Christianity Under Fire

Group Think or Whosoever Will?
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Group Think or Whosoever Will?
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Transubstantiation or Unsubstantiated: If The Plain Sense Makes Sense...
DaVinci Code: Was Christ's Divinity and the Bible invented at the Council of Nicea?
Plain Sense Interpretation/P'shat: Christs Comings
Isaiah 53: Human Sacrifice?
Isaiah 53: Christ Has Risen!!
Who Hath Believed Our Report?
Isaiah 53: Christ Our Passover Lamb
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Chart comparing Israel to Messiah
Isaiah 53: The Suffering Messiah
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Are There Two Programs?
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When Did the Church Begin Pt. 2
Is America Cursed?
How and Why Christianity is Under Fire
Was Mary a Perpetual Virgin?
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Tribulation or Jacob's Trouble?
Jewish Wannabes and the Holidays
Christmas Under Fire: When Christians Attack
Is Celebrating Christmas Scriptural?
Was Iraq a Just War?
Category 7: The End of the World
If It Believes, Then Waddles and Quacks like a Christian it is a....
Why Homosexuality Should Be Confronted and Exposed
The Doctrine Of Eternal Security-Can You Lose Your Salvation?
Does the Soul Sleep?
Did Jews Kill Jesus?...Hear What Some Jews Have to Say
Some Unscriptural Teachings of the Catholic Church
Arguments That Catholics Use
Pantribulationism: Are There Two Programs Going On?
Before and After
Pantribulationism: What A Day That Will Be!!!!
Definite Article Theology: The Way
Pantribulationism: Extrabiblical Nonsense
My Old Ship, the USS Shreveport Assisting Hurricane Victims
Pantribulationism: Should I Stay or Should I Go?
Trinity of God and Trichotomy of man: Definite Article Theology
Definite Article Theology
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Straining Out Gnats, Majoring on the Minors
Jewish Wannabes and Eschaholics
When Jewish Wannabes Attack What They Don't Understand
How Jewish Wannabes Attack and How to Identify Them
Historical Method and Homosexuality
If the Plain Sense Makes Sense: Christ's Coming
If the Plain Sense Makes Sense: Evolution
The Silliness of Jack Chick
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Communism and Islam -vs- the Faith of America's Founding Fathers
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Wrongly Dividing the Word of Truth
Let's Worship the Lord
Faith Under Fire Television Show and Website
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Good News: How To Fight Terrorism
Prophecies Yet To Be Fulfilled: Zechariah 12:10-14
Are You Happy?
When Jewish Wannabes Attack the Bible
Why Jewish Wannabes Attack
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You're A Hopeless ....
Preterism Versus Dispensationalism
What's Love Got To Do With It?
When Jewish Wannabes Attack!
Preterism and Calvinism?
Who Do Men Say That I Am?
Signs You Are Doing Something Right
Ivory Tower Theologians and more about me
Satan the Counterfeiter
Saved By Race or By Grace?
Wanna Know Some Secrets?
Distortions of the Resurrection
Apostles Today?
Message and Ministry of Paul compared to the twelve
Maxwell House...Good For Your Desktop
The Feminization of Christianity
Absurd World Views
Religion versus Relationship
The Mysteries Revealed
Replacement Theology
How did the Tribes and Books get Lost?
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Should Christians Observe the Sabbath?
The Power of One
Be Thankful
Group Think and the Jew
You Must Be Born Again!!
Tribute to a Friend
Who's That Babe in the Manger: Does it matter
President Bush and the Movie: Unbreakable
Having a Form of Godliness
The Natural Supernatural Connection
Spiritually Challenged Skeptics
Speaking or Praying to the Dead
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The Preterist's False Hope
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How can we still hang onto our segregated and specialized fortress philosophies in light of who Christ is and what He did on the cross? It is ironic that Jesus Christ died on the cross to break down the barriers between Jew and Gentile and the subgroups and then the modern church creates all kinds of excuses, programs, philosophies and strategies to divide and segregate these groups again. This modern approach is really the refusal to accept the 'whole counsel of God' that the apostle Paul was commanded to preach.

Group Think in the Bible
 
 
"5 These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: "Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. 6 Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel. 7 As you go, preach this message: 'The kingdom of heaven is near.'" (Matthew 10:5-7)
 
 
"8 For God, who was at work in the ministry of Peter as an apostle to the Jews, was also at work in my ministry as an apostle to the Gentiles. 9 James, Peter and John, those reputed to be pillars, gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship when they recognized the grace given to me. They agreed that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the Jews." (Galatians 2:8,9)
 
Ever after acknowledging the sinfulness of all (including the Jew-Acts 15), the twelve still went to the Jews and Paul to the Gentiles, really all.
 
Group Think and Specialized Ministry:
 
Specialized Ministry has no scriptural support unless we apply the strategy of the twelve to Israel.
 
This was not the apostle Paul's strategy, who went to all.
 
"1 In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Grecian Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food. 2 So the Twelve gathered all the disciples together and said, "It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables. 3 Brothers, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them 4 and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word." 5 This proposal pleased the whole group. They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit; also Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas from Antioch, a convert to Judaism." (Acts 6 and 7)
 
"To the Jew..." created a Group Think Mentality, and a feeling of superiority among the Jews.
 
This resulted in other groups being neglected.
 
In this case the Greek Speaking Jews (Grecians), were possibly being discriminated against. Group Think/Segregated and Specialized Ministry leads to discrimination.
 
The Stoning of Stephen would lead to God, 'concluding all in unbelief, so that He might have mercy on all.', eventually making Group Think and Specialized Ministry unnecessary.
 
Cliques were prominent. This happens today as well when churches use target group strategies in ministry rather than 'the gospel of grace' to all.
 
 
"Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, 2 Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied.  " (1 Peter 1)
 
Works Oriented:
 
"James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting. ...14 What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, 16 And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit? 17 Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone" (James 1:1; 2:14ff)
 
The Message to Israel included works.
 
"36 Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.

37 Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? 38 Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. 39 For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call." (Acts 2:38ff)

 
 
This Separation of Israel from the Body of Christ continued in scripture and unless we want to go outside scripture to show an ending to this Group Think Mentality, with the Destruction of the Temple in A.D. 70., we must therefore conclude that there were two programs going on.
 
But the Delay, signals a temporary setting aside of the program for Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles are come in.
 
"20 And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh. 21 Then let them which are in Judaea flee to the mountains; and let them which are in the midst of it depart out; and let not them that are in the countries enter thereinto. 22 For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled. 23 But woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck, in those days! for there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people. 24 And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, UNTIL the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. " (Luke 21:20-24; KJV)
 
"25 For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in." (Romans 11; NIV)
 
When the 'fulness of the Gentiles are come in' then the program for Israel will resume.

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Whosoever Will
 
The Mysteries/Two Become One:
 
"16 And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, (Two Become One) justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, (Acts 13:46 ff) believed on in the world, received up into glory." (1 Timothy 3:16; KJV)
 
"25  I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part UNTIL the full number of the Gentiles has come in. 26 And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: "The deliverer will come from Zion; he will turn godlessness away from Jacob. 27 And this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins." 28 As far as the gospel is concerned, they are enemies on your account; but as far as election is concerned, they are loved on account of the patriarchs, 29 for God's gifts and his call are irrevocable. 30 Just as you who were at one time disobedient to God have now received mercy as a result of their disobedience, 31 so they too have now become disobedient in order that they too may now receive mercy as a result of God's mercy to you. 32 For God has bound all men over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all." (Two Become One in condemnation and salvation-Romans 11:24-32; Ephesians 2:14-17 NIV)
 
Transition:
 
"22 This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus." (Romans 3:22-24)
 
"45 When the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and talked abusively against what Paul was saying. 46 Then Paul and Barnabas answered them boldly: "We had to speak the word of God to you first. Since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles. 47 For this is what the Lord has commanded us: "'I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.'" 48 When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and honored the word of the Lord; and all who were appointed for eternal life believed. .... At Iconium Paul and Barnabas went as usual into the Jewish synagogue. There they spoke so effectively that a great number of Jews and Gentiles believed. 2 But the Jews who refused to believe stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brothers." (Acts 13:46-14:2)
 
"44 While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message. 45 The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles. 46 For they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God. Then Peter said, 47 "Can anyone keep these people from being baptized with water? They have received the Holy Spirit just as we have." 48 So he ordered that they be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked Peter to stay with them for a few days. " (Acts 10:44-48)
 
Personal Transitions:
 
"5 One man considers one day more sacred than another; another man considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. 6 He who regards one day as special, does so to the Lord. He who eats meat, eats to the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who abstains, does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God. " (Romans 14)
 
The transition from Peter's message to 'the whole counsel of God' given to Paul may be a personal transition not a transition we can see in scripture.
 
 
"Now to him who is able to establish you by my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past, 26 but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God, so that all nations might believe and obey him-- 27 to the only wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ! Amen." (Romans 16:25-27)
 
Argument From Silence?
 
Silence settles the Sabbath and Baptism Question.
 
We must conclude that there is a reason that Peter preached baptism to the Jews but later Paul didn't include that for Salvation to the ones he preached to.
 
Though Paul still did include baptism after salvation.
 
Silence tells us something.
 
Principles are established by whether they are consistently taught throughout scripture. If not, then silence tells us something specific.
 
Non Dispies make feeble attempts to explain away Peters preaching of Baptism for salvation, to the Jews.
 
Paul's gospel primarily included not excluded previous messages.
 
Examples: Baptism and the Lords Supper still were and are in effect in the gospel of grace.
 
However, in the transition, baptism was after salvation not the cause of it.
 
Also in the transition it was no longer to the Jew first but to all.
 
Compare Romans 1:16 to Romans 3:24
 
Specialized Ministry follows the pattern of the twelve to Israel, not the apostle Paul to all.
 
Specialized Ministry, creates cliques in the 'Purpose Driven Church' that simply should NOT be a part of the 'whole counsel of God'. (Acts 20:25-30)
 
It is the sinfulness of all (including Israel), being demonstrated through the crucifixion of Jesus and the stoning of Stephen that broke down any walls between Jew and Gentile.
 
This is why 'to the Jew first' no longer applies.
 
Now Knowing The sinfulness of all and the universal truths that apply to all, how can we then create clique ministries that minister to particular groups, rather than to all?
 
Though presented as modern ministry, specialized ministry is really old school.
 
Bj Maxwell
 
11/27/2006
11/28/2006
Copyright ©
 

Group Think Or Whosoever Will:

A Thorough Examination of The Mysteries Proves That Divine Election To The Exclusion of the Free Will Of Man Is A Myth.

Calvinism Is But Another Way People Divide People Into Haves And Have Nots.

Calvinism Is Jus Another Manifestation Of Group Think.

If God's Having Mercy On All Is Not Really All, He Should Have Said So.

In Fact He Has Said Quite The Opposite, And A Study of The Word 'All' In Scripture Makes God's Intentions Plain As Plain Can Be.

His Absolute And Universal Declarations Make Group Think A Thing Of The Past.

Previously It Was Group Think 'Jew First' (Romans 1:16; Acts 13:46; Matthew 10:5ff), Now It Is About A Body, Which Consists Of Individual Jews And Gentiles.

What Is Coveniently Glossed Over By Calvinists Is Related To The Mysteries.

Just As We Wouldn't Argue For The Deity of Christ, To The Exclusion Of His Humanity So Should We Present The Rrrrrrrrrrest Of The Story Regarding The Other Resultant Mysteries.

"16 And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory." (1 Tim. 3:16)

Notice 'God Manifest In The Flesh' Is About Both Sides i.e. God And Flesh.

Next, 'preached unto the Gentiles' Is Including Gentiles In This Mystery.

So Connected To Christ Being God In The Flesh, The Ultimate Mystery, Is The Hidden Plan of Including Gentiles.

They Are Linked.

Within The Person of Christ Is The Plan And Both Are Before The Foundation of The World.

The Body Of Christ (Church), Is The Result of The Body Of Christ Being Crucified For Us. (Ephesians 2:14-17)

So It Is Silly To Speak Of God's Predestination, Which Is According To His Will, And Neglect What That Will Is And His Reasons.

As Many Calvinists Will Even Agree, God's Decisions Are Not Arbitrary.

But This Admission Is Their Undoing Because Not Only Are Gods Choices For A Reason But They Are Inclusive, Revealed In Scripture, Christocentric And Not Separate From His Foreknowledge.

"14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. 15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. 19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross....26 the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the saints. 27 To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory." (Colossians 1)

The Plan To Include And Choose The Gentiles Was A Secret/Mystery To Us Until The Death Of The Almighty , Which Set The Plan In Motion. His Death 'Reconciles To Himself All Things'.

The Election Of God Is Not Any More About Only One Side Than The Hypostatic Union Of Christ Was Only About His Deity.

Though A Lesser Subject The Calvinist Is Employing The Same Strategy The Gnostics Are In Seeing The Divine Side But Neglecting The Human/Flesh Side Of The 'Mystery Of Godliness.' (1 Timothy 3:16)

"8 All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast--all whose names have not been written in the book of life belonging to the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world." (Revelation 13:8)

Now In Our Actuality, Was Christ Slain From The Creation Of The World?

"For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will-- 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace 8 that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. 9 And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ..." (Ephesians 1)

Now In Our Actuality, Were We Individually Chosen Before We Chose To Follow Christ?

Or Is This About Gentiles As A Whole Being Given An Opportunity.

The Plan Hidden Before The World Was Specifically Christ, And Whatever Is Connected To Christ Is A Part Of The Eternal Plan.

Now Here Is The Plan. The Eternally Preexistent One In Whom Are Hidden All The Treasures Of Wisdom And Knowledge, (Colossians 2:3) Put Into Effect The Eternally Preexistent Plan Because of His Death from the creation of the world And Prophesied In Isaiah. (Isaiah 53)

He Was The Plan.

His Foreknowledge Accompanies His Predestination.

No Choice Is Made Apart From His Omniscience.

He Has Chosen The 'Foolish And Despised Ones To Confound The Wise.' (1 Cor. 1:27)

He Would Have To Know Who The Foolish And Despised Ones Are Before He Could Choose.

Predestination Must Take Into Account His Foreknowledge Of Things And One Of Those Things Is The Rejection Of Messiah By Israel And Our Inclusion In The Plan.

"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified." (Romans 8)

So God the Father Knew 'Before The Foundation Of The World' (Ephesians 1:4) That He Would Send His Son Who Was 'Slain From The Foundation Of The World' (Rev. 13:8) And That His Death Would Be Due To The Universality Of Sin And Unbelief, Which God Always Had Foreknowledge Of (Romans 11:32), So That He Might Have Mercy On All.

His Choosing Is Corporate And Is Not Irresistable Or Made Apart From His Foreknowledge Anymore That Choosing 'The Foolish Things' Means That Every Foolish Person Will Confound The Wise. (1 Corinthians 1:27)

When He Speaks of Choosing, He Is Speaking Of Choosing The Gentiles (As A Whole ) Due To The Unbelief Of The Jews, As A Whole. (Acts 13:46ff)

"Then Paul and Barnabas answered them boldly: "We had to speak the word of God to you first. Since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles. 47 For this is what the Lord has commanded us: "'I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.'" 48 When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and honored the word of the Lord; and all who were appointed for eternal life believed." (Acts 13)

Enter The Next Mystery:

"I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in. 26 And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: "The deliverer will come from Zion; he will turn godlessness away from Jacob. 27 And this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins." (Romans 11)

Here The Jews Have Been Hardened In Part Because They Rejected And Crucified The Saviour (Acts 2:36; 1 Thess. 2:14-16)

This Makes Room For the Gentiles Whom God Have Chosen To Have Mercy On. (Romans 11:32)

He Didn't Irresistably Save Them Or We Would Have To Say That 'All Gentiles Will Be Saved.'

This Corporate Choosing Of Gentiles Is Directly Related To Israel's Not Choosing Messiah.

The Sacrifice Of The Actual Body Of Christ Resulted In The Forming Of The Spiritual Body Of Christ, Through Faith, Which Consists Of Individual Jews And Gentiles, Who Choose God Not Are Chosen Of God Because of Their Group Affiliation. (Ephesians 2:14-16, 19-21)

God Has Gone From Group Think (Matthew 10:5ff; Galatians :2:8,9; Romans 1:16) To Whosoever Will.

Also Check Out:

https://cuf5.tripod.com/id165.html

"Who Has Made The Two One..By Abolishing In His Flesh the law...His Purpose (Eternal Plan) To Create IN HIMSELF One New Man Out Of The Two...And In This One Body Reconcile Both Of Them To God Through The Cross..." (Ephesians 2)

One Never Means One At The Expense Of The Other.

https://cuf5.tripod.com/id167.html

"Surely you have heard about the administration of God's grace that was given to me for you, 3 that is, the mystery made known to me by revelation, as I have already written briefly. 4 In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, 5 which was not made known to men in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God's holy apostles and prophets. 6 This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus. 7 I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God's grace given me through the working of his power. 8 Although I am less than the least of all God's people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, 9 and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things. 10 His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, 11 according to his eternal purpose which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord. 12 In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence. 13 I ask you, therefore, not to be discouraged because of my sufferings for you, which are your glory." (Ephesians 3)

Could It Be Any Clearer.

My Exegesis Of This Passage Is Believe The Plain Sense Of This Passage.

What Was Before The Foundation Of The World Was Christ, His Death For Us, Our Corporate Choosing, And Finally Our Personal Placement With The Eternal One When We Believe.

Whosoever Will Is Not Just a Phrase But A NT Concept Established After God Declared All In Disobedience. (Romans 1-3; Acts 13:46ff)

All Are Sinners (Romans 3)

'In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 31 For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead." (Acts 17:30)

God Desires That All Be Saved (2 Peter 3:9)

He Will 'Draw All Men Unto Him' (John 12:32)

'Come Unto Me, All That Labor And Heavy Laden And I Will Give You Rest.' (Matthew 11:28)

'7 He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all men might believe. 8 He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. ' (John 1:7)

'32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all--how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33 Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. ' (Romans 8:32)

Christ Had Died For And Chosen Us All.

If All Are Sinners And Separated From God Then Christ Died For All And God Desires That All Believe And Be Saved.

Since This Is Scriptural Then Not Only Would It Be Unjust And Contradictory To Only Save Some And Damn Others But Nonsensical As Well, In Light Of What Has Already Been Written.

You Cannot Pick The Cookie Cutter Method of Interpretation, Which Leaves A Lot Of Leftover Dough Which One Cannot Fit Into Their Preconceived Notions.

32 For God has bound all men over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all.

33 Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! (Romans 11)

God Has Already Revealed His Will For All To Be Saved, Now It Is For 'Whosoever Will'.

This Is The Plain Sense Of The Scripture, Any Exegesis That Says Otherwise Is Nonsense.

In The Mind Of The Father, We Are Saved From Eternity (Ephesians 1:4), The Mind of Christ When He Died For Us (Romans 5), The Holy Spirit When We Are Drawn, (Romans 6) In Our Spirits When We Believe, (John 3:3,16) Our Souls, When We Obey (James 1:21; James 2), In Our Bodies When We Are Resurrected. (1 Thess. 4:16,17; 1 Cor. 15:51,52)

Bj Maxwell

03/19/2007

Copyright ©

 
 

 

I have been seeing a current of thought in religious and secular circles that only serves to accentuate the stark contrast between the 'Whole Counsel of God' in the New Testament finalized in the apostle Pauls words, that is not in the other religions or in evolutionary thinking.

Before I tell you what it is, I want to post some of the arguments I have heard from the other side that can be easily answered by the teachings of the Bible.

 

Some Liberal Arguments:

 

"10 - You vigorously deny the existence of thousands of gods claimed by other religions, but feel outraged when someone denies the existence of yours.

9 - You feel insulted and "dehumanized" when scientists say that people evolved from other life forms, but you have no problem with the Biblical claim that we were created from dirt.

8 - You laugh at polytheists, but you have no problem believing in a Triune God.

 

4 - You believe that the entire population of this planet with the
exception of those who share your beliefs -- though excluding those in all rival sects - will spend Eternity in an infinite Hell of Suffering. And yet consider your religion the most "tolerant" and "loving."

http://www.vortexmind.net/index.php/2005-11-22-top-ten-signs-youre-a-fundamentalist-christian

 

"4 - People are giving thanks to WHO?

2 - Daycare centers are closed.

1 - Christmas celebrates a birth, not an abortion."

 

(Top Ten Reasons Liberals Hate the Holidays)

 

These statements and more will be dealt with in this message.

 

What common errors do these Liberal and Secular arguments promote?

It is the deindividuation of God and man.

 

" " (Deindividuation)

 

"The inconceivably complete identity of God is the paradigm of all personhood, at its very plurality is the foundation of all relatedness. Such is the 'image of God' in which we are made. In that light, the doctrine of the Trinity is not some facile mystification, but a straightforward statement of the multiple personhood of God ... If God is a Person, that ... translates into moral absolutes for us ... humanity's alienation from God has occurred at precisely that level of character and relationship. (1)"

 

(Dave Hunt, The Mysterious Trinity)

 

"Let Us Make Man in 'Our' image after 'Our' likeness." (Genesis 1:27)

 

"Before Abraham was, I Am." (John 8:58)

 

Only a Personal and Loving God can relate to his creatures, and humans that are in the image of God, have that personal quality as well, but that was marred because of the Fall.

 

No other religion or World View teaches this as emphatically Christianity does and most, not at all.

 

 

"But take Jesus Christ out of Christianity, and there would be nothing left. Biblical Christianity is not just a philosophy of life, nor an ethical standard, nor obedience to religious ritual. True Christianity is based on a vital, personal relationship with a Risen Founder who is our living Savior and Lord."

 

http://www.greatcom.org/resources/whoisjesusorig/lordliarlunatic.html

 

 

In Islam Allah, though this god's name means 'all compassionate' does not really love his creatures and the Muslim can never be sure of his salvation, unless he wages Jihad against the infidels.

 

" " ()

 

Every Cult/deviation or rejection of Christianity makes its followers eternally insecure, so that there is no surety of salvation from their god.

Only a constant insecurity and working ones way to a frightening God who is unpredictable.

 

This is a result of not understanding who God really is.

 

Their faith and life are only as good as the god they believe in.

The personal loving God, who from all eternity existed in three persons is the only being who can fulfill every need of loving and thinking human beings.

 

This personal and loving God desires fellowship with His creation. This can only happen if the personhood of God then man is a reality.

 

 

One can and should certainly see God as more than personal but not less than that.

 

Evolutionary Theory does not provide the rationale for a personal universe and the personal nature of man.

 

Evolutionary Theory must explain a design without a designer, living matter came from primordial and impersonal ooze and how the immaterial personal soul came into being through impersonal 'material' evolution.

The Genesis account doesn't say that we came only from dirt. That is only partly explains our physical nature.

 

Our immaterial nature (spirit and soul) came from the Triunity of God.

Evolutionary Theory if taken to its logical conclusion provides the most illogical and impersonal results because it is based on an impersonal and illogical starting point.

 

For if survival of the fittest is how we survive and evolve, then we are evolving into the most impersonal and unloving creatures who couldn't be trusted to be alone with Grandma.

 

Survival of the Fittest requires that we animals kill those unlike us and weed out all the weak ones (Abortion and Euthanasia), to ensure the development of our species.

 

Abortion and Euthanasia denies the personhood of the unborn and the elderly to justify their murders.

 

Some are already doing this.

 

If we can see the unborn, elderly or even our enemies as less than persons then we don't feel bad to do them harm.

 

We can do this by denying the obvious, being ignorant or exalting the preoccupation with our own selves.

 

If we are at least smart enough to admit that we have personalities/souls but are mere byproducts of the impersonal punyverse, then we must explain how an impersonal universe can produce personal beings that must practice impersonal and inhumane acts simply to survive in this evolutionary universe.

 

The Liberal uses 'evolutionary theory' to explain most everything.

You cannot watch a travel show, animal show, etc without hearing about how the earth is millions or billions of years old.

 

Most of these shows cannot even provide a shred of evidence for believing without question this old earth theory, which they base most of the rest of their logic on.

 

Even some believe that Aliens from outer space may just be advanced creatures that have had more time to evolve than us.

 

Would these aliens be friendly or be vicious creatures like the movie 'When Mars Attack'?

 

Well, if Evolutionary Theory is correct this is what Aliens would be like.

"Why should such 'highly evolved' beings act toward us mere 'worms' in any way other than in their own selfish interests? There is no evidence that evolution produces kindness, even in its highest forms, but exactly the opposite. A species doesn't survive long enough to reach godlike status by dealing fairly and compassionately with others. They would likely be even more self-serving that we are. They might keep some of us as pets or slaves, but their robots would be more efficient and cheaper to maintain, so most earthlings would be destroyed." (Occult Invasion, pg. 360, Hunt)

 

Some want to credit their punyverse with what the Personal Loving God has accomplished.

 

That would mean that there is no such thing as 'free will' because how could a mere process, produce beings that are more free and capable of noble acts than the universe that created them.

 

If one believes that the universe can actually produce loving and personal acts, the question would be how?

 

If their universe is not God, then how could it possess personal qualities?

 

"God is basic Fact or Actuality, the source of all other facthood. At all costs therefore He must not be thought of as a featureless generality. If He exists at all, He is the most concrete thing there is, the most individual, "organised and minutely articulated." He is unspeakable not by being indefinite but by being too definite for the unavoidable vagueness of language. The words incorporeal and impersonal are misleading, because they suggest that He lacks some reality which we posses. It would be safer to call His trans-corporeal, trans-personal." Miracles (New York: McMillan, 1952), p. 91."

 

You can even see a transition taking place in the Bible from Group Think to 'whosoever will' which appeals to individuals.

 

This of course was God's intention to go from an incomplete religion (Judaism), to a personal relationship of each individual to the Triunity of God.

 

Scripture goes from the 'Jew first' (Group Preference), to 'All' being offered the opportunity to commune with God.

 

Link: Group Think or Whosoever Will

 

At this page I demonstrate how the Bible goes from Group Think which contributes to deindividuation to the individual which promotes personhood and One Nation Under God, Individual.

 

"...A good many people nowadays say, "I believe in a God, but not in a personal God." They feel that the mysterious something which is behind all other things must be more than a person. Now the Christians quite agree. But the Christians are the only people who offer any idea of what a being that is beyond personality could be like. All the other people, though they say that God is beyond personality, really think of Him as something impersonal: that is, as something less than personal. If you are looking for something super-personal, something more than a person, then it is not a question of choosing between the Christian idea and the other ideas. The Christian idea is the only one on the market.

 

Again, some people think that after this life, or perhaps after several lives, human souls will be "absorbed" into God. But when they try to explain what they mean, they seem to be thinking of our being absorbed into God as one material thing is absorbed into another. They say it is like a drop of water slipping into the sea. But of course that is the end of the drop. If that is what happens to us, then being absorbed is the same as ceasing to exist. It is only the Christians who have any idea of how human souls can be taken into the life of God and yet remain themselves-in fact, be very much more themselves than they were before.

I warned you that Theology is practical. The whole purpose for which we exist is to be thus taken into the life of God. Wrong ideas about what that life is, will make it harder. And now, for a few minutes, I must ask you to follow rather carefully." (Mere Christianity, pgs. 160-165, C.S. Lewis)

 

Bj Maxwell

11/30/2006

Copyright ©

 

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"You know that in space you can move in three ways—to left or right, backwards or forwards, up or down. Every direction is either one of these three or a compromise between them. They are called the three Dimensions. Now notice this. If you are using only one dimension, you could draw only a straight line. If you are using two, you could draw a figure: say a square. And a square is made up of four straight lines. Now a step further. If you have three dimensions, you can then build what we call a solid body, say, a cube—a thing like a dice or a lump of sugar. And a cube is made up of six squares.

 

Do you see the point? A world of one dimension would be a straight line. In a two-dimensional world, you still get straight lines, but many lines make one figure. In a three-dimensional world, you still get figures but many figures make one solid body. In other words, as you advance to more real and more complicated levels, you do not leave behind you the things you found on the simpler levels: you still have them, but combined in new ways—in ways you could not imagine if you knew only the simpler levels.

 

Now the Christian account of God involves just the same principle. The human level is a simple and rather empty level. On the human level one person is one being, and any two persons are two separate beings—just as, in two dimensions (say on a flat sheet of paper) one square is one figure, and any two squares are two separate figures. On the Divine level you still find personalities; but up there you find them combined in new ways which we, who do not live on that level, cannot imagine. In God’s dimension, so to speak, you find a being who is three Persons while remaining one Being, just as a cube is six squares while remaining one cube. Of course we cannot fully conceive a Being like that: just as, if we were so made that we perceived only two dimensions in space we could never properly imagine a cube. But we can get a sort of faint notion of it. And when we do, we are then, for the first time in our lives, getting some positive idea, however faint, of something super-personal—something more than a person. It is something we could never have guessed, and yet, once we have been told, one almost feels one ought to have been able to guess it because it fits in so well with all the things we know already.

 

You may ask, "If we cannot imagine a three-personal Being, what is the good of talking about Him?" Well, there isn’t any good talking about Him. The thing that matters is being actually drawn into that three-personal life, and that may begin any time—tonight, if you like.

...And that is how Theology started. People already knew about God in a vague way. Then came a man who claimed to be God; and yet he was not the sort of man you could dismiss as a lunatic. He made them believe Him. They met Him again after they had seen Him killed. And then, after they had been formed into a little society or community, they found God somehow inside them as well: directing them, making them able to do things they could not do before. And when they worked it all out they found they had arrived at the Christian definition of the three-personal God.

 

This definition is not something we have made up; Theology is, in a sense, experimental knowledge. It is the simple religions that are the made-up ones. When I say it is an experimental science "in a sense," I mean that it is like the other experimental sciences in some ways, but not in all. If you are a geologist studying rocks, you have to go and find the rocks. They will not come to you, and if you go to them they cannot run away. The initiative lies all on your side. They cannot either help or hinder. But suppose you are a zoologist and want to take photos of wild animals in their native haunts. That is a bit different from studying rocks. The wild animals will not come to you: but they can run away from you. Unless you keep very quiet, they will. There is beginning to be a tiny little trace of initiative on their side.

 

Now a stage higher; suppose you want to get to know a human person. If he is determined not to let you, you will not get to know him. You have to win his confidence. In this case the initiative is equally divided—it takes two to make a friendship.

 

When you come to knowing God, the initiative lies on His side. If He does not show Himself, nothing you can do will enable you to find Him. And in fact, He shows much more of Himself to some people than to others—not because He has favourites, but because it is impossible for Him to show Himself to a man whose whole mind and character are in the wrong condition. Just as sunlight, though it has no favourites, cannot be reflected in a dusty mirror as clearly as a clean one.

 

You can put this another way by saying that while in other sciences the instruments you use are things external to yourself (things like microscopes and telescopes), the instrument through which you see God is your whole self. And if a man’s self is not kept clean and bright, his glimpse of God will be blurred—like the Moon seen through a dirty telescope. That is why horrible nations have horrible religions: they have been looking at God through a dirty lens.

 

God can show Himself as He really is only to real men, and that means not simply to men who are individually good, but to men who are united together in a body, loving one another, helping one another, showing Him to one another. For that is what God meant humanity to be like; like players in one band, or organs in one body.

 

Consequently, the one really adequate instrument for learning about God, is the whole Christian community, waiting for Him together. Christian brotherhood is, so to speak, the technical equipment for this science—the laboratory outfit. That is why all these people who turn up every few years with some patent simplified religion of their own as a substitute for the Christian tradition are really wasting time. Like a man who has no instrument but an old pair of field glasses setting out to put all the real astronomers right. He may be a clever chap—he may be cleverer than some of the real astronomers, but he is not giving himself a chance. And two years later everyone has forgotten all about him, but the real science is still going on.

If Christianity was something we were making up, of course we could make it easier. But it is not. We cannot compete, in simplicity, with people who are inventing religions. How could we? We are dealing with Fact. Of course anyone can be simple if he has no facts to bother about." (Mere Christianity, pgs. 160-165, C.S. Lewis)