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Friday, April 29, 2011

No Literal Hell?

I have just been surfing a few Christian Forum sites and the things promoted by people naming the name of Christ amazes me. Over the years I have heard the name Rob Bell more than once and in seeking the wisdom of other Basics Grounded Teachers have avoided wasting my funds on the books he pushes as Christian. There is a post on one forum this morning that seeks? to equip other members of this particular forum for the upcoming debate that is, apparently, sure to come. I'm going to attempt to be kind here but the truth is that in his link I did not find the scriptures.By the scriptures, of course, I mean the Bible, the Word of God's personal revelation of Himself.

The book, it is reported by the poster, is concerning the lack of any real Hell. In all the copies of the Bible that I own Genesis 1:1 points out that it is Almighty God that created the Universe and all that it contains. And when we go to John 1:1-3 we learn that the Son of God, popularly known as God in the flesh and Jesus, is the Creator of all of this. As it is very popular to ignore the Bible and to read the Commentary instead, I'll limit this post, from here forward to that Commentary, the New Testament. In the Four Gospels, Jesus/God taught more on the turth and fact of Hell than He did on Heaven. If any of us then puts it forward that there is no such place as a literal Hell... we are guilty of calling God a liar!


I know that I will stand, what is popularly known as, the Bema Seat Judgment but I certainly never wish to even be near the Great White Throne Judgment and calling God a liar, directly or by inference, is one sure fire way to get there and to, experientially, find out that Hell is real and that it is never ending. Throughout the scriptures we find that God cannot tolerate sin in His presence and Jesus stated that he was 'the' way, 'the' way and 'the' life. (John 14:6) Not even that He was or might be one of the ways, He is The Way.(Emphasis mine.)



So my question is this, “Why do we believe that a Finite Man, created by God knows more that the Infinite Creator that has forever been?

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Faith!

ASV: Hebrews 11:6. And without faith it is impossible to be well-pleasing unto him ; for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that seek after him.

As I go to and I teach or attend classes at Church today I am deeply sorrowed and disappointed. In the Church Family it is estimated, by the optimistic, that ten to fifteen percent of the Church is saved and that the rest are there for their own agendas. If we look at past surveys that have been taken by independent but Christian Organizations the truth is much more glaring! The Barna Group is reported to have done a survey in the mid-eighties and before I was a Christian that put the number of saved at somewhere between one and two percent of the Church Family.

I was taught that the conditions for taking the Double Blind Survey was that the participants must be among the Faithful and that was defined as attending Church no less than three services each week. The questions concerned and were centered on the Basic Tenants of the Christian's relationship with their Savior. I do not recall all of them, nor do I any longer remember the exact percentages but they were at the very least, depressing! The questions I do recall were, 'Do you believe in the Virgin Birth? Do you believe Jesus died on the cross for your sins? And, Do you believe Jesus is returning to Rapture you?'

The groups in the different churches ranged from fifteen to twenty per-cent of each churches membership and the average range of people that answered yes to all of the basic tenants was less than ten per-cent. Ten per-cent of that group would translate into one and a half to two per-cent of the Church Family and I just must ask myself, “Why do they even bother to attend?” In my case I do not believe that Jesus will rapture me, I know it to be a fact! I also know all the rest to be true because it is recorded in my personal copies of the scriptures the Almighty God had recorded and preserved for me to read!

It is my prayer the you, the folks that read my ramblings on these forums and in my email list and on my blog are praying for God to increase your faith to the point that He has mine. So, aside from prayer, how did I get to this point? For the past twenty-one years I have made it a point to learn as much as God has shown me by reading through the Word of God in several translations. With prayer I have made myself and all that God has permitted me to hold, available for His Service and use. Because of my willingness God has grown my faith ad God walks and talks and uses me in His service and it has, in spite of my early years, been a wonderful life in His service.

Every man woman and child can have the same relationship! It begins with making yourself available to God and prayer for those you love and your neighbors. May God bless.

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Fear?

John 20:1 Now on the first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, while it was yet dark, unto the tomb, and seeth the stone taken away from the tomb. (ASV)

We, Christians, have just celebrated the resurrection of our LORD and it is my prayer that we would learn a few of the many lessons that are there to be taught in His resurrection. One of the most commonly needed and avoided is on fear. Before Jesus departed and before He was cruelly ailed to the cross, Jesus, who is God in the flesh of a man, gave a command to His followers:
John 14:27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be fearful. (ASV)

And yet, in spite of this I see fear manifested in the Brethren all the time. Folks, inside the Church Family speak constantly on matters such as where will I ever get enough money to take care of my wife and my children, what with the cost of gas and it causing everything to cost more but we aren't getting any raises in our pay?

And honestly, this is just the sort of thing our LORD was talking about. So, do we have the faith of Mary or of Paul and John? These men and women ha held tightly to the belief that Jesus was Who He said He was, they believed He was God. They also knew from attending services that God was eternal and yet Mary, Peter and John went to the tomb to begin attending, properly, to the dead body of God.

When Mary found the tomb empty, she went immediately to the men to tell them what she had seen and what she had concluded. When John out-ran Peter he was not sure of what to do next and Peter, old foot in the mouth Peter ran right past John to begin processing what he had been taught by Jesus in the light of the circumstances. But then it appears that te men left Mary and maybe the other women there alone as it seems to me that they walked back to their house, discussing what had happened and how it fit with what Jesus had taught them.

But then Mary, bless her sweet ad loving heart stood there weeping until Jesus spoke to her. As soon as Jesus dismissed her, she went, as fast as she could run to inform the e of what had happened and that she had spoken to and had touched Jesus! Mary knew that Jesus had been murdered on the cross and that the same fate was probably her destiny, after all the Disciples were huddled in the upper room with the doors and windows bared trying to figure what they should do when they would hear those Roman boots stomping out the cadence as they would come to arrest, force them into a trial ad then execute them, just as they had done to the LORD!

So I ask you, and I do not need the answer... you do, who have you told today? And. If you, truly, believe, why are you living with fear? And finally... who besides Satan is your fearful silence pleasing?