound. We still haven’t heard anything of them and where they fit. And with the time dilation, they could’ve been on Bardo for decades or centuries before Second Dawn arrived a few Earth years later.

What is Gen9? I assume it’s a disease (especially with all the mentions of the polluted atmosphere on the surface), but it’s also been suggested it may be a computer program, which would fit with the idea of the enemy being an AI or connected to AIs. I like the theory that it’s not short from “Generation 9″ but “Genesis 9″, which would fit with the religious themes (the Disciples mix and match a lot of pseudo-Christian and pseudo-Buddhist ideas). Genesis 9 is the chapter about God’s Covenant with Noah, where God tells him that humans should go and multiple and feed on plants and animals, but they mustn’t eat what has lifeblood in it still, and they mustn’t shed the blood of another human being. “I will demand an accounting for the life of another human being.“

These are the transcripts of all the prayers and speeches of the Disciples from this episode, as much as I was able to hear them:

[prayer] “In the light of the Shepherd, for all mankind. He will save us from the war to end all wars”

[female speaker] "The Shepherd brings us wisdom. The Shepherd brings us love, for all mankind. (...) Humanity (...) (final days)… burned, (...) as bombs launched, your ancestors chose a different path. There will soon be time when we will be tested to a man, and we will be victorious. For all mankind!"

[male introducing Anders]“And now, it is my greatest honor to present the esteemed First Disciple, who will lead us through today’s lesson on the Book of Allness.”

Anders: “Thank you, Emilio. In the light of the Shepherd, for all mankind!

Let’s first take a moment to acknowledge our newest class of Level 9s. You’ve each demonstrated impressive devotion to the Shepherd. Our predecessors on this planet did not share that faith. Like our ancestors on Earth, they destroyed their world. Even before they were wiped out by Gen 9 and turned into crystal giants, their atmosphere was so polluted they were forced to build forests underground in order to breathe. Even the rain that should fall from the sky, falls instead by their technology. For that, we thank them. But where are they now? We know that by the time the Shepherd delivered us with the stone, the Bardoans were gone, extinct. Why is that? [Someone from the crowd: “They didn’t have the Shepherd!” Everyone laughs. Oh, Disciple humor... ] No, they didn’t, did they? They [unintelligible, Gabriel speaks over this part]… they lost their last great war. That same enemy is coming after us now. But, in the light of the Shepherd, we will not lose. [crowd cheers] We’re close now. We’ve located the key. After hundreds of years it has returned to us. Ours is the generation that will win the last war! Our Shepherd will rise [unintelligible] and we will win (?) this fight, for all mankind!”

Hi, Bellamy! Bye, Bellamy! See ya later!

And for the most important thing in this episode: yes, we were blessed with a rare and joyous moment,, a sighting of Bellamy Blake on screen (and not in MCap but in an actual new scene), as occurrence as rare this season as (probably) the Disciples seeing the Shepherd.

While absolutely no one is buying the fake-out death (about as convincing as Clarke’s in 6x04 or Octavia’s in 6x13, though I now wonder if leaving Bellamy out of the poster and Bob out of the Countdown was a part of the fake-out they committed to), there have been many different theories about what really happened there, if the whole scene was staged or if it even happened or was an implanted memory. (The glitch effects between scenes may have contributed to that theory, but the glitch effect occurred at random points, e.g. when Hope remembered her conversation with Anders, and I don’t see why that would be a false memory.)

For a moment, I even wondered if Levitt talking to Octavia was her hallucination (seeing a comforting figure) because it seemed quite implausible that Anders and the others had only then started to figure out that he got too close to her, and that they were still letting her come anywhere near her. But 7x06 proved I was wrong. Well, maybe Anders has realized Levitt had helped Octavia and Hope and it’s all some elaborate trap where he is using Levitt as an unwitting pawn, though that seems a bit convoluted... or maybe Anders just isn’t actually that smart as we assume he should be.

I’ve never believed in the ‘implanted memory’ theory, and people have since pointed out that there’s a sign of damage from the blast in the Stone Room.

The other prevalent theory is that the whole scene was staged by the Disciples and that Bellamy himself was in on it because he’s been brainwashed. The arguments are - it’s unlikely that Bellamy managed to overpower a few Disciples after being captured unconscious, and that there’s supposedly something “off” about him in that scene because he had been crying just before that. I don’t think there’s anything “off”, and he had learned that Octavia was alive, so why do people expect him to be crying rather than fighting to save her? As for it being unlikely that he killed a couple of Disciples immediately, overpowered another and captured the Conductor - I’m sorry, but have you seen the Disciples this season? They are being killed by pretty much every main character. And maybe some fans see Bellamy as a soft sweet teddy bear of a man and think that only women on t100 are allowed to be good fighters, but canon Bellamy is pretty damn badass and really good at fighting. What would be actually hard to believe is that Bellamy could get brainwashed over the course of a few hours. I’m sorry, but no.

People also said the fact that Bellamy asked what the heck Octavia was talking about when she used the opportunity to tell him that Disciples wanted Clarke (”I’ll tell them everything, even about Clarke”) was a sign he had lost his memories or been brainwashed and that he didn’t know who Clarke was - which is a really convoluted argument. The simplest and most obvious answer is that he was surprised and wanted to know what they wanted with Clarke.

There was actually something odd about that scene - but it was Anders’ behavior. after Octavia said that line about Clarke and after Bellamy reacted to it, he got a very strange look on his face, and the camera was focusing on him. The second odd thing is that the Conductor got very upset at that moment and started begging Anders: “Sir, please, no”, before Anders shut him up - which seemed like an overreaction to the possibility of... what? Letting a prisoner go? This makes me think that the Disciple on the floor detonating a grenade was a part of the ploy by Anders. He certainly was never going to send Bellamy to Sanctum - I have an idea where he actually sent him - but what if he was also signalling something to the Disciple - that he should detonate the grenade? Which would be a smoke screen so Octavia, Levitt and others wouldn’t know what really happened to Bellamy and would think he was dead.

But why would Anders want Octavia to think he was dead? It’s certainly not to make her cooperate, because that was only ever likely to have the opposite effect. But also - why would the Disciples focus on making Octavia tell them more about Clarke, when they could try to use Bellamy for the same purpose? From Octavia’s memories, they must have known how close Bellamy and Clarke are. (Or did Levitt tell Anders that? If he did not, that was an additional reason to suspect Levitt and hide information from him. If Anders was only starting to realize there’s a connection between Clarke and Bellamy, that could have changed his plans.) And they could do more with Bellamy than just try to get his memories. They could use him (his life, his safety) to draw in Clarke, the “key”. If Anders has sent Bellamy somewhere and wanted to hide his whereabouts and make people on Bardo think he’s dead for the time being, the blast could be a good distraction, before he plays that card. (All of this, of course, assuming Anders is actually smart.)

Now, where is Bellamy? He certainly wasn’t sent back to Sanctum, and Anders had no reason to send him to Skyring or Nakara (if he needs him alive and under his control, that would defeat the purpose), And there’s no indication that it’s possible for the Anomaly Stone to send a person to another location on the same planet. So, I believe Bellamy has been sent to Etherea. That would be the reason to finally go to the only planet of the 6 that we haven’t seen yet. I’ve also had the theory that Etherea is the slowest of all the planets - because, if you’re using time dilation as a plot point, why wouldn’t you milk it for its worth? And if that’s the case - good news is that Bellamy won’t get almost any older, but the bad news is that he’s lost all his memories. But not too bad of a news, since he’d get them back as soon as he gets to a faster planet.

This would open some juicy story possibilities...

An Echo of Finn (and Octavia?)

This episode continued the trend we’ve already seen in 7x04 - Hope is becoming more of a killer after her first kill on Skyring, Echo is reverting to her identity as as ruthless spy and killer (and occasionally murderer, as at the of this episode), in her 5-year single-minded mission to save Bellamy and now as a result of believing that Bellamy is dead and her mission was for nothing. And Gabriel is getting more and more frustrated with both of them, especially Echo, and constantly going “will you stop killing people, please?” (Well, not in those words.) (And I’m wondering how close he really got to the others, since they spent 5 years together and were preparing to jump to Bardo, but Hope never told Gabriel about Levitt?! )

There was some irony earlier in the episode when Hope seemed almost ready to attack Anders in front of hundreds of Disciples (she really hates him - I guess because she knew they were torturing her mother), and Echo told her to “pull herself together”, since it was Echo later that lost it, murdered Kirsch the memory capture guy in a particularly brutal way, and blew their chances of using him to get to Diyoza, which would’ve been a terrible blow to Hope if Diyoza hadn’t freed herself anyway, as we see in 7x06.

(Kudos to Tasya for being really good in that scene, she made Echo look genuinely scary. I’ve often criticized her acting, but this time she was really on point.)

So let’s talk about this moment and Echo’s arc this season.

Some people say that this is just a normal reaction to “losing the love of your life” and that everyone would react the same. But we’ve seen other characters lose people they deeply loved, and they did not react the same way. We’ve seen Bellamy react to Octavia’s “death” in S4 and Clarke’s “death” in S6. We’ve seen Clarke react to many of her loved ones’ deaths, most recently to her mother’s. Her grief over her mother was shown in detail over several episodes, and we saw her explode in the end, but while she beat up Russell, she stopped herself from killing him (and Russell was the actual person who murdered her mother and had previously tried to murder Clarke herself and stole her body for his daughter). In S6, Bellamy wanted to kill Russell (again, the actual person responsible for Clarke’s death) and burn the Sanctum down, but he stopped himself. In this very episode, we see Octavia react to her brother’s “death”. which she sees as very real, but she hasn’t started going around and killing anyone she gets her hands on.

Now, Octavia of the past, S3 Octavia, was different, far less mature, more violent, and she did react violently to Lincoln’s death, including becoming a murderer - now, the person she murdered was the one directly responsible for Lincoln’s death, but she also went on to become an assassin and became rather murder-happy, before stopping herself just as she was about to kill Ilian the same way Pike killed Lincoln.

Another obvious parallel is to Finn and the way he was losing control and becoming more violent, ruthless and selfish, from murdering a Grounder prisoner, to wanting to leave Mel literally hanging from a cliff because she was unimportant in his eyes compared to his goal of finding and “saving” Clarke (who, it turned out, didn’t even need saving and had saved herself), to completely losing it and killing a bunch of completely innocent people. The guy Echo killed here wasn’t really innocent, but he wasn’t responsible for Bellamy’s “death”, either, and Echo’s behavior on her quest to save Bellamy has been increasingly violent throughout the season. And, while we knew Clarke was alive and well, we don’t know where Bellamy is but he is still alive and will probably eventually meet Echo again, just like Clarke reunited with Finn.

(Mind you: I don’t think Echo’s killing spree is the reason why Becho will fall apart. The relationship was already disintegrating in S6, if you pay any attention. This is more about Echo herself and where she finds herself without that relationship. Finn’s killing spree wasn’t the reason why Flarke fell apart, either. Clarke still had feelings for Finn, but she had rejected him for other reasons, i.e. his earlier behavior. )

What do all these actions have in common? They weren’t romantic, they were f*cking unhealthy. When Finn told Clarke that he killed all those people for her, she was horrified, and I was really angry at him for telling her something that terrible.

In Finn’s case, he may have been suffering from PTSD, and his feelings for Clarke were turning into an obsession and made him look almost like a stalker. In Echo’s case, she has serious identity issues and her childhood trauma and conditioning by Queen Nia. But the show is, in this case, more open about the fact that, for Echo, it’s not all about romantic love. or love in general. She has lost her purpose. Bellamy is not just her boyfriend, he’s her King, like Nia and Roan before him. Echo’s own subconsciousness has been telling her that this is a problem, and that her relationship with Bellamy is very unbalanced. “Without Bellamy, who will you follow? Without someone to follow, who are you?” It also told her that she has remained the same as before she became a part of the Spacekru and his girlfriend: “Once a killer, always a killer.” ““The honorless spy who would do anything for her queen, even betray the man she now claims to love?” In S5 and S6, Bellamy was trying to not “make the same mistakes”, and “do better”, and was always rejecting Echo’s more ruthless suggestions of how to deal with any potential enemies, and she always fell in line as he was the leader/ Without him, she is reverting to her old patterns.

It’s not romantic or a sign of soulmate love to wrap your whole identity over one person. It’s really unhealthy. It was also unhealthy when Octavia said she didn’t have a home and didn’t belong anywhere after Lincoln’s death because he was “her home”. She had to grow out of that. Maybe she could offer some advice to Echo now. Will it work or not? I don’t know.

What I’m sure of is that Becho is doomed, but the writing on the wall has been there at least throughout season 6, if not already in season 5. What I don’t know is how Echo’s own arc this season will end. She will have to forge a new identity, but what will it be? Will she start following someone else? (That would be a pretty depressing arc.) Become independent, but still a ruthless killer? Will she start thinking about the morality of her actions as most other o the major characters do? Will she fail to find any solution and will die? Not every character on the show gets to have an uplifting arc where they solve their issues. Her arc is different from Finn’s because his dark arc was a completely new and shocking development, while Echo is reverting to who she used to be. But I think it’s more likely that she gets a more positive ending than Finn, because the show has been paralleling storylines in seasons 6-7 to storylines of early seasons (like Sanctum-Mount Weather) but with a more positive outcome.

Best moments/lines

While Bellamy’s 1-minute appearance was undoubtedly the highlight of the episode, my favorite scenes were Octavia’s reunion and goodbye with Hope (even with Hope being an adult now, Octavia talks to her as a surrogate aunt: “I love you, little one, don’t you ever forget it”), the scenes with Murphy and the kids and the battle of wills between Indra and Sheidheda.

The best line by far was Hope’s reply to Anders:

“This is what happens when you value individuals above the collective”

Hope: “It’s called love, you son of a bitch,”

Body count:

One Faithful burned herself.

another fanatical suicide: a Disciple who detonated the grenade (at Anders’ orders?) in the flashback scene with Bellamy

a bunch of Disciples killed, again. For a group that’s supposed to be so badass and scary, they really failing to be that, since they’re constantly getting their asses kicked. OK, they are not all Level 12, and Orlando was both Level 12 and a teacher of fighting skills. And yes, Echo and Hope (and Gabriel, who hasn’t killed anyone so far) have had almost 5 years of training by Orlando, while Octavia and Bellamy (and Diyoza, of course) are incredibly badass even without it. But you can’t keep them getting killed so easily and expect me to take them seriously. This time, Bellamy killed a couple in the flashback, and Hope and Echo killed a few, including a particularly sadistic murder of Kirsch the Memory Cap guy.

Rating: 7.5/10

#the 100 #the 100 season 7 #the 100 7x05 #welcome to bardo #octavia blake #bellamy blake #indra kom trikru #indra #sheidheda #john murphy #echo kom azgeda #hope diyoza #gabriel santiago #cadogan #the disciples #bardo #time dilation #the anomaly

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justbwi · 5 years

Text

For The Time Being (ch.3)

this story is set in an alternate universe where time has become the universal currency and people, born with a digital clock on their forearm, stop aging at the age of 20

Pairings: Jungkook x reader (ft. taehyung)

Word Count: 3.8k

Genre: dystopian au / fluff / angst

Warnings: building sexual tension still pg13

Chapters: 01 l 02 l 03

Summary: where you fall into Jungkook’s grasp and there is no time for escape

a/n: sorry for the long wait D: i’m probs the slowest writer in this world shame on you tiff :/ pls stay tuned tho i promise to write whenever i can

Time was ticking fast.

“Are you just going to sit there and watch?”

You were too focused on the clock hung daintily on the wall to answer. It was strange to know that such thing still existed when everyone else has learnt to pay more attention to the one running in their veins instead.

The clock arm made a disturbing sound as it flicked to the next second. You frowned and figured it displeased you the same way basking in the afternoon sun was.

“Jimin-ah, can we go home now?” You shouted over the humming of beetles. Summer was intolerable enough itself. Why did your brother have to make it even more so by running in the heat?

The said boy craned his neck slightly backwards, his eyes always genuine and soft. “Y/N, come on,” he calls. “We came to have fun, remember? Besides, running makes me feel-“

Alive.

You finished the sentence for him in your heart and secretly waited for the applause in celebration of a right guess. But, the clap never came. In fact, you would never know what he was about to say as his voice had been cut off so abruptly that as soon as you had your glance landed upon the tracks he was on minutes ago, you found him lying flat against the scorching ground instead.

“Jimin! Park Jimin!” You rushed to his side, chest heaving out of anxiety.

He was knocked unconscious, face made direct impact with the solid Earth. One would be mistaken to think that he had been asleep save for his crossing of eyebrows. The cruel sunlight cast shadows under the lashes and made beads of sweats form on his forehead.

He was in pain.

You shook him violently. “Jimin! Wake up!”

The green light, discernible to your peripheral vision, came afloat under Jimin’s skin, but you had cared less. You only wanted him to come around and repeatedly tell you that he was fine as if he was chanting a mantra while he wiped the hot, burning tears away as he always do when you are upset.

“Please…please…” You pled to the gods you had never laid faith on, knowing that there was nothing you would not give up in exchange for them to ease their grips on Jimin’s lifeline.

Within seconds, your vision grew blurry and you could taste salt on your lips. Your mind was a whirl of chaos and filled with desperate thoughts. Even as Jimin’s eyelids fluttered open weakly, you had reckoned it a delusion fate had so cruelly put in your way.

“Y/N,” Jimin drawled, the strength in him practically seeped out with each syllable. His eyes widened at the sight of you crying, and instinctively, took your face in his hands. “Why…why are you crying, silly?”

You blinked hard, attempting to brush the hallucination away. “Jimin.”

As he lifted his arm and your cheek perfectly housed in his grasp, you faintly and officially regarded the new instalment in his body which was glowing and…ticking.

Jimin followed your stare and was able to catch on your train of thoughts right away. He was not surprised or confused, nothing you had experienced over the short span of him passing out in the sun earlier.

“It’s my birthday.” His comment was brief and plain, accompanied with a smile which did not quite reach his eyes. But, it was enough for both of you to understand why he suddenly fainted not long ago. You have heard rumours of people reacting differently to the first appearance of ‘the clock’, but witnessing one in person formed a completely uncanny piece of memory you wish to eradicate.

You gazed at his clock as the digits went from 9 to 0. The countdown seemed to affect you more than Jimin himself. Now, his life was also put to a limit. You were, at some point, at a loss for words as if your throat was filled with rocks of sharp edges that would cut open your flesh should you make a sound.

You stared at him, tears continued gliding down.

“Please d-don’t die, Jimin..” You stuttered among incoherent sobs. “…don’t die.”

Jimin chuckled. “I won’t,” he cooed as he swiped his thumb across your cheekbone.

“I will stay by your side and protect you.”

Always.

"Y/N. Y/N?"

Taehyung watches you stir in your sleep, troubles evidently edged between your brows. He was on the verge of bringing up his embarrassing childhood memories when you dozed off. The sight of you mumbling inaudible words while clinging onto him has been too precious for someone to disturb, and he would do anything to keep it that way until your body started shivering, your forehead covered with perspiration and your muscles essentially tensed as if you were ready to run. That was when the boy sensed that something had gone wrong and had to wake you up against his will.

"Y/N," he calls again.

Your eyes flutter open in an instant, the stare hazy and hollow. You are panting as you regain your senses, the realisation that you are riding with a stranger who is likely to report this abnormality to Jungkook, provided that the two of them are friends, dawns on you. You cannot share your secrets and weaknesses with them because these people, who live in an utterly different universe than yours, would only figure out a way to use them against you.

"Are you…alright?" The brunet suggests worriedly as he grimaces, recalling the previous scene. "You were practically trembling. Bad dreams, I suppose?"

It was not merely a nightmare. You were suffering. Everyday passing without Jimin, your haven, is a torture itself already. You thought to yourself. You do not need dreams to remind you of what you have lost.

"I'm sorry," you blurt out instead of admitting the sickening truth, not intending to disclose more of yourself even as Taehyung is paying you the earnest gaze.

Taehyung laughs, his hands nimble on the wheels. "For what?"

"For falling asleep. It doesn't mean that your stories are boring at all. It's just-" You are trying to make up excuses for what he might be thinking after you have slept on him, but your brain does not work as effectively as it normally does, apparently still clasped in the claws of nightmare.

"You are tired. I totally get it," Taehyung replies with a smile you have almost mistaken it for a sympathetic one. It keeps you wondering if rich people like him, practically immortal people like him, would be able to understand such concepts. "Working with Jungkook is already exhausting because he is such a perfectionist and he expects the best from everyone around him. Can't imagine what working for him is like."

You stifle a chuckle, hoping not to show any contempt for your master but knowing that Taehyung has just spoken the greatest truth of them all.

Taehyung catches the playful glint in your eyes and beams. Even though you are still wary of him, it seems that he is determined to show you that he strays from your stereotypical wealthy heir of whatever inherited corporation existing in Gangnam.

"Say it," the boy nudges you with his arm as the car comes to a halt, the unblinking red traffic light in huge contrary to the jumping digits on your exposed arm.

"What?" You glance at the rear-view mirror, the Jeon's mansion was long out of eyesight.

Taehyung takes a deep breath and nods as if he knew what your heart has been shouting ever since you left Incheon to live an even more miserable life. “Jungkook is…” he prompts.

"- a jerk." The two of you miraculously chant in unison.

You laugh in the most genuine way for the first time ever since you have been thrusted into the Jeon mansion, all the tension and stress abandoned in the darkest corner of your mind.

All thanks to Taehyung.

“Right, here we are. Let’s go!”

You watch as he bounce off the driver’s seat, heading to the grocery store with an overflowing surge of enthusiasm, which you greedily steal a share of. A little blitheness when you are away from Jeon won’t hurt after all, will it.

Taehyung's love for strawberries and basically anything that tastes sweet continues to fascinate you as he wipes the shelves clean at the dessert section, boxes of candies piling up in the trolley.

"Dark or milk chocolate?" The boy holds out two packages extravagantly adorned with ribbons and waves them at you.

It takes a few seconds before you realise that he was asking for your advice. Honestly, you have barely had chocolate before, except that one time when Jimin came first in those Inter-school competitions where the winners were awarded with a decent amount of time wrapped nicely in a capsule, and he had spent all that on such luxury to cheer you up after a fight. You soon realise that all chocolate basically taste the same – pure and sweet – as Jimin.

"Milk," you reply with a shy smile, remembering that only piece of chocolate you have ever had.

Taehyung beams and grabs two milk bars from the shelves, adding them to his fountain of desserts.

To your surprise, the boy finally decides that it is enough for the day and heads straight to the cashier when you were already looking for escape routes just in case you were stuck within the store long past its working hours. You have your forearm exposed to the staff as the tags are being processed and you silently hope that your digits would be returned the moment you went back to the Jeon mansion.

"Take mine." Taehyung's words jolt you out of your cloud of worry. Rolling up his sleeve, he shrugs at you nonchalantly. You watch his digits disappear around his wrist, the lavish life getting sucked out of him bits by bits.

"Why?" The two of you are out in the parking lot when you can no longer hold back your curiosity.

Taehyung pauses in front of you, his left hand occupied with packages of food, his right on the door handle.

He looks at you, dumbfounded. "What do you mean?" He is wearing a unadulterated smile, the kind that should not be present after a painful slice in one's lifeline, though willing.

You do not have the courage to return the gaze lest evident shame runs wild in your eyes. "Earlier. Why did you..." sacrifice on my behalf.

Taehyung simply chuckles. He rummages through one of the largest packages and in it comes through the bar of milk chocolate beautifully wrapped in silver. "Here you go," he offers as if it was an everyday treat.

"Working for kookie can be demanding sometimes, but trust me, there is still a gentle heart hidden somewhere deep within his unyielding armour. You just have to look closer." He starts the car engine, the navigation set to work on a return trip to the Jeon mansion. "Until then, you can hold onto this piece of chocolate. It can always brighten up your day."

The ride back is tranquil. You have never been that at ease with someone since Jimin. This brunet at the driver's seat has not treated you like a servant as most of the people in Gangnam do. He does not stare at your exposed forearm as if the same pulsing underneath did not run in his own system. He calls you by your name, wiping out the filth others see at its edges with a gracious beam.

With him, you can feel normal again.

Almost.

Not until there comes a voice so familiarly unwelcome which breaks all signs of comfort bubbling in you.

"What takes you so long?" His voice is laced with irritation. It makes you shrink back to your disposable self, avoiding the trigger to his timed bomb.

Taehyung thinks otherwise. He takes two long strides towards the trunk, retrieving the shopping bags which should be handled with by someone like you instead. A servant.

"Well...I may have been loitering around the sweets section for a few more minutes than I usually do," the boy sheepishly grins, flashing the dozens of shopping bags in his grip and heads for the front door himself.

You quickly moves to stand in his way, recalling your status in this household. It could have been an ordinary sight for him to carry those bags in public and you could simply appreciate how gentlemanly he is, but now that you are back to the mansion where Mr. Kim is constantly checking up on you to make sure you know your place as a servant, you just cannot risk another delay in the distribution of time capsules. Unfortunately, Taehyung does not have the intention to give in.

"Y/N, can you get the door for me?" The brunet asks with a sweet smile you are trying to engrain in your mind. It is so bright that you almost comply. You bet you will do anything he wishes under such influences.

"Master Kim, let me have those," you gesture at the gift boxes, the words unintentionally coming out as pleads. "Please."

Taehyung shakes his head in disapproval. "Not until you know how to address me properly," he knowingly smirks.

You gulp visibly and whisper, hoping that you would not get into trouble because of this. "Tae..."

"Such a good girl," Taehyung grins as he gradually unloads some of the lighter packages in your arm, the ruffle of your hair coming at last. You can feel the growingly familiar warmth radiated from him and smiles back on reflex. You almost get lost in this new reverie until a cold and harsh voice brings you back to life.

"Y/N."

You turn towards the source and find Jungkook staring at the two of you. His face is adorned with rage and something you cannot quite pinpoint.

"Yes, Master Jeon?" You abruptly detach yourself from Taehyung's touch although you already start to miss his gentleness the second you drift away from him.

"My tie," Jungkook emotionlessly utters.

You look at him blankly and wait for him to spill out another word but there is nothing. He just stands there as if that was enough for interpretation. He is apparently not wearing a tie at the moment, so with him mentioning one can only mean one thing.

"It's in the washer, I suppose," you reply after taking a wild guess at his supposed question and return to helping Taehyung with his bags.

Jungkook scowls. "I need it now."

"But Master Jeon, it's-"

"I don't want to repeat myself."

You nod defeatedly, knowing there is absolutely no room for argument when Jungkook is concerned. If he wants something, he always gets it regardless. Besides, you are in no place to put up a fight either.

You give Taehyung an apologetic smile as he waves you off, heading to take more of the bags out from the trunk while Jungkook has no intention to help. The latter boy smirks in victory despite the fact that he still manages to sound bored with everything.

"In ten minutes. My room."

The problem with Jeon Jungkook is that he is too much of a perfectionist. There is no room for defiance when it comes to his order no matter how demanding or practically impossible it might seem to the common eye. The Jeons always get what they want, while servants like you exist to make sure of that.

That explains why you are currently in the master en-suite, blow-drying that damned flap of clothing which should have dried itself a few hours later under mechanical force instead of an inefficient labour if it has not untimely crossed Jungkook’s mind.

You have your back pressed against the counter and let the sound of the hairdryer drown out the rest of your thoughts. But that does not stop the train of cruses pouring out, unprocessed and directly addressed to Jungkook’s overwhelming arrogance. You are too focused on improvising the variations of swear words the boy is able to provoke in you that you forget the door to the en-suite is left ajar.

“Yes, I’m pretty sure we’ll see each other in hell,” Jungkook states as he walks in.

“Master Jeon.” You quickly straighten up, eyes darting everywhere but him as if you were a child caught sticking your hand halfway through the cookie jar. You are still figuring out what exactly is oozing off in his wake that has left you feeling agitated whenever he is around.

Jungkook extends a hand towards you.

Up close, you can see the scarce callouses worming their way into his palm. They are the trails left behind hours of hard work and labour, symbols of poverty you are bound to be affiliated with, not someone as wealthy as Jungkook should be bearing. You are intrigued by this small similarity the two of you share and suddenly find yourself anticipating more. You want to know where he could possibly get them from and why he would have allowed them to stay. But before you finish getting prepared for your death wish, he once again cuts you off, poking at the bubbles of imagination which are precariously growing at a high speed.

“Tie.” He gestures with a hint of annoyance, just enough to catch your attention.

“Oh,” you mutter, mostly to yourself. The tie is apparently not in its best condition for the wearer but if he insists to put it under his reign, you would simply have to obey.

You bow out of propriety without meeting his glare, the wanted object offered between the two of you. However, Jungkook does not even bulge. He remains as a still frame and waits as though you were meant to do something more than what you have been doing.

Unfortunately, you have no intention to solve this riddle, let alone clear the fog clouding your head ever since his absurd reaction towards the exchange between Taehyung and you.

“Master Jeon?” You feigned innocence as your glance flickered towards the set of his jaw.

He takes a step forward and dips his head in the direction of the tie in your hand. “Aren’t you supposed to do it for me?”

You blink at this simple request. Is he actually asking something from you instead of barking out commands?

“But…I don’t know how.”

A light shade of pink spreads across Jungkook’s sharply crafted cheekbones. He seems flustered because you have practically turned him down for the second time in a day, and you are not sure if you are finding this side of his adorable when you should be apologizing and begging at his mercy at the moment.

“You don’t know how to do a tie,” Jungkook lets the words swing on his tongue and steps closer to your still figure, his stare never wavers. You gaze right back at him, throat tight, when he places his hands on either of your shoulders and pivots you to look at the mirror behind. Long gone was his timidity, replaced by a predatory glint in his gold-specked iris.

Jungkook presses his body close to yours, his hot, minty breath fanning against the nape of your neck as he speaks. “Let me teach you.”

You are hyper-aware of his hand movements when he swiftly plays with the fabric, looping it around your neck in demonstration. His long, slender fingers graze your skin every now and then, setting it on fire. You can feel the walls pressing in on you, count the number of breaths you take and taste Jungkook’s signature cologne on your lips, the smell of musk wafting from his collar.

The room suffocates you.

He suffocates you.

“M-Master-” you purr, sanity drifting further and further away from your grasp. You squirm uneasily in his half-embrace as if that was enough to snap yourself out of this unexplained enchantment.

Jungkook smiles lazily, his left hand tracing patterns around your clock. You are sure it is not included in the steps of doing a tie.

“Call me Jungkook,” he breathes, his mouth desirably close to back of your ear. “The way you so casually did with Tae.”

You are too caught up by this proximity that you fail to catch the undertone of warning in his voice. So, you obey. “Jungkook.”

The boy smirks triumphantly, noticing how much he is affecting you. “Tell me. Who are you working for?”

Enthralled by the proximity, you finally let yourself succumb to this undoubtfully attractive man and the growing heat pooling between your thighs. Your brain and body seem to focus on nothing but Jungkook, his slightly sultry look invading each and every corner of your consciousness.

Automatically, you utter the only word you have been taught to memorise. “Jungkook.”

“Who is keeping you alive?”

You momentarily tear your gaze away from his inviting eyes with pains. The green digits throbs persistently beneath your skin. But, for the first time in forever, your heartbeats are outrunning them. “Jungkook.”

“And still, you fall for Taehyung, huh?”

The mention of the sun-kissed brunet pulls you at halt. You recall his blinding smile and the few moments of elation flooding your heart due to his company. Although you are pretty sure that it could not have been profound affection you are starting to feel at the thought of him, you still cannot bring yourself to deny what Jungkook has said right away.

Sensing that he is not getting a reply from you, Jungkook simply scoffs. He finishes the last touches with the tie hung around your neck and tightens it a bit too much to your liking.

“Here. I expect you to do it for me next time.”

You nod although you know that it is not his teachings you have been focusing on earlier. You glance at Jungkook, who is now leaning against the threshold, the predatory glint in his eyes has long gone. The fact that he gets unacceptably close to you on purpose just to distance himself later both confuses and irritates you.

Perhaps, you are just a disposable toy to him. He clearly does not cherish your presence as much as Taehyung, but why can’t you stop thinking about him? You find yourself drawn to his half smile more than the other boy’s wide grin.

Jungkook seems to be so different from what he appears to be in public and you are tempted to look under his façade for some unspoken reasons.

“For the record.” Jungkook’s voice snaps you out of weird and treacherous thoughts. You turn your back to the mirror, his tie a mismatched accessory to your otherwise plain uniform.

“Tae is engaged.”

#jungkook #jungkook scenario #jungkook scenarios #jungkook fic #jungkook fics #jungkook x you #jungkook x reader #jungkook x oc #jungkook fluff #jungkook smut #jungkook angst #bts scenario #bts scenarios #bts fic #bts fics #bts fluff #bts angst

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abs0luteb4stard · 5 years

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My spiritual war began half a lifetime ago. And I will carry it on even after I'm dead one day. Ω

Most people are raised with a religion or beliefs.

Some of them lose faith. Some become atheists. Some stay where they are in believing.

I I suppose I haven't fully stopped believing in a spiritual power/experience.

Call it the "God Gene" (VMAT2) or illogical stupidity, But I just can't purge that notion from my head.

According to the God Gene Hypothesis: "Spirituality is supposed to provide an evolutionary advantage by providing individuals with an innate sense of optimism."

I do not feel that optimism that there is a God or sentient universe out there. Or that "God has a plan".

I feel unspeakably betrayed.

When I was a young kid. I think I was very well behaved. I cared. I had a great heart. If that wasn't good enough for any god. Then they don't follow their own teachings.

When I got to middle school. I was scared. Three local schools were merged all my friends were lost in the shuffle. I thought it'll be difficult to make new friends, but I had hope.

Well, that hope wasn't lost. It was gouged out and raped from my spirit. Not just spiritually but my spirit of hope caring and goodness.

The bullying. They called me faggot, poor boy, foreigner (born here but was given a "foreign" name) on and on. They spit in my books. They knocked my books out of my hands everyday, between every class. Choked me, beat me, spit on me. There wasn't just a group, the group spread rumors and enlisted others in their attacks on me. Even my old friends from elementary school abandoned me because association with me was repugnant to their social standing. I once saw a buddy from elementary and said hello at his locker only to be ignored like I didn't exist.

Those 2 years of middle school left me completely empty. I remember I went to sleep every weeknight praying to die in my sleep. Ashamed at how that would hurt my parents if it came true. Then I would be woken up for school the next morning secretly crying because I was still alive and had to go through another day.

If there was a gun I would have gladly killed every one of those motherfuckers who were bullying me.

Especially Chas. He was the one who got the ball rolling on my destruction. How a dickhead who was seemingly proud of his failure of the 7th grade the year before I came there had such social clout with these pieces of shit I'll never understand.

High school was hell, but it slowly matured. Not without its own degrading moments where I was bullied or attacked or pushed down or spit on. But I think those who were there were preparing for their college or next step.

My grades were average. My spirit was broken already. My hope was nowhere. I was lucky to graduate probably.

I'm no longer normal. Those years of abuse at school changed me irrevocably. Everyday for 2 years. Non-stop. Physical, emotional, mental, pen tips pressed into the back of my neck till a bled. A pen cap pushed into my ear luckily it didn't hit my ear drum.

Principals, counselors, nobody did anything. Anything they did do was either a warning or giving me a punishment for retaliations.

I was punished for someone abusing me.

So I dropped out of local community college after a spotty 2 years. Continued schooling just came with anxieties and fear. I'd already had my life's share of that. I needed surgery and after I just let go of further education. Of a career of any kind.

Now I'm 33, soon to be 34. And these things that have effected me since half my life ago still affect me today. Call it C-PTSD or anxiety or trauma, social phobia, agoraphobia. It's all the same to me.

The bullies are gone but make no mistake theyre haunting me.

So where the fuck was God?

Where was his miracle for me?

Why didn't he spilt the red sea for me? I'm not as important as Moses. Where was his warning that I should build a boat like Noah?

No burning bush, no "hey Abraham, go kill your son", nothing. Not from this god or any fucking god.

Not once.

But some stupid genetic marker (VMAT2) anchors me to believe?

In the years since school I went through the divorce of my parents which was particularly hard if you knew me you'd understand.

My dad needed a 2nd open heart surgery which led to a big stroke from a clot that broke off. His arm and leg that were effected mostly came back. But his mind was effected permanently. The parts of the brain that were injured left him with memory problems. He couldn't live on his own, he'd already come back home with my mom and me before that to live with us after a hard hip replacement surgery.

Then I went through my mother's surprise lung cancer diagnosis, surgery, and so far no signs of it returning. Luckily it was found early after she had a cold and cough they wouldn't go away and got a chest x-ray.

Now my dad 4.5 years after his stroke and ongoing memory problems, he woke up yesterday the happiest man who ever lived, he had so much love and kisses and hugs to give.

But shockingly he completely forgot who I was. He thought I was a visiting neighbor. He forgot who my mom was. But he was happy to meet his son and wife for the first time again in this new place (it's the same place and the same people he'd always known before).

But I am crushed. I'm so deeply affected. He's happy and jolly enough for 3 people to meet us...

But my mom and I are very sad. It's such a shock. While he is thankfully happy and comfortable with his 'new family' that we are. I've cried more than my muted emotions have let me cry in the last 15 years.

He told me he's sorry that he missed being part of my life before now. Nothing cut my heart up quite like that. He apologizes for not knowing or recognizing me.

I've been betrayed by God all my life or at least that VMAT2 gene chemically telling my brain there's a higher power.

I'm just not important enough. No miracles to help me get out of this PTSD or my other medical issues. No reprieve from these life threatening illnesses my parents got one after the other. And now my father doesn't know who I am anymore.

Maybe god like those bullies just hate me too? If were created in his image then he's as capable of hate and torturing as we his human creations are.

After all he made a bet with the devil that Job in the bible would keep the faith in God no matter what god did to him. He gave him diseases, killed his livestock, killed his family with sickness, and burned down his house. But the dumb motherfucker still loved god.

He gave him all be house, animals and family after the ordeal, but the other wife and children didn't deserve to die for a bet. "But they went to heaven". They still had potential energy, lives to live grow old and have their own families, but "God" killed them to prove he was right in bet to the devil. That an idiot would still love him after all that.

So maybe I can't stop believing in God, or have some leftover spirituality.

But I'm not as fucking forgiving ad that dumb motherfucker Job. But I'm also not willing to just walk away from God's game. I'm more than ever cemented my hate for God. I'm giving the devil sympathy or joining his side. If there is such a thing.

I'm instead giving God - ALL MY HATE.

I've got infinite amounts of anger and hate in me. For every millisecond of my torture in school I hate those pieces of shit, at one point that was all that kept me from killing myself. I'm filled to overflowing.

Now there's nothing and no one I hate more than God. I don't care about abortion, I don't care about pollution, I don't care about animals raised in cages and mutilated.

My dad is apologizing to me for what his stroke did to make him forget me. He's apologizing to me with regret, shame and love in his eyes for something that's not his fault.

WHERE IS GOD!? hmm? His love and miracles? His bullshit?!

God. Guardian Angels? Any God or Goddess. Any religion, pagan gods, gods that we don't even know existed. Where are they? Spirits? Demons? Satan himself? Useless.

I have declared a war on God deep down in my soul. I'm not here to preach or change your religion, make you an atheist or garner views or to promote the devil.

But rest assured I am going to kill God. My determination is absolute.

Not in a social or political sense, I'm not going to become Nietzsche 2.0.

I'm going to prepare my heart and soul. My physical body, my mental attitude, my spirit, my soul. My life might go until I'm 120 years old and I'm fine with that.

But God will know fear because I will teach it to him. God has a death wish and I'm that wish come true.

You think Abu Ghraib looked terrible? What I do to God will make that seem like a Kumbaya summer camp.

I don't know what god is, what makes a deity, fucked if know if such a thing even exists. But I will torture, maim, and kill God.

These neo-pagans with their "All Gods are one God."

That's fine by me. Get the all Gods in one place so I can kill that motherfucker with a smile on my face. Even if he's holding the universe together, like Atlas holding the world. If it means the end of all things then I'm more than satisfied to end reality.

If there's a physical aspect to him on some spiritual realm or whether it's simply a psychic thought of the living mind or some genetic predisposed delusion. Maybe I've lost my mind too, maybe there's nothing left but my madness.

My wrath makes God in the old Testament look like a spoiled 3 year old child. God will get what's coming to him.

He is mine and I am his.

"Nor sleep, nor sanctuary, being naked, sick, the prayers of priests, nor times of sacrifice shall lift up their rotten privilege and custom against my hate to Martius. Where I find him, were it at home, upon my brother's guard, even there, will I wash my fierce hand in his heart."

—AUFIDIUS; Shakespeare's "Coriolanus"

"I'll fight with none but thee, for I do hate thee."

—Caius Martius Coriolanus; play of the same name.

#my thoughts #my journal #journal #my post

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maswartz · 6 years

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“

Bernie Sanders suffers from Great Man syndrome. It afflicts all white men, some worse than others and it can’t be cured. In Bernie world Hillary’s popularity was only “because she was a woman.” Bernie’s followers lap up this hogwash because they don’t know any better, because they too have been conditioned to believe what the Great Man says no matter what. But Hillary, of course, was speaking up for the Obama coalition, that was black mothers of shooting victims (she was criticized for this, of course), women and children all over the world and here in the US (and criticized for this). She offered practical solutions to difficult problems that were actually workable. She didn’t make false promises like a false prophet, like a god. Hillary had a great plan for dealing with college debt, and wanted to extend and improve the Affordable Care Act. Hillary actually knew she could do the job well but like so many of us women know, not only aren’t we trusted to do the job, no one believes we CAN do the job.

I’m sorry that Bernie said what he said about Hillary and women. It fed into the warped frenzy of misogyny that overtook his so-called revolution. He still thinks, and his followers think, that he would have beaten Trump. He couldn’t even win in the primary. There was no rigging, there was no collusion. She won four million more votes that he did. The people chose HER and not him. All Bernie did was help Trump win. He knows this, which is why he’s now on a desperate speaking tour to not become Ralph Nader in he public’s eyes. Blame Hillary, blame the democrats. Do anything BUT blame Bernie. And Bernie is exactly who deserves much of the blame for what he’s done, what he is still doing, to ensure the democrats lose and lose again in four years.

Would Bernie have beaten Trump? The answer is no one can say for sure but I would guess that absolutely no, he could not have. Here are the reasons why.

But first, you might be inclined to say, “we’re fighting a fascist, why aren’t we uniting against Trump?” he reason is that we can’t unite because we are deeply and sharply divided still. 2.5 million more votes than Trump is what Hillary Clinton will have had by the end of the election. He won but just barely. He won the electoral college by going after the Bernie voters and counting on third party voters to sabotage Hillary’s lead and it worked. Bernie Sanders must take responsibility for his part in this or there will be no moving forward. You can’t lie to people when the evidence is right in front of them.

Historically speaking, this election was always the Republican’s to lose. The pendulum swing of American election cycles is maddeningly predictable: Both parties find it hard to hold onto the White House for more than 2 terms in a row. Reagan did it. But he’s really the only one in recent history. JFK and FDR both died in office and that’s the only way we ever got a successor elected, since the 1800s. We had one shot to win for the Democrats and that was to make the case that the last eight years were working for Americans, that Obama’s policies and presidency had been a success, and that we wanted four more years to finish what he had started, to overcome the obstructionist roadblocks, and buttress the Obama legacy with a Supreme Court that would work to uphold his great strides. But Bernie Sanders ran a campaign as a newly minted Democrat against the Democrats! With that reckless miscalculation, he lost this election for himself and for Hillary before it even started. His entire campaign became a beta test commercial for Trump’s candidacy, as Trump noted which Hillary attacks had traction and adopted every single talking point (minus the free college and free healthcare) that Bernie had hammered her with. Bernie helped Trump immeasurably. Bernie knew could not have beaten Trump unless he’d been Obama’s chosen successor and be handed the baton to continue Obama’s policies. Since that wasn’t happening, Bernie’s only option was to tell voters that nothing about the past two terms was good enough for the American people. He made that case that the Democrats had fallen short. A ridiculous claim, but several thousand people in key states fell for it. Sure, after he lost the nomination Bernie tried to change horses mid-stream but it never really worked for him. By then, he had convinced a few million voters in his flock that Hillary was too corrupt to deserve their vote. 3 or 4 million of his most fervid supporters could never snap out of their brainwashing. If anything, some felt doubly betrayed, and many of them turned on Bernie, called him a “sellout” when got behind Hillary.

The Republicans had major opposition research ready to launch on Bernie Sanders that would have made his numbers drop quickly significantly in the polls. But Bernie was never attacked by Hillary’s team, nor by the GOP. Ask yourself why and the reason is obvious. The GOP wanted to run against Bernie. They knew they had far more volatile stuff to dump on him that the whimpering “emails, emails, emails” chant that had lost all its pizazz. Their strategy was to leave Bernie alone because the better Bernie looked, the worse Hillary looked. Newsweek’s Kurt Eichenwald laid out some of that oppo research and this is what he found:

Here are a few tastes of what was in store for Sanders, straight out of the Republican playbook: He thinks rape is A-OK. In 1972, when he was 31, Sanders wrote a fictitious essay in which he described a woman enjoying being raped by three men. Yes, there is an explanation for it — a long, complicated one, just like the one that would make clear why the Clinton emails story was nonsense. And we all know how well that worked out.

Then there’s the fact that Sanders was on unemployment until his mid-30s, and that he stole electricity from a neighbor after failing to pay his bills, and that he co-sponsored a bill to ship Vermont’s nuclear waste to a poor Hispanic community in Texas, where it could be dumped. You can just see the words “environmental racist” on Republican billboards. And if you can’t, I already did. They were in the Republican opposition research book as a proposal on how to frame the nuclear waste issue.

Also on the list: Sanders violated campaign finance laws, criticized Clinton for supporting the 1994 crime bill that he voted for, and he voted against the Amber Alert system. His pitch for universal health care would have been used against him too, since it was tried in his home state of Vermont and collapsed due to excessive costs. Worst of all, the Republicans also had video of Sanders at a 1985 rally thrown by the leftist Sandinista government in Nicaragua where half a million people chanted, “Here, there, everywhere/the Yankee will die,’’ while President Daniel Ortega condemned “state terrorism” by America. Sanders said, on camera, supporting the Sandinistas was “patriotic.”

The Republicans had at least four other damning Sanders videos (I don’t know what they showed), and the opposition research folder was almost 2-feet thick. (The section calling him a communist with connections to Castro alone would have cost him Florida.) In other words, the belief that Sanders would have walked into the White House based on polls taken before anyone reallyattacked him is a delusion built on a scaffolding of political ignorance.

Unfortunately, Sanders supporters think he’s god-like and thus, they rely solely on those inflated poll numbers. Nate Silver would tell them that you can’t really trust polls until you’ve seen the candidate “punched” completely by the opposition party. Silver thinks now it was a mistake for Hillary not to attack him because now no one will ever believe he could have been attacked the way she has been for decades. To them, Hillary had it coming but the truth is Bernie has never been considered a threat enough TO ATTACK in the first place.

3. Bernie is Jewish (as am I in case you want to start blamesplaining). He’s a socialist. And he’s an atheist. Do I need to explain this one? Obama might have been black but he was Christian. A man of faith. And though he was accused of being a socialist he is not. Bernie actually is! Has always been a socialist, bragged about being one, has expressed an affinity for Fidel Castro on video, and hates the Democratic party for not being leftist enough. The Jewish part is a touchy subject, but we have to be realistic about the American “heartland.” Is flyover America ready for a Jew in the White House? Let’s ask Joe Lieberman. Or how about ask voters in 40 states who have never sent a Jewish senator to Washington D.C. Ever. 40 states. Never Elected. A Jewish Senator. In 230 years. Are Ohio, North Carolina, Florida, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, suddenly ready to see a Jew in the Oval Office? I do not believe they are. Not in the America that just elected Donald Trump. They aren’t even ready for a woman. The Bernie people don’t seem to know this other half of America exists. To Bernie and his supporters all those people who just voted for Trump are did so because Bernie wasn’t on the ballot. Seriously, that’s what they think.

4. Bernie Sanders promised to raise taxes on just about everyone, even a small amount on the middle class. If you think any politician can win a national election by saying they are going to raise taxes on the middle class, you have another think coming. Yes, Bernie’s ideas on trade, and certainly on the climate, are appealing to most but his platform was predicated on making the government pay for everything. When you put together his own history of never having a job for his first 30 years as an adult, never really earning a paycheck that wasn’t from the government, you can fill out the bubbles from there, right? You can visualize the Republican TV ads, yes? Please tell me you can.

5. He couldn’t win the primary. In the Land of Nod , the sad fable is that Bernie was cheated by the DNC. That’s what the Republicans wanted the Berners to believe, that’s the story they seeded, nurtured and harvested, and so it was! The most hardcore Berniacs threw one hissy fit after another, stoned Wasserman-Schultz, threatened to bust up the convention all because Hillary Clinton won more votes. He lost. Not by a little, by a lot. 55% — 43%. But for a huge number of his sullen supporters, if Bernie couldn’t have the prize, the no one could. That was their attitude. But the fact is Bernie’s supporters simply didn’t vote in large enough numbers. They didn’t even vote down ballot during the primaries. They didn’t vote for any of the progressive candidates Bernie had anointed, like Russ Finegold and Zephyr Teachout. For all their demonizing of Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, they couldn’t even be bthered to vote for her Bernie-certified opponent Tim Canova. The “revolution” was failing at every level, all across the country. The giddy crowds showed up at rallies but apparently standing in line to vote wasn’t exciting enough. Maybe no one ever taught these people about government. They certainly don’t seem to know much about safeguards the three branches help ensure. Bernie Sanders lost so badly in the South he never could have won the general election with those kinds of numbers even with Hillary out of the way. His excuse? “Oh, they’re just too deeply conservative in the south.” And worse: “Oh, they’re not educated about the issues.” Great way to connect with black voters, there, Professor Sanders! Dismiss them as being too ill-informed to know what’s good for them. Charming. Perhaps if Bernie had one more year of campaigning to strengthen his weaknesses, he might have got a better toehold. But he didn’t. The theory is that good reasonable Democrats would shunned him the primaries would have come ‘round and voted for him in the general. But I’m betting many would have fled altogether and voted for Trump, for the three following reasons.

6. a) Isis. If you didn’t get that Isis was a big part of this election you were living in a bubble, a fantasy bubble where your biggest fear is fracking. But the news that most people watch like CNN or Fox News? It’s all Isis all the time. Fear of Isis is pumped into their living rooms around the clock and it’s become ingrained in our national reality. These voters aren’t staring at Facebook and reading biased boutique news sites that tell progressive liberals what they want to hear (gluten free water cures cancer!). They’re looking around at the world from their own homes and they’re scared. Whether Bernie and his minions thought Isis was a threat is irrelevant. The voters clearly did and they thought it in a big way. It’s an issue much more important to a truckdriver than free college. And there are millions of longhaul truckdrivers. Trump and Hillary Clinton both mopped the floor with Bernie Sanders on Isis and terrorism and foreign policy. Remember the Daily News interview? Bernie forgot to study for that exam. 6. b) Economy. Trump pretended to be Bernie’s best friend because it made Hillary look bad. He used Bernie like a bar rag, sopping up the stale foam of angry white dudes, hipster or otherwise, who could not believe their Feel-the-Bern icon of virtue had been beaten by a girl. 6. c) Immigration. See 6a) and 6b) Because the greatest trick Trump ever pulled was convincing a stunningly large swath of white Americans that all their terrorism fears and the economic woes would magically evaporate if we could only Build That Wall. So it was all about Isis, the economy, and immigration. It was in the beginning, it was in the end, and it is now. Trump would have crushed Sanders on those key points alone and it wouldn’t have even been hard.

7. Bernie is in it for Bernie. He probably would have chosen Cornel West as his running mate, but it’s pretty clear he would not have chosen anyone he would want to share the stage with, because he didn’t like sharing the stage with anyone, not even his poor wife. (“Don’t stand next to me!”) So his veep would have been… who knows. Certainly not dynamo Elizabeth Warren. She would have swooped in like Bernie’s charismatic caregiver. Although in the dreamland of liberal utopia it would have been Sanders and Warren. But even that duo would have lost and lost badly to Trump. Outside the major cities where most of us dwell, the majority of Americans saw Trump and Sanders as different species of outsiders. That’s both funny sad, because Bernie only seemed like an outsider, because nobody in 49 states had ever heard of him before last year, despite his decades in public office. So given that choice, to those voters, Trump would have been basically Bernie except glitzy capitalism instead of scary socialism, Trump was Bernie except with a strong hand against terrorism instead of weak one. Trump was Bernie except with the sultry MILF by his side. None of this would have sat well with a man as vain as Bernie Sanders. Bernie would have been pressured by his all-or-nothing followers to pick a progressive veep so now you’ve got the Bernie progressive vote, you’ve got some of the loyalist Democrats, but you’ve lost ALL of the moderates who are too freaked out about taxes and Isis to take a chance on a radically left ticket.

8. Change in America is incremental and slow. It does not come quickly. After two terms of a Democratic president, the American people have never and will never move farther to the outer reaches in the same direction of the party in power. America is populated by mostly moderates who care more about paying taxes (or not) than just about anything else. Whatever Bernie is offering, this is an electorate that could barely accept Obamacare because they thought it was socialism — what kind of a crackpot does one have to be to think Americans would be ready to veer all the way to 100% government-run health care? They wouldn’t. They won’t. Not yet. I’m so sick of having this conversation with people and if Bernie Sanders runs in 2020 then and only then will they understand, just like the McGovern supporters learned and the Nader voters. You learn that ugly lesson once. For those of us who have lived through people learning that lesson, to watch it learned over again is not just frustrating, it’s tragic. All the left seems able to do is put republicans in power, until they get a clue about what America is and what America isn’t.

9. Liberals were living in a bubble of illusion, including and especially the Berniecrats. They were following what the media kept saying and the media focused entirely too much on Sanders — only when he hurt Hillary. They never focused on his policies. They didn’t want to talk policy. Policy is boring. Let’s watch the scrappy senator take down the powerful woman. Let’s watch Trump take Hillary down. That’s what they were invested in. And they lulled Americans into falsely believing the democrats had it in the bag. This is true now and it would have been true if Bernie won. The only difference is that now Bernie would have to find another scapegoat to explain what would have been a landslide loss for him. But the polls, they would cry, the polls! Because the polls were all they had and the polls were wrong when it came to Trump. They were wrong. Liberals need to break out of that bubble because the joke is on us. America is laughing at us and our hysteria and in order to save the environment, fight for civil and LGBT rights we have to get smarter about it and getting smarter about it does not include living in a deluded fantasy that “Bernie would have won.” No, he wouldn’t have.

10. You can’t lead the democratic party and focus only on the white working class as Bernie did. You can’t lead the democratic party by not acknowledging the success of its two term president, Barack Obama. You can’t lead the democratic party by perpetuating the false notion that Hillary Clinton was only where she was because she was a woman. The democratic party is not the party of the white working class. It stands for a bigger, broader group than that. Bernie writes it off as “identity politics” but it’s bigger than that because America, and the world, are changing. Hillary has more of a record of action than Bernie ever had in 30 years. To discount that is to tell a lie. If you tell enough lies sooner or later they catch up with you and Bernie’s would have caught up with him. He should never have divided the democrats the way he did. He should never have influenced so many young people not to choose pragmatism.

On top of our deep sense of sadness (and yes, everlasting anger) over the way this election was manipulated by the FBI, by WikiLeaks, by Putin, by news media both slanted and fake — it’s just exhausting two weeks later to have to listen to Bernie’s simplistic lectures about the Democrats “failure to connect” with the white working class, and scolded for not seeming to know what people in America care about. It has become depressing and tiresome to watch Bernie continue to blame Hillary even now. Had he ever tried to discourage the character assassination against her early on, we would have had a chance. But Bernie could not stand it that Hillary was beating him. He still can’t stand it and he still can’t believe it. It’s time for him to stop already. Just stop.

“

#bernie sanders #donald trump #hillary clinton

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christianstevefinnell · 3 years

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Keys Promised to Peter

by David Vaughn Elliott

He who holds keys controls entry. Is Peter standing at the gates of heaven, deciding who enters? No, that is just sacrilegious joke material. Well then, will Peter be standing at the gates of a future millennium reign of Christ, deciding who enters? I never heard of any premillennialist teaching that.

What, then, is Jesus telling Peter in Matthew 16:18,19? "I will build My church... I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven." Notice 1) In practically the same breath, with no hint of changing subjects, Jesus speaks of the church and the kingdom, apparently equating them. 2) Peter would use the keys to bind "on earth," thus it was to be done during his lifetime.

Since Jesus does not fail, His promises amount to prophecy. Thus this is a prophecy about the kingdom. The prophecy says that Peter will open the way into the kingdom and that he will make binding decrees regarding the kingdom. Even futurist-premillennialists apply this prophecy to Peter's earthly ministry beginning on the day of Pentecost. Thus they inadvertently confess that the church is the kingdom and that the kingdom of God began on the day of Pentecost in the year 30 A.D.

Since Jesus promised Peter "the keys of the kingdom," it is no coincidence that Peter was the leading spokesman on the day of Pentecost. Keys open doors. Once open, others can enter. Thus, Christ designated Peter to unlock the doors, telling people how they could enter the kingdom: "Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit" (Acts 2:38). The doors of the kingdom have been open for 2000 years. Those who listen to the holder of the keys are privileged to enter. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Posted by

Steve Finnell

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SCRIPTURES THAT OFFEND BY STEVE FINNELL

1. Romans 16:16 Greet one another with a holy kiss. The churches of Christ greet you. (NKJV)

The name church of Christ offends people enough, that some churches remove that name from from their building, they do not want to be identified as a church of Christ.

2. Acts 2:38 Then Peter said to them, "Repent, and let every one on you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. (NKJV)

Acts 2:38 offends those who deny water baptism is in order to the forgiveness of sins.

3. John 14:6 Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. (NKJV)

John 14:6 offends believers in Christ who believe in universal salvation. Some believe it is arrogant to assert Jesus is the only way to heaven.

4. Genesis 1:1-31.......31 Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good . So the evening and the morning were the sixth day. (NKJV)

Genesis 1:1-31 offends those who believe in theistic evolution or claim it is too difficult to understand that God created the heaven and earth in six days, in a twenty four hour day.

5. Galatians 5:4You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law, you have fallen from grace. (NKJV)

Galatians 5:4 offends men who teach one in grace always in grace.

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TUESDAY, MAY 16, 2017

WHO BELIEVES WATER BAPTISM IS ESSENTIAL TO SALVATION? BY STEVE FINNELL

THERE ARE MEN WHO BELIEVED OR BELIEVE THAT WATER BAPTISM IS ESSENTIAL TO SALVATION AND THERE ARE THOSE REJECT THAT REQUIREMENT.

THOSE WHO REJECT WATER BAPTISM AS A PREREQUISITE TO SALVATION.

Max Lucado

T.D. Jakes

John MacArthur

Charles Stanley

Billy Graham

Joel Osteen

Rick Warren

Jimmy Swaggart

Chuck Colson

Charles Swindoll

Jerry Falwell

Joyce Meyer

And all "Faith Only" preachers.

THOSE WHO BELIEVED WATER BAPTISM WAS AND IS ESSENTIAL FOR SALVATION

The Apostle Peter

The Apostle Andrew

The Apostle James the son of Zebedee

The Apostle John

The Apostle Philip

The Apostle Bartholomew

The Apostle Thomas

The Apostle Matthew

The Apostle James son of Alphaeus

The Apostle Simon the Zealot

The Apostle Thaddaeus

The Apostle Matthias

Jesus the Christ

Acts 2:37-38 Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, "Brethren,what shall we do?" Peter said to them, "Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

All twelve apostles believed water baptism was essential to the forgiveness of sins.

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Ananias believed water baptism was essential to be saved.

Acts 22:1-16.....10 And I said, 'What shall I do, Lord?' And the Lord said to me , 'Get up and go on to Damascus, and there you will be told of all that has been appointed for you to do'........12 "A certainAnanias .....16 Now why do you delay? Get up and be baptized,and wash away your sins, calling on His name.

Ananias, a spokesman for Jesus, told Saul to be baptized to wash away his sins.

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The Apostle Paul believed water baptism was essential for the forgiveness of sins.

Colossians 2:12-13 having been buried with Him in baptism, ......13 ....He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions,

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Jesus, the Son of God, believes water baptism precedes salvation.

Mark 16:16 He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; ........

Shall be saved does not mean already has been saved.

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If you are looking for answers about faith and practice of Christianity under the New Covenant, should you look to Ananias, the apostles, and Jesus or should your spiritual guidance come from men who deny that water baptism is essential to forgiveness from sin? Do you really want to follow the teaching of men who say you can be saved before you are baptized in water? THERE ARE NO DRY-CLEANED CHRISTIANS! Posted by

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U.S. Presidents on Islam

by Dave Miller, Ph.D.

GEORGE WASHINGTON

“You do well to wish to learn our arts and ways of life, and above all, the religion of Jesus Christ. These will make you a greater and happier people than you are. Congress will do everything they can to assist you in this wise intention.”1

“While we are zealously performing the duties of good Citizens and soldiers we certainly ought not to be inattentive to the higher duties of Religion. To the distinguished Character of Patriot, it should be our highest Glory to add the more distinguished Character of Christian.”2

THOMAS JEFFERSON AND JOHN ADAMS

“We took the liberty to make some inquiries concerning the grounds of their pretentions to make war upon nations who had done them no injury, and observed that we considered all mankind as our Friends who had done us no wrong, nor had given us any provocation. The Ambassador answered us that it was founded on the laws of their Prophet, that it was written in their Koran that all nations who should not have acknowledged their authority were sinners, that it was their right and duty to make war upon them wherever they could be found, and to make slaves of all they could take as prisoners; and that every Musselman who should be slain in battle was sure to go to Paradise.”3

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS

“In the seventh century of the Christian era, a wandering Arab of the lineage of Hagar, the Egyptian, combining the powers of transcendent genius, with the preternatural energy of a fanatic, and the fraudulent spirit of an impostor, proclaimed himself as a messenger from Heaven, and spread desolation and delusion over an extensive portion of the earth. Adopting from the sublime conception of the Mosaic law, the doctrine of one omnipotent God; he connected indissolubly with it, the audacious falsehood, that he was himself his prophet and apostle…. [H]e declared undistinguishing and exterminating war, as a part of his religion, against all the rest of mankind…. The precept of the koran is, perpetual war against all who deny, that Mahomet is the prophet of God.”4

BARACK OBAMA

“Islam is not part of the problem in combating violent extremism—it is an important part of promoting peace.”5

ENDNOTES

1 George Washington (1779), “Speech to the Delaware Chiefs,” in The Writings of George Washington from the Original Manuscript Sources 1745-1799, ed. John C. Fitzpatrick, 15:55, emp. added, http://preview.tinyurl.com/Washington-G-1779. The author assumes that Washington’s belief in the priority of the Christian religion would apply to the Muslim as well as the Native American.

2 George Washington (1778), “General Orders, May 2, 1778,” George Washington Papers at the Library of Congress, emp. added, http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=mgw3&fileName=mgw3g/gwpage003.db&recNum=181. Again, it is assumed that, if Washington considered being a Christian a person’s highest glory, being a Muslim would not be so considered.

3 “American Peace Commissioners to John Jay” (1786), The Thomas Jefferson Papers Series 1. General Correspondence. 1651-1827, Library of Congress, March 28, http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/mtj.mtjbib001849. The letter refers to Jefferson and Adam's meeting with the Ambassador from the Muslim country of Tripoli.

4 Joseph Blunt (1830), The American Annual Register for the Years 1827-8-9 (New York: E. & G.W. Blunt), 29:269, emp. added, http://www.archive.org/stream/p1americanannual29blunuoft.

5 Barack Obama (2009), “Remarks by the President on a New Beginning,” The White House, Office of the Press Secretary, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt, June 4, http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/remarks-president-cairo-university-6-04-09.

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IF YOU FORGIVE THE SINS...? BY STEVE FINNELL

Did Jesus give Peter and the apostles the authority to forgive individuals of their sins before and after they became Christians? Do contemporary pastors and priests have the authority to forgive Christians of their sins? The answer is no, no, and no.

ONLY GOD FORGIVES SINS

Mark 2:1-7....... "Why does this man speak that way? He is blaspheming; who can forgive sins but God alone.(NASB)

Jesus was God on earth, He had the authority to forgive sins. The apostles were not God on earth. Contemporary pastors and priest are not God on earth. For anyone other than God to claim they have the authority to forgive sin is blasphemous.

Isaiah 43:15-25 "I am the Lord, your Holy One.....25 "I even I, am the one who wipes out your transgressions for My own sake, And I will not remember your sins.(NASB)

No preachers, pastors, apostles, nor priests can wipe out transgressions. Only God forgives sin.

Micah 7:18 Who is a God like You who pardons iniquity...(NASB)

The apostle Peter nor any apostle had the power to pardon sins. There is not an example in the New Testament Scriptures where any apostle said to an individual nor a group of people I forgive you of your sins.

Jesus gave Peter the keys to the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 16:9) Jesus not give Peter and the apostles the authority to grant forgiveness to men. Only God forgives sin.

Peter used the keys on the Day of Pentecost. The keys were faith, repentance, and immersions in water. (Acts 2:22-41)

Peter did not say I or we the apostles forgive you of your sins against God, nor did he say that to anyone Christians subsequently. [Terms of pardon:FAITH John 3:16, REPENTANCE Acts 3:19, CONFESSION Romans 10:9, IMMERSION IN WATER Acts 2:38, Mark 16:16]

There is no Scriptures that teaches that apostles, preachers, pastors, priests, nor the church as the power of absolution. Only God forgives sin.

1 John 2:1 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous;(NASB)

The apostle John did not tell those in the body of Christ to ask for absolution for theirs sins by asking the church, the priest nor the pastor to grant them forgiveness from their sins against God.

ONLY GOD FORGIVES SINS!

We know that, John 20:23, does not mean the apostles, priests, pastors, nor the church has the authority to forgive men of their sins against God.

Teaching the gospel plan of salvation to men does not mean the teacher has the authority to forgive sin.

Praying for fellow church members does not mean that the one who prays has the authority to forgive sins.

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MONDAY, MAY 15, 2017

GOD'S COMPLETE REVELATION! BY STEVE FINNELL

We have God's complete revelation to all mankind, it is called the Bible. There are sixty six books. There are no more books. God's direct revelation to mankind was finished, completed with the death of the last apostle. The church of Christ had all the information it needed to preach the gospel, teach the church about faith in Jesus Christ, and to instruct men to obey God's commands.

Jude 1:3 Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints.

Jude wrote in his letter, in about 65 A.D., that Christians already had a common salvation. He said contend for the faith which had been handed down once for all. The faith was not being added to nor were parts of the faith being deleted by new revelation. Jude knew nothing of so-called new revelations being written in books of catechisms nor were there any extra-Biblical books of so-called new revelations from God.

There is no 21st century new revelation, new prophecy, nor new knowledge. We already have the completed Scriptures, the BIBLE.

1 Corinthians 13:8 Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away.

Direct prophecy and special knowledge from God have ceased. There is no more prophecy or knowledge that is equal to Scripture. The Bible was completed long ago.

1 Corinthians 13:10 But when what is complete comes , then what is incomplete will no longer be used. (God's Word Translation (1995).

We have a completed Bible. We do not need new revelation. We do not need modern-day apostles nor prophets.

2 Peter 1:3 seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.

The apostle Peter said, in about 66 A.D., that Christians already had true knowledge. What kind of knowledge are the modern writers of catechisms, or other of the so-called modern-day apostles, and prophets disseminating? A question that is worth pondering.

1 Thessalonians 2:13 For this reason we also constantly thank God that when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe.

The apostle Paul said their word was God's word. For men today to claim that the catechisms they write, and, or, the so-called new books of revelation, are directly from God; is at best, a case of self-delusion. The worst case scenario is willful deception or purposeful ignorance.

Acts 20:27 For I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose of God.

The apostle Paul declared the whole purpose of God to the Ephesians. How could Paul have declared the whole purpose of God in the first century if modern day prophets and apostles are still being given new purposes from God today? There are no new, direct revelations, from God that are equal to Scripture.

John 16:13 But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative , but whatever He hears, He will speak; and will disclose to you what is to come.

Jesus said, to the twelve apostles, that the Holy Spirit would guide them into all truth. The apostle heard all the truth. THERE IS NO NEW TRUTH TO BE ADDED! The Bible is completed, it is finished.

Ephesians 3:3-5 that by revelation there was made know to me the mystery, as I wrote before in brief. 4 By referring to this, when you read you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, 5 which in other generations was not known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit;

The mystery of Christ was revealed to the apostle Paul as well as the other apostles and prophets. It is not continually being revealed, it was revealed. We have that revelation, it is in the Bible.

We have God's completed word. We have the BIBLE!

HOW MUCH PRIDE WOULD IT TAKE FOR MEN, TODAY, TO CLAIM THAT THEIR WORDS ARE, IN FACT, EQUAL TO SCRIPTURE?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Does the meaning of God's word evolve over time? The apostle John wrote the book Revelation about 95 AD. Do men have the authority to add to or take away from God's word? NO, they do not.Posted by

Steve Finnell

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The Legs of the Lame are Not Equal

George L. Faull

One of my favorite professors was Burton W. Barber. He was a champion debater. He used to always quote Proverbs 26:7 when he had proven the lame reasoning of an opponent's argument. It says, "the legs of the lame are not equal." That always humored me.

Most evangelicals today are always quoting Paul's letter to the Ephesians "for by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not of works lest any man should boast." They make two great mistakes when they explain this passage.

First, they argue that faith is the gift of God, which is not true for it is salvation that is the gift of God, not faith. The gender of the word faith does not agree with the word "that". It is salvation that agrees in gender and salvation is what is the gift of God.

Second, they assume that "not of works lest any man should boast" refers to any action that a person may do to receive salvation. If you must do anything at all they insist salvation would be of merit and not grace. This is why evangelicals jump to the conclusion that baptism is not necessary to salvation because baptism is assumed to be a work, and therefore can not be any part of salvation.

The evangelicals maintain that all that is necessary to be saved is to “believe”, or “repent” or “say the so-called ‘sinners prayer’” or “ask Jesus into your heart”. Anything more than these they call "works salvation."

I find this truly ironic, inconsistent and surely a lame argument.

A simple study of grammar would show the silliness of such an argument. We all know that a sentence must have a subject and a verb.

Simply put, the subject would be the noun and the verb would show the action of the subject. That is, the subject will be doing some action shown by the verb.

That being said those taking the above theological view say that if one is baptized he is a doer of a work. On the contrary, the person being baptized is having something done to him. The one baptized is passive.

Read this sentence. "Bill baptized Jim." Who is the subject of the sentence? Bill. What did the subject of the sentence do? He baptized Jim. What action did Jim do? Nothing as he was totally passive.

In Scripture, what does the one being baptized represent? He is as a dead man being buried. When a dead man is buried what action is he taking? None! When one is baptized, is the baptizer or the one being baptized doing a work? Obviously it is the baptizer not the one being baptized that is performing an action.

To say that baptism is a good work and included in the statement, "not of works, lest any man should boast" is absolutely ludicrous. A dead man working!!!

Ironically, these evangelicals swear that one need not take any action or do anything to receive the grace of God. They claim it is all of grace and there is not anything that needs to be done to be saved. They ignore the fact that Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord, but he needed to build the ark to save his house.

When those in John 6:28 spoke to Jesus they asked this question, "What shall we do that we may do the works of God?" Jesus’ reply in verse 29 is an eye opener. "This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent."

What did Jesus say they must DO? Believe. What does Jesus call faith? “The work that they must do.” JESUS CALLS FAITH A WORK! How can this be? It must be obvious that evangelicals have misunderstood about not having to do anything at all to be saved. One must believe and it is specifically said to be a work.

But that is not all. What is a verb? It is a word that shows action or a state of being. What about the following verbs? Do they not denote that something is done?

Believe

on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. (Acts 8:33) But believe is a verb that shows action.

Call

upon the name of the Lord and be saved. (Romans 10:13) But call is a verb and shows action.

Bring forth

works worthy of repentance. (Luke 3:8) But Repentance is a verb and requires works to prove it is real.

Pray

the sinners’ prayer. But pray is a verb that denotes action.

Ask

the Lord to come into your heart. But asking or inviting are both verbs and requires one do something.

So, these commands are all verbs!!!

Verbs show action. Yet they will say that baptism is a work even though no action is done by the one immersed, but rather by the one who is doing the baptizing. Philip baptized the Eunuch. Philip was the active, one not the Eunuch. When one is told toBE baptized it is something that is done to him, not something that he himself does.

Isn't it sad how men get all mixed up due to accepting the pet knee-jerk theology of Zwingli who was running from earning salvation by works of the Roman church? They call black, white and white, black. They demand that men believe, repent, confess, call, ask, and pray as acceptable means of acquiring salvation but insist if one who is as passive as a dead man when he is baptized, is said to be trying to earn his salvation by works.

Professor Barber was exactly right. “The legs of the lame are not equal.”

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drmonte75-blog · 4 years

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An Ordinary Commentary by Ordinary Men

“Living to Glorify God Brings Satisfaction to the Soul”

#Christianity #Church #Bible #Commentary

ordinarycommentary.blogspot.com

Types of Righteousness and Religion Matthew 6:1-18 Our Lord warns His followers against counterfeit spirituality seeking to be seen and praised by men.

Harvey Goodwin—Verse 1: “In these verses our Lord applies to the subject of almsgiving, to what we commonly call in these days charity, the same spiritual principles according to which He has already explained and expanded several of the Laws of the Old Testament. All the men of our Lord’s time would admit almsgiving to the poor to be a great duty; but then many of them held or seemed to hold that there was virtue in the mere giving, independently of the spirit in which it was done, so that a man might make his charitable doings redound to his own praise, sounding a trumpet when he was going to distribute his alms, and the rest. Our Lord declares that, of which we can have no doubt when we hear it asserted, namely, that in the sight of God such almsgiving can have no virtue, no beauty, no excellence: the spirit which can alone render almsgiving pleasing to Him who sees the heart is the simple spirit of love, which withdraws itself from observation, seeks not its own, is unselfish, desiring to do what is charitable for the sake of charity only. But mark the awful emphasis, and something like irony, with which our Saviour says of those who make parade of their charity, Verily I say unto you, They have their reward; yes, they have their reward; they wish to gain the attention of mankind, and they gain it; they wish for applause, and they have it; they are pleased when they hear people say, ‘What a liberal man he is! and they have plenty of pleasure such as this. But what does it all amount to? what treasure is laid up in heaven by mere earthly applause? what satisfaction can it be to have cheated men into the belief of our excellent qualities, if the rottenness of our hearts is open and undisguised in the sight of Him who sees in secret, and who knows the thoughts and intents of the heart? They have their reward, have it already in this present world, and a poor unsatisfactory delusive reward it is.” 42 Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Verses 2-4: “'2. Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.' We must not copy the loud charity of certain vainglorious persons: their character is hypocritical, their manner is ostentatious, their aim is to be seen of men, their reward is in the present. That reward is a very poor one, and is soon over. To stand with a penny in one hand and a trumpet in the other is the posture of hypocrisy. ‘Glory of men’ is a thing which can be bought: but honour from God is a very different thing. This is an advertising age, and too many are saying, ‘Behold my liberality!” Those who have Jesus for their King must wear his livery of humility, and not the scarlet trappings of a purse-proud generosity, which blows its own trumpet, not only in the streets, but even in the synagogues. We cannot expect two rewards for the same action: if we have it now we shall not have it hereafter. Unrewarded alms will alone count in the record of the last day. 3, 4. But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth: that thine atms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shalt reward thee openly. Seek secrecy for your good deeds. Do not even see your own virtue. Hide from yourself that which you yourself have done that is commendable; for the proud contemplation of your own generosity may tarnish all your alms. Keep the thing so secret that even you yourself are hardly aware that you are doing anything at all praiseworthy. Let God be present, and you will have enough of an audience. He will reward you, reward you ‘openly’, reward you as a Father rewards a child, reward you as one who saw what you did, and knew that you did it wholly unto him. Lord, help me, when I am doing good, to keep my left hand out of it, that I may have no sinister motive, and no desire to have a present reward of praise among my fellow-men” 43 William Nast—Verse 5: “Verse 5. The Jews attached to prayer a still greater importance than even to fasting and almsgiving, but had reduced it to a mere mechanical performance. They prayed three times a day, at nine o'clock, A.M., at twelve o'clock, and at three o'clock, P. M., and resorted to the synagogue for prayer on the Sabbath, on Monday, and Thursday. Many a zealous Jew spent nine hours a day in prayer. Nor did they go for public prayer only to the synagogue, but, like the Roman Catholics, also for private prayer, because greater efficacy was ascribed to prayer in the synagogue. The Pharisees managed it so—this is implied in ‘they love’—that they were overtaken by the hour of prayer while on their way to the synagogue, that the people might see them pray and praise their piety. It is evident from the context that these remarks of our Lord are not directed against common or public prayer—a duty resting on express Divine command—but against performing private prayer in public places..” 44 Adam Clarke—Verse 6: “But thou, when thou prayest. This is a very impressive and emphatic address. But thou! whosoever thou art, Jew, Pharisee, Christian—enter into thy closet. Prayer is the most secret intercourse of the soul with God, and as it were the conversation of one heart with another. The world is too profane and treacherous to be of the secret. We must shut the door against it: endeavour to forget it, with all the affairs which busy and amuse it. Prayer requires retirement, at least of the heart; for this may be fitly termed the closet in the house of God, which house the body of every real Christian is, 1 Cor. iii. 16. To this closet we ought to retire even in public prayer, and in the midst of company. Reward thee openly. What goodness is there equal to this of God! to give, not only what we ask, and more than we ask, but to reward even prayer itself! How great advantage is it to serve a prince who places prayers in the number of services, and reckons to his subjects’ account, even their trust and confidence in begging all things of him!” 45 James Morison—Verse 7: “But, in addition to secrecy as regards men, take heed as regards another matter, namely, the fitting mood of mind in relation to God, when engaged in praying, use not vain repetitions: ‘Battering’ away at God, as it were, and ‘blattering’ (Luther has it, viel plujypern). ‘Babble’ not in prayer, in the spirit of those worshippers of Baal ‘who called on his name from morning even until noon, saying, O Baal, hear us’ (1 Kings xviii. 26), or of those worshippers of Diana who ‘about the space of two hours cried out, Great is Diana of the Ephesians’ (Acts xix. 34). As the Gentiles do; for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking: They think that in heaping word upon word, and persistently holding on with their speechifying, they shall secure attention and a hearing. Such multiplication of speaking is utterly in vain. ‘It proceedeth,’ as good David Dickson remarks, ‘from a base misconception of God.’ It is well observed however by Augustin that there is a great difference between much speaking and much praying. And even repetitiousness, when it is not wordiness but the expression of intensity of desire, will not be unacceptable to the Hearer of prayer. Such repetitiousness will not be immoderate. It is found in many of the psalms; and it was characteristic of our Saviour’s own prayer in the garden of Gethsemane, when He again and again ‘prayed, saying the same words’ (Matt. xxvi. 44).” 46 James Glentworth Butler—Verse 8: “Your Father knoweth what ye need. Prayer is the preparation and the enlargement of the heart for the receiving of the divine gift; which, indeed, God is always prepared to give, but we are not always prepared to receive. In the act of prayer there is a purging of the spiritual eye, which thus is averted from the things earthly that darken it, and becomes receptive of the divine light—able not to endure only the brightness of that light, but to rejoice in it with an ineffable joy. In the earnest asking is the enlargement of the heart for the abundant receiving; even as in it is also the needful preparation for the receiving with a due thankfulness; while, on the contrary, the good which came unsought would too often remain the unacknowledged also. Prayer is not designed to inform God, but to give man a sight of his misery, to humble his heart, to excite his desire, to inflame his faith, to animate his hope, to raise his soul toward heaven, and to put him in mind that there is his Father, his country, his inheritance. He is a Father to whom we pray; let us go to him with confidence; he knows our wants; let us remove far from us all anxious disquiet and concern.” 47 Edwin Wilbur Rice—Verse 9: “After this manner, or ‘thus.’ Jesus gives a pattern or specimen of true prayer. Thus it was understood by nearly all the early fathers and by the majority of evangelical Christians. Some hold that he gave this as a formula always to be used. Others say this is against his teaching in v. 7; and that he did not make the use of this particular form obligatory on his followers. There is no historical evidence, so far as known, that it was used as a formula of prayer by the apostles themselves. It is to be accepted as a proper mode of prayer, and it may be used in the worship of God privately or publicly, but always and only in accord with the principle already declared by Jesus—not to use display or vain repetitions in praying. Onr Father. ‘The Lord’s Prayer,’ so called because the Lord gave it as a pattern, might more accurately be called ‘The Model Prayer.’ It is usually divided into three parts: 1, preface; 2, petitions.; 3, conclusion. The Latin fathers and the Lutheran Church make the number of the petitions seven. The Greek and Reformed Churches and the Westminster divines make the number six, by making only one petition of the first part of v. 13, while the others divide it into two petitions. The works written on this ‘Model Prayer’ would make an immense library. The Preface is literally ‘Father of us, who art in the heavens;’ ‘our,’ not my, implying the brotherhood of the human race, especially of believers. The ‘fatherhood of God’ was an old thought in the Jewish worship. It seems a common thought of the race. The Vedas of India, the Zend-Avesta of Persia, Greek literature, as Plato and Plutarch, and the older Baal worship, have the same idea. It seems to be a relic of God's earliest revelation of himself in patriarchal times. But Jesus brings it into a new form and touches it with a new life. First Petition. Hallowed he thy name. That is, help us and others to revere, hallow, sanctify and make holy God’s name and being. Reverence lies at the foundation of all true prayer. 48 Phillip Schaff—Verse 10: “Thy kingdom come (second petition). The Messiah’s kingdom, which in organized form had not yet come, but was proclaimed by the Lord Himself, as at hand. It did speedily come, as opposed to the Old Testament theocracy; but in its fulness, including the triumph of Christ’s kingdom over the kingdom of darkness it has not yet come. For this coming we now pray and the prayer is answered, in part by every success of the gospel, and will be answered entirely when the King comes again. A missionary petition, but not less a prayer for our own higher sanctification and for the second coming of Christ. —Thy will be done as in heaven, so on earth (Third petition). ‘Heaven’ and ‘earth,’ put for their inhabitants. As by pure angels, so by men. The idea of human doing is prominent, our will subordinate to God’s will. ‘As’ expresses similarity in kind and completeness.” 49 Matthew Henry—Verse 11: “Give us this day our daily bread. Because our natural being is necessary to our spiritual well-being in this world, therefore, after the things of God’s glory, kingdom, and will, we pray for the necessary supports and comforts of this present life, which are the gifts of God, and must be asked of him,—Bread for the day approaching, for all the remainder of our lives. Bread for the time to come, or bread for our being and subsistence, that which is agreeable to our condition in the world, (Prov. 30.8.) food convenient for us and our families, according to our rank and station. Every word here has a lesson in it: (1.) We ask for bread; that teaches us sobriety and temperance; we ask for bread, not dainties, not superfluities; that which is wholesome, though it be not nice. (2.) We ask for our bread; that teaches us honesty and industry: we do not ask for the bread out of other people’s mouths, not the bread of deceit, (Prov. 20.13.) not the bread of idleness, (Prov. 31.27.) but the bread honestly gotten. (3.) We ask for our daily bread; which teaches us not to take thought for the morrow, (ch. 6.34.) but constantly to depend upon divine providence, as those that live from hand to mouth. (4.) We beg of God to give it us, not sell it us, nor lend it us, but give it. The greatest of men must be beholden to the mercy of God for their daily bread. (5.) We pray, ‘Give it to us; not to me only, but to others in common with me.’ This teaches us charity, and a compassionate concern for the poor and needy. It intimates also, that we ought to pray with our families; we and our house-holds eat together, and therefore ought to pray together. (6.) We pray that God would give it us this day; which teaches us to renew the desire of our souls toward God, as the wants of our bodies are renewed; as duly as the day comes, we must pray to our heavenly Father, and reckon we should as well go a day without meat, as without prayer.” 50 John Bird Sumner—Verses 12-13: “And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us. We are, then, trespassers: we need forgiveness. Our hearts must be ill-instructed in the divine law, if they do not tell us that it is so. And he who lives through mercy, must show mercy. An unforgiving spirit would mar the effect even of this Christian prayer, because it would betray a most unchristian state of mind. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. There are temptations which ‘are common to men.’ We see throughout all Scripture, that it is God’s will that his people should be tried. But who, that knows his frailty, and the infirmity of his best purposes, will not pray that he may be kept from temptation, and delivered from the evil one?” 51 Joseph Addison Alexander—Verses 14-15: “14. For, if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15. But, if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. The next two verses, as already stated, purport to give a reason for something in the previous context, which can only be the last clause of v. 12. As if he had said, ‘In asking for forgiveness, you must stand prepared to exercise it also, for unless you are, you cannot be forgiven, not because the one is the condition of the other, but because the two must go together, and the absence of the one proves the absence of the other.’ The verb four times repeated here is the same with that in v. 12; but instead of the word delts another figure is employed, that of a fall or false step, rendered in the English versions, trespass, and intended to express the same idea, that of sin, which may be considered either as a debt due to the divine justice, or as a lapse from the straight course of moral rectitude. The fulness and precision with which the alternative is here presented may appear superfluous, but adds to the solemnity of the assurance, and would no doubt strengthen the impression on the minds of the original hearers. In this, as in the whole preceding context, God is still presented in his fatherly relation to all true believers; as if to intimate that even that relation, tender as it is, would give no indulgence to an unforgiving spirit.” 52 Charles John Elliott—Verse 16: “(16) When ye fast.—Fasting had risen under the teaching of the Pharisees into a new prominence. Under the Law there had been but the one great fast of the Day of Atonement, on which men were ‘to afflict their souls’ (Lev. xxiii.27; Num. xxix.7), and practice had interpreted that phrase as meaning total abstinence from food. Other fasts were occasional, in times of distress or penitence, as in Joel i.14, ii.15; or as part of a policy affecting to be religions zeal (1 Kings xxi.9, 12); or as the expression of personal sorrow (1 Sam. xx.34; 2 Sam. xii 16; Ezra x.6; Neh. i.4; et al.). These were observed with an ostentatious show of affliction which called forth the indignant sarcasm of the prophets (Isa. lviii.5). The ‘sackcloth’ took the place of the usual raiment, ‘ashes’ on the head, of the usual unguents (Neh. ix.1; Ps. xxxv. 13). The tradition of the Pharisees, starting from the true principle that fasting was one way of attaining self-control, and that as a discipline it was effectual in proportion as it was systematic, fixed on the fasts ‘twice in the week,’ specified in the prayer of the Pharisee (Luke xviii.12); and the second and fifth days of the week were fixed, and connected with some vague idea that Moses went up Mount Sinai on the one, and descended on the other. Our Lord, we may note, does not blame the principle, or even the rule, on which the Pharisees acted. He recognises fasting, as He recognises almsgiving and prayer, and is content to warn His disciples against the ostentation that vitiates all three, the secret self-satisfaction under the mask of contrition, the ‘pride that apes humility.’ The very words, ‘when thou fastest’ contain an implied command. Of a sad countenance.—Strictly, of sullen look, moroseness of affected austerity rather than of real sorrow. They disfigure their faces.—The verb is the same as that translated ‘corrupt’ in verse 19. Here it points to the unwashed face and the untrimmed hair, possibly to the ashes sprinkled on both, that men might know and admire the rigorous asceticism.” 53 Charles Rosenbury Erdman—Verses 17-18: “Very popular with the Jews among whom Christ lived, was that of fasting. If this is practiced in order to show to God our sorrow for sin; or if it is involved in our devotion to his service, it is right and commendable; but if it is employed as a means of winning the approval and praise of men, it is hypocrisy and pretense. Jesus insists that fasting, and all forms of self-denial, should be in secret; we are not to parade our sacrifices; we are not to make capital out of our devotion. We are to have regard only to the Father who is in secret, who sees in secret and who surely will reward.” 54 Endnote: 42 Harvey Goodwin, A Commentary on the Gospel of S. Matthew (Cambridge: Deighton, Bell and Company, 1857), 93-94. 43 Charles H. Spurgeon, The Gospel of the Kingdom: A Popular Exposition of the Gospel According to Matthew (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1893), 32. 44 William Nast, A Commentary on the Gospels of Matthew and Mark (Cincinnati: Poe & Hitchcock, 1864), 262. 45 Adam Clarke, The New Testament of Our Lord Jesus Christ (Matthew to the Acts), Volume 1 (New York: Lane & Scott, 1850), 84. 46 James Morrison, A Practical Commentary on the Gospel According to St. Matthew (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1895), 88. 47 J. Glentworth Butler, The Bible Work (or Bible Readers Commentary) The New Testament, in Two Volumes, Volume 1 (New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1889), 157. 48 Edwin W. Rice, Commentary on the Gospel According to Matthew (Philadelphia: The American Sunday School Union, 1897), 79. 49 Philip Shaff, A Popular Commentary on the New Testament, Volume 1 (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1891), 67. 50 Matthew Henry, An Exposition of the Old and New Testament, Volume 5 (Philadelphia: Edward Barrington & George D. Haswell, 1825), 67. 51 John Bird Sumner, A Practical Exposition of the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Mark, in the Form of Lectures (London: Hatchard & Son, 1831), 70. 52 Joseph Addison Alexander, The Gospel According to Matthew (New York: Charles Scribner, 1861), 176. 53 Charles John Ellicott, A New Testament Commentary for English Readers (Matthew-John), Volume 1 (Edinburg: The Calvin Translation Society, 1884), 26. 54 Charles Rosenbury Erdman, The Gospel of Matthew: An Exposition (Philadelphia: The Westminister Press, 1920), 56.

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myhiddenstxry · 4 years

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Finally Freedom

After 10 months of much suffering, I managed to get out of the hellhole workplace. I’m finally free from the toxic environment, full of racism and discrimination towards me because of my race and skin colour. How much I hate that I have work past midnight or at least past working hours time, knowing that they didn’t even care to think about my well-being and health (both physical and mental) but to make think that it’s okay for us Singaporeans to work beyond working hours without being paid for overtime. How can a boss whose that broke, a cheater and scandalous, racist do these nonsensical situations at work.

It has a been a depressing last few months for me and I have changed so much. Turning into a bad apple and frequently irritable with my surroundings and ended up fighting with people for no reason. Honestly, I find myself toxic, knowing that I’m surrounded by toxic colleagues around me. I was so pretentious to be part of their gossips but honestly I didn't want them to over-exaggerate or be overly paranoid over my past experiences. It’s not worth it. It just worsens my mental health.

Even when I got out of the hell hole, the one week become even more sour and I got myself into a toxic attitude and splattering bombastic “vulgar-bulary” all around. I got myself into deeply insomnia and felt so hateful that I involve people who were once worked together with the toxic company.

All in all, I keep telling myself that I should drop every single one of them of my life including the ex colleagues who have left and become attached with, away from me. I knew I needed to delete myself from the toxicity and rejuvenate into someone new and mature.

It took me a few days to remove myself from delusions, hateful, bad past experiences including social platforms as well. I realise how ugly I was during that period.

The past 3 years was much of an ugly side of me. I turned to social media, trying to get myself “known” and be a so-called someone who has friends with influencers. I was that guy! It’s disgusting isn’t it? I know. I realise the amount of toxic remarks and behaviour I was, going to clubs and bars, drinking and get wasted, be broke for months and selling away precious stuff that I bought. I regret being in that situation. I was immature.

As I left the company a week ago, I managed to regain myself, getting myself into political issues and educating myself with the current affairs in Singapore. The most recent topic was between racism against minorities. How I relate myself from my experience against racism in my ex-workplace to the current most-talk-about which was the General Elections 2020. How I foresee everything will come via Instagram and Twitter.

GE was over by then and managed to get myself away from the negative thoughts I had earlier on. I’m proud of myself, it was definitely a short while to take me to move on from them, but there’s still that smart part of me feeling a little bit angry but I will get rid of it sooner. Hahahaha.

I’ve removed my followings from my instagram and followed only those whom I know of, has worked with me or were there for me since the start. I’ve get rid of toxic friends and people in the past from my social platforms and even contacts/whatsapp. I don’t want to have any relation to them anymore and stick to that small cliques I have earlier on. It was a tough decision but its for the sake of my mental health as well.

Alhamdullilah, I’ve gotten 2 job replies who are keen to have me in their company but I have to make the right choice! My heart says to go with a company that pays more, but also I have to ensure that I have to be mature, professional and not get too close or personal with new colleagues and be disappointed in the end and also work smart for the company. I have to plant myself with good spirit, faith and humility to myself. I need this. I have enough of negativity and I need shower myself with good stuff and positivity.

I want to avoid going out late midnight, having to spend some money to transport me home, SUCH A WASTE OF MONEY. Just stick thru and be mature. When it’s time for home, go home. You can enjoy once in awhile going home late but not do it in a routine manner, NO! It’s time to save your money, get myself a professional camera and equipment for content creation, work diligently and travel around the globe.

I’m very keen to get my a degree in business management and economics. I want to live in a luxury yet simple home, be free away from life negativity and be a professional in life. That’s my aspiration in life.

Time to stand up and be mature Khai. Be smart and educated! Enough of childish acts and wasting your money from nonsense. Let’s get it right!

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junker-town · 5 years

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The 10 dumbest mistakes from a humiliating NFL Week 8, ranked

Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports

So many teams were their own worst enemy this week, but at least the refs saved the Titans from themselves.

There weren’t many surprises Sunday in the NFL. The best teams (Patriots, 49ers, Saints, Packers) kept winning. The worst teams (Bengals, Jets, Falcons) kept losing. With Washington dropping its Thursday night game and the Dolphins probably doing the same on Monday night, Week 8 stands to be our chalkiest one yet this season.

Despite the lack of drama on the scoreboard, there was plenty of it on the field — mostly of the humiliating variety. It started when the Jaguars and their fans spent most of the day mercilessly teasing Sam Darnold, the Job (biblical version) of the NFL.

It continued on, with the Titans and Bucs trading self-inflicting turnovers, the Chargers and Bears trying to gift-wrap a win for the other team, and the risk-averse Broncos getting called out by the expert in all things boring, Joe Flacco.

However, the biggest “STOP HITTING YOURSELF” lowlight of the day came from the most predictable source. The Browns dug themselves into an early hole against the Patriots with a three-turnover sequence, each increasingly more embarrassing than the one before.

And somehow, the mistakes this week didn’t end there.

10. The Falcons had little interest in trying to beat the Seahawks

You’d think in the middle of a 1-7 season, Falcons head coach Dan Quinn would be coaching for his job. But Quinn was oddly conservative down 3-0 early against the Seattle Seahawks. Facing a fourth-and-1, Quinn opted to try for a 51-yard field goal. The Falcons missed it, and Seattle countered with a touchdown drive to go up 10-0.

What’s worse might be how unprepared the Falcons’ defense was on the touchdown:

.@dkm14 was RIGHT THERE. Q2: SEA 10, ATL 0 pic.twitter.com/vs4b6DmFg2

— Seattle Seahawks (@Seahawks) October 27, 2019

On the other hand, Quinn might be doing exactly what he’s supposed to be doing — tanking so the Falcons can draft Ohio State DE Chase Young:

did y’all see chase young yesterday? dan quinn is doing a fine job

— Harry Lyles Jr. (@harrylylesjr) October 27, 2019

9. Melvin Gordon blocked the wrong guy, then had to make a touchdown-saving tackle

Gordon’s spent the past four weeks shaking off the rust accumulated in a contract holdout. It’s safe to say there’s still a little bit of corrosion left to work through. When quarterback Philip Rivers pointed out an oncoming Bears blitz deep in his own territory, Gordon stepped up to handle the onslaught — and picked up the wrong guy.

Rivers makes a pre-snap adjustment to counter the Bears' oncoming blitz. Melvin Gordon picks up a player who's already being blocked instead of the free man, and Rivers throws off his back foot for an easy pick at least Gordon got the touchdown saving tackle? pic.twitter.com/4J9gsoNnuL

— Christian D'Andrea (@TrainIsland) October 27, 2019

Seconds later, Chicago was rumbling toward the end zone after an interception.

At least Gordon’s make-up effort on the tackle was worthwhile. The Bears settled for a field goal four plays later, and the Chargers ended up with a one-point win.

8. Bruce Irvin gave the 49ers the underrated fuel they’ll use for months

It can get hard to keep playing the disrespected card when wins are piling up. The Patriots somehow managed to act like they were the Cinderella story of 2018 on their way to a sixth Super Bowl win in the 21st century. But that took a special amount of delusion to pull off.

The 49ers are 7-0 and just one of those wins was within a touchdown. A 51-13 destruction of the Panthers in Week 8 was their most impressive performance to date. At some point, it’ll be trickier for San Francisco to find bulletin board material if it keeps laying opponents to waste.

That is, unless there are more guys like Bruce Irvin on the docket. The Panthers linebacker refused to give the 49ers much credit immediately after he was handed a 38-point loss.

I asked Panthers end Bruce Irvin just how good this 49ers team is. “They’re OK. They’re OK. They’re not world-beaters,” he said. My guess is SF will use this as another log on the motivational fire.

— Jim Trotter (@JimTrotter_NFL) October 27, 2019

There’s a solid chance both the Panthers and 49ers will make the playoffs. If we get a January rematch, you better believe there will be plenty of talk about Irvin’s Week 8 comments. Even if there isn’t, the 49ers will probably cling to his “not world-beaters” description for the rest of the year.

7. The Broncos burned a timeout because the battery in Joe Flacco’s headset died

It was a bit confusing when Joe Flacco walked off the field as the play clock wound down late in the third quarter against the Colts. Instead of directing traffic for a first-and-20 play, he opted to burn a timeout after a fruitless huddle. It was a decision that didn’t make much sense on the surface, until the CBS broadcast team got the inside scoop. Flacco couldn’t hear any of the plays coming in from the sideline because the transmitter inside his helmet had died.

Flacco’s midgame maintenance meant the Broncos were forced to use a valuable timeout late in a tight game during a drive with limited prospects. And it wasn’t as though the veteran QB missed much once he finally got his headset fixed — the play he missed turned out to be a fairly predictable 6-yard screen to tailback Phillip Lindsay.

The Colts took a 15-13 lead late, giving the Broncos the ball back with 22 seconds — and no timeouts.

Speaking of Flacco ...

6. The Colts indulged Joe Flacco’s Lamar Jackson cosplay

Flacco has played in the NFL for roughly 12 years. He entered Week 8 with 822 career rushing yards — or 4.8 per game. He is not a mobile quarterback.

So when he does this to you, it’s time to reexamine your defensive philosophy.

i take back any nice thing i've ever said about the Colts defense pic.twitter.com/swMx1bxbIM

— Christian D'Andrea (@TrainIsland) October 27, 2019

That scramble helped set up a 29-yard field goal and bumped up Flacco’s career average to 4.9 rushing yards per game.

5. Three Bengals defenders could’ve had an easy pick and whiffed

Cincinnati dropped to 0-8 on Sunday, losing 24-10 to the Los Angeles Rams in London. Late in the fourth quarter, the Cincy defense nearly picked off a Jared Goff pass attempt to Cooper Kupp. But in classic Bengals fashion, even three defenders couldn’t make the play. No seriously, this ball bounced off three different guys’ hands before falling incomplete:

The Bengals, summed up. pic.twitter.com/T7PxpasyeY

— Will Brinson (@WillBrinson) October 27, 2019

Not sure what else there is to say about this other than, Go Bengals?

4. The Browns’ own offensive lineman forced a fumble with his foot

Yes, it appears as if the Browns are officially back to the same team we constantly make fun of. During their 27-13 loss to the Patriots, Cleveland literally forced its own fumble. In the first quarter down 3-0, Browns guard Joel Bitonio inadvertently kicked the ball out off Nick Chubb’s hands, and Dont’a Hightower recovered it and took it to the house for a touchdown:

Only the Cleveland Browns.... One the most reliable ball security RBs getting stripped by his own pulling guard's foot. Bitonio's foot literally slides down the ball & pulls Chubb's hand off the ball for a split second...all you need in driving rain. TD return, bc, of course. pic.twitter.com/UbMO8fGkLK

— Jake Burns (@jake_burns18) October 28, 2019

If it makes you feel better, Browns, at least the Patriots do this sort of thing to every team they face.

3. Breshad Perriman made one helluva tackle (on his own running back)

A draw up the middle out of shotgun on third-and-goal from the 4-yard line doesn’t leave much room for error. Especially if the play’s most dangerous tackler is already a couple yards behind the line of scrimmage and streaking toward the tailback:

If you own Breshad Perriman at WR in an IDP league, do you get a point for a tackle on this play? pic.twitter.com/Dt0ZApbT3U

— DK Nation (@DKNatn) October 27, 2019

That’s Breshad Perriman, signed away from the Browns to bolster the Buccaneers’ wideout position in 2019, coming down the line in motion with the horrific timing needed to completely derail a vital play before it could even begin. Dare Ogbunwale lost two yards after getting smoked by his own teammate.

Tampa was forced to settle for a 24-yard field goal seconds later, in a game it lost by four.

2. The Bears went into victory formation, then lost

The Bears know a thing or two about missed field goals. They were embroiled in one of the weirdest kicker battles this past offseason after Cody Parkey missed a field goal that ended the Bears’ season in the playoffs. They eventually settled for Eddy Pinero, who so far has been pretty dang effective this season.

Perhaps too effective. From the Chargers’ 21-yard line with 43 seconds left on the clock and a timeout in their pocket, the Bears elected to take a knee. There was plenty of time to run a couple of plays, even just simple runs to try and make it a bit of an easier kick.

Nope. Matt Nagy, showing what appears to be a significant lack of faith in his own offense, called the “victory formation” kneeldown. You can guess what happened next: Pinero’s field goal was no good, sailing wide left:

oh no, Bears pic.twitter.com/1EDNWxSxOV

— Christian D'Andrea (@TrainIsland) October 27, 2019

The Bears lost to the Chargers, as a result.

1. The referees cost the Bucs game-winning TD on a bad fake field goal by the Titans

Not only do we have a dumb mistake by a football team, we’ve got one for the referees, too. Leading by four points with less than four minutes remaining, the Titans were in field goal range, enough to put them up by a touchdown. Instead, they ran a fake field goal that went extremely poorly.

And the Titans kicker or holder got destroyed on the rush attempt! pic.twitter.com/z8B9K0tZvZ

— Geoff Schwartz (@geoffschwartz) October 27, 2019

They picked up no yards on the play and fumbled. It was recovered by the Buccaneers, who took it all the way back for a touchdown that would have given them the lead.

But the the referees blew an early whistle, which ultimately prevented the Buccaneers from advancing the football. Early whistles are among the most frustrating things in the NFL (and keep happening to NFC South teams).

Although the Buccaneers had another couple opportunities to win the game, it still feels like the referees cost them a win on Sunday. Meanwhile, the Titans are lucky that they were saved from their own terrible decisions — for the second week in a row.

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