am a MSc Anthropology student from UCL looking for participants for a dissertation research study.
Anthropologists use in-depth approaches to assess what groups of people really think about things and why, to adequately convey what it is like to experience life in a given context. My study will look at the themes that arise during short semi-structured interviews to understand what people think about having children in the UK in its current climate.
Many women, for instance, have expressed a desire not to have children, or to delay childbearing until later in life. The nature of this choice is yet to be fully explored. In addition, there is little research on men's opinions and experiences which shape their perspectives towards becoming a father. My study aims to give voice to a perspective, or problem commonly referred to by the interview participants, and to observe how people view this choice differently.
Whether you are someone who wants children, or not, or wants children later in life, I want to know what you think!
Please consider filling out the quick 5-minute pre-interview survey. The survey is to give you reference to what kind of topics could come up in this conversation, so you can be informed before the interview. If you are okay with the topics and are happy to participate, please provide your email so I can send you the following:
· A booking link for the online interviews
· An information sheet
· A consent form
· The interview questions in advance
We will go over these during the booking, so no need to worry about filling anything in yet.
Note on recording: I would like to record the interviews so I can transcribe what is said, however, this is not a requirement. You do not have to show your face if you do not want to. The meetings will take place over Teams.
Intended Demographic:
This is for UK childless residents only (you do not have to be born in the UK, my study is interested in the opinions of UK residents).
When can you see the Results?:
The themes will inspire a further questionnaire that will be posted here later. I can summarise what was found in both sections of the study in September 2024 on this post. Similarly, if you are a participant, I can email you the results separately.
Thank you for your time and interest :)
Pre Interview Survey Link

Someone stole my name using a third-party program that allows automatic pre-clicking and works non-stop. Then he offered the account that put the name on me for sale and then blackmailed me in exchange for returning what was stolen from me. He did that with several names consisting of only one letter. My name that was stolen is (N). (I know that you will tell me that the process of changing the name requires confirmation of the player himself, but the player whom you are protecting under the pretext of privacy violated the user agreement by using a third-party program and also offered the account for sale that bears my name.. All the problem was I wanted to transfer the name to my main account. I asked your technical team He helped me in advance with the transfer process, but he gave me a routine solution, and I did it and lost my name, so I blame you for the violation of my privacy and the blackmail that I am subjected to on a daily basis.

I'll create a new resume or fix and rewrite (as needed) your current resume, and I'll offer career advice. Keeping up with the news and latest trends in employment, I offer my advice freely to my clients, ensuring your resume not only tells your story but also aligns with what HR managers are currently seeking.
My process starts by researching what HR managers are looking for in your field, optimizing the resume for your specific case, and ensuring your resume is ATS compliant so you can use it to apply online. With extensive experience across all job types, I boast one of the most comprehensive resume databases ever written by anyone!
What do I offer? ATS-compliant resumes and cover letters are all original and tailor-made to suit your needs. Leveraging research from Harvard and other leading institutions, I craft resumes that meet the formal criteria and tell your unique professional story, ensuring you stand out to potential employers.
I am excited to announce a new service: applying for jobs for you.
This service includes:

• Using a residential VPN to search for jobs in your area, ensuring a localized and relevant job search.
• Tailoring your resume and cover letter for each job application, maximizing your chances of landing an interview.
• Creating an email address for job applications and any additional profiles required for employment.
• Delivering a spreadsheet with all the jobs applied for, keeping you organized and informed.

Price list:

• Resume: $60 (median price, may vary based on experience and length)
• Original cover letter: $40 (40 dollars is the base price, can be higher or lower as well)
• Resume + Cover letter combo: $85 (median price, may vary based on experience and length)
• LinkedIn Optimization: $50

Job Application Service:

• 4 applications for $30
• 6 applications for $35
• 10 applications for $65

Resume + Cover: Cryptocurrency (BTC, BNB, ETH, USDT only), Venmo, Zelle, Paypal, CashApp, and Wire Transfer. (I currently have problems with Paypal; I can use it, but I'd prefer to avoid it as much as possible)h as possible)
Typically, resumes are delivered within 24-48 hours, with many clients receiving theirs in just 24 hours. For those in a hurry, I offer a same-day delivery option. A rush fee of $40 ensures you get your resume in 8 hours or less.
Payment methods: Cryptocurrency (BTC, BNB, ETH, USDT only), Venmo, Zelle, Paypal, or CashApp, Wire Transfer. (I currently have problems with Paypal; I can use it, but I'd prefer to avoid it as much as possible)
To request my services, please email me at [resumes.moe@gmail.com](mailto:resumes.moe@gmail.com) with:

1. The service you're interested in.
2. Your Reddit username.
3. Your current resume.
4. Specific edits or updates you need.
5. A general deadline for when you need your documents.

Clarifications:

• I approach each project with a research-first mindset, ensuring that your resume is not just a document but a narrative that speaks to your strengths and ambitions. I prioritize customer satisfaction, offering to show you the finished resume before any payment is made, but would you please ask for immediate compensation once delivered?
• I have a new ATS beating technique that I will use for your resume.
• I'm in contact with recruiters and I often suggest my old clients to them If I know they might be a good fit for the job.
• Having served over a thousand Redditors (with many leaving positive remarks), my experience spans online and local community work. While not all clients leave feedback, you can check out some of the remarks and before/after examples of my work in the provided links and on Imgur.
• I now prefer advanced Payment for the resume, but still It can be delayed till after the delivery, but job application service payment must be paid in advance (usually done after completing the resume).
• I retain the right to ask for prepayment or deposit without having to explain my reasoning.
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Hi All,
I started looking for a new job, in my previous applications(last 3 years when i changed my job), I was only sending a CV + Cover letter, after successful interviews then I got asked to send work certifications from my last employers, I read somewhere that I should send them at start and include my uni transcript.
should I do that? plus in Linkedin i can only apply with 1 PDF which is my resume, should I make one big fat PDF merging all docs together?
Any tip? ideas ? I ll be happy to get the right one of doing it.
Thanks in advance

I’m a 4th year student from UPD with a pre-med course (MCL standing), and medyo masakit lang kapag iniinvalidate ng family members yung choice ko mag-UERM :( I did not apply to UPCM regardless of my chances of being admitted, or at least interviewed, because I think UERM is the right school for me. I’m excited to begin my med journey pero nakakalungkot na inaassume nila na pangit sa UERM, mababa raw siguro grades ko kaya dun nalang ako pumunta, at magiging mediocre/sub-par doctor lang daw ako if I studied there.
After many years with UP, I want to immerse myself in a new environment because in another few years, I hope to have my internship and residency in UP-PGH.
Anyway, hindi nalang ako nagsalita against my family’s assumptions. I’ll let the knowledge and skills of my future self prove them wrong about my decision to enter UERM.
UP or UE, wala namang magbabago sa end goal ko… which is to practice medicine in my province. Lagi’t lagi, para sa bayan <3

I’ve recently just moved to the UK from North America and currently looking for jobs. I work in a very unique field that my current city doesn’t have much to offer in terms of available jobs. That being said, I’ve recently just discovered a position at a company that I would be perfect for. I sent my application in early April, as soon as the listing went up, and worked really hard on my resume, portfolio to coincide with their company, and a cover letter. The job listing doesn’t have an end date of when they will close to applications, but I didn’t think much of this.
Fast forward to the beginning of May (two weeks later after sending my application in) and I sent a follow up email stating my continued interest in the position and asking for an update. The HR person replied saying they are still reviewing applications and that they will contact me when there is an update. Now that we’re nearing close to June (two weeks since I sent follow up email) I’m wondering if I should email again to ask the status even though they have said they will give me an update. I don’t want to be annoying but I know I would be a perfect fit for this role and really want to get an interview as I’m confident that I could make a good impression.
The job listing is currently still up on indeed and their website but again I don’t want to be annoying by contacting them again after they said they will give me an update when they have one. Or if it’s progressive and will be seen in a good light contacting them for a second time two weeks after the first follow up.
Thank you!

My qualifications are below:
Did 10th in 2015
Joined Diploma in 2021 , B-Tech(24 Batch) : Computer Science & Engineering. You can see i have 3 years gap. after 10th. That's cus i failed 12th twice. Got selected in 3/4 companies but they didn't gave offer letter
Now i am looking for jobs since January and haven't got any interviews. Should i just go for MBA? thinking there i might get a good job? My main focus is to get back on my feet.
I don't go to family functions, attend calls from cousins. Fearing they will ask me about job status.
All of my friends of same age are very well placed. I am from Delhi/NCR. Life has been very poor, Girlfriend too dumped me when she got placed (later she didnt got job offer too). But please someone guide me: 1. Should i pursue MBA? I am General and don't think i can get 90+ % to attain a set in top IIMs

1. Should i just join any job (i am getting a recruiting agency job) for 25k per month.
   
2. Should i just keep looking for more jobs and keep upskilling??
   

The thing is i do not want to waste my time as i am old already. Neither i wanna stick myself into a job where there is no future growth. I can understand in childhood i have made very terrible mistakes.

Job hunting in today’s fast-paced and competitive job market can be incredibly challenging, especially for Gen Z and Millennials. These generations are entering the workforce at a time when the landscape is rapidly changing due to technological advancements, economic fluctuations, and shifting industry demands. The traditional career path is evolving, and with it comes a set of unique challenges that young professionals must navigate.
From dealing with the lack of experience that many employers require to staying motivated amidst a sea of rejections, the journey to securing a job can often feel like an uphill battle. However, it's important to remember that every challenge presents an opportunity for growth and learning. By adopting the right strategies and maintaining a positive mindset, you can turn these obstacles into stepping stones towards a successful career.
In this guide, we'll explore practical tips and advice to help you overcome the most common job hunting challenges. Whether you're a recent graduate stepping into the job market for the first time or a young professional looking to make a career change, these insights will equip you with the tools you need to succeed.

1. Leverage Internships & Part-Time Jobs: Gain valuable experience and build your professional network. Internships and part-time roles provide the hands-on experience that employers value.
   
2. Highlight Transferable Skills: Skills from volunteer work, academic projects, and extracurricular activities can be highly relevant. Focus on abilities such as teamwork, communication, problem-solving, and leadership.
   
3. Create a Strong Online Presence: Use LinkedIn effectively, start a blog, or build a portfolio website to showcase your talents. A strong online presence can set you apart from other candidates.
   
4. Tailor Your Resume & Cover Letter: Customize your resume and cover letter for each job application. Highlight relevant skills and experiences, and use job-specific keywords to pass through applicant tracking systems (ATS).
   
5. Network Actively: Networking is crucial. Attend industry events, join professional groups on social media, and reach out to professionals in your desired field. Informational interviews can provide valuable insights and potential job leads.
   
6. Prepare Thoroughly for Interviews: Research the company and role you're applying for. Practice common interview questions and prepare your responses. Demonstrating knowledge about the company and enthusiasm for the role can make a big difference.
   
7. Handle Rejection Gracefully: Rejection is part of the process. Seek constructive feedback to improve, stay positive, and focus on self-care to maintain your mental and physical health.
   
8. Stay Motivated: Set realistic goals, track your progress, and celebrate small wins. Breaking down your job search into manageable tasks can help maintain motivation and organization.
   

Remember, every step you take brings you closer to your dream job. Stay positive, persistent, and proactive. You've got this!
Feel free to share your own job hunting tips and experiences below. Let's support each other through this journey!

JobHunting #CareerGrowth #GenZ #Millennials #WorkplaceCulture #CareerTips #ProfessionalDevelopment #JobSearchJourney #CareerGoals #ESG

I've been unemployed for more than 2 months. I chose to leave the job in anticipation of an upcoming reorientation rather than being fired.
My previous job required me to ensure that I always used birth control, which can lengthen my time with my enterprise to at least 2 years. I had no plan to have the first baby then, so it was not a challenging choice. Furthermore, despite a suspicion that things might not work out, I decided to give it a shot in that new field after talking with the line manager about the scope of work, which was very different from what I had done before. Eventually, the final decision was made.
After 6 months of working, I started a series of rest days after submitting my resignation letter here. The primary cause was my disappointment since most of the tasks did not correspond with the job description provided during the interview.
Anyway, even though I had to give my decision a lot of thought—resigning from a job during a recession is a risky move—I am still happy with it. I am currently putting the required skills into practice and registering for a few professional knowledge-based courses. I want to be a better version of myself when I go back into the job market.

On a rainy Saturday afternoon not so long ago when internet connection was fluctuating in most homes, the 80-year-old Cecile Guidote-Alvarez, widow of the late Senator Heherson Alvarez, carrying a mini iPad, hurriedly alighted from a three-wheeled pedicab Toktok and stormed her way into a popular coffee shop in a mall in Manila.

A senior citizen in panic mode, she told the stunned baristas she’s looking for a Wi-Fi connection because she was about to interview retired Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonio Carpio via Zoom.
The coffee shop, a known world brand, has Wi-Fi exclusive to its employees, so the old lady was told to try other establishments. She went from one coffee shop to another only to be told the same, until a kind stranger led her to a well-known beauty salon with a free internet connection.
The lady salon attendant was very accommodating to the octogenarian, even typing the password on her IPad. Of course, she needed to avail herself of their salon services. Initially, she opted for a haircut, but since she needed to talk and hear clearly who she was talking to, she settled for a foot spa with pedicure.
“They lowered the volume of the piped-in music, and since there were less customers because it’s been raining all day, I was able to do my interview,” Guidote-Alvarez said.
For the next half-an-hour, the hair dressers and manicurists working with their scissors, nail clippers and cuticle removers on their customers’ hair and fingernails, listened to Carpio and Guidote-Alvarez discussed how Filipino fishermen and the Philippine Navy ships helplessly negotiate their ways in Scarborough Shoal amid the territorial disputes in the West Philippine Sea.
“They were all very nice to me. I was able to finish my interview, with newly pedicured nails,” she told The Diarist.
For those who’ve worked with Guidote-Alvarez, her steadfast, almost stubborn, nature to accomplish a task, is nothing out of the ordinary. She would improvise, find alternatives, call up friends and former students, wake them up from sleep, just to get things done.
But now, in her 80s, legally blind and nearly deaf, she has mellowed down.
Cecile Alvarez with her mentors, National Artist for Literature Alejandro Roces, Jr and Fr. James Reuter. SJ
In her twilight years, Guidote-Alvarez has been solely hosting the 57-year-old Radyo Balintataw on DZRH, one of the oldest radio stations in the Philippines, where she tackles a wide range of topics, from climate change, women’s health, theater, culture, dance, to current issues, apart from playing old recordings of classic radio plays she produced and directed, dating back to the late ‘80s.
She shared with TheDiarist.ph how she started and continues to host one of the longest running advocacy programs on AM Radio.
Theater on TV
After founding the Philippine Educational Theater Association (PETA) on April 7, 1967, or exactly 57 years ago, Guidote-Alvarez thought of the need to expose PETA’s members to television, so she started conceptualizing Balintataw, which in Filipino means the pupil of the eye, but in a larger context has something to do with having wild imagination, or what you might see if you have a third eye.

“I designed Balintataw as a bridge between cinema and the stage, where the youth being trained in theater skills can have a ready-made laboratory experience linked with the film and entertainment industry that would likewise have a natural on-the-job training and orientation regarding the theatrical discipline of working with a literary script, whether dramatic or comic—not the regular improvised script done on taping or copycat scripts from foreign themes,” Guidote-Alvarez wrote in her yet-to-be published Memoir of a Freedom Fighter’s Wife.
“A primary goal when I conceived PETA was to initiate and sustain artistic expression that draws meaning and power from the lives of the people, and sharing the literary gems with a greater number of audiences through a Broadcast Theater-Film Program with Balintataw on Channel 5,” she added.
“No matter how little the pay, at least it provided our local writers with a little honorarium. I sought permission for award-winning pieces of the Palanca Playwriting contest to be fleshed out to reach the masses. The much-awarded playwright Bert Florentino served as our literary manager, assisted by Mauro Avena. Eventually, Isagani Cruz took over when Bert left for the US,” she wrote.
“Writers need exposure and encouragement through a regular TV performance that will give them a sense of achievement and inspire them to keep on writing with some kind of honorarium. I was glad Lupita Aquino (now Kashiwahara) agreed to be TV director and Robert Arevalo as TV host.
She got members of the PETA Kalinangan Ensemble to serve as stage directors. “This is to undertake preliminary preparation with a rehearsal with the actors for character development and memorization and preliminary staging,” she wrote.
Five months after PETA was founded, Balintataw TV premiered on Channel 5 on Aug. 19, 1967, coinciding with the Buwan ng Wika birthdate of President Manuel Luis Quezon.
The first play, whose title escapes her now, featured Armida Siguion-Reyna and Maria Eva “Chingbee” Kalaw. She employed photo journalist and award-winning photographedocumentarist/cinematographer, Romy Vitug, to work with her in filming outdoor scenes for Balintataw.

In the pre-Martial Law Balintataw, among those initiated into television were Lino Brocka, Elwood Perez, Nick Lizaso, Maryo delos Reyes, Mario O’Hara, Joey Gosiengfiao, Behn Cervantes, and Frank Rivera.
Among the stage actors who crossed over to television were Lily Gamboa, Angie Ferro, Lorlie Villanueva, Jonee Gamboa, Joy Soler, Sherry Lara, Gardy Labad, Noel Trinidad.
Like with PETA, Guidote-Alvarez directed and managed Balintataw for five years. Because of Martial Law, she and husband Heherson went on exile in the US to escape a military shoot-to-kill order on Heherson, who was tagged as a subversive.
Post-Martial Law
Internationally acclaimed auteur Lav Diaz mentioned in several interviews how he learned writing radio and TV scripts in Balintataw.
This happened in the late 1980s, when the Alvarez couple returned from exile.
Despite its absence on the air in the Martial Law years, Balintataw was honored by Star Awards as among the 20 unforgettable outstanding broadcast programs in the Philippines.
“This encouraged me to consider reviving Balintataw on TV. Another blessing was a FAMAS award for having an important role in the development of cinema recognizing Balintataw as a bridge for synergizing cinema with the stage, providing a pathway of entry of our PETA artists into film and for movie stars to consider enriching their experience by acting on the legitimate stage,” Guidote-Alvarez wrote.
Though she didn’t return to PETA anymore because it had been surviving well and had its own set of officers led by Brocka, she just tapped some of its members for the return of Balintataw.
For 14 years, the Alvarez couple lived in the US as political exiles, shown here during a Ninoy Aquino Movement meeting. Cecile revived Radyo Balintataw upon their return in the late 1980s.
Channel 4 stint
“I arranged to revive TV Balintataw on Channel 4 in 1989. We began with a drama about a rebel returnee, title escapes me now, but I clearly remember it was written by Lualhati Bautista and directed by Maryo de los Reyes. We also had a good story series on the hazing of Lenny Villa, an Aquila Legis Frat neophyte,” she wrote.
At the time, Heherson had been elected senator after having served as Agrarian Reform Minister and eventually Cabinet Secretary during the first year of the Cory Aquino Administration.
“We were able to unravel the deadly hazing process from a fellow neophyte who broke the code of silence as we revealed graphically, acted the cruel process used. I had Jose Mari Avellana direct it. This presentation won all the awards. Lav Diaz was training with us and he started writing teleplays. We also had Nora Aunor in an adaptation of Bert Florentino’s The World Is An Apple, adapted by Frank Rivera, and I had Nick Lizaso direct.”

Emmy Awards
Balintataw TV was selected as one of five soaps for social change recognized by Emmy Awards. The Philippines was one of five countries cited, with Mexico, India, Brazil and Kenya.
“The nomination was made possible by the wonderful support from David Poindexter. It was a supreme honor for our country to be recognized in the Emmy Awards, to be cited among the five Third World countries using soap opera for social change.”
Poindexter was a Methodist minister and TV producer who founded the Population Communications International.
Surviving on radio
“In spite of the cry about how television can be deadening the minds of the people with copied themes with an eternal favorite love triangle story, there was really no funding for Balintataw,” she wrote.
“Sponsors would go naturally to the commercial stations where big stars were paid highly for the starring role. Balintataw may have substance but we could not afford payment of bankable stars,” she added.
“Financial stress forced me to drop TV and remain on radio because I didn’t want to kill Balintataw per se just because we didn’t have funds.”
Creative classroom
“We have focused on Balintataw as a creative classroom on the air. I was able to talk to Fred J. Elizalde of DZRH and the president of the network, Mr. Jun Nicdao,” she wrote.
In the ‘80s, the HIV/AIDS became a global epidemic and in the Philippines, the general populace was still clueless on how to deal with it.
“In order to get funding, the first series I did was about the explosive news regarding AIDS in Asia. I got the DOH Secretary at the time, Dr. Juan Flavier, to act as himself, providing the data. It was easier to start off with an AIDS radio serial.
They did a minimum of 13 episodes to raise awareness about the disease.
“From then on, some of our television scripts we transformed into a radio version. DZRH provided us with our initial production staff, so we used some from the network and some of its resident artists and drama talents. Our time slots were changing but always coming after the long-running horror drama, Gabi ng Lagim.
“We worked on the themes of overseas workers, the drug problem, corruption, aside from portraying contemporary and literary classics serving as social commentaries,” she wrote.
Women playwrights
“We dramatized the works of noted women writers and playwrights like Estrella Alfon, Genoveva Edroza Matute and Marilou Jacob, who is distinguished in being a founding president of Women’s Playwright International.
“Apart from our PETA staple of writers, we involved young, upcoming and budding university and community theater groups.
“We also had a lot of foreign plays, where we could feature theater festivals beyond borders. We could do Shakespeare, we could do Euripides but also the current playwrights in the Arab region we translated in our language.
“We brought in Chinese contemporary plays, Malaysian, Indonesian and from other women writers from ASEAN member countries.”
Virtual history book
“The significance of Balintataw is portrayed as a virtual history book on audio as it unveiled events in the country. Radio is fresh, instant and up-to date,” she added.
When the COVID-19 pandemic struck, Balintataw became Guidote-Alvarez’s outlet and therapy. Having lost her husband on the second month of the pandemic, a widow cocooned at home, she began hosting it six days a week, learning how to use an iPad and interviewing via Zoom.
The word “Balintataw” has been associated with her name.
Visual artist and editorial cartoonist Benjie Lontoc in casual meeting told us how in his younger days, when AM Radio was a national past-time, he was surprised to hear a Filipino adaptation of No Exit by Jean Paul-Sarte. This was when radio was airing soap, fantasy adventures targeting housewives and children.
Another was the airing of Larawan as a radio play in the 1990s, with Guidote-Alvarez as the voice of Candida Marasigan.
Leopoldo Salcedo (left) as Manolo in a confrontation scene with Dante Rivero as Tony Javier in PETA’s 1968 ‘Larawan’ directed by Cecile Guidote-Alvarez. (Photo from PETA archives)
In the 1960s, she directed Larawan, the first Filipino adaptation of Joaquin’s A Portrait of the Artist as Filipino for PETA’s second season. It ran from December 1968 to January 1969 at the Raha Sulayman Theater at Fort Santiago in Intramural. In the cast were Rita Gomez (Candida), Lolita Rodriguez (Paula), Leopoldo Salcedo (Don Manolo) and Dante Rivero (Tony Javier).
Guidote-Alvarez has a funny recollection of the radio play. It was Nick Joaquin himself who told her years ago how his pedicurist suddenly started a conversation about Larawan.

Joaquin was relaxing on the barber’s chair having a post-haircut pedicure and foot spa when the lady pedicurist asked him how the story would end. Joaquin was stunned because he didn’t want to be known in the barber shop as Nick Joaquin the famous National Artist for Literature, but just a regular customer.
“He told me he almost fell out from the chair. He was a very private person and the pedicurist recognized him as the playwright,” Guidote-Alvarez, laughing, told TheDiarist.ph.
When she was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2000, she was given only three years to live. It’s been more than two decades since then. She has also conquered COVID-19 twice.
Over and beyond her work in theater and various advocacies, Guidote-Alvarez is among the few surviving practitioners of AM Radio broadcasting.
The beauty salon incident wasn’t a first for the octogenarian radio host. She occasionally went back there to interview guests and record her shows whenever Wi-Fi connections in her home fluctuated.
Despite all setbacks, man-made or otherwise, the steadfast Cecile Guidote-Alvarez’s voice continues to be heard in this mass media platform in an era that knows mainly Spotify. As Joaquin wrote, “to remember and to sing, that is her vocation.”
(Except Saturday, Radyo Balintataw airs daily on DZRH 666 Khz AM radio after ‘Gabi ng Lagim’, and live streamed on radio.org.ph. Some episodes have been uploaded on YouTube.)

Let’s make it aware that there is a job offer scam that lies and take you to Scam Factories and you become a slave, and you may even die. Post here all cases of Disappearance of people who may be associated with this type of scam.

Know The Signs!

Have you been trafficked?

• Did you apply for the job via Social Media (e.g. Facebook, Instagram), WhatsApp, Telegram or an online platform?
• Did you have an online interview?
• Have you been promised a job with a company in Thailand?
• Were you promised a lucrative salary?
• Did you receive a letter of confirmation for your new role?
• Did you investigate the company you applied to and are they registered?
• Do you have an agent or consultant handling details for you?

How to prevent yourself or someone you know from being trafficked

• Never give anyone your passport!
• Research the company you are applying to join. For example, check their website, search for them on social media and LinkedIn, check the legal registration of the company.
• Ask for references (face to face or virtual) from current employees.
• Ensure you received an official letter of offer and check the email addresses match the companies contact information.
• Research the visa requirements for working in a foreign country.
• Notify your countries Immigration Office of your intention to travel or contact your countries Embassy once you arrive at your destination.
• If you are about to cross a river in north-west Thailand don’t, it is likely you are being trafficked into Myanmar.

Forced Scamming:

Trapped in secure compounds.

• Victims are trafficked into secure compounds within Myanmar along the Thailand-Myanmar border with no way to escape. They are watched by armed security and their movements monitored 24/7 by CCTV.

Physically tortured, Sexually Assaulted & brutalised.

• Victims are punished if they refuse to work, until they comply. They are sexually assaulted and brutalised to keep them compliant and their torture used as a warning to others. All have scars, some visible and some hidden, that they will carry with them forever.

Forced to work 20 hour days, 6-7 days a week.

• Victims are forced to work 16-20 hours per day and often 6-7 days each week. They are locked into offices with rows and rows of computers forced to participate in illegal activities, including cyber scamming.

Passports confiscated & phones strictly monitored.

• Victims have their passports confiscated usually under false pretences. All phone activity is strictly monitored with random checks are conducted daily. Victims are forced to use company phones and can only access their personal phones in their rooms.

Could this be your situation? If you or someone you know has been trapped in forced criminality, contact your nearest embassy or email the Global Alms Counter Trafficking Unit at admin@globalalms.com with the details

This is a post for awareness. Let’s help each other. Only serious comments.
Below are more links to other related posts.
https://edition.cnn.com/interactive/2023/12/asia/chinese-scam-operations-american-victims-intl-hnk-dst/ (Scam Factory location: 16°38'53.0"N 98°31'15.8"E https://maps.app.goo.gl/hjxFLTUJ1SK1aLMM8?g_st=ic)
http://chinascope.org/archives/32233
https://youtu.be/m6qFCdHvYuI?si=rs2J71V1XIeFF7we
https://www.globalantiscam.org/contact
https://www.reddit.com/Thailand/s/L8OTm9Lvye
https://www.globalalms.com/protection
Fill up the form https://www.globalantiscam.org/contact

(My account created recently for privacy/scam concerns)

"Why Did Jesus Die on the Cross?"

The main reason Jesus died on the cross was to defeat Satan and set us free from his oppressive rule. Everything else that Jesus accomplished was to be understood as an aspect and consequence of this victory (e.g., Recapitulation, Moral Influence, etc.).
This understanding of why Jesus had to die is called the Christus Victor (Latin for “Christ is Victorious”) view of the atonement. But, what exactly was Christ victorious from, and why? To find out the answers to these questions, we have to turn to the Old Testament, as that's what the apostles would often allude to in order to properly teach their audience the message they were trying to convey (Rom. 15:4).
The OT is full of conflict between the Father (YHVH) and false gods, between YHVH and cosmic forces of chaos. The Psalms speak of this conflict between YHVH and water monsters of the deeps (an ancient image for chaos) (Psa. 29:3-4; 74:10-14; 77:16, 19; 89:9-10; 104:2-9, etc).
The liberation of Israel from Egypt wasn’t just a conflict between Pharaoh and Moses. It was really between YHVH and the false gods of Egypt.
Regardless of whether you think the aforementioned descriptions are literal or metaphorical, the reality that the Old Testament describes is that humanity lived in a “cosmic war zone.”
The Christus Victor motif is about Christ reigning victorious over wicked principalities and Satan's kingdom, and is strongly emphasized throughout the New Testament. Scripture declares that Jesus came to drive out "the prince of this world” (John 12:31), to “destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8), to “destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil” (Heb. 2:14) and to “put all enemies under his feet” (1 Cor 15:25). Jesus came to overpower the “strong man” (Satan) who held the world in bondage and worked with his Church to plunder his "palace" (Luke 11:21-22). He came to end the reign of the cosmic “thief” who seized the world to “steal, and to kill, and to destroy” the life YHVH intended for us (John 10:10). Jesus came and died on the cross to disarm “the principalities and powers” and make a “shew of them openly [i.e., public spectacle]” by “triumphing over them in [the cross]” (Col. 2:15).
Beyond these explicit statements, there are many other passages that express the Christus Victor motif as well. For example, the first prophecy in the Bible foretells that a descendent of Eve (Jesus) would crush the head of the serpent (Gen. 3:15). The first Christian sermon ever preached proclaimed that Jesus in principle conquered all YHVH's enemies (Acts 2:32-36). And the single most frequently quoted Old Testament passage by New Testament authors is Psalm 110:1 which predicts that Christ would conquer all YHVH’s opponents. (Psalm 110 is quoted or alluded to in Matthew 22:41-45; 26:64, Mark 12:35-37; 14:62, Luke 20:41-44; 22:69, Acts 5:31; 7:55-56, Romans 8:34, 1st Corinthians 15:22-25, Ephesians 1:20, Hebrews 1:3; 1:13; 5:6, 10; 6:20; 7:11, 15, 17, 21; 8:1; 10:12-13, 1st Peter 3:22, and Revelation 3:21.) According to New Testament scholar Oscar Cullman, the frequency with which New Testament authors cite this Psalm is the greatest proof that Christ’s “victory over the angel powers stands at the very center of early Christian thought.”
Because of man's rebellion, the Messiah's coming involved a rescue mission that included a strategy for vanquishing the powers of darkness.
Since YHVH is a God of love who gives genuine “say-so” to both angels and humans, YHVH rarely accomplishes His providential plans through coercion. YHVH relies on His infinite wisdom to achieve His goals. Nowhere is YHVH's wisdom put more on display than in the manner in which He outsmarted Satan and the powers of evil, using their own evil to bring about their defeat.
Most readers probably know the famous story from ancient Greece about the Trojan Horse. To recap the story, Troy and Greece had been locked in a ten-year-long vicious war when, according to Homer and Virgil, the Greeks came up with a brilliant idea. They built an enormous wooden horse, hid soldiers inside and offered it to the Trojans as a gift, claiming they were conceding defeat and going home. The delighted Trojans accepted the gift and proceeded to celebrate by drinking themselves into a drunken stupor. When night came and the Trojan warriors were too wasted to fight, the Greeks exited the horse, unlocked the city gates to quietly let all their compatriots in, and easily conquered the city, thus winning the war.
Historians debate whether any of this actually happened. But either way, as military strategies go, it’s brilliant.
Now, there are five clues in the New Testament that suggest YHVH was using something like this Trojan Horse strategy against the powers when he sent Jesus into the world:
1) The Bible tells us that YHVH's victory over the powers of darkness was achieved by the employment of YHVH’s wisdom, and was centered on that wisdom having become reality in Jesus Christ (Rom. 16:25, 1 Cor. 2:7, Eph. 3:9-10, Col. 1:26). It also tells us that, for some reason, this Christ-centered wisdom was kept “secret and hidden” throughout the ages. It’s clear from this that YHVH's strategy was to outsmart and surprise the powers by sending Jesus.
2) While humans don’t generally know Jesus’ true identity during his ministry, demons do. They recognize Jesus as the Son of God, the Messiah, but, interestingly enough, they have no idea what he’s doing (Mark 1:24; 3:11; 5:7, Luke 8:21). Again, the wisdom of YHVH in sending Jesus was hidden from them.
3) We’re told that, while humans certainly share in the responsibility for the crucifixion, Satan and the powers were working behind the scenes to bring it about (John 13:27 cf. 1 Cor. 2:6-8). These forces of evil helped orchestrate the crucifixion.
4) We’re taught that if the “princes of this world [age]” had understood the secret wisdom of YHVH, “they would not have crucified the Lord of glory” (1 Cor 2:8 cf. vss 6-7). Apparently, Satan and the powers regretted orchestrating Christ’s crucifixion once they learned of the wisdom of YHVH that was behind it.
5) Finally, we can begin to understand why the powers came to regret crucifying “the Lord of glory” when we read that it was by means of the crucifixion that the “handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us [i.e., the charge of our legal indebtedness]” was “[taken] out of the way [i.e., canceled]” as the powers were disarmed. In this way Christ “triumph[ed] over” the powers by "his cross” and even “made a shew of them openly” (Col. 2:14-15). Through Christ’s death and resurrection YHVH's enemies were vanquished and placed under his Messiah's feet, and ultimately His own in the end (1 Cor. 15:23-28).
Putting these five clues together, we can discern YHVH's Trojan Horse strategy in sending Jesus.
The powers couldn’t discern why Jesus came because YHVH's wisdom was hidden from them. YHVH's wisdom was motivated by unfathomable love, and since Satan and the other powers were evil, they lacked the capacity to understand it. Their evil hearts prevented them from suspecting what YHVH was up to.
What the powers did understand was that Jesus was mortal. This meant he was killable. Lacking the capacity to understand that this was the means by which YHVH would ultimately bring about the defeat of death (and thus, pave the road for the resurrection itself), they never suspected that making Jesus vulnerable to their evil might actually be part of YHVH's infinitely wise plan.
And so they took the bait (or "ransom"; Matt. 20:28, Mark 10:45, 1 Tim. 2:5-6). Utilizing Judas and other willing human agents, the powers played right into YHVH’s secret plan and orchestrated the crucifixion of the Messiah (Acts 2:22-23; 4:28). YHVH thus brilliantly used the self-inflicted incapacity of evil to understand love against itself. And, like light dispelling darkness, the unfathomably beautiful act of YHVH's love in sending the willing Messiah as a "ransom" to these blood-thirsty powers defeated them. The whole creation was in principle freed and reconciled to YHVH, while everything written against us humans was nailed to the cross, thus robbing the powers of the only legal claim they had on us. They were “spoiled [i.e., disempowered]” (Col. 2:14-15).
As happened to the Trojans in accepting the gift from the Greeks, in seizing on Christ’s vulnerability and orchestrating his crucifixion, the powers unwittingly cooperated with YHVH to unleash the one power in the world that dispels all evil and sets captives free. It’s the power of self-sacrificial love.

Why Penal Substitution Is Unbiblical

For the sake of keeping this already lengthy post as short as possible I'm not going to spend too much time on why exactly PSA (Penal Substitutionary Atonement) is inconsistent with Scripture, but I'll go ahead and point out the main reasons why I believe this is so, and let the reader look further into this subject by themselves, being that there are many resources out there which have devoted much more time than I ever could here in supporting this premise.

"Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:"-1 Corinthians 5:7

The Passover is one of the two most prominent images in the New Testament given as a comparison to Christ's atonement and what it accomplished, (the other most common image being the Day of Atonement sacrifice).
In the Passover, the blood of the lamb on the door posts of the Hebrews in the book of Exodus was meant to mark out those who were YHVH's, not be a symbol of PSA, as the lamb itself was not being punished by God in place of the Hebrews, but rather the kingdom of Egypt (and thus, allegorically speaking, the kingdom of darkness which opposed YHVH) was what was being judged and punished, because those who were not "covered" by the blood of the lamb could be easily identified as not part of God's kingdom/covenant and liberated people.
Looking at the Day of Atonement sacrifice (which, again, Christ's death is repeatedly compared to throughout the New Testament), this ritual required a ram, a bull, and two goats (Lev. 16:3-5). The ram was for a burnt offering intended to please God (Lev. 16:3-4). The bull served as a sin offering for Aaron, the high priest, and his family. In this case, the sin offering restored the priest to ritual purity, allowing him to occupy sacred space and be near YHVH’s presence. Two goats taken from "the congregation” were needed for the single sin offering for the people (Lev. 16:5). So why two goats?
The high priest would cast lots over the two goats, with one chosen as a sacrifice “for the Lord” (Lev. 16:8). The blood of that goat would purify the people. The second goat was not sacrificed or designated “for the Lord.” On the contrary, this goat—the one that symbolically carried the sins away from the camp of Israel into the wilderness—was “for Azazel” (Lev. 16:8-10).
What—or who—is Azazel?
The Hebrew term azazel (עזאזל) occurs four times in Leviticus 16 but nowhere else in most people's canon of the Bible, (and I say "most people's canon," because some people do include 1 Enoch in their canon of Scripture, which of course goes into great detail about this "Azazel" figure). Many translations prefer to translate the term as a phrase, “the goat that goes away,” which is the same idea conveyed in the King James Version’s “scapegoat.” Other translations treat the word as a name: Azazel. The “scapegoat” option is possible, but since the phrase “for Azazel” parallels the phrase “for YHVH” (“for the Lord”), the wording suggests that two divine figures are being contrasted by the two goats.
A strong case can be made for translating the term as the name Azazel. Ancient Jewish texts show that Azazel was understood as a demonic figure associated with the wilderness. The Mishnah (ca. AD 200; Yoma 6:6) records that the goat for Azazel was led to a cliff and pushed over, ensuring it would not return with its death. This association of the wilderness with evil is also evident in the New Testament, as this was where Jesus met the devil (Matt. 4:1). Also, in Leviticus 17:1-7 we learn that some Israelites had been accustomed to sacrificing offerings to "devils" (alternatively translated as “goat demons”). The Day of Atonement replaced this illegitimate practice.
The second goat was not sent into the wilderness as a sacrifice to a foreign god or demon. The act of sending the live goat out into the wilderness, which was unholy ground, was to send the sins of the people where they belonged—to the demonic domain. With one goat sacrificed to bring purification and access to YHVH and one goat sent to carry the people’s sins to the demonic domain, this annual ritual reinforced the identity of the true God and His mercy and holiness.
When Jesus died on the cross for all of humanity’s sins, he was crucified outside the city, paralleling the sins of the people being cast to the wilderness via the goat to Azazel. Jesus died once for all sinners, negating the need for this ritual.
As previously stated, the goat which had all the sin put on it was sent alive off to the wilderness, while the blood of the goat which was blameless was used to purify the temple and the people. Penal substitution would necessitate the killing of the goat which had the sin put on it.
Mind you, this is the only sacrificial ritual of any kind in the Torah in which sins are placed on an animal. The only time it happens is this, and that animal is not sacrificed. Most PSA proponents unwittingly point to this ritual as evidence of their view, despite it actually serving as evidence to the contrary, because most people don't read their Old Testament and don't familiarize themselves with the "boring parts" like Leviticus (when it's actually rather important to do so, since that book explains how exactly animal offerings were to be carried out and why they were done in the first place).
In the New Testament, Christ's blood was not only meant to mark out those who were his, but also expel the presence of sin and ritual uncleanness so as to make the presence of YHVH manifest in the believer's life. Notice how God's wrath isn't poured out on Christ in our stead on this view, but rather His wrath was poured out on those who weren't covered, and the presence of sin and evil were merely removed by that which is pure and blameless (Christ's blood) for the believer.
All this is the difference between expiation and propitiation.

The Content of Paul's Gospel Message

When the New Testament writers talked about “the gospel,” they referred not to the Protestant doctrine of justification sola fide–the proposition that if we will stop trying to win God’s favor and only just believe that God has exchanged our sin for Christ’s perfect righteousness, then in God’s eyes we will have the perfect righteousness required both for salvation and for assuaging our guilty consciences–but rather they referred to the simple but explosive proposition Kyrios Christos, “Christ is Lord.” That is to say, the gospel was, properly speaking, the royal announcement that Jesus of Nazareth was the God of Israel’s promised Messiah, the King of kings and Lord of lords.
The New Testament writers were not writing in a cultural or linguistic vacuum and their language of euangelion (good news) and euangelizomai would have been understood by their audience in fairly specific ways. Namely, in the Greco-Roman world for which the New Testament authors wrote, euangelion/euangelizomai language typically had to do with either A) the announcement of the accession of a ruler, or B) the announcement of a victory in battle, and would probably have been understood along those lines.
Let’s take the announcements of a new ruler first. The classic example of such a language is the Priene Calendar Inscription, dating to circa 9 BC, which celebrates the rule (and birthday) of Caesar Augustus as follows:
"It was seeming to the Greeks in Asia, in the opinion of the high priest Apollonius of Menophilus Azanitus: Since Providence, which has ordered all things of our life and is very much interested in our life, has ordered things in sending Augustus, whom she filled with virtue for the benefit of men, sending him as a savior [soter] both for us and for those after us, him who would end war and order all things, and since Caesar by his appearance [epiphanein] surpassed the hopes of all those who received the good tidings [euangelia], not only those who were benefactors before him, but even the hope among those who will be left afterward, and the birthday of the god [he genethlios tou theou] was for the world the beginning of the good tidings [euangelion] through him; and Asia resolved it in Smyrna."
The association of the term euangelion with the announcement of Augustus’ rule is clear enough and is typical of how this language is used elsewhere. To give another example, Josephus records that at the news of the accession of the new emperor Vespasian (69 AD) “every city kept festival for the good news (euangelia) and offered sacrifices on his behalf.” (The Jewish War, IV.618). Finally, a papyrus dating to ca. 498 AD begins:
"Since I have become aware of the good news (euangeliou) about the proclamation as Caesar (of Gaius Julius Verus Maximus Augustus)…"
This usage occurs also in the Septuagint, the Greek translations of the Jewish Scriptures. For instance LXX Isaiah 52:7 reads, “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news (euangelizomenou), who publishes peace, who brings good news (euangelizomenos) of salvation, who says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns.'" Similarly, LXX Isaiah 40:9-10 reads:

"…Go up on a high mountain, you who bring good tidings (ho euangelizomenos) to Sion; lift up your voice with strength, you who bring good tidings (ho euangelizomenos); lift it up, do not fear; say to the cities of Ioudas, “See your God!” Behold, the Lord comes with strength, and his arm with authority (kyrieias)…."-NETS, Esaias 40:9-10

This consistent close connection between euangelion/euangelizomai language and announcements of rule strongly suggests that many of the initial hearers/readers of the early Christians’ evangelical language would likely have understood that language as the announcement of a new ruler (see, e.g., Acts 17:7), and, unless there is strong NT evidence to the contrary, we should presume that the NT writers probably intended their language to be so understood.
However, the other main way in which euangelion/euangelizomai language was used in the Greco-Roman world was with reference to battle reports, announcements of victory in war. A classic example of this sort of usage can be found in LXX 2 Samuel 18:19ff, where David receives word that his traitorous son, Absalom, has been defeated in battle. Euangelion/euangelizomai is used throughout the passage for the communications from the front.
As already shown throughout this post, the NT speaks of Jesus’s death and resurrection as a great victory over the powers that existed at that time and, most importantly, over death itself. Jesus’ conquest of the principalities and powers was the establishment of his rule and comprehensive authority over heaven and earth, that is, of his Lordship over all things (again, at that time).
This was the content of Paul's gospel message...

Justification, and the "New" Perspective on Paul

The following quotation is from The Gospel Coalition, and I believe it to be a decently accurate summary of the NPP (New Perspective on Paul), despite it being from a source which is in opposition to it:

The New Perspective on Paul, a major scholarly shift that began in the 1980s, argues that the Jewish context of the New Testament has been wrongly understood and that this misunderstand[ing] has led to errors in the traditional-Protestant understanding of justification. According to the New Perspective, the Jewish systems of salvation were not based on works-righteousness but rather on covenantal nomism, the belief that one enters the people of God by grace and stays in through obedience to the covenant. This means that Paul could not have been referring to works-righteousness by his phrase “works of the law”; instead, he was referring to Jewish boundary markers that made clear who was or was not within the people of God. For the New Perspective, this is the issue that Paul opposes in the NT. Thus, justification takes on two aspects for the New Perspective rather than one; initial justification is by faith (grace) and recognizes covenant status (ecclesiology), while final justification is partially by works, albeit works produced by the Spirit.

I believe what's called the "new perspective" is actually rather old, and that the Reformers' view of Paul is what is truly new, being that the Lutheran understanding of Paul is simply not Biblical.
The Reformation perspective understands Paul to be arguing against a legalistic Jewish culture that seeks to earn their salvation through works. However, supporters of the NPP argue that Paul has been misread. We contend he was actually combating Jews who were boasting because they were God's people, the "elect" or the "chosen ones." Their "works," so to speak, were done to show they were God's covenant people and not to earn their salvation.
The key questions involve Paul’s view(s) of the law and the meaning of the controversy in which Paul was engaged. Paul strongly argued that we are “justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law” (Gal. 2:16b). Since the time of Martin Luther, this has been understood as an indictment of legalistic efforts to merit favor before God. Judaism was cast in the role of the medieval "church," and so Paul’s protests became very Lutheran, with traditional-Protestant theology reinforced in all its particulars (along with its limitations) as a result. In hermeneutical terms, then, the historical context of Paul’s debate will answer the questions we have about what exactly the apostle meant by the phrase "works of the law," along with other phrases often used as support by the Reformers for their doctrine of Sola Fide (justification by faith alone), like when Paul mentions "the righteousness of God."
Obviously an in-depth analysis of the Pauline corpus and its place in the context of first-century Judaism would take us far beyond the scope of this brief post. We can, however, quickly survey the topography of Paul’s thought in context, particularly as it has emerged through the efforts of recent scholarship, and note some salient points which may be used as the basis of a refurbished soteriology.
[Note: The more popular scholars associated with the NPP are E.P. Sanders, James Dunn, and N.T. Wright. Dunn was the first to coin the term "The New Perspective" in a 1983 Manson Memorial Lecture, The New Perspective on Paul and the Law.]
Varying authors since the early 1900's have brought up the charge that Paul was misread by those in the tradition of Martin Luther and other Protestant Reformers. Yet, it wasn't until E.P. Sanders' 1977 book, Paul and Palestinian Judaism, that scholars began to pay much attention to the issue. In his book, Sanders argues that the Judaism of Paul's day has been wrongly criticized as a religion of "works-salvation" by those in the Protestant tradition.
A fundamental premise in the NPP is that Judaism was actually a religion of grace. Sander's puts it clearly:
"On the point at which many have found the decisive contrast between Paul and Judaism - grace and works - Paul is in agreement with Palestinian Judaism... Salvation is by grace but judgment is according to works'...God saves by grace, but... within the framework established by grace he rewards good deeds and punishes transgression." (Paul and Palestinian Judaism, p. 543)
N.T. Wright adds that, "we have misjudged early Judaism, especially Pharisaism, if we have thought of it as an early version of Pelagianism," (Wright, What Saint Paul Really Said, p. 32).
Sanders has coined a now well-known phrase to describe the character of first-century Palestinian Judaism: “covenantal nomism.” The meaning of “covenantal nomism” is that human obedience is not construed as the means of entering into God’s covenant. That cannot be earned; inclusion within the covenant body is by the grace of God. Rather, obedience is the means of maintaining one’s status within the covenant. And with its emphasis on divine grace and forgiveness, Judaism was never a religion of legalism.
If covenantal nomism was operating as the primary category under which Jews understood the Law, then when Jews spoke of obeying commandments, or when they required strict obedience of themselves and fellow Jews, it was because they were "keeping the covenant," rather than out of legalism.
More recently, N.T. Wright has made a significant contribution in his little book, What Saint Paul Really Said. Wright’s focus is the gospel and the doctrine of justification. With incisive clarity he demonstrates that the core of Paul’s gospel was not justification by faith, but the death and resurrection of Christ and his exaltation as Lord. The proclamation of the gospel was the proclamation of Jesus as Lord, the Messiah who fulfilled Israel’s expectations. Romans 1:3-4, not 1:16-17, is the gospel, contrary to traditional thinking. Justification is not the center of Paul’s thought, but an outworking of it:
"[T]he doctrine of justification by faith is not what Paul means by ‘the gospel’. It is implied by the gospel; when the gospel is proclaimed, people come to faith and so are regarded by God as members of his people. But ‘the gospel’ is not an account of how people get saved. It is, as we saw in an earlier chapter, the proclamation of the lordship of Jesus Christ….Let us be quite clear. ‘The gospel’ is the announcement of Jesus’ lordship, which works with power to bring people into the family of Abraham, now redefined around Jesus Christ and characterized solely by faith in him. ‘Justification’ is the doctrine which insists that all those who have this faith belong as full members of this family, on this basis and no other." (pp. 132, 133)
Wright brings us to this point by showing what “justification” would have meant in Paul’s Jewish context, bound up as it was in law-court terminology, eschatology, and God’s faithfulness to God’s covenant.
Specifically, Wright explodes the myth that the pre-Christian Saul was a pious, proto-Pelagian moralist seeking to earn his individual passage into heaven. Wright capitalizes on Paul’s autobiographical confessions to paint rather a picture of a zealous Jewish nationalist whose driving concern was to cleanse Israel of Gentiles as well as Jews who had lax attitudes toward the Torah. Running the risk of anachronism, Wright points to a contemporary version of the pre-Christian Saul: Yigal Amir, the zealous Torah-loyal Jew who assassinated Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin for exchanging Israel’s land for peace. Wright writes:
"Jews like Saul of Tarsus were not interested in an abstract, ahistorical system of salvation... They were interested in the salvation which, they believed, the one true God had promised to his people Israel." (pp. 32, 33)
Wright maintains that as a Christian, Paul continued to challenge paganism by taking the moral high ground of the creational monotheist. The doctrine of justification was not what Paul preached to the Gentiles as the main thrust of his gospel message; it was rather “the thing his converts most needed to know in order to be assured that they really were part of God’s people” after they had responded to the gospel message.
Even while taking the gospel to the Gentiles, however, Paul continued to criticize Judaism “from within” even as he had as a zealous Pharisee. But whereas his mission before was to root out those with lax attitudes toward the Torah, now his mission was to demonstrate that God’s covenant faithfulness (righteousness) has already been revealed in Jesus Christ.
At this point Wright carefully documents Paul’s use of the controversial phrase “God’s righteousness” and draws out the implications of his meaning against the background of a Jewish concept of justification. The righteousness of God and the righteousness of the party who is “justified” cannot be confused because the term bears different connotations for the judge than for the plaintiff or defendant. The judge is “righteous” if his or her judgment is fair and impartial; the plaintiff or defendant is “righteous” if the judge rules in his or her favor. Hence:
"If we use the language of the law court, it makes no sense whatsoever to say that the judge imputes, imparts, bequeaths, conveys or otherwise transfers his righteousness to either the plaintiff or the defendant. Righteousness is not an object, a substance or a gas which can be passed across the courtroom. For the judge to be righteous does not mean that the court has found in his favor. For the plaintiff or defendant to be righteous does not mean that he or she has tried the case properly or impartially. To imagine the defendant somehow receiving the judge’s righteousness is simply a category mistake. That is not how the language works." (p. 98)
However, Wright makes the important observation that even with the forensic metaphor, Paul’s theology is not so much about the courtroom as it is about God’s love.
Righteousness is not an impersonal, abstract standard, a measuring-stick or a balancing scale. That was, and still is, a Greek view. Righteousness, Biblically speaking, grows out of covenant relationship. We forgive because we have been forgiven (Matt. 18:21-35); “we love" because God “first loved us” (1 John 4:19). Love is the fulfillment of the law (Rom. 13:8, 10, Gal 5:14, Jam. 2:8). Paul even looked forward to a day when “we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad” (2 Cor. 5:10), and he acknowledged that his clear conscience did not necessarily ensure this verdict (1 Cor. 4:4), but he was confident nevertheless. Paul did in fact testify of his clear conscience: “For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation [i.e., behavior] in the world, and more abundantly to you-ward” (2 Cor. 1:12). He was aware that he had not yet “attained” (Phil. 3:12-14), that he still struggled with the flesh, yet he was confident of the value of his performance (1 Cor. 9:27). These are hardly the convictions of someone who intends to rest entirely on the merits of an alien righteousness imputed to his or her account.
Wright went on to flesh out the doctrine of justification in Galatians, Philippians, and Romans. The “works of the law” are not proto-Pelagian efforts to earn salvation, but rather “sabbath [keeping], food-laws, circumcision” (p. 132). Considering the controversy in Galatia, Wright writes:
"Despite a long tradition to the contrary, the problem Paul addresses in Galatians is not the question of how precisely someone becomes a Christian, or attains to a relationship with God….The problem he addresses is: should his ex-pagan converts be circumcised or not? Now this question is by no means obviously to do with the questions faced by Augustine and Pelagius, or by Luther and Erasmus. On anyone’s reading, but especially within its first-century context, it has to do quite obviously with the question of how you define the people of God: are they to be defined by the badges of Jewish race, or in some other way? Circumcision is not a ‘moral’ issue; it does not have to do with moral effort, or earning salvation by good deeds. Nor can we simply treat it as a religious ritual, then designate all religious ritual as crypto-Pelagian good works, and so smuggle Pelagius into Galatia as the arch-opponent after all. First-century thought, both Jewish and Christian, simply doesn’t work like that…. [T]he polemic against the Torah in Galatians simply will not work if we ‘translate’ it into polemic either against straightforward self-help moralism or against the more subtle snare of ‘legalism’, as some have suggested. The passages about the law only work — and by ‘work’ I mean they will only make full sense in their contexts, which is what counts in the last analysis — when we take them as references to the Jewish law, the Torah, seen as the national charter of the Jewish race." (pp. 120-122)
The debate about justification, then, “wasn’t so much about soteriology as about ecclesiology; not so much about salvation as about the church.” (p. 119)
To summarize the theology of Paul in his epistles, the apostle mainly spent time arguing to those whom he were sending letters that salvation in Christ was available to all men without distinction. Jews and Gentiles alike may accept the free gift; it was not limited to any one group. Paul was vehement about this, especially in his letter to the Romans. As such, I will finish this post off by summarizing the letter itself, so as to provide Biblical support for the premises of the NPP and for what the scholars I referenced have thus far argued.
After his introduction in the epistle to an already believing and mostly Gentile audience (who would've already been familiar with the gospel proclaimed in verses 3-4), Paul makes a thematic statement in 1:16: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.” This statement is just one of many key statements littered throughout the book of Romans that give us proper understanding of the point Paul wished to make to the interlocutors of his day, namely, salvation is available to all, whether Jew or Gentile.
In 1:16 Paul sets out a basic theme of his message in the letter to the Romans. All who believed, whether they be Jew or Gentile, were saved by the power of the gospel. The universal nature of salvation was explicitly stated. The gospel saved all without distinction, whether Jew or Greek; salvation was through the gospel of Jesus Christ. Immediately after this thematic declaration, Paul undertakes to show the universal nature of sin and guilt. In 1:18-32 Paul shows how the Gentile is guilty before God. Despite evidence of God and his attributes, which is readily available to all, they have failed to honor YHVH as God and have exchanged His glory for idolatrous worship and self-promotion. As a consequence, God handed them over in judgment (1:18-32). Paul moves to denunciation of those who would judge others while themselves being guilty of the very same offenses (2:1-5) and argues that all will be judged according to their deeds (2:6). This judgment applies to all, namely, Jew and Greek (2:9-10). This section serves as somewhat of a transition in Paul’s argument. He has highlighted the guilt of the Gentiles (1:18ff) and will shortly outline the guilt of the Jew (2:17-24). The universal statement of 2:1-11 sets the stage for Paul’s rebuke of Jewish presumption. It was not possession of the Law which delivered; it was faithful obedience. It is better to have no Law and yet to obey the essence of the Law (2:12-16) than to have the Law and not obey (2:17-3:4). Paul then defends the justice of God’s judgment (3:5-8), which leads to the conclusion that all (Jew and Gentile) are guilty before God (3:9).
Paul argues that it was a mistaken notion to think that salvation was the prerogative of the Jew only. This presumption is wrong for two reasons. First, it leads to the mistaken assumption that only Jews were eligible for this vindication (Paul deals with this misunderstanding in chapter 4 where he demonstrates that Abraham was justified by faith independently of the Law and is therefore the father of all who believe, Jew and Gentile alike). Second, it leads to the equally mistaken conclusion that all who were Jews are guaranteed of vindication. Paul demonstrates how this perspective, which would call God’s integrity into question since Paul was assuming many Jews would not experience this vindication, was misguided. He did this by demonstrating that it was never the case that all physical descendants of Israel (Jacob) were likewise recipients of the promise. In the past (9:6-33) as in the present (at that time; 11:1-10), only a remnant was preserved and only a remnant would experience vindication. Paul also argued that the unbelief of national Israel (the non-remnant) had the purpose of extending the compass of salvation. The unbelief of one group made the universal scope of the gospel possible. This universalism was itself intended to bring about the vindication of the unbelieving group (11:11-16). As a result of faith, all (Jew and Gentile) could be branches of the olive tree (11:17-24). Since faith in Christ was necessary to remain grafted into the tree, no one could boast of his position. All, Jew and Gentile alike, were dependent upon the mercy and grace of God. As a result of God’s mysterious plan, He would bring about the vindication of His people (11:25-27). [Note: It is this author's belief that this vindication occurred around 66-70 AD, with the Parousia of Christ's Church; this author is Full-Preterist in their Eschatology.]

hi all, it’s my first time posting so i’m going to try and make this as clear as i can, open to clarifications if needed!
so, i am offered by SIT for their UoG nursing programme and i am very short in time to make a decision on which i should pursue because both have their strengths. I am considering SIT because of what they offer (specifically the glasgow programme) but i am also worried about the trimester system they’re using. i was also pre empt on how rigorous the lessons can be as well.
on the other hand, i was also looking into taking a part time degree in nursing prior to receiving an offer letter from SIT, as back then i wasn’t confident in even receiving an offer from them. I was considering la trobe at that point in time, and currently still reading more into other schools (i.e. kings college, curtin etc)
as i am just literal days away from the deadline, i hope people who have gone through the dilemma i am facing, or who have chosen either paths to share their experiences and why they chose that way.
thank you!

Hi! Currently loooking for a project-based or part-time job for my college funds and rent for my boarding house and utilities.
What I offer: - Tutoring services (Pre-calculus to calculus, general and inorganic chemistry, physics, biology, fisheries, GIS, English) - 3 years experience as an online ESL teacher - Data Entry - Bookkeeping - Social Media MarketeManager - Virtual Assistant (willing to be trained) - SHS research consultation (oceanography, fisheries stock assessment, GIS mapping, aquaculture, and fisheries-related courses are my specialties) - Coaching for Research Oral Presentations (Best in Oral Presentation PAMS) - SEO content writing (can send samples of my work) - short-form video editing (AMV and edits)
If you have any leads for jobs I can apply for I can send my CV, portfolio, and resume for your reference.
Can work everyday 20 hours per week.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

A few weeks ago, I felt dejected upon seeing my results for the USTET and ACET, both were my dream schools but unfortunately I didn't get in. I hoarded the past posts of people in Tomasino and the ateneo sub especially in the megathread in hopes I may be able to get myself reconsidered, from getting details such as the formatting to understanding the purpose, contents, and such of the reconsideration letter which I was able to make at least a week after the results were released. There was this one particular comment though which set me interacting with people of prestige and that involved the letter of endorsement.
The comment detailed how his friend was able to get into UST after talking to a Dominican Priest whom she was able to show her masterful works. That drove me into actively looking for priests to talk to myself. I didn't know anyone, nor did I know the process, but I was ready, I was ready to be interviewed, ready to show my works, ready to endorse myself to whomever was willing to help me in my endeavor, which also involved helping my friend attain a letter of his own. I asked my church friends if they knew any, and even joined religious groups on facebook to see if I could get into contact with anyone and after a while in passivity, a church leader friend messaged me. Apparently, he knew a Dominican friar and so, I pleaded with him which I really didn't have to given we were close and he was really willing to help. After detailing my situation, he set us up with the said friar in the Sto. Domingo church.
Fast forward to a week later, we were able to have an insightful conversation with him, but unfortunately he said he couldn't help our situation but recommended me to go into UST to talk to the priests there, or as an alternative which my aforementioned church leader friend and a priest from the church endorsed, approach the bishop of Cubao himself. I do admit that the meeting demoralized me, and I went home rather broken but a good sleep, short conversation with a friend whom I was also helping get into UST, and Miki Matsubara's Mayonaka No Door later, and I'm back in the game. I wrote a letter to the bishop for the both of us and asked his hand in endorsing us, especially that we were alumni in the school that housed the seat of the Diocese with weights to carry. Honestly, I wasn't really able to pour my heart and soul into that letter, unlike my reconsideration letters for ADMU and UST which I worked on in a computer shop for better focus, and I thought it wasn't written that well, but I gave what I could give, and was ready to face the uphill process I thought it was going to face. It helped that we had a late mother's day dinner to seal the day too.
A day later, I went to the obispado and gave the letter to the guard with whom I conversed with again after an errand in school regarding my DLSU grades form. He told me to come back yesterday and I did, unfortunately, still nothing but this time the different person on the desk asked me for my contact details. I was optimistic, and was willing to wait even more, but I didn't think it would be as quick as one day later. This morning, at least hours after I had once again checked my emails for updates, they called and told me to return. I was excited, and rushed to leave. "This is it" I thought. "We finally got an endorsement letter!" The guard enthusiastically gave them to me and the sister, whom I assume was Bishop's secretary, asked me to check if it was alright to avoid any issues and after reading the short but meaningful contents, I was happy.
My happiness was fanned further by seeing the K-Wave canned coke finally arrive in the Philippines after having it in Osaka.
Although right now time and slots are our enemy, being endorsed by the bishop is a good thing, a relatively big milestone, and a good impression I suppose to both universities run by Catholic orders. I didn't get any letters from either the Jesuits or Dominicans, but I am happy I got to meet with the latter in the quest for España and Katipunan. Thank you so much bishop!!!!
I suppose this deserves a little celebration 'no?

Hello, I just watched LEMMINO's video and began to do some stuff with "EAST NORTHEAST" and "BERLIN CLOCK". This could be me just connecting dots, where there are no dots.
So the name "Kryptos" itself is German for "cryptos" (I learned this by trying to find a Kryptos subreddit, but instead I found a German cryptocurrency subreddit). Clearly some translating might be involved then. So I had an idea that maybe "EAST NORTHEAST" and "BERLIN CLOCK" aren't really part of the true answer, but rather almost there. This doesn't mean that they aren't part of the plain text, but maybe the text is comprised of individual letters, then the above two iconic pair are just shoehorned in. Kinda like how the morse code has "EE SHADOW EE". Basically its individual letters, that you can translate into German, along with words that you can translate. Now translating the letters just gives you the same letters, but why not? "E E VIRTUALLY E" can become in German "e e praktisch e" (used google translate). Note, these maybe the only actual English words in K4, so that's why Mr. Sanborn won't give out anymore clues as per an NPR interview, or he may have one or two more in there.
So, I translate "EAST NORTHEAST" and "BERLIN CLOCK" and got "Ostnordost" (google translate) and "Berlin-Uhr" (NOT google translate, but Wikipedia and in general). Now this does introduce a big headache to me, which is that technically the translation of "Berlin Clock" in google translate is "Berliner Uhr", but I am going to go with a not literal translation here, but what maybe the more organic one.
Now, I am pretty sure most here know of the question mark "?", that maybe part of K3 or K4. Well, in one of the comments of LEMMINO's video, which he hearted, a person had a great idea that "CAN YOU SEE Q" has its Q actually working as a "?" in its own right. In K2 "X" can be used as a period, so this can be used in the same way. Q or a question mark. This then means the actual "?" is part of K4, or can be. Another great realization was another comment that LEMMINO hearted, being that in the morse code "CQ CQ" is a common alert for "Can anyone hear me?" and SOS is of course "I need help!". Ther are some other great comments int hat thread too. Someone realized "Can you see Q?" can be "Can you CQ?" thus "Can you hear me?". Since K3 is about King Tut (the mummy), "CQ CQ SOS" could be a joke regarding that King Tut is trying to communicate with us, and the similarities is the way to confirm you got it right (this maybe proof that the morse code was supposed to get you to King Tut).
Another good comment was CQ = SeekYou, and maybe another in a different comment thread relating that with "T is your position E" but I think that just has stuff to do with the morse code only.
So back on track, this shows that Ancient Egypt may matter, K4 is likely a question that is flipped, and something German very likely is present, and finally the answer is likely to be a joke which is a possible rhetorical question (Kryptos has jokes in it).
So because of this, I took the German phrases "Ostnordost" and "Berlin-Uhr" and flipped them to become "tsodrontso" and "rhunilreb". From these I found two words, but frankly now I am kinda lost. "tsodrontso" has dront in it which is the Swedish word for the dodo. In fact if you search dront into google (English), you immediately get info on the dodo nicely presented. But dront isn't a word in German or English though. In "rhunilreb" I can isolate out UNIL, which is an acronym for the University of Lausanne. From a simple google search, Mr. Sanborn seems to have no relation with them.
How any of this connects to anything else for Kryptos, I have no clue. But, I still feel this is a valid way to at least be creative. Mr. Sanborn did say we really have to look into that clock, and I am looking into it. Plus there is PALIMPSEST, which may indicate that K4 has two things at once going on, and the idea of translating the plaintext to German, and then flipping it and finding an English question, kind of works (though not literally like a palimpsest actually is). Plus if it is really as simple as ABC, well constantly looping abc gives abcabcabcabcab... which has cab, which in German is taxi (yeah), which can then be looped to be I X AT I X AT I X AT I X... which means not only are the letters Q, U, X, and C important, but also "I", which may become for us you. Still no clue how this relates with Swedish dodo and a Swiss university though. I will say though that East Northeast from the coordinates in K2 seems to go to Sweeden.
Thanks for the read y'all.

Hi so more than 2 weeks ago nag apply ako ng additional card sa bdo which is mastercard gold. The agent who called me also offered me a companion card (?? Not sure if yon tawag don) which is amex cashback. So after ng verification and submittion ng docs and final verification/interview, wala na kong nareceived na updates from them so i figured baka declined na since i heard stories na within a week lang naapproved na ung additional cards nila.
Fast forward today, may tumawag sakin ulit just now from bdo daw and as she said "for pre-approval verification" daw ng application ko for mastercard gold and amex cashback. Then tinanong nya lang ako if meron akong ibang active number so binigay ko naman.
Here's what's confusung me, kc yung tumawag sakin today e dun sa isang kong number (globe), which is ndi naman yon yung ginamit ko for application (i used my new smart number). Although, yung globe ko na yon is yun yung gamit ko dati for savings account and 1st cc ko sakanila (pero i already updated the number na online and sa app prior to my new application, tho i still receive updates and deals on both number now)
So yun nag wwonder lang ako if mag pagasa ba sya or legit ba yung tumawag sakin hahaha. And anyone else na naka receive din ng similar call? aside from initial verification and call interview after submission ng docs.

I got my first job at a hardware store as soon as I turned 16, I worked there for 3 years but due to my inability to control my emotions, they had to let me go. I've been searching for a job since, i'm now 21. I've spent the last 2 years searching for a job on and off. I don't have my license and the only ID that I do have is my passport that expired in 2020. I have 1.23 in my bank account and 4 dollars on my bus card. I've lied to my parents about employment, I never told them what happened with my hardware store job. If they found out that I don't have a job, they will kick me out (its a cultural thing). I failed my last year in high school and the same reason I failed HS is the same reason my job had to let me go, and i understand that this is all my fault. My job search has only ever led to 1 interview, which I completely fucked up. I apply to around 3 jobs a week, its hard to find work that I can commute to without a car and the only skills that I do have is in retail or a timber yard, but its hard to find a job at a timber yard without a license so I need to stick to no experience jobs or retail jobs. I know that I have mental issues, but these 2 last years have worn me down so much. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
This is my resume, I've changed it a lot but this is what I've stuck with for the last 2 months https://drive.google.com/file/d/12DS_tGjs2O8Pt9V4nwTZ596RJEebiZNF/view?usp=sharing
And I generally try to write a cover letter that is tailored for the specific job I applied to