An Excellent video put out by Way Of The Master Ministries. Simple yet gets the gospel across in a way you can understand it. It's an excellent display of God's Justice and Mercy portrayed simultaneously for the believer. Oh that we would stop playing Russian roulette with our souls and begin to believe Gods word! I am reminded of those who were in the world trade center contemplating whether they should either go camping or go bowling that weekend. Little did they know that their lives would be demanded of them that very hour. We must always be ready for His return and we should always go forth and preach the good news praying that God will open the eyes and hearts of a stubborn people as long as we have tongues and are able to speak. We cannot tell anyone that they are saved, we can only tell them how to be saved. Make no mistake about it, God will be here in only a short time. The scriptures say that our lives are but a mist, a vapor and then comes judgment.
'For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad." (2 Cor 5:10)
"And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment...." (Heb 9:27)
God will demand an account of what we did with what He gave us (time, money, the gospel etc.)
As Paul Washer once stated in a Sermon "There are many men in Hell who loath the day that someone came to preach the word to them. They would sooner wish that they have never heard it and went to hell first than heard it, ignored it, and was thrown into the fire" (paraphrased)
It is never my intentions to "scare" anyone into the Kingdom, but I am compelled to preach the truth of Gods word. I would rather offend a few but save many in doing so than keep silent about what is true. I would equate this with not wanting to "bother" anyone by waking them up to tell them that the building they are in is on fire. This would be absurd. And should I bang on their door at 3 o'clock in the morning to warn them of the fire, I have no doubt in my mind that they would gladly receive me and even thank me for rescuing them. As Jonathan Edwards once said in a sermon "the fire is prepared for them" (Sermon: Sinners in the hands of an Angry God)
This is your chance, non believer, this is your opportunity to repent and trust in the Savior. "so, faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ."
What am I being saved from you ask? If you don't believe then you are in God's wrath still, God is angry with sin, he hates it. You have broken his law, and so because he is a good and just God, he will punish all of those who break the law (10 commandments) But to those who place their faith in Christ, He has went to the father on our behalf and said "Father, because I love them, let your wrath come upon me instead" And the father says "make no mistake son, if I poor out my wrath on you, I will spare nothing and you will receive it all" And Jesus, for the joy set before him says "let it be so" This is love my friend, that he died for you while you were still sinning. I plead with you to repent and believe. For "Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders 10nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God."
I would also like to challenge those who profess to believe. Stay in the word daily, don't let it depart from your heart. Paul said "make the most of every opportunity" Don't forget to examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith (or still in the faith rather)
This is a quote by Paul Washer regarding missions, but I believe it can be applied to the Christian in whole since we have our very own mission field here. We need to be about our Father's business and get serious about evangelism if we are going to see a fruitful populating of the Kingdom of Heaven. Washer says;
"Let me give you some advice. Stop gathering together in a bunch of little groups and running around and doing your Jesus thing. Open up your bible, get good books, study the scriptures and memorize chapters. Organize your thoughts into a systematic theology, know what you believe, be able to defend the truth, understand something of Christian history, become a teacher of God's word and then go to the mission field. Until then.... stay home.......stay home."
This sounds hard, but it's true.
- Paul Washer
I can assure you, that I never mean my posts to sound or end like this but something else compels me once I start typing. And so I can't help but speak about all of the things I've seen and heard.
6 comments:
jsirianni, you are a kind caring person. If Jesus is as you believe, I think he must love your kindness.
I don't understand why so many people, including you believe in a God who had the power to create the universe and to know of every sparrow's fall and yet is as cruel as your idea of god seems to be, cruel in a way you would never be. According to your belief, people using the minds that God (according to your belief) gave them, with inherent weaknesses that God must have programmed into the human race from the start, are sent to eternal torture by your God. Why is the all-powerful, all-knowing God trapped into this box of cruelty? The whole story from beginning to end makes no sense except as an explanation by humans. The only good parts are things like the golden rule, the sermon on the mount, a selected subset of the Old Testament.
I don't think there's life after death, so I lose the hope you have, but at least I don't live under the fear you must live under - if not for yourself then for people in your family, friends, co-workers, kind strangers you might meet. How terrible to believe that almost everyone you see is headed for eternal pain. What a terrible view of God you have. Why would the all-powerful God create a whole universe just to torture people? It makes no sense. If it is true, I think God's creatures are more compassionate than God. The whole story about Jesus's sacrifice - why should it be that way! Why would God be trapped that way? Sounds more like a Greek or Norse myth about feuding gods, gambling and being trapped into bad bargains. I think it makes no sense for the one almighty God, none.
There's an online archived interview and story from '06 on "This American Life" about an evangelical pastor, Carlton Pearson, former head of a megachurch in OK, a graduate of Oral Roberts university, who came to the belief that God would not be so cruel. When he stopped preaching that message, he lost hos church and congregation and eventually was labeled a heretic by some evangelical body. (Of course many other churches stopped preaching fire and brimstone years ago.)
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?sched=1159
His idea is that when Jesus sacrificed himself it was for everyone, period. This I guess is the universalist view.
Anyway, thanks for caring about your readers. That is kind of you.
jsirianni, you are a kind caring person. If Jesus is as you believe, I think he must love your kindness.
I don't understand why so many people, including you believe in a God who had the power to create the universe and to know of every sparrow's fall and yet is as cruel as your idea of god seems to be, cruel in a way you would never be. According to your belief, people using the minds that God (according to your belief) gave them, with inherent weaknesses that God must have programmed into the human race from the start, are sent to eternal torture by your God. Why is the all-powerful, all-knowing God trapped into this box of cruelty? The whole story from beginning to end makes no sense except as an explanation by humans. The only good parts are things like the golden rule, the sermon on the mount, a selected subset of the Old Testament.
I don't think there's life after death, so I lose the hope you have, but at least I don't live under the fear you must live under - if not for yourself then for people in your family, friends, co-workers, kind strangers you might meet. How terrible to believe that almost everyone you see is headed for eternal pain. What a terrible view of God you have. Why would the all-powerful God create a whole universe just to torture people? It makes no sense. If it is true, I think God's creatures are more compassionate than God. The whole story about Jesus's sacrifice - why should it be that way! Why would God be trapped that way? Sounds more like a Greek or Norse myth about feuding gods, gambling and being trapped into bad bargains. I think it makes no sense for the one almighty God, none.
There's an online archived interview and story from '06 on "This American Life" about an evangelical pastor, Carlton Pearson, former head of a megachurch in OK, a graduate of Oral Roberts university, who came to the belief that God would not be so cruel. When he stopped preaching that message, he lost hos church and congregation and eventually was labeled a heretic by some evangelical body. (Of course many other churches stopped preaching fire and brimstone years ago.)
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?sched=1159
His idea is that when Jesus sacrificed himself it was for everyone, period. This I guess is the universalist view.
Anyway, thank you for caring about your readers.
(I'm having trouble posting this, so it might get posted twice.)
(or not at all - I'm not seeing 'comment saved'. hmmmmm.)
Highdesert,
I think you have been seriously misled about God and who He is. Your view of Him is extremely warped and no doubt a result of the media today. I would like to clear up some misconceptions that you have of him which can be clearly seen in scripture and which I can attest to in my own life.
You said that God was "cruel". Why? Where did you come to the conclusion that God was cruel? What did you hear or read or experience that led you to believe that God is cruel? Because truth be told he has rich in mercy and blessing and is a father to the fatherless. This God that you call cruel chose to have his hands and nails pierced all while you were still in your sin and in rebellion to him. This is called Love. And it's called mercy because you or I don't deserve it.
You said;
"According to your belief, people using the minds that God (according to your belief) gave them, with inherent weaknesses that God must have programmed into the human race from the start, are sent to eternal torture by your God"
Let me ask you a question. I don't know if you have children or are married but you can understand this either way. My wife and I got married and had hoped to have children. I have a little girl and young boy. Now chances are these kids are going to rebel in some way shape or form against both my wife and I. So my question is why do we have children (chose to procreate) knowing that one day they will rebel against us whether it be through disobedience or stealing from us etc...? Do you keep this stuff in mind as your thinking of having kids with your spouse? No of course not. You hope that your children will love you and therefore obey you because they love you. And so it is the same with God. God did not pre-program disobedience into our first parents. If you read the scriptural account when God was done with his creation he said "it is very good" You don't make a statement like this if there is rebellion and disobedience in the garden. You need to understand that the root result of the fall of man is the "curse" (Gen 3:17) God gives man "choice" and "free will" because just as you don't force your children to love you so God does not force his children to love him either.
The land was cursed because of Adams disobedience. And what that means is now everything is cursed. There were no genetic defects, no corrupt minds, illnesses, defects etc.... this is all a result of a decaying "cursed" world who disobeyed God when he said not to do something. The whole creation was throan out of whack so to speak.
And God does not "torture" anyone. Who told you that? Where did you learn this from? You are sadly mistaken. In fact throughout the gospels there are men who were tortured by demons and slaves to sin and utterly oppressed before Jesus came along and freed them from this bondage. God does not torture any man for pleasure, I'm sorry but you are sadly mistaken.
You yourself are forfeiting the grace and salvation of God because you are believing the lie that Satan has put out for thousands of years. The bible clearly shows that God is a good God. And you mistake his justice for cruelty. Because God is a just judge he must punish those who do wrong. Do you know any judge that would allow a rapist or murderer to go without justice? No, because that judge himself would be as crooked as the one who committed the crime.
You ask why Jesus "had" to die on the cross and "trap" himself? It is because as I said, God is just and so he must punish wrong doers. But in his justice he was also merciful. So rather that Highdesert die on the cross because the bible says "the wages of sin is death" he took you down from the cross and said I will send my son instead. So by sending his son this allows God to be both Just (punishment for the crime) and merciful (sending his son instead of you) And he chose the worst death of Jesus' time which was Crucifixion which the writings in Isaiah which date back to 1000 years before any of the gospels were written fortold. I say this to show you the bible is accurate and trustworthy.
The story makes perfect sense from beginning to end when you understand what you are being saved from. It doesn't make sense to you because it's like someone running in the room and saying "highdesert, I have the antidote!" and you look at them and say "ok......." and it doesn't make any sense at all. But if you knew that you had been infected by a rare disease and you were going to be dead in less than a week and someone ran into the room and told you they had the antidote, then you would be glad and receive them with great haste would you not? And so this is the Gospel (good news) of God. You are dead in your sins and separated from God, but Jesus bridges the gap for you to make the way back to your father who desires to spend all of eternity with you. God cannot stand the single thought of you spending eternity away from him and so he gladly sent Jesus his one and only son to purchase you with his blood and redeem you for himself. You would think Im a good man If I gave my daughter for you right? If I had to choose to save your life so that you would be in heaven one day and my daughter, I would chose my daughter dying so that you can spend eternity with him (solely because I know she will end up in heaven too). If you think this is a kind and good act on my part then how much more for God who has done this?
You say you appreciate the Sermon on the Mt. Then why don't you listen to Jesus when he speaks elsewhere in scripture. Everything he says is beneficial to and for you. He says himself "heaven and earth will pass away but my words will never pass away"
You say "I don't THINK there is life after death" do you realized that this is a major gamble on your part? Do you understand that you are not an atheist and that there are no such thing as an atheist? For you to say there is no God you would have to have all knowledge in the world and universe and beyond and neither you or I have that. So for your statement to be true you would need to be God yourself having all omniscience. So then you can't say God doesn't exist you can only hope he doesn't and so you play Russian Roulette with your soul. This should alarm you greatly. Because once you pass away you will be thrusted into his presence and have to give an account for your life. If I made the statement "there is no gold in China" this would only be true if I had all knowledge and knew there was not one ounce of gold hidden anywhere in China. not on someones tooth, not hidden in a dresser somewhere etc... Remember what Thomas Edison said? "We do not know one millionth of one percent about anything" So again I ask you is there a possibility that God exist in the other 99% of what we don't know as well?
And I assure you that I don't live under fear, I live under "freedom" I am no longer a slave to sin, I don't have to hide in the dark about what I am doing. All my deeds are layed bare before God in the light so I won't be ashamed when he comes. You are the one who lives in ultimate fear because you don't know if God is real or not you only hope he's not. I lived in fear when I thought Hell was reserved for those who don't accept the salvation God gives. But now I know Im saved and the book of James teaches that you "can know you have salvation" You see if you are a Muslim you have to hope that by the end of your life you lived a "good" one. You have to hope that by the end of your life the good out weighed the bad so that you will go to heaven. but in Christianity you can know you are saved. This is why I am not a Muslim.
And yes I do fear for the people (friends, family co-workers etc) around me because of what I know. It is what drives me to share the word with those who will listen - it's the reason for the existence of this blog. How can I stand outside of an apartment building and watch small flames take the building over while my friends are inside? I would start screeming for them to get out while they can. You see you think that the dialogue we have been having is just one person jumping on another person's blog but this is a Divine appointment. This is the medium in which God chose to share the gospel and good news with you. You will not be able to stand in his presence on "that day" and say "God I never knew". The Lord will bring to your remembrance all of those who shared the good news with you and then he will be saddened because you didn't believe. This is why in John 20:29 Jesus "because you have seen me (to Thomas) you believe, but blessed are those who believe and have not seen me" Because faith comes by hearing the word of God.
You said;
"Why would the all-powerful God create a whole universe just to torture people?"
Again, God doesn't torture anyone. Just yesterday in my church a one year old passed away suddenly with no explanation. Do you think God did this or willed it to happen? No! this is a result of sin in the world. This was never God's plan, this breaks the heart of God. And he promises that one day very very soon all will be restored and made like it was in the beginning "very good" He want's for you to endure til the end and trust him so that you can live wth him forever where there is no sin, sickness, death, disease, crime, hatred and the like. How is he not Good is what I would ask?
Hell, the bible says was reserved for the "devil and his angels" it was never meant for us. But all of those who reject his salvation will end up there because again, God is a just God and the punishment for offending (doing wrong) to a holy and righteous God is Hell - and another misconception about hell I see you have is that there will be eternal pain - though it is eternal it is not what you see on TV where someone is burning up forever and ever. The bible teaches that they will be destroyed in the flames and then that's it. Your "soul" however will be eternally separated from Him in eternal darkness.
The only "view of God" I have is a biblical one. And you should too. You shouldn't believe what others tell you, not even what Im telling you, you should read the word for yourself then I guarantee you will see a God who throughout all of the bible is constantly chasing after his children, loving them and they are constantly saying NO to him and rebelling against him. You and I would find it horrible if we saw a child who was constantly cursing and rebelling against parents who love him. So this is how it is with God. The bible calls him "Abba" which means "daddy" this is the name given to show the personal touch between a father and his child. Again, you have a major misconception of God and a poorly inaccurate view of the Father. Jesus was nothing but good in the gospel, he was full of love and mercy, would you agree? Well Jesus said "if you have seen the father, then you have seen me, for the father and I are one"
and you said regarding the mega church pastor;
"His idea is that when Jesus sacrificed himself it was for everyone, period. This I guess is the universalist view."
Yes this is an inaccurate view of the bible and teaches that you can basically be "carnal" and sin all you want because Christ died for us all.
The bible does not teach this. Paul says that since God is full of grace when we sin does this mean we should sin more so that God would give us more grace? "By no means!" he says, because we are not to abuse the grace of God. And Jesus says "to him who believes....." and "if he endures to the end......." implying that only those who choose to accept the grace and salvation of God will be saved. and those who reject it will not
I implore you to look into these things because if I'm right and you are wrong then your eternity is at risk. You at least owe it yourself to look into this. If you just brush this under the carpet then you have rejected the salvation of God. You will be like the person hanging off the cliff by one hand reaching out for help in fear of falling. God drops a rope for you (Jesus) and you say no and fall. Did God send you to your death or did you reject his help? In my opinion someone who is hanging off of a cliff shouldn't be in any position to negotiate how they be saved. they should see the rope and rejoice that there is a way out/up
I wish that if you were willing, you would ask god that if he is real, he would make himself known to you and more importantly make it so that you are known by him. And then read the book of John.
All the other stuff like evolution, accuracy in the scriptures etc... will all be revealed to you by God, for he will give you insite into all these things.
Joe
Merry Christmas to you and your loved ones. Have a wonderful day.
Same to you. Thank you very much. I hope you and your family enjoyed this day and didn't eat too much food!
Joe
I could respond to other parts of your response to my first comment, but I don't think it would be helpful.
There is one minor part I will respond to, where you say this:
"Do you understand that you are not an atheist and that there are no such thing as an atheist? For you to say there is no God you would have to have all knowledge in the world and universe and beyond and neither you or I have that. So for your statement to be true you would need to be God yourself having all omniscience."
When you say there is no such thing as an atheist you have a particular definition of atheism in mind, you are assuming that there is no other definition, and you are assuming that all atheists or non-believers make a claim that is the same as your definition.
Actually there is a scale of definitions. My dictionary says that an atheist is someone who denies or disbelieves in the existence of God or gods. This is a very limited definition, but there is a difference between denial and disbelief. Denial is sometimes called 'strong atheism' and disbelief 'weak atheism' (not great labels IMO). Weak atheism overlaps somewhat with agnosticism (again, depending on the definition of agnosticism being used). The bottom line is that it is perfectly possible to be an atheist and not claim that you know totally 100% that there are no gods in the whole of existence. All you have to do is to conclude that from what is currently known, there is no convincing basis for belief in the existence of God or any gods.
So I could call myself an atheist and be accurate because there is a definition of atheism that fits my thinking. But because some religious people argue using the most extreme definition, (probably one that is the least representative of actual atheists' ideas) it seems easier or more tactful to use the word 'nonbeliever' or 'atheist/agnostic'.
I made my decision based on less than 100% knowledge - but so did you, since you are also not omniscient.
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