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 vehicle’s 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 ...
It's just a diversionary tactic when they don't wish to admit the truth.
Exactly. It's been that way for a long time.
It's just more stalling because they have no Scriptural rebuttal.
God picked a really fickle bunch of the self indulgent, didn't He?
I don't see the fruit in this line of reasoning for any party here.
Deuteronomy 4:37 pretty much explains why God chose who He did: "And because he loved thy fathers, therefore He chose their seed after them, and brought thee out in His sight with His mighty power out of Egypt"
Or a fuller picture stated a few chapters later:
Deuteronomy 7:6-8 "For you are a holy people to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth. The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples; but because the Lord loves you, and because He would keep the oath which He swore to your fathers, the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
Granted, the Jews were and still are a bunch of Reprobates, earning their condemnation in spades because they were more wicked than Nineveh (Mt 12:41), Ethiopia (v42) and Tyre and Sidon (11:20-21). The greatest enemies of the Church has always been the Jews, and throughout their existence they have always had a remarkable talent for talking themselves into ovens.
When God was giving the world an analogy to how rebellious and idolatrous the sons of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were, we got the all-to-vivid imagery of Hosea's Turbo-Slut wife, Gomer. Much of the characterization of Israel as a whore would make the must licentious and promiscuous porn star look downright chaste in comparison.
I would elaborate further but I don't need to be falsely labeled as an "anti-semite" by the weak minded in FR.
On the other hand, the Jewish people are overrepresented in the professions, in the patent offices, and among the financially well-to-do. When I need to have something done right, and cost isn't a factor, I always seem to end up at the office of someone of ethnic Jewish heritage - which is fine. For a people practically universally hated throughout the world, they do remarkably well.
Perhaps one could sum it up by saying, that generally speaking Jews are overachievers, unfortunately one all to common manifestation of their overachievement is in their opposition and hatred of Jesus Christ and His Church.
How this works out ultimately in God's plan? I defer to Deuteronomy 29:29 "The secret things belong to the LORD our God...". One thing is for certain, if God was looking for the most stubborn and rebellious people and least deserving people to love, He surely chose the right group to best exhibit His forbearance, love, patience and mercy.
The take-away from this is - no matter how rotten we are, no matter how depraved, wicked and sinful as individuals we can be, our LORD's Grace can still find us and save us from the Wrath to Come.
The take-away from this is - no matter how rotten we are, no matter how depraved, wicked and sinful as individuals we can be, our LORD's Grace can still find us and save us from the Wrath to Come.
AMEN! That is my perspective, too. Just as God's mercy may well cover any and all infants dying young, so, too, if He so wills, will the Jews be saved by grace.
‘While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.’
a sacred cow?
Perhaps that's the whole purpose of choosing he Jews. To show that NOBODY is beyond redemption and that it doesn't depend on us, our status, our faithfulness, our works of righteousness, our NOTHING....
It all depends on God and His love, and His faithfulness and His grace.
1 Corinthians 1:18-31 For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
For it is written,
"I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart."
Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.
For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.
But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.
And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, "Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord."
If we have died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he also will deny us; if we are faithless, he remains faithful—
for he cannot deny himself.
Amen
Well he didn't do that, exactly, IIRC. Not quite. He merely indicated (in a 'way past post) that belief in God is indistinguishable from belief in pink unicorns. In short, I gather belief itself is what's foolish in kosta's eyes.
And yet he seems to believe in himself and his methods. :^)
So go figure!!! LOL!!!
FWIW, I just figure our friend kosta is the classic snarling "dog in the manger": He can't eat the fodder; but he's determined to prevent all the other animals from eating it — even though their nourishment depends on it.
Thanks so much for writing, HarleyD!
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