Originally Posted by Scott F
Originally Posted by rockinbbar
To mention God's name in something where the ulterior motive is clearly not God's message, is the very definition of "Thou shalt not take the Lord's name in vain."


BINGO!


There have been calls for Christians to come out and make a stand. I'll do that now. Mark had me fooled for a long time then my wife and I met him when he came to our place at a get together. My wife who is spiritually sensitive spotted him right off. I listened to her and since she has a long history of being spot on accurate I shut up about Mark but I cringed every time I read where he had pulled one of his stunts. I am done with that.

He knows the right sayings and words but the Bible says we will be known by out fruit and I see his fruit being rotten and his tree as being bare.

I will go on to add there have been others on the Fire who profess Christ and then do more harm flouting their faith than a hundred real Christians could do to repair. I am embarrassed by their words and actions too.

Mark needs professional help. I doubt he will seek it or get it. I believe judgement day will be tough and I will be doing good just answering for my own deeds, I would in no way want to be in Mark's shoes.



Scott, thanks for that well-written post.

I don't bother to rise to the Christian or Anti-Christian bait here on the 'Fire, there's no percentage in it. Mark's alleged Christianity is nothing more than a facet of his psychopathy, a tool he has used multiple documented times to further his many agendas.

I do not condemn the man, but we were admonished by our Lord:

"Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. 16"You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they?" Matthew 7:15

And the Apostles were no strangers to frauds and deceivers:

"Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world." 1 John 4:1

So let me join you in responding to the "calls for Christians to come out and make a stand." I have mistrusted Mark for years, stemming from verified complaints of his swindles perpetrated through the 24HCF Classifieds, then his gauche and vulgar posts of his semi-naked wife and public boasting about details of her sexuality, then his incessant "woe-is-me" calls for pity (and funds!) while putatively suffering the trials of end-stage renal failure and then his miraculously-obtained kidney transplant. All the while his posts here on the fire proclaimed his faith, his love of the Lord, and so forth.

A liar and fraud is a bad man. A liar and fraud who uses the name of the Lord to further his sins, and to try to camouflage himself so as to deceive more victims and avoid consequences, is in trouble with more than the laws of man.

"Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?' 23"And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.'" Matthew 7:23

Mark has a lot more to fear than the courts of law of the United States and the approbation of his fellow 24HCF members, but apparently he is too deeply mired in his sin to recognize it.

So those who call on us to be "Christian" and forgive him, give him a pass, or whatever... GFY. Our faith does not call us to give those who willfully sin over and over again a pass.

"I'm gonna have to science the schit out of this." Mark Watney, Sol 59, Mars