>Moldy bread in Patmos ...
>
>We have to meet: if you're ever going down 75 past Lexington, let me know and I'll buy the coffee at Berea Coffee & Tea.
>
>Hank

I'd like that. I'll keep it in mind. If you find yourself coming up to the North Coast let me know.


>
>>>>>And there was me thinking that the idea of UT was that people who
>>>>>understand things can explain them to people who do not :-{
>>>>People...
>>>
>>>
>>>Jesus came to set men free from the bondage of this world. His arms are open to everyone. There are none He will reject, who are excluded, except those who purposefully exclude themselves.
>>>
>>>I pray you'll think on these words:
>>>I Corinthians 3:18-20 - KJV - "18 Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise. 19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness. 20 And again, The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain."
>>>
>>>Very simply:
>>>There is the flesh. There is the spirit. All flesh is lost and will come to naught. All spirit is eternal. God is spirit, and He guides people that way. It is why they must be "born again" ... of the spirit ... before they can enter into Heaven, because all men who are born in the flesh are dead in the spirit. Only when they are born again are their eyes opened to things of God.
>>>
>>>I often weep, sometimes bitterly, at what I see going on in this world. To the people here. It doesn't have to be like this. Only sin, and men's love of sin, keeps it like this. There is a better way ... His name is Jesus. It is that simple. It is that easy to have. It is only men's hard hearts who prevent it from being had. There is NO other barrier.
>>
>>You quote from a book with which I am quite familiar, having read it a number of times, both as a youth and an adult, and in the very King James version you cite, having been raised and baptised a Methodist and being part of a family that includes at least 5 generations of 32nd degree Masons both here and in England and Scotland.
>>
>>This is a tradition that is hardly owned by the :"evangelicals" though it often seems we are being told that only someplace like Falwell's Liberty College or people like that fool Robertson have found literal theological truth in their interpretations of a collection of documents assembled and approved by committee at a series of councils beginning in the 4th century and transcribed and translated both before and since in ways that would have indeed required Divine intervention to obtain even a semblance of original intent, even had that original intent being divinely inspired.
>>
>>At least with the Book of Mormon and the Qu'ran there is the provenance of direct dictation by an angel and the absence of translation, if one chooses to embrace their origins on faith.
>>
>>And I don't think any question about The Bible's literal truth speaks at all to to greater theological truths or to the meaning, historical and spiritual, of Jesus of Nazareth. I would like to hope there is a lot of truth in the Jesus story, but I don't see the Bible as casting much light on it one way or the other.
>>
>>Belief in the ownership of that message by one segment of the community is a long tradition among Christians and explains much of why the message has been lost. ( religions or political systems that believe in a monopoly on the understanding of History and Truth often have this problem as one sees today with the Takfiri in Islam.)
>>
>>One can have belief, faith, hope or just a willingness to accept Wonder as it comes without having the ineffable written out so that the words may be used to further agendas and purposes that may exist only in the prideful visions of the "prophets".
>>
>>The fascination of the Evangelical community with the Book of Revelations I find baffling. Eating moldy bread in a cave in Patmos seems more the source of ergotomine poisoning that genuine inculcation of spiritual knowledge, but hey, who knows. My guess would be that whatever the truth of the origin of the text, the preachers who are using it to preach the end times have no clue as what that truth is.
>>
>>But again, my early exposure and life-long interest in all this has only led me to a Reform Pagan Sufi Transcendentalist approach to the question and I am willing to accept we are all Blind Men describing the elephant. And that makes me smile.
>>
>>I understand your need to testify to a truth you have found, and while I think you are mistaken in it being Universal Truth which others simply do not see I do understand why you need to think that is so and therefore I have no problem whatsoever with your expressing that faith at every opportunity.
>>
>>That said, applying the same approach to technical questions is nonsense. You cannot explain or defend your technical assertions about technologies other than VFP because they are not based on knowledge of the platforms or experience in using them and are a "faith based" approach applied to a technical area.
>>
>>The assertion that you know of no better development platform etc than VFP may be true, but is only defensible as true if one first accepts your ignorance of other platforms.
>>
>> Please understand others here have been developing VFP solutions at least as long and well as you have, had more to gain materially had VFP become MS's favorite, and have chosen to move on not just because of MS abandoning the product but because they took the trouble to learn about other ways of doing things and found some of them quite useful and compelling for the changing demands of clients and technology.
>>
>>And now, may the Lord watch between me and thee, while we are absent, one from another.