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."
I agree with you for sure,Dear Kosta.
This is also why Our Lord called Saint Peter satan- because Peter did not wanting a suffering Christ.
The lesson learned is that denial of the suffering and humility of Christ is the essence of the demonic
It always bothered me when I attended protestant churches that Christ body was stripped from their crosses
Hi, Irish.
How’s it hanging?
***Mark, I know you weren’t looking for it, but you just officially won the “Irony of the Week” award!!! :)***
What do I win? The way I’m feeling now, a top end rye whisky (barley will do in a pinch) might be a good prize.
***This is also why Our Lord called Saint Peter satan- because Peter did not wanting a suffering Christ.
The lesson learned is that denial of the suffering and humility of Christ is the essence of the demonic.***
The evidence is overwhelming.
***It always bothered me when I attended protestant churches that Christ body was stripped from their crosses***
It isn’t just the body of Christ that is removed from the cross, it is the body of Christ removed from their Lord’s Supper (the ones that bother to maintain some imitation of it), it is the religious icons and spiritual setting that are usually removed (except for some of the more conservative churches - I’ve been in some beautiful old Presbyterian, Anglican and Lutheran churches) and often even the altar is set aside to create a stage in which the players strut up and down and preen and shout or be a rock star.
Protestant prayer barns give one a different mindset than an iconic cathedral or basilica or even a humble yet iconic country church.
Is God going to allow anybody in heaven, or only those whom he has chosen? Is there someone somewhere who God does not want into heaven, but will go anyway?
Well, went to Disneyworld last month, going on a cruise to Alaska next month, and in between I am trying to pay for it all :>)
You?
Is our God a God of absolutes or of hypotheticals?
... secondly, it does not reverse the succession of grace and glory in the two orders of eternal intention and of execution in time, but makes glory depend on merit in eternity as well as in the order of time.
Eternal glory by merit? OK.
This hypothetical decree reads as follows: Just as in time eternal happiness depends on merit as a condition, so I intended heaven from all eternity only for foreseen merit.
It appears that God is leaving out somebody pretty important here. Maybe the name slipped His mind. :) I hope that I am just misunderstanding this whole thing.
It is only by reason of the infallible foreknowledge of these merits that the hypothetical decree is changed into an absolute: These and no others shall be saved.
The fatal flaw in this is that it only potentially works if God created, and then turned His back completely on His creation and just watched what happened. If one believes, as I do and I "think" all Catholics do, that God is active in our world, then God is foreseeing His own actions. Therefore He is already a part of the action and CANNOT rely solely on what He foresees as the actions of others to make His predestination determinations. He's already involved. The hypothetical thus falls apart.
As the “possessing” of the Kingdom of Heaven in time is here linked to the works of mercy as a condition, so the “preparation” of the Kingdom of Heaven in eternity, that is, predestination to glory is conceived as dependent on the foreknowledge that good works will be performed.
A perfect example of what I'm saying. This theory requires that good works are done TOTALLY APART from God. But if good works are God working through us, then the whole thing reverts back to the Reformed position on predestination. It makes no logical sense for God to predestine based on foreseen good works, IF God was involved in those good works.
Mark: The dogma of double predestination assumes that God is the author of sin and death. We reject that. If God gives the whole world His grace, then He has made it possible for everyone to be saved.
Then you don't accept the definition of double predestination by those who believe in it. You redefine it and disagree with THAT. This has nothing to do with us. Double predestination means that God in His sovereignty infallibly predestined some to glory by giving them saving grace. By logical extension, it also means that God did not predestine others to eternal glory because He did not give them saving grace. That's pretty much it. Where is God authoring evil in any of this? Do you hypothetically call God evil for choosing not to give someone saving grace? If so, on what basis? God DOES give SOME grace (or blessings) to all men, but not saving grace.
Ah, Terriergal, no we won’t (smile).
LOL!!!
Ain’t that the troot.
That’s because he’s not on the cross anymore. HE ROSE!
Kosta: Lots of them! :)
Astounding.
What are some of the many options men have for their salvation?
***What are some of the many options men have for their salvation?***
First there is “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ”, then there is “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ”, and don’t forget “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ”. Did I forget any? :>)
LOL. No, I think you’ve covered all the “options.”
Good, I wouldn’t want to leave any out.
Who gets to spend eternity either in the heavenly penthouse with a view, or a basement of the heavenly skyscrapers. :)
But even that has been "preordianed" by the Reformed God, so when the Bible says all over the place that we will be judged for what we have done (for our deeds) it is only a "figure of speech" to the Reformed eyes and ears. They don't see those words and they don't hear them; and for sure their random verse generators don't recognize them.
That's because in the Deformed world what you and I do is not really "our" doing. Everyone has been prejudged for things God preordianed they will do.
The bottom line is: We are judged, like everything else in the Reformed theology, "just because."
Indeed, but then how do you explain what Paul and 1 Peter infer when they say that he (Jesus) was rased by God {sic]?
OK, but the Gospels do teach the NT, right? Jesus preached the New Covenant. Maybe I'm not understanding where your point leads.
God does not need to choose because He wills us all sufficient grace to be saved and gives us a free will to follow or reject it.
We either love God's WILL OR WE SELFISHLY REJECT GOD'S WILL IN FAVOR OF OUR OWN WILL
Only the prideful think of themselves as the chosen by God.
Jim Jones and others made these claims that they were chosen by God
***Only the prideful think of themselves as the chosen by God.***
My dear friend, if I were worthy of being chosen by God, then I would have pride. I am not worthy, I have done nothing spectacular, significant, or noteworthy. I am a sinner, chosen by God, now called by him to be one of his children. There is no pride in that, because I didn’t have any thing to do with his choosing me. There is MUCH rejoicing, though, as God calls us to do in Philippians 4. Much rejoicing.
***We either love God’s WILL OR WE SELFISHLY REJECT GOD’S WILL IN FAVOR OF OUR OWN WILL***
While we are still unregenerated, we cannot love God or his will. It is only when God chooses us, regenerates us, changes us, can we come to him and love him. We reject him from birth, and only when he changes us came we accept him. Remember what it says in Romans... no one seeks God, no, not one.
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