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."
God's first cause in creating is ALWAYS goodness which cannot be sin and evil
“God saw all things that he had made, and they were very good “(Gen. i, 31): “He made all things good in his own time” (Eccles. iii, 11): “Every creature of God is good (1 Tim. iv, 4).
God did not plan the sin of Adam and Eve or any sin!
If this were true than Christ suffered for His own planned sins which cannot be possible since Christ is God and sinless
You insist on ignoring God's foreknowledge and creating us anyway out of Love so that we can freely come to Him.
I wish you a Blessed day
***God did not plan the sin of Adam and Eve or any sin!***
Dear saint, Who planted the tree in the garden, and who told them they would die if they did? In other words... God planted the tree and then established the penalty for eating from it (which he knew they would do). God didn’t HAVE to plant the tree, but he did. It is ALL part of God’s plan. Can you give any other explanation for God planting a tree that they could not eat from? WHy did he plant it? WHY?
Adam and Eve were disobedient. This was NOT planned by God
Do you blame God for your disobedience and sins also?
Do you look back on your sins and thank God for them because they are part of his plan?
If so, than how do you explain the sins Christ suffered for if it was His plan?
“Can you give any other explanation for God planting a tree that they could not eat from? WHy did he plant it? WHY?”
Because the foolishness of God is greater than the wisdom of men, my friend! :)
One more thing IT.
Perhaps you can explain that what you're saying is any different than what the serpent said to Eve?
You both blame God for planting the tree in the garden for the purpose of planned sin.
***Adam and Eve were disobedient. This was NOT planned by God***
The answer is simple if you ask why God put it there and then told them not to eat of it.
How could they be disobedient if God didn’t put them in the position to BE disobedient?
You act as if God has NOTHING to do with ANYTHING we do. You act as if God is surprised every moment by the whims of man. “Gee, I didn’t expect that, now, how to fix it?”
The devil didn’t BLAME God for putting the tree there, but he did use it to his advantage.
I don’t blame God, because I know it is all according to His great plan. I am assured that God is in control of my life, not me (whew!)
***Perhaps you can explain that what you’re saying is any different than what the serpent said to Eve?***
Actually, Satan changed the words of God, trying to make man feel that he could become god, also. In ALL of my writtings, you will NEVER read where I said man is above God, or that man can become God. I put God above all my actions, thoughts, and desires (accept when I sin, of course) That is why it is so important that I remember that I can do nothing outside of God. In all actuality, your words are a lot closer to Satan’s than mine. You are the one claiming that man can act without God’s knowledge or ability to change (that’s the big problem with Free Will, we can act outside of God’s influence), not me.
God has nothing to do with planning the sin we commit.
When we Love we abide in Christ, When we knowingly sin we are not abiding in Christ.
I'm surprised why you would have a problem with this?
I’ll give you that :>)
If God were in total control of your life and you had no free will than you would be sinless from that point on.
Every time you sin it is NOT God controlling you Dear Brother. It is you freely choosing to NOT to follow the WILL OF GOD.
***When we Love we abide in Christ, When we knowingly sin we are not abiding in Christ.
I’m surprised why you would have a problem with this?***
I have no problem with this. I have always said that the closer you are to God in prayer, study, worship, and acts of love, the farther you are from sin.
What I have a problem with is the idea that God has no power to know what we are doing, the ability to act upon what we are doing, or to influence our actions for his benefit. We sin every day, and God uses that sin to help become more sanctified. As an example, I almost died yesterday. I bought pizza for the guys at work, and I ate six pieces plus a chunk of cake. I an diabetic. I ended up with my blood sugar at 500, just short of a diabetic coma. I knew I shouldn’t eat the pizza and cake, and, if I were more attentive to God’s will in my life, I wouldn’t have eaten it. God could have prevented me eating it, also. But he allowed me to eat it so that I would learn a lesson and get back on my diet. I learned a big lesson last night, and God allowed it to happen. Praise God from whom ALL blessings flow.
I agree that my sins are disobedience. Read my latest post.
From Saint Thomas Aquinas
Boethius (De consolatione, Lib. I, prosa 4) introduces a philosopher asking the question: ‘If there is a God, how comes evil?’. The argument should be turned the other way: ‘If there is evil, there is a God.’ For there would be no evil, if the order of goodness were taken away, the privation of which is evil; and this order would not be, if God were not.
Hereby is taken away the occasion of the error of the Manicheans, who supposed two primary agents, good and evil, as though evil could not have place under the providence of a good God.
We have also the solution of a doubt raised by some, whether evil actions are of God. Since it has been shown (Chap. LXVI) that every agent produces its action inasmuch as it acts by divine power, and that thereby God is the cause of all effects and of all actions (Chap. LXVII); and since it has been further shown (Chap. X) that in things subject to divine providence evil and deficiency happens from some condition of secondary causes, in which there may be defect; it is clear that evil actions, inasmuch as they are defective, are not of God, but of defective proximate causes; but so far as the action and entity contained in them goes, they must be of God, — as lameness is of motive power, so far as it has anything of motion, but so far as it has anything of defect, it comes of curvature of the leg.
Dear IT,God Wills all things good and can use our sin(which He Never would approve of let alone plan) to humble us.
I wish you and your family a Blessed evening!
We can't earn our way to Heaven, but we sure can please God:
Rom 12:1 : Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God — this is your spiritual act of worship.
Rom 14:17-18 : 17 For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, 18 because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and approved by men.
1 Tim 5:4 : But if a widow has children or grandchildren, these should learn first of all to put their religion into practice by caring for their own family and so repaying their parents and grandparents, for this is pleasing to God.
Heb 13:20-21 : 20 May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, 21 equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
Whatever the concept of "pleasing" really is to God, He wants us to think of it similarly.
Holy people do holy things because they are holy. Being holy is not a duty but a state.
It's both:
Lev 11:44-45 : 44 I am the Lord your God; consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy. Do not make yourselves unclean by any creature that moves about on the ground. 45 I am the Lord who brought you up out of Egypt to be your God; therefore be holy, because I am holy.
1 Cor 1:2 : To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ — their Lord and ours:
Eph 1:4 : For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.
Yes, I fully agree.
When you say it would be a big deal to give up animal products that tells me you didn't even try.
Why do you say that? All I meant is that it's not always easy, just as you said. Of course it is worthy of doing.
Man is not the measure of God.
To God be the glory!
"Pleasing God" is an anthropomorphism. It is a figure of speech, perhaps even a wish. Just as we can't do enough to earn our way into heaven, there is nothing we can do that's sooooo great as to please God (if God were subject to pleasure).
Rather, we can choose to do according to His will. If we do according to His will then we are being Christ-like, for Christ in his humanity always chose to do according to His divine will.
While I agree that no one can know who the predestined are, I don't think Paul ever said that being predestined and "receiving" election were separate things. Paul says they are one thing: Eph 1:4-5 : 4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—... Rom 8:29-30 : 29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those he predestined , he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified. I don't see any option here for one predestined to not be elect. Paul says that God will do this, this, and this. I see no hint at "as long as man does this...". So, I would say that the chosen don't "do" anything to receive election. God does all the doing, both in choosing the elect and then in effectuating the salvation of the elect within time.
And when were the souls created, Moses does NOT describe the creation of the soul, what Moses says is that the dirt, clay, flesh being was NOT living until the 'breath of life' which means soul was breathed into that newly formed flesh being made in the image of the Heavenly Father.
Good question. I'm not certain whether God is carrying around a "bag-o-souls" that He created before the foundations, waiting to dish them out at the time of conception, OR, whether He technically creates the soul at the time of conception. In either case we can know that God KNEW us before we physically existed: Jer 1:4-5 : 4 The word of the Lord came to me, saying, 5 "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you , before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations." We are no accidents. Long before He breathed life into us He knew exactly what His intentions were for each one of us. To me that FUNCTIONS as the same as our souls existing from creation. The mechanics really don't matter.
I am not sure what you mean when you say The mechanics really don't matter. Paul describes what I would call mechanics in Romans 9:10 - 17 regarding a history prior to this flesh age. There is no other way that it could be said that the Heavenly Father in an instant created a soul say like Esau or Pharaoh for the purpose of being hated without cause. This goes against everything that the rest of the WORD has to say about the perfection of the creation.
Peter says there were/are three different heaven/earth ages.. IIPeter 3 the whole chapter to maintain the subject. Moses does not describe the creation of Lucifer in his perfect creation in Genesis, yet both Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28 give an in depth description of Lucifer, his creation and his fall. There is NO record within the Bible or in history that describes the rebellion of Lucifer wherein a third of the sons of God followed him.
King Solomon writes in Ecclesiastes 1:9 that The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be: and that which is done is that which shall be: and there is no new thing under the sun.
10 Is there any thing whereof it may be said, 'See this is new?' it hath been already of *old* time, which was before us.
11 There is no remembrance of former things; neither shall there be any remembrance of things that are to come with those that shall come after.
Each soul is given opportunity to come from above (John 3:3) to be born of woman, as did Christ, in God with us, and there were some that refused which are noted in Genesis 6, and the Book of Jude, among other places, not named but already sentenced to death along with the devil.
What kind of tree was it? What was that forbidden fruit? Paul gives insight in IICorinthians 11:1-4
Exactly,Dear Brother. Thank You!
.....And EVERY sinful act is of the HUMAN WILL(NOT planned by God),the cause of sin is within man himself. Sin is the Will of man against the eternal law of God. Thus, sin is a voluntary act AGAINST the WILL OF GOD
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