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To: The Theophilus

Whoa, your accusations are way off base, out of context, and out of line. Try not to be so insulting.

The question is, why the surge of storms. The ultimate answer is God.

He is Sovereign, meaning that He is over everything and has control over everything, including storms, tornados, tsunamis, etc.

Why does He cause calamity?

To accomplish His purposes, to turn people from their wicked ways, their idolatries, to Himself; to punish the wicked; to discipline the righteous; to cause the righteous to cling to Him, depend on Him, live for Him (Hebrews 12)—some of the reasons given in the Scriptures.

The righteous can know that God causes ALL things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose (Rom. 8:28). God has promised to never leave or forsake His people (Heb. 13:5-6).

Another reason for calamities in our lives: Sin has consequences—always.

God has a controversy with the nations. And untimately He is going to judge all the ungodly in the nations (a major thread in the whole Bible).

There is coming a day when God will “summon a sword” against all the inhabitants of the earth (Jer. 25:29). The prophet Jeremiah, for one, talks about God’s entering into judgment with all flesh in Jeremiah 25:30-33.

I hope and pray that many will heed the multitude of warnings in the whole Bible of judgment on mankind for their many iniqities and transgressions, their rejection of God and His Provision for salvation from His coming wrath—lest we fall into the category of being stupid and devoid of knowledge (Jeremiah 51:17) and headed for complete destruction.


41 posted on 04/29/2011 9:37:43 AM PDT by TurkeyLurkey
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To: TurkeyLurkey
Whoa, your accusations are way off base, out of context, and out of line. Try not to be so insulting.

Blanket denials don't bury the facts. Calling down death and destruction on people and calling it "chastening" deserves the charges, whether you perceive them as insulting or not. Your post is even internally contradictory so I'm thinking that you are being tossed to and fro with the Apocalyptic meme popular with the American Religion and what the Scriptures actually teach.

To accomplish His purposes, to turn people from their wicked ways, their idolatries, to Himself; to punish the wicked; to discipline the righteous; to cause the righteous to cling to Him, depend on Him, live for Him (Hebrews 12)—some of the reasons given in the Scriptures.

I see that you are Doubling down on heresy. Did you even read Hebrews 12 or just blindly cut & paste without even considering the truths within the passage? Are you saying that reprobates are God's children? If every person, head for head, are all God's children, then what do you make of v8? And what kind of sick person thinks that a father would kill his own son in order to teach that child or a sibling a lesson? Did you know that people died in those storms? Is killing people a form of "chastening"? Do you even know what that word means?

God has a controversy with the nations. And untimately He is going to judge all the ungodly in the nations (a major thread in the whole Bible).

This is partially true. The Gospel came to people of all nations so God isn't judging "nations", God will judge the wicked. People who think that "nations" are to be judged don't have a healthy knowledge of the doctrines of Redemption or of the Gospel.

In terms of who is judged and when See Matthew 13:24-30 (Wheat & Tares). In fact, when the workers said, "Do you want us to go and pull them up?" (regarding the wicked), the master said "let both grow together until the harvest lest while gathering the tares you also uproot the wheat with them". The post I object to, and your continued defense of, claims that the LORD is allowing the wheat and the tares be ripped up together. IOW, the idea conveyed in the post, and the idea you defend rejects the LORD's command.

I hope and pray that many will heed the multitude of warnings in the whole Bible of judgment on mankind for their many iniqities and transgressions

Its obvious you are a stranger to the Gospel if you believe that statement. God doesn't kill people with tornadoes just to get others to repent and believe. Read Luke 13:2-5 regarding the fallen tower in Siloam, our LORD did not use that disaster to say anything like "that's what will happen to you if you don't repent", rather it was the exact opposite in that He challenged the presuppositions that catastrophe is real-time judgment for sins. The bigger the sins, the bigger the disaster. Instead, he said that ALL will perish, and for that reason, not because a tower fell, people should repent.

The Gospel message has never been "repent or I'll wipe you out and send plagues upon you." Because if it was, then salvation would simply be a form of Disaster Insurance - an extremely selfish self-serving motivation. God receives glory when a sinner repents. What you propose is that God shoots someone in the head and then turns to you and say "repent, or I'll shoot you in the head too.". You find glory in that? That's thuggery. Faith comes from regeneration originated by the Paraclete and repentance from a changed heart and the Gospel preached and received. The contrite heart doesn't do so in terror of getting killed by a storm, but in recognition that they are a sinner who has offended God's holiness and is in deep need of salvation and atonement with the Almighty Creator.

I reject your Thug God Theology. Jesus came to save the Elect, not to crush people for kicks or as a warning. If you were a student of the OT, you would see that the Flood, Sodom and Gomorrah, or the various captivities didn't persuade anyone. Sending prophet after prophet didn't win over any souls - instead the prophets were killed and the recipients of all these physical and verbal warnings went ahead with great zeal and crucified their Messiah. It made absolutely no difference to them. So with this bountiful empirical evidence what makes you think that everything is different now and a storm, tsunami, hurricane or earthquake will cause repentance with greater effect than the Gospel preached?

43 posted on 04/29/2011 11:03:51 AM PDT by The Theophilus (Obama's Key to win 2012: Ban Haloperidol)
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