Posted on 01/14/2011 5:57:52 PM PST by topcat54
Evangelical book catalogs promote books such as Planet Earth: The Final Chapter, The Great Escape, and the Left Behind series. Bumper stickers warn us that the vehicles occupants may disappear at any moment. It is clear that there is a preoccupation with the idea of a secret rapture. Perhaps this has become more pronounced recently due to the expectation of a new millennium and the fears regarding potential Y2K problems. Perhaps psychologically people are especially receptive to the idea of an imminent, secret rapture at the present time. Additionally, many Christians are not aware that any other position relative to the second coming of Jesus Christ exists. Even in Reformed circles there are numerous people reading these books. Many of these people are unaware that this viewpoint conflicts with Scripture and Reformed Theology.
(Excerpt) Read more at reformed.org ...
QUITE TRUE.
As with all authoritarian structures and organizations on the human level,
SOME PIGS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS.
VERY WELL PUT.
THX.
I’ve watched and heard Catholics who deep down inside think that drinking and smoking really are sins, excuse the behavior in themselves with the *The priest does it. If he does it it must be OK.* mentality.
It’s all too common.
And I’m not talking an occasional social drink, either.
Ever been to a Catholic wedding?
Dispys do a FAR BETTER JOB of reading the Old Testament in concert with the New Testament than do REPLACEMENTARIANS. Sheesh!
Unmidgitated nonsense.
Yes, actually I was raised Roman Catholic and attended quite a few.
I didnt get the impression that abuse was the object of your original comment. I would agree that abuse is possible. Ive never witnessed an RC priest practice or encourage the abuse of alcohol as a regular thing.
What he doesnt explain is how the earth is going to slash or cause very large waves that will cover those areas on the map. In 9/12 and 10/10 he suggests a large sun solar flare hitting the earth.
I dont disagree a solar flare could destroy the earth that is most likely what happened to mars. 2011 and 2012 will be a peak of solar flares for the last 50 years. I doubt it will destroy the earth more likely will give a nice view of the Aurora Borealis from the Southern states like it did last time.
It can cause space earthquakes but they have never been higher than a 4.0 on the earth scales. Can a larger on accrue? I don't know.
I didn't suggest they did.
What I said was that lay Catholics excuse their own smoking and drinking based on the priests participation of it.
At the very least, they are setting a bad example.
Thank you.
Why? Whats to excuse? If they are truly adiaphora how can participation (not abuse) of the thing be a bad example?
There are ministerial officers in my church and in my denomination that enjoy both alcohol and tobacco in various forms. I do myself. None of us have ever been convicted of setting a bad example. In fact, we have enough trouble trying to obey the real ones given in the Ten Commandments without trying to avoid faux sin.
Do you personally have a problem with abuse in this area? Perhaps youre just projecting.
Now, if only you would reciprocate.
SLICK WILLY REPLACEMENTARIAN ESCHATOLOGY!
Oh well, that raptures gonna happen Real Soon Now® and then this all wont matter. Perhaps next week. Right?
What the priest does in moderation, the lay person does in excess.
It’s the excess the people were justifying in themselves.
And it WAS excess. It’s not hard to recognize a smashed person when you see one.
Is that in the Bible, or did you read it on a fortune cookie or something?
I totally agree with you about those inside the Body of Christ, even though Paul does refer specifically to the GENTILE BELIEVERS in Romans 11. However, there are the unsaved ethnic Jews that, according to both the OT & the NT, God is not finished with yet. These natural branches, once broken off, will be re-grafted in.
All part of God’s plan.
I happen to believe that God intends to fulfill the promises both in the OT & NT. I don’t think that makes me foolish.
Those who are among Gods elect, for elections sake, will be regrafted into the root. Once in the body of Christ, spiritually speaking, they will look just like everyone else. Neither Jew nor Greek. Thats part of the real blessing of the one nation that Christ has been constructing.
In any event, there is no justification for using racial language in the body of Christ, now or in the future.
It’s real life. It happens. It’s what is really going on out there, away from the watchful eye of the vatican.
There’s a huge disconnect between what the ideal Catholic should be and what they are, between what some Catholics claim the Catholic church *really* teaches (CCC) and what most of us know it really teaches (at the local parish level).
They are not the same thing.
I certainly think that major quakes and major land subsidence would have to occur for many of those areas to be underwater.
Certainly that’s what’s implicated in terms of the New Madrid fault system resulting in the Gulf of Mexico reaching the Great Lakes.
Wouldn’t want to live in Chicago.
A number of Christians have had visions/dreams of the lake sloshing over major portions of Chicago very devastatingly.
Thanks for your thoughtful replies.
8 8 Blessed are the clean of heart, for they will see God.
9 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
10 Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, 9 for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11
Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you (falsely) because of me.
12 10 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven. Thus they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
13 11 12 "You are the salt of the earth. But if salt loses its taste, with what can it be seasoned? It is no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.
14 You are the light of the world. A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden.
15 Nor do they light a lamp and then put it under a bushel basket; it is set on a lampstand, where it gives light to all in the house.
16 Just so, your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father.
And so on. Notice the recurring theme here that Jesus includes in every line? Salvation is conditional. Verse 13 is very explicit. When the salt loses its flavour (or the conditions are no longer there), the salt is gotten rid of - or salvation is not given
John 1: the adopted people (ie all men, not just the Jews) were given the power, or the right to become children of God. Not that all of them are. Of course not.
Romans 8: Those who are led by the Spirit are the children of God. Yes. When we no longer are led by the Spirit, but by other fascinations, we are no longer children of God. A condition fully agreeing with the Beatitudes.
Galatians 3: Children of God through faith, clothing yourself in Christ. If you cast off the clothing of Christ, you are no longer a child of God. The last line says that they are heirs to the promise (of God). Heirs don't always collect.
1 John 3: You omitted the first line which says that the Father bestowed love upon us so that we may be called the children of God. Further in the chapter, John also runs through some conditions.
My point? People may refer to themselves as children of God, yet not meet these and other conditions laid upon us by Christ. I cannot say, nor can any man, who is saved and who is not saved, but we have the instructions laid upon us by Christ and those who repudiate them certainly incrase their odds of being repudiated by Christ (Matthew 25). When people say that they "know" that they are saved, this goes against almost continuous message of Christ that God is love, yet salvation is conditional. We must run the race until the very end. Just like the pickers in the vineyard, even those who come late but are accepted by the master will get a full day's wage ie salvation. But if you are not in the vineyard at the end of your day, you will not.
As do I.
I dont think that makes me foolish.
What is foolish is reading one set of promises in isolation from the rest of the promises, and the explanation of the real meaning of those promises.
Some folks, for example, read Genesis 17 as if the New Testament didnt exist or was irrelevant. That was not the approach of the apostles who interpreted the promises in the new covenant context, once for all time.
Reading the Bible dispensationally is foolishness.
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