You can Trust the Bible

The Bible is God’s Word. The Bible shows people how to live. Just the book of Proverbs alone, is a goldmine for people who want to know how to live wisely. The Bible applied to everyday life back in Bible time, and the Bible still applies to everyday life now. The Bible deals with a vast range of different topics: being kind, love one another, God’s commands, the Gospel, do not steal, do not murder, etc.

“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,” – 2 Timothy 3:16 – NIV (2011)

The Bible is the inspired Word of God. The Bible was written over a period of 1400 to 1800 years by 40 different authors from different walks of life, on three separate continents, yet it all fits together and has not been proven wrong.

“Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things. For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” – 2 Peter 1:20-21 – NIV (2011)

No one can get rid of the Bible. People have tried for a long time to attempt this task, but have gotten nowhere. This is because God says that His Word endures forever.

“The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever.” – Isaiah 14:8 – NIV (2011)

All science can do is show the validity of the Bible. Since God created everything, no one can use science against the Creator. Evolution does not have any supporting evidence backing it, nor will there ever be any supporting evidence backing it. Evolution actually goes against science (ie. non-living matter turning into a living organism, etc.). There was no big bang. The Bible very clearly states that God did the creating.

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” – Genesis 1:1 – NIV (2011)


Posted in Christian

Is Baptism Necessary for Salvation?

Here are some problems with the idea that salvation requires someone to be baptized.

1) Requiring baptism to be saved is faith+works. Salvation is by faith only…not works.

“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.” — Ephesians 2:8-9 (KJV)

The Bible is very clear. No works are involved to be saved.

2) The Bible says that our works are like filthy rags. Since this is the case, how can baptism be a part of salvation, since being baptized to be saved would be performing a work?

“But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.” — Isaiah 64:6 (KJV)

3) The Book of 1st John says:

1 John 5:13 (KJV) “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.”

Everything in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd John is to teach us how to know we are saved. Nowhere in those books is baptism mentioned. Obviously if baptism was necessary for salvation, the Lord would have made sure it was mentioned.


Posted in Christian

Three Things to Know About Linux Security

Here are three things you need to know if you are switching to Linux.

1. Linux can get viruses.

Yep that’s right. Linux is not immune to viruses. There are many more viruses for Windows than Linux, but that does not mean that Linux users are invincible to malware.

2. Linux does not use ACLs by default.

ACLs (Access Control Lists) are a type of file-system security (ACLs on Windows apply to more than just the file-system itself).

On Windows all files, folders, registry folders, etc. make use of ACLs to define user and group permissions.

ACLs allow someone to fine-grain their security on their computer, without much hassle (in other words, you can take a 100 users and assign them to specific files and/or folders with specific permissions). ACLs were designed to accomplish tasks like that.

ACLs can work on Linux too, but you will have to have software that is compatible with ACLs (most won’t be ACL compatible for Linux).

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa374872%28v=vs.85%29.aspx

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa379557%28v=vs.85%29.aspx

However, Linux uses UNIX permissions by default, while very easy to use, are not nearly as flexible as ACL permissions. With UNIX permissions you get:

Owner (that is you or another account)

Group (that is the group you or someone else is assigned to)

World (that is everyone else that has access to the server locally or remotely).

What happens when you need to have several users access specific files and folders, but the permissions are not all uniform (some can read and write, while others can only read, while some can only read and execute).

It would be very hard (if not impossible, depending upon the situation) to accomplish this using UNIX permissions.

3. Linux is not “more secure” than Windows

https://arstechnica.com/security/2013/05/critical-linux-vulnerability-imperils-users-even-after-silent-fix/

How many “secure” Linux users even know about this? How many servers has this affected? CentOS users will be happy, since their kernel version (by default) is lower than 2.6.37, but how many Linux distributions (popular or not) has this affected? How many companies will be able to apply a fix (using one from their distribution provider or doing a fix themselves) without causing downtime?

Both Windows and Linux can have nasty vulnerabilities that can cause downtime and loss of data.

——————————–

Linux is not more secure than Windows. That idea is a myth. All operating systems have their own place in the tech world.


Posted in Operating Systems

Do I Need a Web Hosting Control Panel?

If you are looking into running your own web server, you probably have heard about web hosting control panels before.

Web hosting control panels are software that runs on a web server that allow you and others to manage web domains, e-mail accounts, FTP accounts, MySQL databases, etc.

Here are four questions to ask yourself, if you are wondering if you need a web-based control panel:

1) Are you experienced using the Linux command line? If you plan to use Windows, have you ever administrated a Windows server before?

2) Do you have intermediate knowledge of how to setup and run a web-server?

3) Are you good at problem-solving?

4) Do you have many websites to manage?

If you answered “no” to questions #1, #2, or #3  and/or  you answered “yes” to question #4, then you will be more comfortable using a web hosting control panel. Also, if you are planning to sell web-hosting or have a lot of websites to host, then using a web-hosting panel may be easier than doing everything manually. Otherwise just forgo a web hosting control panel and do it yourself.

Please keep in mind, using a web hosting control panel, you are potentially making it easier for a targeted attack, since one little web panel script with a vulnerability in it can potentially compromise your server (not joking).

If someone does hack the web-based control panel and gets into your accounts, they can do some serious damage and you better hope you have a current backup that restores successfully.

Here is an example of a web hosting control panel giving you a security problem (I know the linked article is old, but it still proves my point): https://krebsonsecurity.com/2012/07/plesk-0day-for-sale-as-thousands-of-sites-hacked/

Web-hosing panels are there to make your job easier, usually at the expense of being flexible with your server. When using a web-hosting control panel, you are “locked-in” with whatever the web hosing panel allows you to do. It’s basically convenience or flexibility with your server.

It is not advised to “do your own thing” (doing something that the web-hosting panel does not support; going around the control panel to do something), since this can cause problems down the road. It’s best to just stick with whatever the web hosing control panel provides you, so you better pick the right one the first time.


Posted in Computers, Internet and Servers, Software

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