Posted on 01/27/2008 7:56:14 PM PST by Manfred the Wonder Dawg
January 25, 2008
ESV Romans 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
In recent days I have spent time in Lima and Sullana Peru and Mexico City and I have discovered that people by nature are the same. Man has a heart that is inclined to selfishness and idolatry. Sin abounds in the remotest parts of the land because the heart is desperately wicked. Thousands bow before statues of Mary and pray to her hoping for answers. I have seen these people stare hopelessly at Mary icons, Jesus icons, and a host of dead saints who will do nothing for them. I have talked with people who pray to the pope and say that they love him. I talked with one lady who said that she knew that Jesus was the Savior, but she loved the pope. Thousands bow before Santa Muerte (holy death angel) in hopes that she will do whatever they ask her. I have seen people bring money, burning cigarettes, beer, whiskey, chocolate, plants, and flowers to Santa Muerte in hopes of her answers. I have seen these people bowing on their knees on the concrete in the middle of public places to worship their idol. Millions of people come into the Basilica in Mexico City and pay their money, confess their sins, and stare hopelessly at relics in hope that their sins will be pardoned. In America countless thousands are chained to baseball games, football games, material possessions, and whatever else their heart of idols can produce to worship.
My heart has broken in these last weeks because the God of heaven is not honored as he ought to be honored. People worship the things that are created rather than worshiping the Creator. God has been gracious to all mankind and yet mankind has hardened their hearts against a loving God. God brings the rain on the just and unjust. God brings the beautiful sunrises and sunsets upon the just and unjust. God gives good gifts unto all and above all things he has given his Son that those who would believe in him would be saved. However, man has taken the good things of God and perverted them unto idols and turned their attention away from God. I get a feel for Jesus as he overlooked Jerusalem or Paul as he beseeched for God to save Israel. When you accept the reality of the truth of the glory of God is breaks your heart that people would turn away from the great and awesome God of heaven to serve lesser things. Moses was outraged by the golden calf, the prophets passionately preached against idolatry, Jesus was angered that the temple was changed in an idolatrous business, and Paul preached to the idolaters of Mars Hill by telling them of the unknown God.
I arrived back at home wondering how I should respond to all the idolatry that I have beheld in these last three weeks. I wondered how our church here in the states should respond to all of the idolatry in the world. What are the options? First, I suppose we could sit around and hope that people chose to get their life together and stop being idolaters. However, I do not know how that could ever happen apart from them hearing the truth. Second, I suppose we could spend a lifetime studying cultural issues and customs in hope that we could somehow learn to relate to the people of other countries. However, the bible is quite clear that all men are the same. Men are dead in sin, shaped in iniquity, and by nature are the enemies of God. Thirdly, we could pay other people or other agencies to go and do a work for us while we remain comfortably in the states. However, there is no way to insure that there will be doctrinal accuracy or integrity. If we only pay other people to take the gospel we will miss out on all of the benefits of being obedient to the mission of God. Lastly, we could seek where God would have us to do a lasting work and then invest our lives there for the glory of God. The gospel has the power to raise the dead in any culture and we must be willing to take the gospel wherever God would have us take it. It is for sure that our church cannot go to every country and reach every people group, so we must determine where God would have us work and seek to be obedient wherever that is.
It seems that some doors are opening in the Spanish speaking countries below us and perhaps God is beginning to reveal where we are to work. There are some options for work to be partnered with in Peru and there could be a couple of options in Mexico. The need is greater than I can express upon this paper for a biblical gospel to be proclaimed in Peru and Mexico. Oh, that God would glorify his great name in Peru and Mexico by using a small little church in a town that does not exist to proclaim his great gospel amongst a people who desperately need the truth.
I give thanks to the LORD for allowing me the privilege of going to these countries and broadening my horizons. The things that I have seen will be forever engraved upon my heart. I will long remember the pastors that I spent time with in Peru and I will never forget Adolfo who translated for me in Mexico. I will relish the time that I spent with Paul Washer and the others. When I think of church I will forever remember being on top of that mountain in Sullana at that church which had no electricity and no roof. I am convinced that heaven was looking down on that little church on top of that mountain and very few people on earth even know that it exist. Oh, God I pray that the things of this world will continue to grow dim and that God’s people will be caught up in his glorious presence.
Because of the truth: Pastor: J. Randall Easter II Timothy 2:19 "Our God is in heaven and does whatever He pleases."(Ps. 115:3) "He predestined us according to the good pleasure of His will."(Eph. 1:5) Those who have been saved have been saved for His glory and they are being made holy for this is the will of God. Are you being made holy? Spurgeon says, "If your religion does not make you holy it will damn you to hell."
***Are you further saying that there is no sin, no atrocity, no crime so heinous, no diabolical act, that will prevent you, the elect, from entering the Kingdom of Heaven?***
Only the grieving of the Holy Spirit. Otherwise, no, nothing will separate me from God.
***Forgive me for my incredulousness, but are you saying that the only penalty that the Reformed suffer for their sins is the moral equivalent of a hangover?***
Why do you try to twist everything I say? I gave you an example of what can happen if you drink too much wine, which, I do believe would be a sin, and the consequences you would immediately suffer. Don’t read any more into it than that.
Yes, exactly. Outstanding post, Dr. E.! Holy Spirit is real, and He does indwell us, and He does give us gifts He does not give to those who are not His children.
******Are you further saying that there is no sin, no atrocity, no crime so heinous, no diabolical act, that will prevent you, the elect, from entering the Kingdom of Heaven?***
Only the grieving of the Holy Spirit. Otherwise, no, nothing will separate me from God.***
Please be plain. Can you, the elect, possibly commit an act that will prevent you from entering the Kingdom of Heaven? Yes or no. An example might be profitable.
***Why do you try to twist everything I say? I gave you an example of what can happen if you drink too much wine, which, I do believe would be a sin, and the consequences you would immediately suffer.***
I am not attempting to twist anything. Does every sin have its own consequence; do you have some more examples beyonds the drinking of too much win?
Also, are there spiritual consequences or only temporal ones?
God only knows.
How about you guys? Is it really true that if you are caught in a lie and you don’t have time to do a hundred Hail Marys before you die, you won’t go to heaven? Or do you have to wait in Pergatory for a few hundred year until one of your future relative buys an indulgence to get you out?
(See? I can distort things, also)
***Please be plain. Can you, the elect, possibly commit an act that will prevent you from entering the Kingdom of Heaven? Yes or no. An example might be profitable.***
How much more plain do you want than directly from scripture? Only the grieving of the Holy Spirit. Otherwise, no, nothing will separate me from God. Best example I can give.
***He does give us gifts He does not give to those who are not His children***
So who are they that He has created that are not His children? His dogs? His cats? His hamsters? His rotifers? His algae?
Will God KILL you if you drink too much wine and don’t repent? How loving is THAT God?
Many are his creation who are not his children.
Could you please be plainer?
What in your estimation is the grieving of the Holy Spirit and how could it come about that, for example IT, or me, could be prevented from entering the Kingdom of Heaven.
How could this come to pass?
***How about you guys? Is it really true that if you are caught in a lie and you don’t have time to do a hundred Hail Marys before you die, you won’t go to heaven? Or do you have to wait in Pergatory for a few hundred year until one of your future relative buys an indulgence to get you out?***
If we sin without repenting, then we are indeed headed to hell. That is Christianity from the beginning; right from the Gospels. Right from the Apostles and right from the Church. Repent and believe.
We have no frogmarching.
Come on now, Irish.
You are sidestepping the question. Can you, the elect, possibly not go to heaven under any circumstances? And what are those circumstances?
Luke 12:10 And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but the one who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.
I can’t get any plainer than that. Don’t grieve the Holy Spirit. Don’t blaspheme the Holy Spirit. Don’t deny the Holy Spirit.
All other sins are forgiven. Completely and forever.
I try to stay as repented up and confessed up as possible.
And, like David, pray for my secret forgotten & unknown whatevers.
At some point—all points, The Blood of Jesus has to avail for all our sins, or it doesn’t.
I think the key issue is loving God in our heart attitudes.
I believe God is looking for Biblical excuses to save people, not Biblical excuses to damn people.
I really feel sorry for you, then. You never know if you are truly saved. You never know the peace of God, because you might sin and loose it all. How sad for you.
Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine,
Oh, what a foretaste of glory devine.
Nicely said.
So what you are saying is that you, as a Reformed believer, could rape 1000 women, kill 1000 men, steal millions of dollars, drop atomic weapons, infect millions of people with AIDS, put thousands of people in jail on false charges, and violate every single temporal and moral law that you know of and you would still go to heaven?
If we are to be Judged, then no assured outcome can there be.
Could, yes. Will? No, because God wouldn’t allow me to do it. His Holy Spirit, which resides in me, will not allow such a thing. I wouldn’t even want to try. I couldn’t contemplate me even wanting to. But, if all my sins are covered by the blood of Jesus, then ALL my sins are covered by the blood of Jesus. Every single one of them. Those I did, those I do now, and those I will do in the future.
I know you do not understand, and I understand why you do not understand. I will pray for your understanding about this. And, once you do understand... praise God!
If we are to be forgiven, then no judgement will harm us.
***Could, yes. Will? No, because God wouldn’t allow me to do it. His Holy Spirit, which resides in me, will not allow such a thing. ***
Now do you understand why we regard the Reformed doctrine with such horror? Because the Reformed regard heinous acts as merely trivial things that the Holy Spirit wouldn’t permit the individual to do if it were truly heinous. And even if they perform them, it still does not stop the ride to Heaven.
This is the Gnosticism that we are attempting to warn you guys about. Jesus dying on the Cross does not give you permission to sin.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.