Offensive smilies.

[Elijah]

Hello Brothers,

I would first like to confirm that I am indeed a confirmed christian, and I have accepted Jesus Christ as my savior. It is because of that, and because I wish to help you (fellow brothers), that I bring to attention two of the smilies that I found when making my first post.

Do you not find it offensive to see a picture of a "smily" nailed to a cross, and called Jesus? This is disgusting, especially from men of the cloth such as yourselves! We are a trinitarian religion (The Father, The Son, and The Holy Ghost), and so Jesus Christ to us (or at any rate myself) is the Lord. You are depicting the Lord as a "smiley", and a crude one at that!? In my eyes, and to the Lord this is barbaric! Need I not quote you:
Exodus 20:4 (King James Version)

4Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.

As fellow followers and acceptors of the Lord Jesus Christ, The Bible and God, I ask you please to remove this terrible image. Replace it with something.. more suitable perhaps.


The Bible does not provide any quotes that would go against this, and I respect that. But on a forum of peace, a forum of brothers who have accepted the Christ, is it really necessary for images of violence?

Thank you for your time in reading this, I would be grateful to hear any replies. Also, I hope I am not being unreasonable by asking that nobody flames me in their posts. Constructive criticism please, but no foul language or sarcasm please.

Kind regards.

[GOD=life]

Re: Offensive smilies.

Do you not find it offensive to see a picture of a "smily" nailed to a cross, and called Jesus?

Ah, but friend, that's where you have your priorities wrong.

What is offensive is that Jesus was nailed to a cross, mocked and left to die like a common criminal. In spite of all that terrible treatment, he chose to forgive us (I'm getting chills just writing this, btw).

There is nothing wrong with making a smiley to express what He has done for us and show with little red dots that He had to suffer so terribly. There's another smiley to express what we think about His actions during that horrible time: ""

The Bible does not provide any quotes that would go against this, and I respect that.

Thank you for acknowledging that. But again, you have your priorities backwards: we shouldn't walk away from images of violence. We should see the world as it really is so that we can take action to make it better.

Does it make you feel good to see images of 9/11? No, me neither. I get sick just thinking about it. But that's what islam is.

YIC

[Cranky Old Man]

Re: Offensive smilies.

Do you not find it offensive to see a picture of a "smily" nailed to a cross, and called Jesus?

I have to admit these "smileys" took me some getting used to as well. But as one of my sons explained to me, they are part of the internet. And I noticed that after a while you get used to them.

Thank you for your time in reading this

You're welcome.

I would be grateful to hear any replies.

Well, here you got one.

Also, I hope I am not being unreasonable by asking that nobody flames me in their posts. Constructive criticism please, but no foul language or sarcasm please.

Actually you are a little bit unreasonable here. You can not visit a forum and start handing out rules of how we are allowed to respond to you. If you do not want response, you should not post a message.

Nice talking to you.

[Pastor Ezekiel]

Re: Offensive smilies.

We did not design any of the "smilies" you see here. They come with the forum. It is each individual's choice as to which (if any) he will use.

That having been aid, I really think you need to get a sense of humor.

Please make a thread of your own in the "Introductions" section of the forum, so that we can properly greet you. Tell us about yourself, your church, and how you came to find Jesus.

And if you're here to flame us, better take a look at THIS before making an even bigger ass out of yourself.

[James Hutchins]

Re: Offensive smilies.

Elijah, may I call you Eli? Very gracious, thank you.


Eli, you'll agree, a picture is worth a thousand words, so we figure a 'smiley' is worth about 500 words. Now there are limits to the color palette and degree of detail that can be used. We are doing the best we can do. Finally, if God wanted us to use different ones, he would provide them as he has provided everything else.


YIC
JH

[Elijah]

Re: Offensive smilies.

God=Life, thank you very much for your post. You explained it very clearly to me, so thank you again.

Actually you are a little bit unreasonable here. You can not visit a forum and start handing out rules of how we are allowed to respond to you. If you do not want response, you should not post a message.

I only posted that, as I see this forum gets a lot of criticism and flaming as it is.. I'm sorry if you interpreted it the wrong way. I tried to be as polite as I could.

Nice talking to you.

And you too!

Finally, if God wanted us to use different ones, he would provide them as he has provided everything else.

God does not provide everything to everyone. It comes with free will. I hope you can understand that whilst we believe that God wants us to be Christians, he has given us free will and as a result we see the other multitude of religions. Thank you for your reply though.

We did not design any of the "smilies" you see here. They come with the forum. It is each individual's choice as to which (if any) he will use.

Please make a thread of your own in the "Introductions" section of the forum, so that we can properly greet you. Tell us about yourself, your church, and how you came to find Jesus.

I'm sorry, I did not realise for either of these quotes.

That having been aid, I really think you need to get a sense of humor.

I have, and I should hope that you do not have, a sense of humour when it comes to ignorantly and blatantly defying Gods word. You are sinning, and as a man of God you should stop it! You can see my quote from the bible in my post, and since Jesus is in heaven, making an image representing him is blasphemous. Correct yourself please.

Even if you can't get rid of them, you could at least insist that your fellow members do not use them.

And if you're here to flame us, better take a look at THIS before making an even bigger ass out of yourself.

I'm not here to flame you brother, I came here to learn.. and your assumptions that I am here to mock you insults me. No worries however, you don't exactly meet a person face-to-face over the internet do you?

To another matter:

'Going yappity yap yap yappity' was your reason for giving me an infraction? What a great way to invite someone to your forum.. I thought you would be more hospitable than that. It seems a completely idiotic and corrupt thing to do, and whilst I have to respect that it is YOUR board, you would have thought that to a fellow christian at least who did nothing other than say his opinion, it is dis-respectful. Shame on you brother.

Kind regards.

[James Hutchins]

Re: Offensive smilies.

Eli, you were invited to come on our forum? Who supplied you with the invitation? I need to speak to them.

You are welcome to have your opinion, we are an open minded, free thinking group.
But we do have a few rules that we request be followed.
I've noticed it was mentioned to you twice to read and follow them. You acknowledge their existence yet you still refuse to follow them. Then you get all pissy and having earned an infraction. I strongly suspect your last comment will of earned you another one.

[Cranky Old Man]

Re: Offensive smilies.

I tried to be as polite as I could.

Well, we could have asked no more of you.

God does not provide everything to everyone.

He does not? I think you are mistaken there. He created everything, no exceptions. The Holy Bible clearly says so.

he has given us free will and as a result we see the other multitude of religions

He gave us free will so we can choose to follow the entire Holy Bible, every letter of it, and go to Heaven or we can ignore parts of His word and go to hell.

when it comes to ignorantly and blatantly defying Gods word

That is quite an accusation you are making there. Especially for someone who claims to be here for a polite visit. Can you put your money where your mouth is and quote scripture proving you are right about this?

I'm not here to flame you brother

So according to you calling a Pastor to "ignorantly and blatantly defying Gods word" is not flaming?

You say "your assumptions that I am here to mock you" yet you also say "It seems a completely idiotic and corrupt thing to do". How is that not mocking our nice Pastor?

Kind regards

Have a nice day.

[Elijah]

Re: Offensive smilies.

He does not? I think you are mistaken there. He created everything, no exceptions. The Holy Bible clearly says so.

Haiti happened did it not?

He gave us free will so we can choose to follow the entire Holy Bible, every letter of it, and go to Heaven or we can ignore parts of His word and go to hell.

That is quite an accusation you are making there. Especially for someone who claims to be here for a polite visit. Can you put your money where your mouth is and quote scripture proving you are right about this?

Exodus 20:4 (King James Version)

4Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.

Do you dare defy the word of the lord and wish to spend an eternity in hell? Your own words I believe..

So according to you calling a Pastor to "ignorantly and blatantly defying Gods word" is not flaming?

You say "your assumptions that I am here to mock you" yet you also say "It seems a completely idiotic and corrupt thing to do". How is that not mocking our nice Pastor?

Christ tells us to turn the other cheek when one sins upon us. I should appologise for my outburst, but I would rather help a brother than to ignore him when he is going against the word of the lord.

You are welcome to have your opinion, we are an open minded, free thinking group.

That is the very opposite of fundamentalist. We have been set down rules by God, and we should follow them.

You acknowledge their existence yet you still refuse to follow them.

I did follow the rules brother, you should probrably make them a lot clearer if you believe that I have not.

Then you get all pissy and having earned an infraction.

I earned an infraction for my post, which made no insult to anyone? I was not even supplied with a reason. That is called bad manners.

I strongly suspect your last comment will of earned you another one.

I quote frankly could not care.. the majority of you seem to be deluded, ignoring Gods will, and turning your back on a fellow brother.

Kind regards.

[GOD=life]

Re: Offensive smilies.

I would like to respond to one specific point: God did provide us with everything we need.

But instead of doing all the work for us, He gives us fertile land and the seeds and lets us do the tiny bit of work of planting them and harvesting the crop.

Now one could argue "ah, but God still made us do SOME work" -- to that, I say: "yes, and I thank Him for that". That's His was of making us feel like we earned it. But in reality, that extra bit of work that we do is trivial compared to the creation of the entire universe.

[Cranky Old Man]

Re: Offensive smilies.

Haiti happened did it not?

Yes God punished some evil people there, why did you bring it up?

Exodus 20:4 (King James Version)

This is your proof as to why our Pastor is "ignorantly and blatantly defying Gods word"? I fail to see how it does. I did not see our Pastor do something like that, ever.

I earned an infraction for my post, which made no insult to anyone? I was not even supplied with a reason. That is called bad manners.

All infractions come with a reason. Perhaps you overlooked it.

the majority of you seem to be deluded

That is not a very nice thing to say against people. Are you sure you are a Christian?

[Elijah]

Re: Offensive smilies.

Look 'Cranky old man', I am obviously not going to find any friends here, however nice or overlooking I am going to be. Consider this my final post.

May I just do one last thing and remind you of the Sermon on the mount? I assume you have heard of it, and understand it's great message against 'hypocrisy'. You could do with learning it.

Kind regards.

Ps. Your opinions are all false, and enjoy burning in hell. I certainly won't enjoy being in heaven and knowing that you damned yourselves, but you obviously don't want to learn.

[GOD=life]

Re: Offensive smilies.

Ps. Your opinions are all false, and enjoy burning in hell. I certainly won't enjoy being in heaven and knowing that you damned yourselves, but you obviously don't want to learn.

That's a strange thing to say for a Christian. Do you see the self-contradictory nature of that comment?

First you're reminding us of the Sermon on the Mount (which we've read since it's in the Bible and we read the entire Bible, not just the goody-goody parts) and then you're condemning us to Hell. That's pretty hateful.

Exercise for you: find the passage in the Bible that teaches us that only God can decide who does or does not go to Heaven and Hell.

[Elijah]

Re: Offensive smilies.

Sure, that might seem hateful, but then how many of the "elders of this board" have signatures that state that all false believers go to hell? It's also pretty hateful to say that Haiti happened because they were all bad people there.

How the FUCK can you say that a 7 year old deserved to be crushed alive whilst watching his mother bleeding to death? How can ANY christian say that? What the FUCKING HELL is wrong with you? You have to forgive my anger, but you are such an ASSHOLE with your views. For FUCKS SAKE! Grow up!

Don't pick at the splinter in my eye until you remove the log inside yours.

[Elijah]

Re: Offensive smilies.

Sure, that might seem hateful, but then how many of the "elders of this board" have signatures that state that all false believers go to hell?

Oh look, that's funny, you do yourself..