The Neverending Story (The Christian Chronicles)

AP ^ | 3/24/01

[malakhi]

The Neverending Story
An ongoing debate on Scripture, Tradition, History and Interpretation.

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

Previous Thread

[al_c]

Disclaimer: If you want on or off of this ping list, FReepmail me.

Ask and you will receive! What God has promised, he is able to perform!

Monday, April 12, 2004
Monday in the Octave of Easter

First Reading: Psalm: Gospel:

Acts 2:14, 22-33 Psalm 16:1-2, 5, 7-11 Matthew 28:8-15 Humility has been regarded by the Saints as the basis and guardian of all virtues.  -- St. Alphonsus Liguori

The following is, as usual, from The Word Among Us:

"Christ is risen! Do not be afraid. You will see him." The angel's words must have had a staggering effect on the women who had come to Jesus' tomb. Think how disillusioned they would have been after Jesus' crucifixion. He had given them great hope and inspired them to expect God to act in dramatic ways. But then he suffered a miserable, humiliating death. How bewildered and afraid these women must have been! True, Jesus did promise that he would rise again, but the idea was just too big for any of them to comprehend.

What could have been more astonishing for the women than to discover that Jesus truly had risen, exactly as he promised? God proved that what he promises, he fulfills. Rather than a being cause for apprehension or fear, his word is always the basis for confident faith and hope.

Two thousand years later, we too face challenges to faith. Jesus has already risen and poured out his Spirit. We have become God's sons and daughters. Yet these realities can seem too big for us to believe. The world advises us to set our sights on lesser, more mundane realities: to seek security wherever possible, and however temporary, in the midst of life's uncertainties.

We can choose to stand with the women. We can be empowered by God's word as they were. His promises are real and can provide us great assurance. We can put our faith in the marvelous thing that God has done--the resurrection of his Son. He has promised to draw all people to himself (John 12:32) and to give his Spirit to all those who ask (Luke 11:9,13). Do you feel far from God today? Do you have a pressing need? Ask and you will receive! What God has promised, he is able to perform!

"Father, you have raised Jesus your Son from death to life. Praise to you! You have the power to fulfill all your promises. In you, Lord, all things are possible."

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God bless.

AC

[malakhi]

The first call to the mods I saw was from him. The thread was nor "unruly"

Terry, you are wrong. I'm not going to post the freepmail I received from the Religion Moderator, but here is a cut-and-paste of the date/time stamp:

Re: The Neverending Story (The Christian Chronicles)
From Religion Moderator | 04/05/2004 9:22:58 PM CDT replied

And here is the post that I made in response.

To: Religion Moderator; All

May I have your attention, please!

The tone of some of the past day's posts has been excessively heated. I'd like to request that everyone make an effort to keep the discussion civil.

It would be better to ignore provocative posts entirely rather than respond to them in anger.

The Religion Moderator was courteous in allowing me to make this request. Let's not blow it, guys.

Thanks!

Today and tomorrow, the first two days of Passover, are Jewish holy days. Please don't make it necessary for me to post again.

2,017 posted on 04/06/2004 9:12:34 AM CDT by malakhi (L'shana haba'ah b'Yerushalayim!)

I wasn't even on FR on the evening of April 5th, because I was attending the community Passover seder at my synagogue. I didn't ping the Moderator. I didn't freepmail the Moderator. The Moderator freepmailed me. That the tone on the thread was becoming excessively heated was his judgment, not mine.

Now that this has been clarified, I'd appreciate if you would stop posting otherwise.

[malakhi]

Wow, things are really hopping. I have about a dozen posts I need to reply to, and I barely have time to keep up with reading the thread. Have to go get some work done now. I'll try to get back and catch up on those replies later today.

[DouglasKC]

The Calvinist points out that if this were true, it would be impossible for the infant or the bushman in Africa or the imbecile to be saved because they cannot participate in their own salvation by making the decision to "accept" God's "offer" of grace.

Of course it's always possible that salvation is extended to those people at the great white throne judgement based upon their response to the gospel of Christ:

Rev 20:12 And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is [the book] of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.

Perhaps the "books" that are opened are the books of the bibles and their works are their response to the gospel.

[Revelation 911]

I know of one Catholic poster who was banned, but has been allowed to post again.

would that be the many incarnations of polycarp? LOL

Countless Calvinists have received time-outs from which they've returned. As of today, seven Calvinists are still banned, and another one (DittoJed2) said she left FR in disgust before she was banned.

banning happens due to an egregious disregard for the posted policy of this forum. Whats the hard part ? The Calvinists banned had this notion that because the message was "of God", it's abrasiveness of delivery was exempt.

I know of no Arminian who was banned, with the possible exception of one.

who?

weve kept a low profile since Lent began - and having been blamed for suspensions etc, it was interesting to see some Calvinists begin pointing fingers at Mormons and Catholics while they passed one by one.

I hope your Lent and Easter were Spirit filled.

blessings

Rev911

[ksen]

To know that someone would deny God and to cause them to deny God are two completely different things.

How is leaving people in their sins "causing" them to deny God?

[ksen]

I would suggest you ask RochesterFan that question.

Can't do that for a few more days..... ;^(

[xzins]

Dittojed2 did not leave because of calvinist discussions.

She left because of creation/evolution discussions. She went with other Christian cre/vo participants to a different Christian site -- I don't remember which.

[Tares]

In 2 Peter 3:9, the “us-ward”, “any”, and “all” that Peter referred to are the saints of God, the elect. Peter’s epistles were written specifically to believers, as the first sentence of his second epistle (and first epistle as well) clearly states:

Your interpretation makes the verse into a truism hardly worth uttering, much less interpreting.

The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. -2 Peter 3:9

The verse councils patience, reminding believers that just as the Lord’s orchestration of history resulted in the salvation of those in the eternal church thus far, so also are there elect in the future to whom the Lord will reveal his mercy. Believers are reminded that the Lord orchestrated all of history to result in their salvation (O the depth of the riches…). But they are also reminded at the same time to stop being so self-centered in their thinking, that history does not revolve around any one particular believer. History revolves around and is orchestrated by the triune God. The world will end, as the preceding and following verses certainly declare, but stop being so impatient and behold the unfolding of the glorious work of the Lord (especially the future salvation of fellow sinners) and stop pining for the end.

[SoothingDave]

Please pray for my baby neice, Bridget Nicole, and her parents Amy and Dave. She had not been feeding well and was lethargic yesterday. They flew her to Children's Hospital in Pittsburgh and think she might have an infection. She is being fed by IV, but we can't know about any infection until the culture grows in 24-48 hours.

SD

[CindyDawg]

Praying for Bridget and her family.

[SoothingDave]

Re 2808:

In reality, she's got this "can't start a new year with an old tree" rule and I'd like to have it around until mid-late January - or say Epiphany. (I joke about it staying up till Easter, so your situation seemed like it might help).

Having the tree up through the Twelves Days of Christmas is reasonable.

SD

[SoothingDave]

Re 2891

He draws a large circle that he labels Gods will , within it he draws a much smaller circle that he labels free will or human liberty .

He then explains that most things are Gods and Gods alone. But within that He allows us to exercise our free will. That would be things like choosing schools , occupations , spouses , where we will live etc. But then he notes that our free will choices are completely within the larger circle that is Gods will.

This is a trivialization of the entire concept. It's like saying your toddler can choose between spaghetti or the chicken nuggets on the kids' menu. It has nothing to do with the larger questions.

SD

[Invincibly Ignorant]

will do

[SoothingDave]

Re 2921

How could you not see this as comforting?

If our salvation, our eternal bliss in Paradise, is assured and actually brings pleasure not only to ourselves but to God, the creator of the universe, how much more comfort do we need?

What if you are only fooling yourself that you are among the elect?

SD

[jude24]

Actually, you can.

[SoothingDave]

Re 2979

I live in Florida so Jeb Bush is my Governor. Let's say there are three inmates due to be executed at midnight. The only power left to stop the executions is a phone call from Gov. Bush giving the condemned prisoner(s) amnesty.

11:50pm rolls around and there hasn't been a phone call. 11:55pm the phone rings and Gov. Bush gives prisoner #1 amnesty. By midnight there has been no other calls and prisoners #2 and #3 are put to death. Was Governor Bush unjust in letting prisoners #2 and #3 die in the execution chamber?

Of course he wasn't. In fact we would think he was most gracious by giving amnesty to the one. Why don't we understand God's grace in the same way? We are condemned prisoners of sin awaiting execution. Some get the amnesty and some don't. That doesn't make God unjust. In fact, that anyone of us gets His Grace is a testimony to His goodness.

Let's complete the analogy. Instead of murderers, let's make the inmate cats, caught for the anti-social capital crime of inter-species deadly assault, after a "kill-for-thrill" mouse-decapitation spree.

Now, tell me again, why the Governor should be executing these cats for following their nature?

SD

[SoothingDave]

Re 2988

Better yet, here's Ian Paisley's website, a righteous Protestant keeping the Romanists in line in Northern Ireland.

Ian Paisley is a bigoted old fool. And I'd say the same about any Catholic in Ulster preaching the same brand of sectarian hatred.

Really, really reveals a lot about you to see you praise him. People who fan the flames of hatred should not be lionized.

SD

[SoothingDave]

Re 3303

Dave I don't agree with much you say but I've been thinking about this one and its exactly what Steven and malakhi have done IMO and I'm wondering if they were to undertake with the same zeal and methods that they have in decoustructing Christianity and apply that to Judisiam what would happen to their faith or beliefs?

Well, Malakhi seems to be grounded and content where he is. Steven will need to show this. Hasn't he already indicated a willingness to look at the "evidence" you might have? That's not a good sign.

SD

[SoothingDave]

Re 3339

It become "deconstruction" only when one denies the Trinity or, worse yet, denies today's "traditional" Christianity.

It's deconstruction when one takes apart, bit-by-bit an established edifice. Which is what Steven did. We all watched it.

And not one of us, not one, practices the brand of "Christianity" of Jesus and the Apostles. It has been "deconstructed", "improved", and made into a form unrecognizeable to the early Church. And that is fine with me.

There is a difference between construction and de-construction. Between development of doctrine and an historical growing of a consensus versus a simple negation and disassembly of orthodoxies.

SD