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Only 3 other posters ventured an answer to the purpose of life. Billow55 only says how he believes life originated, not what the purpose is. So am I to understand from this that life has no purpose at all for non-believers? If this is so, then we human beings are to be pitied more than any other living thing. We spend more time, money, energy, and effort etc to raise our offspring only for many of us to be hugely disappointed when at age XX we realise that our offspring have become addicted to alcohol, drugs, nicotine, pornography, or anything else you care to name. To survive we need employment. The organisation employing us now ends up controlling virtually every aspect of our awake time. It controls – 1. What time we get up in the morning 2. What time we leave for work in the morning 3. How long our lunch break is 4. What time we are allowed to go home in the afternoons 5. What time we actually leave to go home in the afternoons, known as overtime often without any financial reward just to meet the deadlines set by the organisation 6. To meet the deadlines set by the organisation, many of us spend our weekends at the organisation as well, again without any financial reward 7. When we are allowed to take annual leave 8. How much annual leave we are entitled to 9. How much annual leave we actually take due to the pressure placed upon us to meet all the deadlines that the organisation has placed upon us 10. By the time we reach retirement age many of us have accumulated unused leave to our credit 11. And to top this off, some organisations have a policy of “use your leave or lose it.” Wow! Where is the fairness in that? 12. Some get to work until age 60, some until age 65. Others keep going until they are forced to quit. But this is only the start. We spend all this time at the organisation employing us to feed our addictions for all the latest gizmos, faster and bigger cars, bigger houses, the latest fashions etc. To feed these addictions some of us are forced to hold down 2 or more jobs. When we do eventually find some “free” time we are simply too exhausted to do anything. So we flop down in front of the television with some or other fast food on hand and now we start growing in size. Obesity is a growing problem (pun intentional) worldwide, placing a health risk upon many of us. But things get worse. We spend all this time at work only to see a chunk of what we earn disappear every month against our will. It’s called taxes, medical fund contributions, retirement funding etc. The government squanders a lot of this money on defence, building more powerful and destructive weapons of war so that we can kill each other. When we are in dire need of very expensive medical treatment, the organisations to whom we have been paying all this money to every month do their best to find a reason why the cost is not covered under our policy with them. To top all this off some of us have invested our life savings into a ponzi scheme. We find out when it is too late and are now forced to continue working longer than we intended. The desperate choose a dramatic ending via suicide. When we die everything has been meaningless, a chasing of the wind. Here today, gone tomorrow, soon forgotten by all. Actually yes it does make sense to me. See reply to the Billow55 post. Without realising it Kenberg got it right. This is what he posted (unrelated to the question asked) – We all get to, and have to, choose. But the God of the Jews has placed a twist to the only choice which matters that we make. It is the Greek word “proorizo” (NT:4309) and means “to limit in advance.” The word appears in Romans 8:29 where God is effectively saying to us “I have limited you in advance to be conformed into the image of my son Jesus.” The twist? We all get the choice to be conformed into the image of Jesus the easy way or the hard way! Why would God limit us in advance to be conformed into the image of Jesus? Answer: Adam and Eve were set up and programmed for failure. You have read that correctly as well. And there is a very good reason why they were programmed for failure. But that is another lengthy post not understood by many.

I have given you the reason for life of the God of the Jews. What is the reason for life of non-believers?

On this hand, without any opposition interference South would start off with Stayman followed by Crawling Stayman if opener responds 2♦. But here there is opposition interference; 2♦ was either natural or DONT. So how about this for a solution: After the 2♦ overcall, X by South would be “stolen bid” asking North to transfer to ♥ (this is what actually happened at our table). When the bidding got back to West the second time round, he bid 3♦ which made (5X♦ tricks, 3X♥ tricks and 1X♣ trick). I am suggesting that over 3♦, South should X a second time as a Smolen type of bid, 5X♥ and 4X♠. Now North can bid the 4/4 ♠ fit. Can this work? Yes? No? Maybe? With East on lead, the ♦A or ♦K will be tabled to have a look at dummy. Seeing a doubleton in dummy, East may well take the second ♦ winner as well. If he does it will allow North to discard the ♣ loser in dummy on the ♦Q. The rest of the hand can be cross-ruffed after losing the second ♥ to the opponents and should make.

MikeH (and now Nige1 as well) wants to know why I believe. I will give just 2 reasons – 1. I don’t have the exact number but thus far around 80% of all Bible prophecies have been fulfilled. The remaining 20% all have to do with the future and the second coming of Jesus. Compare that fulfilment % with Nostradamus, the Mayan calendar or any other so-called prophet. 2. Just as Paul had his Damascus road experience when he was confronted head on by God, the same thing happened to me in the early 1990s. Since then God has revealed to me on at least another 3 occasions that he exists and is real. If he did that for me he can do the same for you. It’s not my job to convince you of anything. Here’s something else for you to consider: It is very difficult to quantify the damage that institutionalised religion has done regarding the message that first Jesus preached and then Paul. Inadequate translations of the Bible have already been mentioned. Added to that you inevitably get to hear all sorts of misguided sermons preached from the pulpit every Sunday. The people attending don’t know any better and either fall asleep during the sermon or leave more confused than when they entered. So here is my suggestion: Do what the Bereans did in Acts 17:11. They examined the scriptures for themselves to see if what Paul said was true. Don’t blindly accept what your local preacher (or anyone else) is telling you. Go and examine it for yourself. Regarding the remaining 20% of prophecies still to be fulfilled: This thread is crammed with posts seeking evidence that God exists. Guess what? God will become visible in you and me and everyone else at the second coming. Yes, you read that correctly. And that my dear friend is the whole purpose of the God of the Jews with creation; an invisible God becoming visible. This amazing story starts in Genesis chapter 1 and ends in Revelation 22. Every single generation from Paul until now has earnestly hoped and desired that their generation would be the one to see it happen. Who knows? Maybe it is ours? This mind boggling event has not been concocted by a religious fanatic. It has been concocted by God himself. It was too much for the Jews to stomach too whom it was given, and they have now rejected their own God and Messiah. This promise is what is still waiting to be fulfilled.

Sorry Richard, but you are only partially correct. Apart from Philippi (where there was no synagogue), everywhere Paul went he first entered the synagogue and preached to the Jews. Just as in Acts 1 through 6, initially the Jews accepted the message of salvation. Just as in Acts 7 through 9, it was the religious establishment who incited the Jews against the message of salvation. The temple in Jerusalem was controlled by the Sadducees. When it was destroyed by the Romans in AD 70 they ceased to exist. The synagogues were controlled by the Pharisees. There were two groups of Pharisees; the School of Hillel (the liberals) and the School of Shammai (the fanatics or the militants). From around AD 30 the Sanhedrin was controlled by the Shammai Pharisees. It is not known at what point Paul crossed over from Hillel to Shammai by he became the number 1 militant against the message of salvation (Acts 7 through 9). It is absolutely impossible for one person single-handedly to sow the havoc that Paul did. The number of believers would easily have beaten him up and chased him away. Paul’s help came from the Sadducees and the Shammai Pharisees. When Paul became a believer the militants lost their number 1 havoc instigator. When they began witnessing the success he was having amongst both Jews and non-Jews with his message, some of these militants did everything in their power to stop him. In 2 Corinthians 11:16-33 Paul gives us an idea of how much he was persecuted by these people. Amongst the militants was the false apostle and Paul’s thorn in the flesh. Paul actually identifies him in at least 3 places. The Sadducees had the most to lose by the numbers accepting the message of salvation. The temple coffers were drying up when the people realised that it no longer served any purpose. Do a Google search for yourself to get an idea of the levels of corruption taking place in the temple. Has modern institutionalised religion learnt from these guys? :P The Shammai Pharisees on the other hand were still awaiting their Messiah to deliver the Jews from Roman oppression. Amongst other things, they absolutely forbade Jews to make contact with non-Jews fearing defilement. When these non-Jews started accepting Jesus as the Messiah these fanatical Pharisees were hell-bent on stopping Paul. It was the militant Pharisees who led the Jews (more accurately, forced the Jews) into the war against the Romans from AD 66 to AD 70, the war which lead to the destruction of the temple, Jerusalem and the Jews as a nation. It was only in 1948 that they were re-established as a nation. So now to your post: The letters you mention are addressed to both the Jews (who initially accepted the message) and the non-Jews. The lengthy arguments and examples Paul inevitably uses all come from the Old Testament writings. These arguments and examples would be completely meaningless to a non-Jew of the time who was not familiar with what was being referred to. The whole reason that Paul had to continue sending letters to all these new believers was to – 1. Warn them against these militant fanatics who insisted that they uphold circumcision and all the laws of Moses 2. To point out from their own Old Testament writings that these militants had it all wrong (This post has been edited).

This hand came up at our local club tonight: [hv=pc=n&s=skjt7h76542dt5ct7&w=sq542hktdj73ck932&n=sa986ha3dq42caj65&e=s3hqj98dak986cq84&d=n&v=0&b=1&a=1n(15-17%20HCP)2d(Natural%20/%20DONT)]399|300[/hv] What now? How do you find the ♠ fit? Or do you give up on the auction as South? The South's who chose to pass felt done in when the contract made.

Any idea what the other 3 hands looked like?

If anyone has the desire to start looking this stuff up for themselves, the translation I found to be closest to the original text is the New American Standard Bible (Updated Edition). So +1 for these guys. I have been digging into this stuff for some time now, comparing 20 different translations against each other and approximately 15 different Bible commentaries. But just take note: The NASB also contains plenty of the issues that I have been griping about here. I still have some way to go. This is the website I am getting most of my information from http://bible.cc/ Coupled to this I have something called PC Study Bible distributed by BibleSoft.

You’ve just played your highest trump card, the Ace. This argument is the one sceptics just love because 2000 years down the line there is no way for the current generation to say whether or not the recorded miracles were invented or not. Guess what? There is a flaw in your argument. The entire New Testament, excluding Luke and Acts, was written by Jews for Jews. To invent all these stories as you suggest would be completely laughable for the Jews of the day. They were the ones being healed of all sorts of diseases etc. When the non-Jews started accepting the New Testament message and writings, all sorts of corruptions of the original texts started creeping in. Non-Jews started adding/deleting/changing what was originally written. I have already mentioned two examples higher up in this thread. Here are some examples of the original texts being corrupted – 1. Start off with William Tyndale again (go read the post higher up) 2. The attempted deletion of parts of Romans (go read the post higher up) 3. Man made words that REPLACED the original word. Some classic examples include – a. Church: The Greek word means assembly. When referring to followers of Christ, it is an assembly of believers b. Repent: The Greek word means “change your mind.” But it needs to be read and understood in the context that it was written. The Jews had crucified their own Messiah. Read in context it says, “Change your mind and think differently about how you perceive Jesus.” c. Gospel: The Greek means “good news” or “glad tidings.” What the hell is gospel anyway? d. These are just some examples. There are plenty of others. 4. Then you have the endless list of words either transliterated or not translated at all. I’ll give you some examples here as well – a. Hosanna: The Greek word is “hoosanna" and was a cry for help from Jesus meaning “save us, set us free now.” The Jews were expecting Jesus to overthrow the Roman oppressors of the day. When that never happened they crucified him, choosing to set free a freedom fighter. However, because the word was transliterated it has become a song of praise in institutionalised religion. Read this and you find something else where non-Jews have changed the original text http://www.gospel-mysteries.net/barabbas.html b. Angel: The Greek word is “angelos” and means messenger. c. Again, there are plenty of other examples. 5. Luke and Acts are the only two books in the New Testament written by a non-Jew. Biblical scholars are growing in numbers who now understand that both were written in the form of an affidavit as part of Paul’s defence before Emperor Nero during his first Roman imprisonment. Both are addressed to Theophilus, another word never translated. Theophilus means “friend of God.” In Paul calling Nero a friend of God may have been to soften his stance? Paul’s hand in compiling both documents is unmistakeable. For sure Luke added the historical names, dates and places, etc. For Luke and Paul to fake the miracles recorded before Emperor Nero would have sealed Paul's death immediately. 6. Non-Jews have tried to conceal the identity of the false apostle and Paul’s thorn in the flesh. Paul identifies the culprit at least 3 times. The biggest clue as to the identity of the culprit comes from Jesus himself. But for reasons of their own, institutionalised religion has tried to conceal the culprits identity. 7. To add to all these inadequacies you have fictitious characters (Satan, devils and demons) (go read the post higher up) A lot has been said in this thread criticising institutionalised religion (myself included). Let me add another five cents here. I am a 100% believer in the God of the Bible. But I left institutionalised religion for good in the late 1990s. I disagree with many of their practices. I also disagree with the way much of the Bible has been translated. Much of the original beauty of what was said or written has been lost. Now a question for you: Regarding the Ace of trumps played: what will your answer be to God when he establishes a revoke?

What is the purpose of life?

If you’re starting to feel uncomfortable about the things said in this thread, that is an EXCELLENT SIGN! It simply means that the Spirit of God is prompting you once again to respond to his calling. Jesus himself said that NO ONE can come to him unless the Father draws him (John 6:44). If the Spirit of God has STOPPED from prompting you to respond to his calling, THEN you need to start worrying. It simply means that you have decided for yourself that God and the Bible are a fallacy. Paul repeatedly ran into the same situation; more so from his own countrymen from whom we have the Old Testament. He wrote about it in 2 Corinthians 13:8. Tragically nearly every translation of this verse is also inadequate. They have something similar to this: “For we can do nothing against the truth, but only for the truth.” When I read that it simply made zero sense to me. A better translation would read something like this: “For the truth is we have no power over anyone against the truth.” The one area in which God has placed a limitation upon himself is to give man free will to make his own decisions.

OK, so you’re looking for a shortcut as why you should accept or reject the Bible and its contents. I don’t know if there are any shortcuts but I will give an opinion. To prove that he exists and is real, at various intervals we have recorded unexplained phenomena and miracles in the Bible. These miracles escalated dramatically during the 3½ years of Jesus’ ministry, most notably in the form of people being cured from all sorts of diseases etc. These miracles continued in the period immediately after the resurrection and Paul’s ministry before tapering off altogether. Since Paul’s death until now at different times and different places there have been revivals followed by a gradual falling away of the people again. Jesus promised those who believe would perform greater deeds than him (John 14:12). Apart from the years immediately after the resurrection this hasn’t continued for subsequent generations of believers. If it doesn’t happen before his return then he lied to us. If it starts happening while you are still alive, you will get another chance of salvation the easy way. If it starts happening after you have already died, you too will be saved, only the hard way.

To answer all your questions will need an extremely lengthy post. I can offer bite size chunks for you to consider. What you choose to do with them is up to you. The incredible story of salvation for all begins in Genesis chapters 1 through 3. These 3 chapters are perhaps the most misunderstood and misquoted of everything else you read in the Bible. Yet they set the tone for everything else that follows. Reading chapters 1 and 2 there are many significant differences. Some of these differences are so significant that many think that Moses erred when he wrote Genesis as it was given to him. Genesis chapter 1 is all about the “spirit man.” Genesis chapter 2 is all about the “natural man.” In chapter 1 the word “create” is used throughout. Create is the Hebrew word “bara” which means create out of nothing, to speak into existence. In chapter 2 when applied to the natural man, the word “made” is used. The Concise Oxford Dictionary defines make or made as follows: construct, create or form from parts or other substances. The Hebrew Bible uses the word “asah” in Genesis 2 to refer to everything that God made or formed. A table setting out these differences may help to recognise and understand them – NATURAL MAN: 1. Made before or on the beginning of day 3 (Genesis 2 v 5 – 7) 2. Limitations were placed on the natural man a) Limited to eat only from the trees from the garden in Eden (Genesis 2 v 16), excluding b) The tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2 v 17) 3. God placed the natural man in the garden in Eden to tend and keep it (Genesis 2 v15) 4. The first Adam become a living soul (1 Corinthians 15 v 45) 5. The natural was first (1 Corinthians 15 v 46) 6. The first man was of the earth, made of dust (1 Corinthians 15 v 47) SPIRITUAL MAN: 1. Created on day 6 (Genesis 1 v 27 – 31) 2. No limitations were placed on the spirit man a) Was given all the seed and fruit of all the trees over the whole earth (Genesis 1 v 29) b) No restrictions placed on the tree of the knowledge of good and evil 3. Instructed to be fruitful and multiply, replenish the earth and subdue it, have dominion over every living thing (Genesis 1 v 28) 4. The last Adam became a life-giving Spirit (1 Corinthians 15 v 45) 5. Afterward the spiritual (1 Corinthians 15 v 46) 6. The second Man is the Lord from heaven (1 Corinthians 15 v 47) Adam was made before or on the beginning of the third day. The truly amazing thing about this is that Adam stood side by side next to God when He caused every plant of the earth and every herb of the field to grow (day 3). Adam stood next to God when He created the sun, the moon and the stars (day 4). Adam stood next to God when He created the animals, the birds and the fish (day 5). If Adam and Eve never transgressed the Bible as we currently have it, it would only have 4 chapters; Genesis chapters 1 + 2 and Revelations chapters 21 + 22. Everything else recorded between these four chapters is God’s incredible plan of salvation for all. But the question that needs to be asked is this: “Why on earth would God create a spirit man and a natural man?

Due to often inadequate translations of the New Testament, much of the beauty of what Jesus said or what Paul wrote is all but lost to the reader. Then added to this you have fictitious characters that have somehow managed to creep into the Bible. An example of these fictitious characters is Satan, the personification of all evil. Click on this link to get the full story http://www.realdevil.info/devilcontents.htm Personally I do not agree with everything this guy wrote, but I certainly do agree with a hell of a lot when measured against what I read in the Bible. To get more tongues wagging on who Satan and the devil really are, go and read what Jesus said in Matthew 13:24-30 and the explanation of the parable in Matthew 13:36-43. Nearly every translation in verse 28 says that “an enemy” sowed the weeds among the wheat. The original Greek uses two words here; “echthros” (NT:2190) and “anthropos” (NT:444). “Echthros” means hateful or hostile. “Anthropos” means human being. Jesus actually said that a hateful hostile human being sowed the weeds. In verse 39 he identifies the hateful hostile human being as the devil. First the good news: It matters not what YOU believe, ultimately every single person who ever walked planet earth will be saved. This includes Hitler, Stalin, and anyone else who YOU consider unworthy of salvation. Some gems from the Bible: Approximately 300 copies of Paul’s letter to the Romans have been recovered. The oldest and most reliable of these copies places the doxology found at the end of chapter 16 (verses 25-27) at the end of chapter 14. Later copies have tried to ink out these 3 verses or omit them altogether. So what is it about these 3 verses that others have tried to delete? You can look it up for yourself as to how it has been translated in your Bible. A better translation would read something like this: "25 Now to him who is able to establish you according to the good tidings as I proclaim it as the herald of God's plan of providing salvation through Jesus Christ, which has been kept in silence before time began, but now is revealed; 26 brought to light by the advent, life, death and resurrection of Jesus, as prophetically announced through the scriptures, according to the command of the eternal God, and is being made known to all the nations to bring about obedience of faith 27 to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory forever. So it is." The bit in verse 25 “before time began” was confirmed about 35 years later by John in Revelation 13:8 “the lamb was slain from the creation of the world.” The lamb was slain for the wrongdoings of Adam and Eve (and everyone else) even before they ever existed. There is more in many of Paul’s other letters. My guess is that institutionalised religion tried to delete the 3 verses above. Why would they do that? Institutionalised religion often tries to control people through fear of eternal damnation and so get the people to live more moral lives. William Tyndale was the first person to challenge institutionalised religion. He was murdered in 1536 for his efforts. You can read his story here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyndale Now the bad news: The lake of fire described most notably in Revelations is real. But it is not for eternal damnation. It is for PURIFICATION! Eventually all will be saved; some the easy way, others the hard way.

Thanks for this. I will be experimenting with mikeh's suggestion. If the reply is 0 keycards (the 1st step), you pretty well know that opener has the QJ(10?) of the suit opened. If not, then it is a truly reckless pre-empt with NONE of the top honours in the suit opened!

Partner needs to have a very good reason to remove a 3-level pre-empt, more so with a good hand short in the pre-empt suit. The pre-empters hand is inevitably useless outside of the pre-empt suit whereas responder has good trick taking potential in the other suits. At our local club recently, partner opened 3♦ in first seat, 2nd seat passed, to me. I held a good 16 count, short in the suit opened. Gritting my teeth, I decided to pass as well. Now the pressure was on the player in 4th seat, to pass or to balance. With a 5-card ♠ suit, (and I think a 14 count) 4th seat bid 3♠ which just so happened to be my longest and strongest suit as well. The X card came out and we scored a top. 3♦ was left in at the other tables which made.

What about the opening bid? Say as opener you hold 6X♦ and a 5-card major. Do you bypass the ♦ suit to get the major suit into play immediately? Nothing special as far as HCP are concerned, say about 12-15 HCP? With 16+ I am happy to start off in ♦ and reverse into the major with a 6/5 distribution.

Partner has zero interest in playing Walsh/T-Walsh, wanting to keep our bidding agreements as natural as possible. With that as your starting point, do you bypass a longer minor in favour of a shorter major, either as opener or responder?

Three other methods I've seen posted elsewhere in these forums - 1. Open 2♣ and then rebid 2NT over whatever partner responds. 16+ HCP was suggested. 2. 2NT, unspecified singleton and 8-12 HCP. The idea behind this method was to place a lot of pressure on the opponents? Especially when you hold both majors? 3. Over whatever suit partner opens, a jump to 2NT by responder shows 4441, 12+ HCP and a singleton in the suit opened. The bid is game forcing. Conventional openings to show the 4441 that I know about are - 1. Roman 2♦ 2. Mini-Roman 2♦ 3. Multi (which includes strong options) 4. Precision 2♦ 5. The "Impossible Negative" in response to a Precision 1♣ opener Seems like everyone has their own favourite method for dealing with the 4441 hand pattern.

The Blue Team Club used 2NT to show 5/5 in the majors and 8-12 HCP. I set up a teaching table on BBO to test the effectiveness of the continuation bidding structure. It's actually very effective. Sure you get some bad results on hopelessly misfitting hands. But that's bridge, you win some and you lose some. The biggest objection I have thus far seen to this opening bid style is this: "Why pre-empt your own side when you hold both majors?" The answer contains 3 legs - 1. With 5/5 in the majors it is normal to open the bidding with 1♠ and then repeat the ♥ suit twice to show the 5/5 holding. So you end up on level 3 anyway. 2. At all costs you want to prevent partner from bidding 3NT when your hand is low in HCP. 3. Advertising both majors with your first bid, effectively you are showing the opponents the middle finger, relegating them to compete or sacrifice in the minors. Partner and I use it and thus far we have had no bad results. On the negative side, the bid seldom occurs, so you may be better off using the 2NT bid for something else which occurs more frequently.

Can you post the full hand? Would love to see the actual layout. Thanks.

With either method you have no wriggle room when ♥ is the agreed trump suit and ♦ is the void suit. More often than not you are committed to level 6. With ♠ as the agreed trump suit and ♣ as the void suit, both methods should work equally well.

This hand with the actual bidding came up tonight at the club. How should the hand have been bid? [hv=pc=n&s=sj6532hq4dat97ckt&w=sq8hakt875d4c9732&n=sk74h932dkq85caq6&e=sat9hj6dj632cj854&d=e&v=e&b=6&a=pp2h(Standard%20weak%202)d(Balancing)p3s(5-card%20suit%2C%208+%20HCP)ppp]399|300[/hv] How does partner know when you are balancing?

How would this structure work over a Weak 2♦ bid? Or is it just limited to the majors? What do you do with a good hand but no fit in the ♦ suit?

What about a good defence when the opponents pre-empt in 3 of a minor? Does your defence change over - 1. A 3♣ pre-empt? 2. A 3♦ pre-empt? 3. In the direct seat? 4. In the 4th seat when opener's partner passes? Obviously your partner has also passed. So how does that affect your defensive agreements?