Jamie123

It's our old friend and enemy, the pooh-pooh. "Your eyes can deceive you, Luke! Don't trust them." As Henry IV Part II* once said, "Desire is the father of the thought". It's Elizabeth Holmes all over again! “Now the trouble about trying to make yourself stupider than you really are is that you very often succeed.” (C.S. Lewis The Magician's Nephew) I was wondering exactly the same. Verse 17 makes me think of Ragnor Redbeard: *Old joke, but it still makes me laugh!

Absolutely, but it was Jewish leaders in Jerusalem who said "we have no king but Caesar". (Though....OK. I guess seeing as it was the Passover, some of them may have been from Galilee.)

I totally love the Muppets' Christmas Carol. Absolutely no one else seems to love that movie as much as I do. I cry like a baby every time I see it. God bless us every one? And who except seriously out-of-touch people (who don't have sex on a second date) ever prays? * I mean, it's 2023 for goodness sake! I wonder what the lyrics would be if that movie were made today! (Don't get me started on A Charlie Brown Christmas!) P.S. Don't you think that Michael Caine is the greatest actor in the entire universe of time, space, matter and energy? *Well OK, Muslims maybe. Gotta be careful what we say about them.

I don't think Herod Antipas was king in Jerusalem. He ruled the northern area around Galilee. (Although he was in Jerusalem for the Passover.) Judea was under direct Roman rule.

One positive thing I've found about the Book of Mormon is that the 16th Century language is not nearly so off-putting as I'd expected. You get used to it the more you read, and after a while you stop noticing it. It's the same with "and it came to pass". I used to find this phrase incredibly irritating, but it's either become a lot less frequent or else its stopped registering.

Haha - I never thought of that. Clarence is an angel and he doesn't have wings! (Until the end.) There is also the apocryphal Book of Tobit. (I was about to mention the relevance, but that's a big spoiler. For the record I don't think Tobit is genuine scripture - it's a novel, and a rollicking good one too!)

I may be the worst Philistine when it comes to art, but I think the stupidest winged angel is the Angel of the North I mean - aeroplane wings? I ask you!

Not allowed to call it Christmas anymore. No Marys and Josephs and mangers and little baby Jesusses. Someone might see them who's NOT A CHRISTIAN, and oh it will be SO offensive!!! Except it won't of course. They won't mind one bit. Do you think I mind Diwali? No, I like the colourful lights and the different gods and goddesses: Hanuman and Parvati and Ganesha with his elephant head. I don't believe in them obviously, but they don't OFFEND me. So why should a Hindu be offended by pictures of the Nativity and choirs in the streets singing Christmas carols? He's not, one bit. So none of this "festive season" nonsense. It's Christmas, so let's make it about Christ!

Totally irrelevant of course, but I just found this totally beautiful version of Be Thou My Vision by the same ensemble. Original words too, not the politically correctified version. (Well not the original original words of course. Those are in medieval Irish.)

Yep mustn't forget "the six winged serephs" (I've sung about them often enough!) So if angels do sometimes have wings, wonder why it's so important to emphasise that they don't.

LDSs are always very emphatic about angels not having wings. The one person I know who claims to have seen angels says that they do, and that they are extremely beautiful. So I wonder who is right...

I'm sure everyone else enjoyed it 😁

It just sounds like jabber to me!

Then again, I've just remembered Alma 11:24 😟 Though if Amulek had been wrong, I don't suppose Zeezrom would have paranoided himself into believing otherwise.

I remember at school listening to a play called (if I remember rightly) The Concrete Serpent. It contained the line "Men seek the truth and then betray". I've never since found any reference to it, but I think it's very true. It reminds me if another quote. This may be Lessing, but I'm not totally sure: "The eyes of those who seek have often found more than they wished to find". P.S. I could have sworn that last one was from Nathan the Wise, but I found it on Project Gutenberg and no luck. You know, I bet it was actually Dumbledore who said it.

Ahaaa...sorry! I'm just a bit of a thicko 😀 It's like the old joke: How do you make a [insert ethnicity you wish to slander]man laugh on Friday? Tell him a joke on Monday.

I have known at least four people who have the gift of tongues (though one of them is now dead). I do not have it myself, nor do I particularly want it. Perhaps that's not a bad thing.

Spanish for bed?

On second thought, questions like this are best asked in prayer.

Yep - that makes sense. Thanks

Chapter 24: The ANLs have made a commitment never to use lethal force again. The Amalekites and Amulonites and a lot of other people attack them without resistance and kill about 1000. When they realize what's happening most of the attackers repent ("coals if fire" I guess) and join the ANLs. The ANLs actually increase in number as a result. But how does any of this demonstrate that people who have lapsed into sin after knowing the truth become "more hardened" (verse 30)? (Serious question. I'm not trying to pick fault

I always used to think that too - but I have read that the name (Sans Terre in French) came from the fact that his father Henry II did not initially give him any territories (as he did his two older sons). Maybe another example would be Zedekiah who was appointed king of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar. When he made an alliance with Egypt against Babylon, that was seen as an act of treason against his overlord - and we all know what the result was.

Yep, John held Enlgand independently (though at one point i believe he was a Papal vassal). But you're right, he was a vassal to Phillp in respect of his French territories. Though technically he was not a king of any of those - only duke or count.

Maybe "drug mules" and "drug cartels"? Yep - right over my "innocent" head 😉 Am I right?

I know its irrelevant but I can't hear "potato" and "tomato" in the same sentence without it triggering the song. Yep I think the second is more pleasing to the eye. I wouldn't quite know how to explain why though. P.S. You're right. I can't write 'potatos' without itching to put an e in it.