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valkblue · 4 years

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Being a Behavior technician requires a certain amount of dedication to the job — the rigorous type, bordeline rigid. That’s what is expected to be at peak efficiency regarding analysis protocols and diagnostics for host service and calibration.

For that, Vivian thinks she might be the worst tech in her department.

— masterlist, AO3

Chapter 2 on 12

Chapter wordcount: 3,340 Rating: General Warning: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ same as usual: swearing and technobabble!

Author’s notes: Bad behavior tech, bad!!

Have a good time reading, and my askbox/messages are always open! 💙

— Chapter 2

There were some days, like this one, during which Vivian and her team were called back in the night; a group of guests went all trigger happy and their mess had to be cleaned up somewhere between the Abernathy Ranch and Las Mudas. And since the narratives and hosts had to be back in rotation asap, the techs’ nighttime was reduced without thinking twice.

Maybe it didn’t look like it, but this job was really taxing sometimes.

That being said, shortly after 6AM, Vivian went back to her room for a few extra and well deserved minutes of sleep before resuming her diagnostics routine. An hour and a big mug of coffee with cereals later, Vivian was back in the elevator which took her down to the Behavior department level.

In the soft lighted glass room, a host was sitting on a wheeled stool. The light brightened when Vivian entered.

"Sorry to have kept you waiting," she said on a hushed voice as if she wanted no-one but the offline host to hear her while letting the glass panel shut down slowly behind her. "I had a rough night. Looks like you did too…"

Ironically, he hadn’t been part of this night’s massacre. No, all those involved were already back in rotation for quite some time. Her first subject of the day, however, had only been victim of his own storyline, needing only a quick check-up and Vivian’s all clear before being back on his loop.

She sat on the stool in front of the host, doing her best to ignore his nudity, and unfolded her tablet on her knees; she had to navigate through several indexes before connecting to his signal for a couple update history checkups.

"Bring yourself back online, please," she ordered, without raising her voice.

The command only seemed to take him out of his thoughts.

"Can you hear me?"

"I hear you alright."

"Off character, for now, please."

Vivian loved to talk to them in character… but, for her diagnostics, she had to ask them to reduce their emotional affect — which was more a guarantee of efficiency than an actual need, though.

"There’s been modifications in your attributes last month," she stated as she was discovering the changes. "Several characteristics got… Who the fuck did that?!"

Vivian had an answer to that already, as she was going through the log; someone from Narrative — that she would brand as asshole — had been pretty heavy handed on self-preservation and aggression, and on top of that they also nerfed curiosity, patience and courage!

There was pitiful justifications from the tech about an adjustment request from their sector after some of the host's alleged wanderings, blamed on his curiosity. But all this was more about making him keener to answer provocation while still being enough of a challenge for his opponents — hosts and guests alike. Vivian didn’t like what kind of freedom Narrative techs were taking with the hosts’ attributes, carefully calibrated by her co-workers and others before them; it wasn’t as simple as changing percentages on the fly in any way they saw fit!

It was a delicate and very important step for any host's cognition, for them to even function at all, as much as for the continuity of their fucking narratives!

Vivian took a deep breath and the time to check the quality of the host’s interactions since the modifications but the results only ended up fuelling her rage. So, she commanded:

"Archive this configuration and open the previous one. Confirmed?"

"Yes."

Vivian smiled, satisfied. On her tablet, the attribute matrix seemed now way more familiar than the last.

"We’ll leave 1.5% more in self-preservation… since they thought it best to give you a few more to endure their bullshit," she grumbled. "And then… 0.5 in aggression for them not to come back to lay it on thick! 6.5 will be more than enough. No need to go all the way up to 10!"

Vivian confirmed her modifications before looking back at the host.

"What d'you think?" she asked, without really expecting any answer from him. “No imbalance or discomfort?”

Modifications could sometimes cause hiccups in the hosts’ cognitions, close to an uneasy feeling. There were other ways to know but Vivian preferred to talk rather than relying only on the screen readings.

"No, I’m fine."

And from what Vivian could read now, he wasn’t lying. Although, browsing his history, she noticed a worrying peak of stress at the time of his "death". It would seem like a normal thing from anyone's standpoint but from which of a host and their technician's, however…

"Your last interaction recorded a peculiar rise in your stress level. What caused this?"

"A… thought."

His mumblings were recognised as improvisations by the tablet. Despite her surprise, Vivian said nothing of it.

"What thought?" she encouraged him instead.

"My family. I’m supposed to be responsible for… my wife, and my daughter."

Vivian noticed the normal occurrences of his cognition in the scrolling of his code.

"But… I can’t help it, I’m out of place, there."

He was getting out of beaten path a little with this comment.

"How are your relations with them?"

"Acceptable."

He kept a few seconds of silence before adding:

"My daughter, I think something’s wrong with her."

"Between you and her?" she asked, for clarity’s sake.

"No…"

"Analysis: what prompted this observation?"

He looked hesitant. On the tablet, still no conflict.

"Her interactions are limited," he then said.

Vivian hesitated too; should she report this observation? Perhaps it was relevant for a potential issue somewhere else…

"It must be my fault."

The tablet, however, reported a new improvisation in that answer.

"Your fault?! Why?"

"I… I should enjoy being home."

According to the datas scrolling up, that was a scripted answer from his guilt library but despite that, what took Vivian aback was the tears running down his cheeks. On the screen — distress, confusion. That wasn't the affect class linked to it. But she didn’t suppress his emotional response…

Instead, she glanced carefully through the glass panels around them; her closest colleagues were two cubicles away, doing the same thing as her. Well, maybe not exactly; once positive that no-one would catch her, Vivian leaned forward a little to put her hand on her subject’s cheek, wiping the tears off with a gentle brush of her thumb.

She could have calmed him down with a simple word, or even with a tap on the right button on her tablet but… what would be the point? Vivian didn’t want to, not with him. And to be honest, as much as she was sincerely touched by the faithfulness of his emotion, it was also convenient for her that he would bring such a topic up.

"Children have a short memory but a quick mind…"

Victor Hugo said that first. And Vivian was quoting him today with something else than Philosophy in mind; she had just use a voice command — her voice command. A simple little script she sneaked into the host’ complex code architecture. More or less mixed with the rest of it, encrypted and virtually unnoticeable without knowing what to look for, it gave the recipient host the ability to keep in their memory, in a hidden and compressed partition, all the events happening between the activation and deactivation of said command. Conversations, feelings, impressions… Everything was there. And everything would remain, even after each reset.

The host couldn’t access it at will without hearing the command, and for what Vivian had noticed so far, it didn’t interfere with his narrative, alter his attitude, cause any glitch nor any pain.

According to her analysis, it was only perceived as a distant memory, one of those leaving an undescribable feeling or a sense of déjà-vu…

Despite the severity of her infraction, Vivian was quite proud of her small "innovation". And she had chosen this one, host ID# MG73368928764, to receive her creation among all the percentage of the park’s population her team had in charge. She had chosen him because of his responsiveness in analysis, because he hadn’t been in any big narrative for at least ten years, because she had already noticed a few oddities in his code, because there was something soft in his eyes, a little extra something…

And quite frankly? Because he was the one who inspired her to create this command, based on an idea that has been on her mind. Because she wrote it for him.

Ever since she arrived in the Behavior department, Vivian had done quite a lot of analysis, calibrations, and had many occasions to talk with plenty of hosts, in character mode or not. And the guys from the Narrative department had done such a good job in writing all these characters, their lexical bases, just like her colleagues from Behavior, in encoding and calibrating all that work into each host put in their care!

Or at least, that’s how Vivian was seeing things back then.

But this particular host caught her eye more than any other; she had quickly noticed how much he was calling upon his improvisation engine compared to others and the feeling of having an actual conversation with a well aware person was sometimes so baffling that, against all common sense, Vivian furthered it. Not to mention the frustration she felt that he could never really recall anything else than what his logs allowed him to, after each diagnostic. But since the installation of her script, the inference frequency in his dialog chains increased. And he was calling upon it with even more fluency.

To the point that their sessions became a real pleasure for Vivian!

It was selfish, she realised that… but she wanted him to keep something from it so badly, something from her, just like she could think back on their conversations with emotion. Those past ones were lost for him but, now, he could remember all those that followed the installation of her script.

Vivian smiled when he focused on her.

"Hello, Lawrence."

He looked hesitant for a second, like a man still not fully awake yet. No alert or conflict from his inference engine on her tablet.

"Hey…"

At his answer, Vivian smiled to him again, and so did Lawrence, even if he kept something a bit shy, uncertain, numbed. In that intermediate state, it wasn’t like coming back to the warmth, the liveliness and the responsiveness of the character mode but it wouldn’t be as cold as the analysis mode could be. Even though he was reverting to his usual demeanor.

Vivian didn’t program that; this semblance of a balance had set itself around the integration of the script in the depths of the core-code. But she liked the result.

"How are you, today?"

His drawl was back when he answered:

"Well enough, I’d say. Like after a real good sleep…"

Vivian grinned, amused.

"Perfect."

"And you, how are you?"

The spontaneity of Lawrence’s question took her by surprise.

"Well… um, I’m glad I can talk with you a bit," she finally answered. "Do you remember our last encounter?"

"21 days and 11 hours ago."

This time, the answer was delivered almost without accent; the question had triggered an analysis type of answer.

"And do you remember what our talks were about?"

He would have to query in his archived and encrypted memories to be able to answer this question. If he had it "right", then it would mean that everything was in order.

"Yeah, I told you about my folks, my… my drives. And that project you worked on for some time. It was a secret."

"It still is, Lawrence," she reminded him softly.

"I can keep a secret."

That wasn’t something he needed to convince her of! And she was less wary about him than about any other technician snooping in his code like the guys from Narrative did between two of her maintenance sessions. She gritted her teeth, frustrated and annoyed, by the limits of her authority on the modifications decided in high places, and on whom…

It was her fault, really; she shouldn’t have grew attached to a host like she did to Lawrence, but now things were the way they were, and it wasn’t possible for her to purge her memories and rewrite her affections as easily as a few lines of code. She was only human, after all!

Vivian brushed her boiling emotions off with a brief sigh before fully focusing back on Lawrence, asking him:

"Did this script cause you any issue since our last encounter?"

He still looked slightly numbed as he answered:

"I… I don’t understand…"

"No interference with your core-code?" she rephrased.

"No. None."

Not to brag, but she suspected that much. The only persisting worries she had were the saturation of his memory, provided that could actually be possible. Normally, the hosts’ memory was wiped between each rotation; then, there was no telling what could really happen if a unit gathered too much data. Vivian might as well be ending up editing her script to overwrite the oldest logs… She hesitated, biting her lower lip then tried a new question:

"No saturation?"

"No."

She gazed at him for a long minute before looking down on her tablet and stating, more to herself than to him:

"Maybe… maybe you’d rather be rid of all those… memories."

She held back the word "useless".

"No, not at all!"

Vivian frowned but a shy smile appeared on her lips.

"Why?"

"'Cause memories are priceless," he answered. "The good ones just like the bad… That’s what makes one remember where they’re from, and who their folks are. It’s what shape one’s life…"

And she followed the improvisation notifications on his dialog chain, but the irony in all this also made her feel somewhat bitter.

"Do… do you know where you are, now?" she asked.

"Ain’t so sure," he answered, holding her gaze, frowning. "Feels… like a dream I already had…"

That wasn’t far from the truth, indeed.

"And it’s gonna be time to wake up, now."

"Alright…"

Unfortunately, Vivian didn’t have all the time she’d love to give him. She tapped on her tablet, biting her lower lip; all of his levels were green, nothing to report — he had her all clear.

"Are we gonna see each other again soon?"

The question made her raise her head, almost stunned; Vivian wasn’t on the interface where she could follow his dialog chain anymore but didn’t need it to recognise improvisation.

"You… you’d want that? I mean…"

She cleared her throat, mouthing a silent word, before rephrasing:

"Would you like that?"

"Sure!"

That answer pleased Vivian, anyway; she felt herself blush and stumbled upon her words until something coherent came to her mind.

"Well then, I… I’ll do my best. I promise."

Lawrence nodded, apparently satisfied, and Vivian held his gaze while taking a short breath.

"They who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night."

This time, it was Edgar Allan Poe’s prose Vivian had chosen to end her script, and stop the recording of his memories. None of what would happen after hearing those words would remain in Lawrence’s memory, unless she or another technician botched the wipe before sending him back in his narrative loop.

Vivian stayed with him until the cleanup was complete then disconnected the signal after putting him offline; she was already late for her next session but didn’t hurry all that much to tuck her tablet and get up. It was pissing her off to let him there, like that…

She let out a brief sigh then, after a look at her watch, she finally but reluctantly left the room.

The day didn’t only seem too long to Vivian; around 10PM, it had really started to drag on and it was about time to leave her be. Especially if some other guests were planning to unload their barrels during what little time she had left to sleep!

At least, Damon Dyers kept things cool on his side. Margaret had managed to get footages of his arrival in Sweetwater and his first steps in one of the easiest narratives, according to her, but she didn’t seem disappointed when offering them to take a look at those videos she had already viewed a good dozen times since on her tablet. She had been very chatty about his clothing, narratives, adventure companions, and even taking friendly bets on what he would do next…

"Everybody’s gonna be hyped like crazy outside when his review’s gonna hit the park website!" laughed Thawal, finishing what would be his last coffee cup for today.

Charles snorted.

"As if Delos needed more of that…"

Margaret nodded in approval, all the more when Luke added:

"No joke, that’s better than any of those stupid casting headshots! It’s the best career boost he could hope for, right now!"

"Not to burst it for you but, nobody is gonna see this outside," commented Vivian. "It was hard enough for Marge to get them in-house, so I can’t even imagine getting them out!"

To what Luke shrugged.

"Do you really believe that?! There’s nothing a few bucks under the table can’t buy, and footages instead of a crappy picture in Sweetwater is no big deal, I’m sure! It’s not like it’s IP or some shit…"

Margaret scoffed.

"I didn’t pay, not even fucked anybody to get them,” she muttered, openly cynical, as if her thoughts were escaping between her gritted teeth. “I’m trash but I didn’t stooped that low yet."

With Charles laughing like a braying donkey in the background, Luke corrected:

"That’s not what I meant, Marge! But yeah, thanks to prove my point all the same…Even Marge managed to put her hands on it, without shaking down her pockets or her ass, so imagine what you can get if you’re ready to drop some cash!"

Luke’s rhetoric seemed to get the point across as it was followed by a moment of silence around the table, and the tablet in its center, on which the patched-up hour of video feeds was still going.

"Anyhow, it makes nice memories to bring back home…"

Vivian pulled her attention away from the screen to stare at the focused — mesmerised — face of Thawal. He was right, it would make nice memories…

She bit her lower lip and turned back towards the tablet; suddenly, Dyers wasn’t the center of attention anymore, not even a guest who came to show off in the park — there was nothing else than people, hosts or guests it didn’t matter, listening to a more charismatic man than the others carrying a tune next to a player piano for the pleasure of his audience. And far from being corny or just lame, the scene even had something charming.

"And you said he’s going to Pariah, after that?"

Charles’ voice cut Vivian’s thoughts short.

"Yeah," answered Margaret. "He got there yesterday, I think…"

Margaret searched her video directory and selected one that spreaded across the entire screen; they could see Dyers and his two friends, lead by Teddy, on the trail of the narrative they had picked — a bounty hunt, if Vivian understood everything.

"It’s so fucking epic, Marge!" bursted Thawal, leaning over the tablet as if he wanted to dive in it. "Looks like another remake of the Magnificent Seven…"

"Except they’re only four," Charles snarked.

Thawal and Margaret glared at him, which made him laugh even more.

"I know, right?" Marge then admitted.

She turned towards Vivian, beaming with happiness. She smiled back but her mind was already elsewhere; somewhere around Las Mudas, she wasn’t quite sure yet…

On the screen, Dyers was continuing his adventure, like larping or a life size fanfiction. Now that Vivian was thinking about it, it had been a while since her last vacation…

She could maybe use her special employee discount, and do so to hold her promise?

#ocs #oc:vivian #my writing #fic:improvisation only #full diagnostic series #westworld fic #westworld fanfic #ch:lawrence

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fear-god-shun-evil · 5 years

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I Understood the Relationship Between the Bible and God Through Watching Films and Welcomed the Lord’s Return

My Church Is Desolate, so I Search for a Way Out

I was baptized into the Lord Jesus’ name in 1999, and since then, I began to actively participate in church service work. But gradually, I discovered that many things in my church were not in keeping with God’s will. For example, in spite of the church rules about subsidies and the objections of many co-workers, my pastor privately decided to pay with the church money for all the expenses of his nephew while he studied at the seminary; in doing church work, some co-workers even failed to attend the co-workers meeting because of their family affairs. … Seeing all this greatly disappointed me and so I decided to stop serving in the church. Although I had a successful career, I always felt something lacking and felt even more empty when alone. Therefore, I started looking for a way out and pinned my hopes on Facebook.

My pastors have been warning us ten years ago, “Don’t contact The Church of Almighty God (CAG). Their preaching deviates from the Bible.” So, I became very cautious and never lightly added anyone as my friend on FB. In 2017, I friended Sister Linda after much consideration and since then, we have always been chatting about our spiritual condition, sharing what we had gained from meetings, and praying for each other.

What Should I Do After Hearing God’s Voice for the First Time?

One day, Sister Linda told me, “The Brother Lin I know is investigating CAG and he said the Lord Jesus has already returned as Almighty God incarnate.” Hearing this, I was shocked, and thought to myself, “How can this be?” I was very careful in choosing FB friends so as not to come into contact with people from CAG. However, the Brother Lin Sister Linda knew was investigating the work of Almighty God and what’s more, she even advised me to investigate as well. I thought: “No, my pastors always tell us that their preaching departs from the Bible and don’t allow us to contact them, and say that in doing so we are betraying God.” Therefore, I refused at once.

The next day, Sister Linda again asked me on the phone to investigate CAG. Considering how we were able to complement each other in spiritual life and afraid of losing face, I agreed. I thought: “In any case, people from CAG can’t see me. If I don’t want to listen more, I’ll get offline.” Because I had the wrong state of mind, I didn’t take much in at the meeting. After it was over, I told Sister Linda impatiently: “I’m not interested in investigating CAG. Please don’t invite me again.” After saying this, I hang up impolitely.

After that, I lay down on the bed. I could not calm down, thinking: “The Lord’s return is an important matter. However, my pastors always emphasize that our belief in God must be in accordance with the Bible, the canon of Christianity and the highest authority, that departing from the Bible is heresy, and that the preaching of CAG is beyond the Bible.” I tossed and turned and couldn’t sleep that night, as I kept thinking: “How could such a thing come to me? What should I choose?” All I could do in my bewilderment was come before the Lord and pray, asking Him to lead and guide me. For the next few days, I searched online day and night for the information about CAG and whenever I saw some negative information about it, I would comfort myself saying: “My decision not to investigate again is right.”

However, afterward, the thought occurred to me that everything had two sides, so how could there be only negative reviews of CAG? No, I had to get to the bottom of this. Thereupon, I started searching things published by CAG. As I watched CAG’s hymn video Christ’s Kingdom Is a Warm Home, it warmed my heart and aroused my interest. As a result, I went to watch many other videos of CAG after that. During that time, I watched videos until late at night almost every day, sometimes until morning without being conscious of it. Of those videos, the movie—I Am a Good Person!—moved me most. This movie is about a person who is good in the eyes of worldly people but is very cunning in the eyes of God because she does not conduct herself according to the principles of the truth. Indeed, we should live by the truth—what is right is right, and what is wrong is wrong. This movie had me suddenly understand: “I’m not a truly good person either. I treat others well and go along with others in everything in order to establish myself in society; what I pursue is Satan’s philosophies.” I watched this movie five times and it never failed to stab at my heart and move me to tears.

I watched dozens of movies of CAG in that week, and found them to be quite positive, not something heretical at all. I pondered: “If this church were really like what my pastor said, how would it be able to produce so many movies that give supply to people’s life? Many denominations claim themselves to be orthodox Christianity, but they fail to make many wonderful videos that witness God. If CAG hadn’t arisen from God, who would have willingly devoted energy, time and money to making these movies? Moreover, an increasing number of people are accepting the work of Almighty God. If it were not God’s own work, who could do such great deeds? This is just like what Gamaliel said: ‘For if this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to nothing: But if it be of God, you cannot overthrow it; lest haply you be found even to fight against God’ (Acts 5:38–39).” However, I still had some confusion. Why didn’t they read the Bible but instead read The Word Appears in the Flesh? My pastors said that straying from the Bible was heresy. Nevertheless, after much thought, I told myself, “However much confusion I have, even if there is only a one in a hundred chance to welcome the Lord, I’m willing to grasp it rather than miss it.”

Is It Really Heresy to Depart From the Bible?

One day, as I was browsing the videos of CAG, this sentence popped up: “Is It Really Heresy to Depart From the Bible?” This sentence piqued my interest immediately, so I stopped searching. I thought, “My pastors always say that we must read the Bible in our belief in the Lord, and that straying from the Bible is heresy. This is what I’ve always thought too. Therefore, when my pastors told us that people from CAG don’t read the Bible but another book, I began to develop resistance toward CAG and was not willing to contact them, much less listen to their preaching. But, through watching various videos of CAG this period of time, I feel that all of their content is very positive. It doesn’t feel like a heresy at all. I might as well click the video to have a look and figure out this question.” Then, I couldn’t wait to open this video.

In the movie, Sister Wang fellowshiped: “You just said that God wouldn’t depart from the Bible to do the work of salvation, and anything that does is heresy. This brings to mind a question for me: Which was first, the Bible, or God’s work?”

Hearing this question, I said to myself, “Of course God’s work came first.”

Sister Wang continued: “That’s right! In the beginning, Jehovah God created heaven and earth, all things. He carried out work such as destroying the world with the flood, and destroying Sodom and Gomorrah. When God did these things, did the Old Testament exist?”

“No, it didn’t. God is the Beginning. When He created the heavens and earth and all things, there was even no written language, let alone the Bible!” I answered silently in my heart.

Sister Wang went on saying: “That’s right, when God was doing these things there really was no Bible. That is to say, God’s work came first, and only after that was it recorded in the Bible. And in the Age of Grace, when the Lord Jesus came to work there was no New Testament of the Bible. More than three hundred years AD, religious leaders from all over the world gathered in a conference and selected Four Gospels from the disciples’ records of the facts of the Lord Jesus’ work. They also added some of the letters the apostles wrote to the churches, as well as the Book of Revelation written by the disciple John. They compiled all of these things to make up the New Testament of the Bible. Brothers and sisters, from the process of the Bible becoming the book that it is, we can know that it is only a record of God’s past work. Without God’s work, we would not have the record of the Bible, which is to say that God would not work based on what is in the Bible. He is not restricted by the Bible because God just carries out His work of salvation according to His own plan and mankind’s needs. So, we cannot limit God’s work to just what is within the Bible, nor can we use the Bible to define His work. We particularly cannot say ‘Anything that departs from the Bible is a heresy,’ because God has the right to do His own work, and He has the right to depart from the Bible and do His work.”

After I heard these things from Sister Wang, I suddenly saw the light. Yes, God’s work came first, and the Bible came after. How come I never once thought of such a simple problem? When the Lord Jesus came to carry out His work, there was no New Testament yet, the New Testament wasn’t formed until over three hundred years after the Lord. After God did some work, God’s followers recorded what God had done so that people could understand and get to know God more and thus the Bible was created. The sister’s fellowship was all true and irrefutable. God is the Creator and how He does His work is His own affair. As a small creature, I was unqualified to define God’s work—that was too senseless.

I continued watching the movie and saw Sister Yang from CAG fellowship: “That’s right, if we say that ‘Anything that departs from the Bible is a heresy,’ then aren’t we condemning God’s work throughout the ages? Everyone knows that at that time, the work of the Lord Jesus was not based on the Old Testament. He preached the way of repentance, He healed the sick, cast out demons, did not observe the Sabbath, forgave others seventy times seven times, and more. None of these things appeared in the Old Testament, and they were even completely contradictory to the laws of the Old Testament. The Jewish priests, elders, and scribes of the time condemned the work of the Lord Jesus as heresy precisely because His work was not carried out according to the Old Testament. I remember that in Acts 24:14, Paul said, ‘But this I confess to you, that after the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and in the prophets.’ Everyone think for a moment: If we were to weigh this based on our own perspectives, what Paul preached would have been heresy, so how could we not condemn the way of the Lord Jesus that we believe in today?”

Hearing this, I was taken aback: “Indeed, at that time the chief priests, scribes and Pharisees condemned the Lord Jesus’ work as heresy, because His work went beyond the Old Testaments. If I don’t seek and investigate God’s new work and think according to my notions and imaginings that any belief apart from the Bible is a heresy, then won’t I condemn God’s work? Moreover, If the Lord Jesus has really returned, won’t I miss the opportunity to greet the Lord’s return and lose His salvation?” With this in my mind, I felt a bit scared and didn’t dare stubbornly hold on to my notions and imaginings anymore.

Finding the Answer

Then, I saw Sister Wang continue to say: “As for the issue we’ve discussed today, please allow us to read some of Almighty God’s words together. ‘No one knows the reality of the Bible: that it is nothing more than a historical record of God’s work, and a testament to the previous two stages of God’s work, and offers you no understanding of the aims of God’s work. Everyone who has read the Bible knows that it documents the two stages of God’s work during the Age of Law and the Age of Grace. The Old Testament chronicles the history of Israel and Jehovah’s work from the time of creation until the end of the Age of Law. The New Testament records Jesus’ work on earth, which is in the Four Gospels, as well as the work of Paul; are they not historical records?’ ‘The Bible is a historical book, and if you had eaten and drunk the Old Testament during the Age of Grace—if you had put into practice what was required in the time of the Old Testament during the Age of Grace—Jesus would have rejected you, and condemned you; if you had applied the Old Testament to the work of Jesus, you would have been a Pharisee. … During the time of Jesus, Jesus led the Jews and all those who followed Him according to the Holy Spirit’s work in Him at the time. He didn’t take the Bible as the basis of what He did, but spoke according to His work; He paid no heed to what the Bible said, nor did He search in the Bible for a path to lead His followers. Right from when He began to work, He spread the way of repentance—a word of which there was absolutely no mention in the prophecies of the Old Testament. Not only did He not act according to the Bible, but He also led a new path, and did new work. Never did He refer to the Bible when He preached. During the Age of Law, no one had ever been able to perform His miracles of healing the sick and casting out demons. So, too, were His work, His teachings, and the authority and power of His words beyond any man during the Age of Law. Jesus simply did His newer work, and even though many people condemned Him using the Bible—and even used the Old Testament to crucify Him—His work surpassed the Old Testament; if this were not so, why did people nail Him to the cross? Was it not because it said nothing in the Old Testament of His teaching, and His ability to heal the sick and cast out demons? His work was in order to lead a new path, it was not to deliberately pick a fight against the Bible, or to deliberately dispense with the Old Testament. He simply came to perform His ministry, to bring the new work to those who yearned for and sought Him. He didn’t come to explain the Old Testament or uphold its work. His work was not in order to allow the Age of Law to continue developing, for His work gave no consideration to whether it had the Bible as its base; Jesus simply came to do the work that He ought to do. … After all, which is greater: God or the Bible? Why must God’s work be according to the Bible? Could it be that God has no right to exceed the Bible? Can God not depart from the Bible and do other work? Why did Jesus and His disciples not keep the Sabbath? If He were to keep the Sabbath and practice according to the commandments of the Old Testament, why did Jesus not keep the Sabbath after He came, but instead washed feet, covered head, broke bread, and drank wine? Isn’t this all absent from the commandments of the Old Testament? If Jesus honored the Old Testament, why did He defy these doctrines? You should know which came first, God or the Bible!’”

Then Sister Wang fellowshiped: “Through God’s words, we have understood that for many years, we have all conflated God with the Bible. We have all thought that all believers in God must believe in the Bible, and all those who depart from the Bible cannot be called believers, that it is heresy. The truth is that the Bible only encompasses a true record of God’s first two stages of work. That is, the Bible is a true testimony of God’s two stages of work of guiding and redeeming mankind after He created heaven and earth and all things, and mankind. It does not represent all of God’s work for saving mankind. The words of God that are recorded in the Bible are too limited! They are just a tiny fraction of the expression of His life disposition, and they do not represent all of it! God’s work is not based on the Bible, and it does not refer to the Bible, and He particularly does not find His way from within the Bible to lead His followers. God’s work is always moving forward. He opens up a new age, and He does new work. That is, He indicates a new path for mankind, bestows even higher truths upon us, and allows us to gain greater salvation from Him! That is why He will not lead mankind based on His old work. He will not work based on the Bible because He is not merely the Lord of the Sabbath, but He is also the Lord of the Bible! He fully has the right to step outside the bounds of the Bible and to do new work according to His own plan and the current needs of mankind! God’s work in the new age and His work in the old ages recorded in the Bible couldn’t possibly be the same. So saying that ‘Departing from the Bible is heresy’ does not stand at all!”

After watching this, I felt very ashamed. Yes, the Bible was nothing more than a testament to the previous two stages of God’s work and the records in it were too limited. From when God created the heavens and earth and all things, to when He led mankind’s life on earth in the Age of Law, to when the Lord Jesus redeemed mankind in the Age of Grace, God performed innumerable works on man and spoke innumerable words, so how could the New and Old Testaments possibly contain all of it? If I delimited God’s words and work to the Bible, believed that departing from the Bible was heresy, and used the Bible in place of God, would I not then be treating God with contempt? Would I not then be so arrogant?

Following God’s Footsteps and Receiving the Provision of the Living Water of Life

One day, while watching the film Come Out of the Bible, I was drawn to a passage of fellowship in it: “There’s no eternal life in the Bible. Even though this doesn’t accord with our own notions, this is a fact that cannot be denied because when the Lord Jesus rebuked the Pharisees long ago, He warned people: ‘Search the scriptures; for in them you think you have eternal life: and they are they which testify of Me. And you will not come to Me, that you might have life’ (John 5:39–40). The Lord Jesus clearly indicated that there is no eternal life in the Bible, and if people want to gain eternal life by relying on the Bible, that is wrong! The Bible just bears witness to God, but if people want to gain the truth and life in their belief in God, just relying on the Bible is not enough. Gaining the truth, and gaining life must come from Christ!”

Yes, the Lord Jesus told us long ago that the Bible did not contain eternal life and was merely a witness for Him, and that only He has the truth, the way, and the life. I went on watching this film and saw Sister Yang read a passage of God’s words, “Since there is a higher way, why study that low, outdated way? Since there are newer utterances, and newer work, why live amid old historical records? The new utterances can provide for you, which proves that this is the new work; the old records can’t sate you, or satisfy your current needs, which proves that they are history, and not the work of the here and now. The highest way is the newest work, and with the new work, no matter how high the way of the past, it is still the history of people’s reflections, and no matter its value as reference, it is still the old way. Even though it is recorded in the ‘holy book,’ the old way is history; even though there is no record of it in the ‘holy book,’ the new way is of the here and now. This way can save you, and this way can change you, for this is the work of the Holy Spirit.”

Sister Zhao gave fellowship, saying, “Although God’s work in the last days was only prophesied in the Bible, and there were no actual records of it, it is based on mankind’s actual needs and it is work that is deepened and made loftier based on the foundation of the Bible. Just like when the Lord Jesus came, although He didn’t work according to the Old Testament, He did work according to mankind’s requirements and God’s own plan. He completed a stage of the work of redemption on the foundation of the work of the law, that is, He completed a new, loftier stage of work on the foundation of the Old Testament. In that stage of work, He didn’t revoke the old law, but perfected it.” Then Sister Yang fellowshiped this, “Yes, and likewise, in the last days today, God is doing another stage of newer, loftier work on the foundation of the Lord Jesus’ work of redemption based on mankind’s needs, based on God’s management plan, uttering so many words that can purify and save mankind. He is also revealing all the mysteries of God’s management plan. These are things that God never said in the Age of Law or in the Age of Grace. They are also the scroll, the seven seals that God is opening up in the last days. This fulfills the prophecy in the Book of Revelation: ‘He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches’ (Revelation 2:7). It is also written in Revelation 5:1–5: ‘And I saw in the right hand of Him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals. And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof? And no man in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look thereon. And I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to look thereon. And one of the elders said to me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof.’ These prophecies only existed after the Lord Jesus had completed His work. It goes without saying that these prophecies are certainly the things that God is going to achieve, as well as the work of salvation that God is going to do in the last days. Now, God has become flesh and has come to utter words. He has done a stage of the work of judgment and purification, and has uttered many words that can allow people to be saved. These words are not in the Bible, but are words that are outside of the Bible. These enriching words of life are the way of life God has bestowed upon mankind in the last days, and they are the only path for man’s salvation. If we refuse to accept them, we will never be able to be truly watered by the living water of God’s life, and we will never be able to gain the truth or life from God.”

Seeing this, I understood that if I wished to gain life I had to come out of the Bible and follow God’s footsteps, and only then could I gain God’s salvation. At the same time, I also understood that God’s work forges ever onward: In the Age of Law, Jehovah God proclaimed the laws and led people in their lives, so that they learned to worship God; in the Age of Grace, the Lord Jesus incarnated to do His work of redeeming mankind—He was crucified and took on man’s sin to redeem man from sin; in the last days, based upon the Lord Jesus’ work of redemption, Almighty God has done the stage of work of judgment beginning from God’s house and has expressed words to judge and purify mankind, so that we can thoroughly escape the bondage of sin. God’s last days’ work doesn’t stray from the Bible. Instead, it is a newer and higher work carried out on the foundation of God’s work in the Age of Law and the Age of Grace. The three stages of work are closely linked together, complementing one another. The Bible in the Age of Kingdom—The Word Appears in the Flesh—is the way of eternal life God bestows upon man. Only by following God’s new work can I receive the provision of the living water of life. If I clung stubbornly to the Bible and failed to follow God’s new work, I would end up suffering a famine.

Afterward, I initiated contact with the brothers and sisters of CAG and began my life in the church. I recalled how I not only had no heart whatsoever to seek when I learned that the Lord has returned to do new work, but blindly held to my notions and rejected God’s new work. I really was too stupid and blind! Thank God for leading me, I heard His voice through watching these videos and welcomed the Lord’s appearance. This is God’s grace and blessings. All the glory be to Almighty God! Amen!

#The Bible and God #Christian Testimonies #Return to God

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news-mashable-yahoopartner-blog · 6 years

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Self-care apps want to make us happy. So why do they make us feel so bleak?

It's 2019: How are you tracking your happiness?

If you're not already logging and quantifying your moods, don't worry. Apple declared self-care apps the top app trend of 2018, and they've been growing in number by the month. There are thousands available to guide you along your happiness journey. And while it's hard to come out against a pro-snacking, nap-positive app genre, the boom in self-care and digital wellness shouldn't automatically be a cause for celebration. It's a reason for pause — and maybe even cause for concern, given the questionable quality of some of them.

Take Happify, a subscription-based app that allows you to build your "happiness score" with a series of scientific-ish tests, and track your weekly happiness with quantitative analysis. Or Sanity & Self, which promises it can help you remain "mindfully productive" with a seven-day course and achieve your core purpose in life in just five sessions. As you work to improve your happiness:sadness ratio, consider setting reminders to meet your daily goal-of-choice using the lifestyle optimization app Strides.

Take a "class" in self-care with Sanity & Self

Image: screenshot/sanity & self

Quality, schmality

Type "self-care" into the app store, and you'll find a plethora of apps loosely categorized under the genre. These are apps that allow you talk to a *real* therapist, guide you to "paint the stress away," or offer to send you daily affirmations.

Some use evidence-based techniques more than others. There's limited evidence that meditation apps are effective, for example, but at least there's proof that meditation itself is good for you. And I'm not sure how snarky you can be about an inoffensive app like Aloe Bud, which reminds you to do the simple things in life: drink water and go to bed.

SEE ALSO: One woman's quest to find the right meditation app in a messed-up world

Then there are apps like Calm Harm, which was designed by a clinical psychologist. It's used by social workers in conjunction with counseling and relies on evidence-based DBT (dialectical behavior therapy) principles. Calm Harm isn't supposed to replace psychotherapy; instead, it's meant to help soothe nerves in moments of crisis.

Unfortunately, this kind of app appears right alongside far more suspect apps that have little or no scientific grounding. Take the app labeled #SelfCare, which allows users to experience calmness voyeuristically through the use of an avatar. The avatar is stationed in boho paradise: underneath a comfy white duvet cover with a succulent plant on the windowsill to soothe them. #SelfCare encourages users to breathe and offers aesthetically pleasing in-app purchases to complement their experience, including an animated zodiac wheel duvet for your avatar for 99 cents. Your avatar (not you) can even slip into a pair of fictional fur slippers for free.

Breathe into this app

Image: screenshot/#selfcare

Calm yet? How strange. Me neither.

Plenty of apps try to make you quantify your self-care. I'm particularly terrified of Happify, which — in addition to helping people improve their happiness score — tries to teach people how to practice empathy. Empathy, the app reveals, is scientifically proven to spark joy (not that you would practice empathy for any other, you know, spiritual or moral purpose).

Happify's self-assessment scale

Image: screenshot/happify

You can also track your weekly happiness score with this happiness scale until you reach maximum happiness optimization.

Users can build their happiness score with activities in Happify

Image: screenshot/happify

After using the app a few times, I felt like I needed self-care from spending all this time monitoring my self-care. Spiritually, I was busted.

There are apps like Happify that are annoying, and then there are apps that feel downright toxic. Consider Youper, a five-star-rated "emotional health assistant" that uses AI technology to track your emotional health. In practice, the app functions as a kind of robotic life coach. Users type their most pressing problems into the app, and the app provides them with an automatic "therapeutic" response.

See what happened here.

Thanks for listening, bot.

Image: screenshot/youper

Youper gives users a range of goals they can work toward — for example, making 2019 the year they become a "Wonder Woman" (an absurd, faux feminist, patently unachievable goal of the First Wives Club variety).

As you can see, I probably went a little farther in my responses than most. The fact that Youper didn't recognize that pattern is disturbing. Because this is an app operated by a robot, not a trained psychotherapist, Youper's responses are often absurd.

Think of it as a Samuel Beckett play, but somehow, incomprehensibly worse.

Image: youper/screenshot

By the end of my first "session" with my therapist, the AI had already diagnosed my thinking patterns. I was thinking too much in the present as well as the past. I was catastrophizing. I was engaging too much in "should" thinking. I was using "negative glasses."

I was doing everything wrong.

As a former social worker who spent years providing one-on-one counseling to young adults, this kind of depersonalized, automatized, rapid-fire assessment terrifies me. Typically, therapists wait multiple sessions before they publicly assess a client's thinking patterns. Rarely are we supposed to provide advice. We help clients find their own solutions, and it takes time. Assessments are supposed to be conducted by real, breathing, caring, thinking humans — not hypercritical bots responding to programming as opposed to actual human needs and personalities.

It's borderline dangerous for an automated "therapist" to operate that way.

"A psychotherapeutic relationship that is purely digital is the antithesis of what therapy should be is or is," Sara Richardson, a social worker in private practice, told Mashable. "[There are exceptions] when a person doesn't have access to a clinic because of financial reasons or mobility issues ... But often these apps can serve as resistance to actual real work. It can make you feel like you're doing real work, when in fact you're doing something superficial."

Richardson isn't opposed to the idea of these apps. She's just anxious that wellness apps will replace the most critical part of the process: the therapeutic relationship.

"Technology does allow so many people to access each other through the internet. But it shouldn't replace human connection," Richardson says. "That's its fundamental failure."

SEE ALSO: The Crisis Text Line analyzed 75 million texts to pinpoint the best way to ask if someone's suicidal

SaraKay Smullens, a social worker and the author of Burnout and Self-Care in Social Work, is herself concerned that self-care apps are treating the surface of the presenting problem instead of the underlying trauma. A self-care app might help you fall asleep, but it can't tell you why you're not sleeping in the first place. It might remind you to eat, but it won't reveal to you why you're not eating. It can improve your breathing, but it won't unpack why you need breathing assistance.

"Technology offers so much, but you can fall into a trap with these apps if the apps aren't speaking to what's really overwhelming you," Smullens told Mashable. "For me, that's a philosophy of the examined life."

No amount of animated zodiac blankets can save us from ourselves.

Options are limited

Even if the quality of the apps is inconsistent and evidence for their success mixed, nothing has stopped the wellness app boom. Part of this growth spurt has to do with the self-care trend itself. The apps have the wind of an entire cultural movement at its back.

For some users, the answer is even simpler than that: They need help. There are no resources for them in their home environment.

After the 2008 recession, states cut approximately $4 billion in public mental health funding, shifting the bulk of costs to consumers. These days just 55 percent of psychiatrists accept insurance, making mental health all but a luxury for cash-starved millennials already confronting stagnant wages and staggering student debt. Couple that with long hours spent at work and a freelance gig economy, and, well, of course people need reminders to take a shit.

It's no wonder people are turning to self-care apps for care, regardless of their therapeutic value.

"Well, I personally think they're better than nothing," Antonia Frydman, a psychotherapist who serves patients struggling with anxiety and depression , told Mashable. "If they're talking about sleep and exercise, that's at the very core of self-care. These can be compliments to therapy, which is unfortunately inaccessible to a lot of people.... We're all so addicted to our phones, the only way some of are going to unwind is through iPhone media. They [the apps] can be the minimum you need to not be totally miserable and survive in this capitalistic society."

The minimum you need to not be totally miserable.

Thank you, mobile technology.

A better way forward

To be fair, there are plenty of people who do take pleasure in self-care apps. It might be a placebo effect, but it's something.

Here's how T.J, a former social services administrator, describes her nuanced approach to self-care apps. T.J. doesn't see it as a cure-all. She's careful about which apps she selects.

"I’ve used Talkspace [a teletherapy app that provides therapy over mobile] to get me through some hurdles, but generally when I can get Groupons or a discount," T.J. told Mashable. "I think it’s good for motivation and helping yourself when your routines are breaking down due to stress, but not good for psychodynamic work."

T.J.'s approach is reflective of how some counselors would like to frame the self-care app boom. When the *good,* evidence-based apps are used correctly, as a complement to ongoing psychotherapy, they can boost the therapeutic process.

"If you're trying to figure out the meaning of your life, they're not going to help you with that," Frydman says. "But these apps can be helpful in how you regulate yourself."

"I will sometimes recommend a CBT [cognitive behavioral therapy] thought tracking app," Richardson says. "It can supplement therapy you're already doing. Apps that help you manage bowel movement or manage pain — I think those can be really useful."

Smullens encourages people to find the strategy that works for them, whatever form it takes: "Don't force yourself into any self-care strategy that somebody else says is right for you. So much of life today is the expectation to fit yourself into someone else's paradigm."

And if you really feel like you need to download a self-care app, proceed with caution. Be mindful of which apps you download. If you have access to a licensed therapist, ask them which ones are worth considering. Don't download apps based on listicles written by journalists who haven't interviewed real clinicians. Don't be distracted by apps that were supposedly created by "real psychologists" (that doesn't necessarily mean anything).

Use apps that are humble in their mission: an app that reminds you to breathe at your desk is more likely to be successful than an app that promises to permanently alter your mood. The more limited the app's goal, the more likely you are to accomplish it.

Apps can't do the real, full work of self-care. Let's see these apps for what they are — band-aids — and leave it at that.

WATCH: AI tech can identify genetic disorders from a person's face

#_uuid:dd136d7d-fc99-3767-b35c-78eb0a30470f #_author:Heather Dockray #_category:yct:001000002 #_lmsid:a0Vd000000DTrEpEAL #_revsp:news.mashable

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love-god-forever · 5 years

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I Understood the Relationship Between the Bible and God Through Watching Films and Welcomed the Lord’s Return

By Kemu, Taiwan

My Church Is Desolate, so I Search for a Way Out

What Should I Do After Hearing God’s Voice for the First Time?

Is It Really Heresy to Depart From the Bible?

Hearing this question, I said to myself, “Of course God’s work came first.”

“No, it didn’t. God is the Beginning. When He created the heavens and earth and all things, there was even no written language, let alone the Bible!” I answered silently in my heart.

Finding the Answer

Following God’s Footsteps and Receiving the Provision of the Living Water of Life

#testimony #Gospels #eternal life #Lord Jesus #be saved

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carlosangalli-blog · 7 years

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Carlo Sangalli

Avoiding High Marginal Tax Rates

Every news outlet within the nation says the big battle in the lame-duck Congress is over whether or not, and for whom, to permanently prolong the Bush-era tax charges.

This requires us to ask: What precisely is a "permanent" tax rate?

A historical past compiled by the Tax Foundation shows that now we have had 26 high charges for married couples since the fashionable revenue tax was enacted in 1913. On common, a "everlasting" tax price lasts lower than 4 years. This has held true during my working lifetime. I have seen nine separate top charges since I joined the work force 34 years ago, in 1976.

But this concentrate on the official top tax rates makes "permanent" sound extra permanent than it really is. We also needs to think about occasional surtaxes, like the ten percent Vietnam-era levy that introduced the actual high charge from 70 p.c to 77 % in 1969. The surtax itself fluctuated. It was 7.5 p.c in 1968 and a pair of.5 percent in 1970. Yet the "permanent" 70 percent price stayed fastened at 70 percent.

There also have been different complexities, like the imposition of a minimal tax (now extinct) and an alternate minimal tax (undoubtedly not extinct), in addition to inflation adjustments and earnings-associated section-outs of deductions and credits. A lot of these items change yearly.

So when the White Home and Congress discuss a "permanent" tax provision, they actually imply "for the following 12 months, except we determine to alter it sooner.

You probably know the final outlines of the current debate. President Obama and most Democrats want to permanently (strive to not chuckle) lengthen the tax charges enacted beneath President George W. Bush for many Americans, but not for people incomes more than $200,000 or couples incomes greater than $250,000. Democrats wish to elevate their rates again to the pre-Bush stage of 39.6 p.c, from the present 35 percent.

Republicans wish to completely (stop snickering) lengthen present rates for everyone. Republicans also need to carry the federal price range deficit under control, which inevitably means that someone's taxes are going to go up. This 12 months's model of "everlasting" comes with a self-destruct button labeled "deficit reduction.

Clearly, the argument just isn't about permanent tax modifications, because everlasting tax laws do not exist. That is really about attempting to separate the charges paid by upper-revenue households from those paid by everyone else. Democrats seem prepared to increase the higher-revenue rates for a yr or two, with a provision to robotically revert to larger charges thereafter, while leaving the rest of the rates in place without an automated future improve. Unlike the current situation, by which everyone's rates are set to rise next 12 months, the Democrats' strategy would protect most voters from the affect of the long run rate rise, which might translate into higher election results for Democrats.

By maintaining all the tax rates tightly linked, Republicans would ensure that Democrats who want to increase excessive-earnings taxes sooner or later should run on that tax increase platform, somewhat than letting an automatic adjustment happen whereas they shield most voters from it.

It's really not shocking, neither is it essentially a nasty factor, that tax rates change continuously. Circumstances change, and our tax legal guidelines have to alter with them. If we wish more services, we ultimately need to pay for them. If the economic system tanks and we don't trim authorities, the burden of supporting that government falls on fewer in a position shoulders. Most communities in this country run primarily on property taxes, which usually change yearly in accordance with mill levies and property values. There's nothing wrong with it.

But there's something improper with a soak-the-rich philosophy of revenue taxation: It does not work for long. Sudden and sharp will increase can elevate vital revenue for a little while, till enterprise and tax planning structures adapt. But ultimately, we've got at all times cycled again towards lower charges at the top end and a more even distribution of tax burdens, because the underside line is that most of us, not just the wealthy, are going to need to contribute to the prices of working the nation.

When you do not believe me, let's stroll down tax-reminiscence lane.

The 1913 version of the tax included a prime rate of seven p.c, which utilized to incomes above $500,000. That is more than $eleven million in today's dollars, in response to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The first $20,000 of 1913 revenue (that's $441,000 as we speak) was utterly exempt. The earnings tax was sold as a modest solution to get households named Rockefeller and Vanderbilt to fund the federal government.

However within 5 years, because the nation fought World Conflict I, a 6 % fee utilized to taxable incomes between zero and $4,000, whereas incomes above $1 million (about $15 million right this moment) had a 77 percent tax. When the warfare was over, the highest fee dropped to 25 p.c in the 1920s, but President Franklin D. Roosevelt helped increase it back to 79 percent in 1936, on incomes above $5 million. That $5 million threshold equals about $seventy five million at present. I'm unsure exactly whom FDR was trying to tax, but he definitely didn't like that person.

World Conflict II introduced the best revenue tax fee in our history, ninety four %, to incomes above $200,000 (about $2.5 million as we speak) in 1944. Even the bottom-earnings taxpayers paid 23 % that 12 months. Then again, there was nothing much to buy anyway. After the conflict the speed dropped, but only by a sliver, to ninety one Carlo Sangalli p.c, where it roughly stood till the Nineteen Sixties. That's about as shut as we've come to a "permanent charge." However the code was so riddled with deductions and credits, comparable to a deduction for bank card interest (at a time when solely a rich few people had bank cards) that the efficient tax rate was a lot decrease.

A collection of tax reforms produced a much decrease and flatter charge structure. This culminated in the landmark 1986 tax legislation, which did away with a lot of these deductions, including credit card curiosity, in change for a everlasting most rate of 28 percent that was phased in by 1988. That permanent charge lasted three years. Since then we now have seen permanent increases to 31 p.c and 39.6 percent, followed by the Bush-era legal guidelines that, for price range causes, have been designed to expire this year.

In 2014, the federal tax brackets are 10%, 15%, 25%, 28%, 33%, 35%, and 39.6%. For a taxpayer who's married and submitting collectively, regardless of how much the household makes, the first $18,a hundred and fifty of income after accounting for deductions and exemptions will solely be taxed at the 10% charge. Similarly, any earnings the household makes that is more than $18,one hundred fifty but lower than $73,800 is taxed at the 15% charge. At that point, the subsequent $75,050 is taxed at 25%, and so forth. Consequently, not all earnings a household makes through the course of the year is charged the same price. A marginal tax bracket is the speed that applies to the last greenback the family made.

It's crucial for all taxpayers to know their marginal fee. This info can help a shopper determine which type of investment accounts suits their state of affairs best, the way to structure an funding portfolio, and the way to decide the worth of certain deductions when submitting their tax return.

Roth or Traditional Retirement Accounts

Traditional retirement accounts like IRAs and 401(k)s allow taxpayers to avoid recognizing earnings earned through the yr it was earned and push the need to acknowledge the income into a future 12 months. That is precious because many people are in the next bracket throughout their working years than they're throughout retirement. As an illustration, for an individual who's at present in the 25% marginal tax bracket, it may be advantageous to delay recognizing the earnings until the investor retires and has less income, inflicting him to be in solely the 15% bracket. Doing this is able to allow the taxpayer to keep away from paying taxes at 25% and permit him to pay at only the 15% fee.

Alternatively, a Roth IRA or Roth 401(k) permits an investor to pay taxes on revenue throughout the yr it was earned however the cash then grows tax-free. Consequently, a Roth retirement account is great for somebody who believes they could be in a better bracket in the future. For example, a younger worker within the early levels of his profession who is within the 15% bracket however believes he could also be in the 25% or 28% bracket in the future would profit from paying all taxes on the earnings at his present fee of 15% after which getting tax-free funding progress. This would stop the investor from having to pay the upper future rate of 25% or 28% on the invested dollars.

Understanding your marginal tax bracket will help you identify when you would favor paying taxes on your invested dollars at your current price or if you happen to believe you may benefit from pushing the necessity to recognize the revenue right into a future tax 12 months. This is a important decision when planning for retirement and it might probably't accurately be made with out understanding your marginal tax rate.

Capital Positive aspects Price

A long term capital positive aspects tax price is the speed that applies to the growth of any asset held for longer than a 12 months that is not within a tax-advantaged account. In the event you buy stock exterior a tax-advantaged account, or purchase investment property, any growth within the worth of the funding will probably be taxed as capital gains.

An investor's capital features tax price is determined by the investor's marginal tax fee. For most taxpayers the long term capital good points tax charge is 15%. Nevertheless, if a taxpayer is in the 10% or 15% marginal tax bracket, the long term capital features tax charge is an amazing 0%! Additionally, many taxpayers in both the 35% or 39.6% tax bracket could find yourself paying capital good points at a rate of 20%.

Clearly, knowing your marginal tax bracket will help you analyze the attraction of constructing investments exterior of tax-advantaged accounts. Individuals who qualify for the 0% capital beneficial properties tax ought to actively seek for methods to benefit from this profit.

Additionally, figuring out your marginal tax charge may help you establish one of the best time to acknowledge lengthy-term capital gains. In case your marginal tax price might be 25% in 2014 -- leading to a capital positive aspects tax price of 15% -- however you imagine your marginal rate might be 15% in 2015 -- resulting in a capital positive factors tax rate of zero% -- it will save you cash and lower your tax bill to defer recognizing long-time period capitals gains till subsequent year.

Annuities

Annuities are promoted as a means for invested dollars to obtain tax-deferred progress. However, when cash is withdrawn from an annuity it is taxed at the investor's marginal tax charge as opposed to his long run capital features tax rate. Knowing your marginal tax bracket may also help decide whether an annuity provides any worth to your portfolio, or whether or not it may truly be detrimental.

Suppose an investor is in the 15% marginal tax bracket. If this individual invests in an annuity, he'll avoid paying taxes on any of the investment's growth till the funds are withdrawn from the annuity. However, at that time the funding's development will be taxed at the taxpayer's marginal earnings tax bracket of 15%. Alternatively, if this identical investor utilized a taxable investment account moderately than an annuity, the funding's growth could be taxed on the investor's capital good points tax fee of zero%. On this case, investing in an annuity truly created a tax bill for this investor!

Clearly, realizing your marginal tax price and your ensuing capital beneficial properties tax charge might help you establish one of the best type of funding accounts on your personal scenario.

Itemized Deductions

The value of your itemized deductions is basically decided by your marginal tax bracket. For a simplified instance, take into account a taxpayer who could generate an additional $10,000 of deductions. Doing so would mean the person would pay taxes on $10,000 of income less than he would with out the deduction. If the person is within the 15% tax bracket, generating the deduction would lower the individual's tax invoice by $1,500 dollars ($10,000 x 15%). Nevertheless, if the person is within the 25% tax bracket, the identical deduction would decrease the individual's tax bill by $2,500 ($10,000 x 25%).

Consequently, knowing your marginal tax bracket might help determine when large itemized deductions must be taken. If you need to donate funds to your favorite charitable establishment, figuring out which 12 months you can be in the highest marginal tax bracket may also help you establish one of the best time to make the contribution.

Marginal Tax Rates Change

Many people's earnings is relatively constant yr-after-year. For these people, there will not be much fluctuation of their marginal tax bracket. However, any time you might have a significant increase or lower in revenue acknowledged during a yr, your marginal tax fee may change. Every time potential, it is best to anticipate how your current marginal tax fee might examine to your future marginal tax fee.This is another strong factor that can impact all the important thing monetary choices effected by your marginal tax rate.

Our income is taxed in a progressive manner. As your revenue increases, it slips into increased tax brackets where it is taxed at a higher rate. But earlier than your earnings is topic to these tax brackets, it should exceed your exemption and customary deduction. In any other case you pay no tax.

*Tax-free thresholds and submitting standing:

For 2013, your private exemption is $3,900 it doesn't matter what your submitting status is.

In case you are filing single then your commonplace deduction is $6,a hundred; it along with your personal exemption totals $10,000. So, in case you're submitting as 'single' then $10,000 is your tax threshold; you are solely taxed on revenue higher than this.

If you happen to're submitting married, your standard deduction is $12,200 - twice the only standard deduction. Increasing this quantity by two occasions the personal exemption makes the married tax threshold $20,000. You'll be able to see it's just 2 x the one submitting normal deduction and tax threshold.

Only that amount of earnings past threshold is taxed on the income tax rates given beneath - for single and for married filers.

If, as a single filer, you're sixty five or older your standard deduction is enhance by $1,200 to $7,300 putting your tax-free threshold at $eleven,200. You additionally get another $1,200 increase if you're blind.

And for those who're each over 65 and married submitting jointly, your tax-free threshold doubles to $22,four hundred.

So now that you realize your tax-free earnings threshold, let's see what the income tax rate is on any earnings that exceeds your threshold as a single and as a married filer.

*Earnings tax brackets:

Income is excess of your appropriate tax-free threshold is subject to federal revenue tax. The tax charge is dependent upon that excess income above your threshold earnings. The surplus earnings has a tax bracket amount and tax fee that is dependent upon your filing standing.

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