Posted on 10/15/2001 6:54:40 AM PDT by malakhi
| Statesmen may plan and speculate for liberty, but it is religion and morality alone which can establish the principles upon which freedom can securely stand. The only foundation of a free constitution is pure virtue. - John Adams |
But that they NOT dead! They are alive in Christ. Why do you believe they are indifferent to your needs?
Didn't Jesus say that a servant is not above his master, and that it is enough that a servant be like his master? Jesus said "If they have persecuted Me, they will persecute you". I don't believe it is because there is anything lacking in Christ's own suffering, it is because as we identify with Him more and more, the prince of this world will seek to harm us, and to dissuade us from the path. Satan was behind the persecution of Christ, God's "mad dog on a leash", to bring about His purposes. As we become more like Him (Jesus) , we represent the sure defeat of Satan, and for that reason Satan will do to us what he did to Jesus. It is a sign for believers as well. Satan doesn't waste his time with those that are no threat to him. If we are being persecuted, it is because we have done damage to Satan's domain.
I think she had a stroke. At least that's what I heard.
Pray for John Paul II and Mother Angelica
I'd say a resounding YES!! If all we ever heard was the stories of the one perfect man, many would feel like they just couldn't measure up, and would walk away. The others give us a chance to find someone we can identify with, so that we can begin to think "if they could do it, I can too." The stories of others in the Bible are instructive, encouraging, and beneficial to teach doctrine and practical outworking of the Word of God. Those who hold to a "Jesus only" view are practicing false humility, IMHO.
You have been caught in another game of, "Lets spin the cheese." :)
BigMack
1. There are the sufferings of Christ which He endured and in which we cannot share.
He suffered as a man. He endured human suffering. He bore the suffering that is common to humanity when He was born in Bethlehem at His incarnation over nineteen hundred years ago. When He was born, did He cry like other little babies that come into the world? I have wondered about that, and I rather think that He did. He was clad in the garment of that frail flesh that you and I have. He could get hungry. He could become thirsty. He experienced loneliness. He suffered anguish and pain and sorrow. He could go to sleep in the boat because He was weary and tired. Those are human sufferings. We all have those.
Paul wrote, “For every man shall bear his own burden” (Gal. 6:5). There are certain burdens we must each bear alone. We are born alone. So was our Lord. We feel pain alone. There are certain problems in life that each of us must face, and we face them alone. There is a sorrow that comes that no one can share with us. We become sick, and no one can take our place.
Jesus Christ suffered human suffering. That is a suffering which cannot be shared.
The second suffering which He could not share was His suffering as the Son of God. He is God, yet He identified Himself with mankind. No mortal has ever had to endure what He went through. He was made like unto His brethren, and He Himself suffered; but He suffered as the Son of God.
And then He suffered as the sacrifice for the sin of the world. He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, and none of us can enter into that suffering at all. We can appropriate His death for us, we can recognize the fact that He took our place, but we cannot enter into it. He alone went to the cross. He was forsaken of God and forsaken by men. His was not the blood of martyrdom; His was the blood of sacrifice.
BigMack
Sounds to me like you're throwing the baby out with the bathwater. There are abuses and unscriptural happenings in every denomination, and probably every church. Maybe some are just better at hiding it than Charismatics. Charismatics tend to do it more out in the open than some others, but I have seen Baptist churches riddled with jealousy, back-biting, sexual sins, playing politics and manipulating people for money, all done behind the scenes where they think no one will know. I don't say that Baptists as a whole are hypocrites or unscriptural, I say the individuals caught up in those sins have the problem.
Jesus shook up the order of the day with His teachings, and I believe that God does so even now, because He's Sovereign, and will not be put in a box. Fundamentalists tend to have a "box mentality" where God's power and works are concerned. I've been around enough of them for long enough to know that it is a true statement. They don't call them the "Frozen chosen" for nothing!
Despite what you may think, the gifts of the Holy Spirit are operating today, all of them, and God's Spirit is moving in His Body, and doing new things, glorious things, that are setting people free, healing the "unhealable", saving the "unsavable", and He is calling people to a new understanding and vision of the works of God, and of saving the lost. Sorry you don't believe it, but it is happening anyway.
Not really. Your statement assumes that it is just as easy to translate a text as it is to copy it. Even if the Greek manuscript is older, it still had to be translated faithfully and then copied accurately however many times. Even a younger Hebrew manuscript (that had been copied many more times) would still be preferrable since the people making the copies would only have to copy faithfully, not translate - which necessarily involves interpretation.
There is the suffering for righteousness’ sake. In the synagogue in Nazareth, His own hometown, Jesus said, “But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth …” (John 8:40). He suffered for righteousness’ sake, and we are told very definitely that we will do the same: “But and if ye suffer for righteousness’ sake, happy are ye …” (1 Pet. 3:14). Paul wrote to young Timothy: “Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution” (2 Tim. 3:12).
Then there is the suffering in the measure we identify ourselves with Christ for the proclamation of the gospel. John wrote, “… because as he is, so are we in this world” (1 John 4:17). The Lord Jesus made it very clear, “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you” (John 15:18–19). If you are not of the world, the world will hate you.
You remember when the Lord Jesus appeared to Saul on the road to Damascus, He said, “… Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?” (Acts 9:4). That young Pharisee was startled and puzzled. Saul of Tarsus thought that he was persecuting Christians. He was shocked to learn that he was actually persecuting the Lord Jesus Christ.
This is what Peter wrote about our suffering: “Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy” (1 Pet. 4:12–13).
There is one thing for certain: If the gospel is to go forward today, someone must suffer. When a child is born into this world, some woman must travail in pain; and the reason there are not more people being born again is because there are not enough believers who are willing to travail. Suffering is not popular—but that is what Paul is talking about in this verse.
BigMack
BigMack
Jesus was not present in the flesh in Acts 5. Nonetheless, two people committed blasphemy against the Spirit. And they didn't say the work of God was the work of the Devil. They lied to the Spirit of God. And they died by the Spirit of God.
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