Posted on 12/07/2019 1:52:35 PM PST by Faith Presses On
Evangelist Ray Comfort is well-known for presenting unbelievers with "the good person" test, asking them if they've ever broken any of the Ten Commandments in order to demonstrate that everyone is a sinner and "there is no one who does good, no, not one," (Romans 3:10-12, Psalm 14:1-3).
So many people, though, still don't believe that they're sinners even after being confronted with their sin. Satan has blinded them with self-love.
But if unbelievers today in places like America are less likely to acknowledge their own evil nature, they might be more likely to admit the evil nature in the people around them. While they think of themselves as pretty good, if not excellent, moral creatures, or at the least "good enough," they just might recognize that the people in their lives -- even those close to them -- are wickedly selfish at heart.
It's common to hear people today say that they've been betrayed by close family members and friends, that they have no one they can count on, or that they find other people so sickening, they think they might prefer the company of animals to humans.
Of course, again, they're fine in their own book. Other people are the problem, the cause of their unhappiness.
Those, then, who believe in something beyond the natural, including life after death in Heaven, but have so far rejected Christ as their Lord and Savior, or have made Him into a Christ of their own liking versus what the Bible teaches, can be asked how they would like to live in eternity with the people around them, just as they are, and if they think it would be Heaven, as well as how would there be unity and peace with people continuing to be in disagreement? People can sometimes "agree to disagree" with a little success so that they don't openly argue over whatever they fail to share, but disagreement necessarily means division and distance. Or do such people think that, for it to be Heaven, they'd have to be there alone, since they're the only truly "good person" that they know and like?
In Christ, believers yield our wills, which are governed by our faulty, limited individual sin natures, to One who is perfect in every way, and so is qualified to rule over us absolutely, for the good of us all, including to bring us true happiness and satisfaction. Among Jesus' last instructions to His disciples were to love each other (John 13:34) and to have unity in spirit (John 17:22-23), and in Him, we can enter into God's Kingdom, the Kingdom of Heaven, and remain in and enjoy true love and spiritual unity with God and other human beings.
It is no wonder that anti-Christian philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre stated that “Hell is other people.”
O.W.
IF he were to go further with this he'd get people to talk about their thought life.
People don't realize just how often they're thought life condemns them.
I am a thoroughly wretched sinner. I’ve broken at least a dozen of the ten commandments.
Talk about Egyptian bondage. Nobody can ever get out of the doghouse, the place of exile, the land of Siriad to this day.
Wolves in sheep's clothing:
Matthew 23:15 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.
Their disciples have long been trained to react in lockstep fashion, to tear after the "heretics" who -- unlike the popular preachers who never let anyone forget their sins ever -- say what Jesus said, something good and positive for a change:
"Your sins are forgiven."
And therefore... you can go ahead and get up now. You know, come on let's do this. It's a new day and you've learned your lesson so... lets go up to the mountain of the Lord.
But when paralyzed, dead conformity idols have been king for a couple thousand years, beating people down, good luck with that message. Does anyone really wonder why the prophets were killed? They were the subversives making radical statements contrary to the established wisdom, disrupting the status quo. They had to go.
In the real world, who can bear working for (much have any respect for) insecure management who is always slithering around finding fault? A lot of people go into business for themselves to escape the hell of being ruled by people too big for their britches and always on the lookout for donut crumbs on someone's chin.
Yet somehow a remnant in the churches manages to do the will of their Father in heaven, while those watching the clock (eager to make a beeline for the exits) are confident in their union contracts, knowing that they don't have to do this, that, or the other thing. OSAS = once hired, always hired. There is a certain type of "worker" to whom this message appeals.
It's bad out there. Help is on the way, but few expect or want the Messiah whom God wants to give. He doesn't match the established expert expectations of what to expect when you're expecting.
Once in an October past, I saw a very expectant mother who had the right attitude. She was wearing a t-shirt with a big Jack O'Lantern on it. lol.
Isaac = "he will laugh", and in Isaac is Abraham's seed called.
Kind of like saying that if Jesus even cuts down his own Christmas tree, who is anyone to criticize the practice?
A Stihl small voice says, "Pop more popcorn".
One of the primary effects of the Sermon on the Mount should be to convict all of us that we are complete sinners and that nobody lives up to God’s standards. Jesus sets a level of behavior required by God that nobody has every complied with for even a week of their lives. He told the people there that to get into Heaven they need to surpass the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees who were universally regarded as the most righteous people in society. Jesus’ point was that nobody can earn their way into heaven and show them why they need a Savior.
All true.
Jesus showed us the way to love by dying for EVERYONE'S sins.
Our Savior will always be needed.
And then so often when people think that way, they don’t see themselves as part of those “other people.” Atheists will sometimes say that their beliefs on God are very similar to those of Christians — they just believe in one less god than Christians do. Christians, on the other hand, believe they are the bad people that atheists and other unbelievers so often say they are. They just believe that the atheists and unbelievers are bad people, too.
That’s certainly true, but then, what standard is someone using to define love? If it’s not God’s, but man’s godless idea of love, then it’s really the opposite.
True. But today in our country, more people seem inclined to notice and be bothered by the wrongs, real and imagined, done by others while usually justifying or minimizing what they’ve done wrong, if they see it at all. There’s so much outrage — about other people. People are demonically thirsty for vengeance and are very zealous to remove the moats in the eyes of others. That’s pretty apparent just from social media, though that attitude is just about everywhere.
So when people say they believe in some sort of god that they want to define for themselves, and some sort of Heaven, and that they’re definitely a good person who will get to live there, it might make sense to point out to them that naturally everyone thinks they’re doing right or what they do is justified, and that they’re good people. But is that really so? Would anyone want to live in eternity with the other people they know, just as they are, with their tendency to see things wrong, to be selfish, to use others, to betray trusts? How many people that they know would they be willing to trust with a large sum of money? For there to be Heaven, don’t we need to be unified spiritually by someone who is perfect and who will rule over us perfectly, leading us and watching out for us all from the motivation of perfect love, and capable of knowing us perfectly and making perfect decisions? Maybe people who think they’re good will realize that they won’t want to live with other humans who think like they do in eternity, without the Father and Jesus Christ to rule over us there.
Amen. I’m sure I have, too, if not even more of them!
We do continue to sin, though, and all sin matters, even when it’s being forgiven. And there can be great joy even as we are aware of our sin, because of the relief that our sins are forgiven. But just to forget that we sin I have to believe, from what I’ve seen, leads quickly to pride, like the Pharisees had, and so Satanic rebellion against God, rather than the humility we’re supposed to have towards Him.
We are, after all, to pick up our cross daily. That is Jesus Christ’s own command to us. And that cross is about our sin against a holy God.
Amen. And afterwards to consider it, too, can help keep us dependent on the Lord for our salvation as we work it out with fear and trembling. Many people who have rejected Christ, though, just don’t see themselves as having committed sin. They’re more likely to see other people as having moral failings and as being very unpleasant, if not impossible to live with.
But just to forget that we sin...
The usual suspects [who claim to speak in Jesus' name] hang every transgression over people's heads forever and remind them that they are perpetual screw-ups. And they are ever sniffing for any whiff of doctrinal error. They *are* the Pharisees and Sadducees whom they criticize. Projection 101.
The real Jesus lets the regretful out of the doghouse. Learned from your mistake? Great! That's progress, so time to get up and go on to accomplish something useful.
He's the good boss who lifts up his workers and motivates them are earns their loyalty because he's open, honest, and not playing any games. WYSIWYG. They aren't walking on egg crates around him and know they can approach him if they made some mistake. That is, if they intend to do a good job and put in an honest day's work. Otherwise his simple requirements (like say, basic integrity) are like animal traps to scamming slackers.
The bad bosses are the gaslighting abusers who batter their wives and employees but then hold out their hands in "love" and here if you'll just repent and do what I say... well, that is until the abused fail on some point that they had no idea was an offense, like a wife not telling her control-freak thug husband that she went to lunch with her girlfriend. Who knows what might be the next trigger... the experts who peddle "grace" keep inventing new sins and new reasons to repent. Woe to them.
Few have caught on to the overt pattern of abuse and just keep on taking it.
Wolves are dressed as sheep. The sheep are battered and believe they "deserve it", lest they get prideful or some such.. whatever the abuser told them.
The real Messiah is about to step in and free the prisoners and dispatch the wolves. Ranchers have guns... predators beware.
Patterns repeat. When Jesus arrived he was persona non grata to the religious experts and their devoted disciples. Because... there goes the neighborhood and talk about being bad for business.
These are simple, real-world concepts. The common folks with a basic grasp of the world loved him, but the "FBI" who were sent out to investigate, not so much.
He marches to a different drummer, as the maverick solution to business. Jesus had to go outside the system in order to heal people directly as the system was so corrupted and dysfunctional and mired in red tape. The exact same thing is true today.
Maverick was the guy who didn't brand his cattle.
Most cattle have some kind of stamp.
The fake teachers have been stringing people along with seeming impunity, but the jig is about up.
The current political scene is a living parable in real-time.
Or rather Jesus' cross, what the false accusers laid on him because he had to go.
Faith presses on, regardless..
Job did a good job!
I didn’t bring this up in my previous replies here, but it’s been on my mind and is relevant to the conversation right now, I believe. I recall from some previous discussions between us that there’s at least one major belief that you reject about orthodox, Bible-believing Christianity. If I’m mistaken, then please correct me on that and accept my apologies. But if not, then please remind me of what that is.
Without giving a lengthy reply right now, your characterization of Christianity sounds very much like cheap grace which could not have passed the faith along and grown a church worldwide.
Jesus did say this:
“and anyone who does not take up his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me.” Matthew 10:39
“Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” Matthew 16:24
“And whoever does not carry his cross and follow Me cannot be My disciple.” Luke 14:27
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