Posted on 02/27/2015 9:51:00 AM PST by RnMomof7
Ping
It’s foolishness to those who are perishing, to those who do not embrace God’s grace and salvation through the cross of Jesus Christ.
??
We are saved by the Cross and Jesus’ death on it.
These same scoffers that can’t believe God would inhabit a man will readily accept that man evolved from small creatures all by itself and it just happened. They have far greater faith than I.
For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son; much more, being reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.Just a clarification as to what purposes the death and resurrection serve.
— Romans 5:10, Douay-Rheims Bible
Even before the “foolishness of the Cross” ... it starts with the “foolishness of the Bible”. That’s where it all starts for all those who think it’s all foolish. It always comes back to THAT.
In other words, you can’t even “get to the foolishness of the Cross” until you pass through the “foolishness of the Bible” ... :-) ...
That’s why I always tell Christians to start here ... below. I just posted this earlier, in another thread.
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We need to instill the following (below) into all Christians, and then the understanding that Creation in Genesis was indeed God’s handiwork in Six Days (actually longer than necessary for what God is able to do, if he wanted), and then for Christians to understand that, yes indeed, the Worldwide Flood did happen, exactly as the Bible says.
Get those three things down pat, and then Christians can go from there.
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Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy
http://www.bible-researcher.com/chicago1.html
Background
The “Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy” was produced at an international Summit Conference of evangelical leaders, held at the Hyatt Regency O’Hare in Chicago in the fall of 1978. This congress was sponsored by the International Council on Biblical Inerrancy. The Chicago Statement was signed by nearly 300 noted evangelical scholars, including James Boice, Norman L. Geisler, John Gerstner, Carl F. H. Henry, Kenneth Kantzer, Harold Lindsell, John Warwick Montgomery, Roger Nicole, J. I. Packer, Robert Preus, Earl Radmacher, Francis Schaeffer, R. C. Sproul, and John Wenham.
The ICBI disbanded in 1988 after producing three major statements: one on biblical inerrancy in 1978, one on biblical hermeneutics in 1982, and one on biblical application in 1986. The following text, containing the “Preface” by the ICBI draft committee, plus the “Short Statement,” “Articles of Affirmation and Denial,” and an accompanying “Exposition,” was published in toto by Carl F. H. Henry in God, Revelation And Authority, vol. 4 (Waco, Tx.: Word Books, 1979), on pp. 211-219. The nineteen Articles of Affirmation and Denial, with a brief introduction, also appear in A General Introduction to the Bible, by Norman L. Geisler and William E. Nix (Chicago: Moody Press, rev. 1986), at pp. 181-185. An official commentary on these articles was written by R. C. Sproul in Explaining Inerrancy: A Commentary (Oakland, Calif.: ICBI, 1980), and Norman Geisler edited the major addresses from the 1978 conference, in Inerrancy (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1980).
Clarification of some of the language used in this Statement may be found in the 1982 Chicago Statement on Biblical Hermeneutics
The Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy
Preface
The authority of Scripture is a key issue for the Christian church in this and every age. Those who profess faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior are called to show the reality of their discipleship by humbly and faithfully obeying God’s written Word. To stray from Scripture in faith or conduct is disloyalty to our Master. Recognition of the total truth and trustworthiness of Holy Scripture is essential to a full grasp and adequate confession of its authority.
The following Statement affirms this inerrancy of Scripture afresh, making clear our understanding of it and warning against its denial. We are persuaded that to deny it is to set aside the witness of Jesus Christ and of the Holy Spirit and to refuse that submission to the claims of God’s own Word which marks true Christian faith. We see it as our timely duty to make this affirmation in the face of current lapses from the truth of inerrancy among our fellow Christians and misunderstandings of this doctrine in the world at large.
This Statement consists of three parts: a Summary Statement, Articles of Affirmation and Denial, and an accompanying Exposition. It has been prepared in the course of a three-day consultation in Chicago. Those who have signed the Summary Statement and the Articles wish to affirm their own conviction as to the inerrancy of Scripture and to encourage and challenge one another and all Christians to growing appreciation and understanding of this doctrine. We acknowledge the limitations of a document prepared in a brief, intensive conference and do not propose that this Statement be given creedal weight. Yet we rejoice in the deepening of our own convictions through our discussions together, and we pray that the Statement we have signed may be used to the glory of our God toward a new reformation of the Church in its faith, life, and mission.
We offer this Statement in a spirit, not of contention, but of humility and love, which we purpose by God’s grace to maintain in any future dialogue arising out of what we have said. We gladly acknowledge that many who deny the inerrancy of Scripture do not display the consequences of this denial in the rest of their belief and behavior, and we are conscious that we who confess this doctrine often deny it in life by failing to bring our thoughts and deeds, our traditions and habits, into true subjection to the divine Word.
We invite response to this statement from any who see reason to amend its affirmations about Scripture by the light of Scripture itself, under whose infallible authority we stand as we speak. We claim no personal infallibility for the witness we bear, and for any help which enables us to strengthen this testimony to God’s Word we shall be grateful.
— The Draft Committee
A Short Statement
1. God, who is Himself Truth and speaks truth only, has inspired Holy Scripture in order thereby to reveal Himself to lost mankind through Jesus Christ as Creator and Lord, Redeemer and Judge. Holy Scripture is God’s witness to Himself.
2. Holy Scripture, being God’s own Word, written by men prepared and superintended by His Spirit, is of infallible divine authority in all matters upon which it touches: it is to be believed, as God’s instruction, in all that it affirms: obeyed, as God’s command, in all that it requires; embraced, as God’s pledge, in all that it promises.
3. The Holy Spirit, Scripture’s divine Author, both authenticates it to us by His inward witness and opens our minds to understand its meaning.
4. Being wholly and verbally God-given, Scripture is without error or fault in all its teaching, no less in what it states about God’s acts in creation, about the events of world history, and about its own literary origins under God, than in its witness to God’s saving grace in individual lives.
5. The authority of Scripture is inescapably impaired if this total divine inerrancy is in any way limited or disregarded, or made relative to a view of truth contrary to the Bible’s own; and such lapses bring serious loss to both the individual and the Church.
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The actual core statement follows the introductory remarks (which are above). Go to the link for the core document!
Feeling Foolish? BEEP!
If I think of something as foolishness I tend to just ignore it. These people go out of their way to mock Christianity and Christians. Dawkins and his breed of professional atheists are especially obsessed with castigating belief. Why? If they’re right and this physical existence is all there is then what’s the big deal when someone else believes differently and lives a kindly life because of it. I know there’s a monetary gain when they can sell a book, but it takes some passion and a lot of effort to write the damned thing. The raw hatred that drips from their words comes from someplace and it’s not a good or healthy locale.
For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness. / And again, The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain.
Until people appreciate that Christ is God voluntarily stooped into humanity to lovingly pick up the burden of everyone willing to allow Him to (as many will refuse, deeming their pride enough to carry them), all this other stuff might as well be blah blah blah and it is pointless.
Great things come in small packages.
Our problem is our pride. The answer is God’s love.
A Christ crucified and the message of the cross is a offence to those who trust in their own self righteious works and keeping the law.
You said ... “If I think of something as foolishness I tend to just ignore it. These people go out of their way to mock Christianity and Christians.”
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NOTE ... “these people” are ALSO FReepers, and these FReepers don’t simmply ignore it ... they go OUT OF THEIR WAY to do exactly that, as you say.
It’s ACTUALLY going on with me, right at this very moment, with another FReeper, who CANNOT AVOID hassling and haranguing and obsessing over it! ... LOL ...
AND ... there are quite a few FReepers in that category, too!
Some people do not want to live and let live. They want to personally dominate.
Yes, including a number of FReepers like that, too ... LOL ...
I’ve found that to be the case on several issues. The issues where there are FReepers who want to DOMINATE and not “live and let live” ... are on these issues that I’ve found out about personally ...
(1) About the Bible (it’s inerracy and authority), about Jesus and Him being the ONLY way to Salvation.
(2) About God having created everything, per the Six Days of Creation and not according to the Theory of Evolution.
(3) AND ... even on the subject area of Apple Products, and INSISTING that those who pick and use those products are IDIOTS and then, they go on those threads and HARANGUE all those other FReepers who use those products. It’s so amazing that I call them APPLE-HATER TROLLS (and there is a specific group of them).
THIS seems to be some sort of SICKNESS on the part of some FReepers ... :-) ...
1Co 2:14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
That “not” and that “neither” are absolute negations. “Can” is in the sense of being possibly able. “Know” is in the sense of to perceive or understand.
Just to be clear: we’re ALL of us God-hating sinners. Except for the grace of God, we who profess faith would have remained in our sin.
Even so, we who profess faith must repent daily that we still “hate” God, insofar that we choose our our way, plans, desires.
As my dear mom was found of saying: “dear Lord Jesus, come and deliver us from this body of death...”
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