and, ha touche`(shazeep). that is just poor communication, maybe; i am always open to other interpretations, even if i might pick at them. heck, i'm pretty convinced that the world is getting worse lol.
i think that 'the correct interpretation and application of scripture, and what makes them the correct, definitive, and absolute right with all others being wrong' belongs solely to the Holy Spirit, and that none of us needs an intercessory there. at the same time, when i see what strikes me as apostasy posted, i would consider it irresponsible to not reflect where Scripture might disagree, and let the reader determine for themselves. And welcome any further rebuttal.
i was raised Pentecostal, more or less, and most of us would admit that the movement attracts a rather legalistic contingent that may be said to represent the movement as a whole, at least to an extent. judgement is rife. this does not mean that these people do not fear God and love Christ, but that any approach has its pitfalls, and these are mirrored in the popular opinion of the movement.
Each one must determine it for themselves, with the input of a multitude of counselors, wherein is safety, since everyone must be fully persuaded in their own minds. With a healthy outlook that our souls are on the line, and eternity is on the line, in godly fear, we should be very careful and sincere as can be. And approach God in faith to help us understand by the leading of His Spirit. And when others claim a different interpretation than the one we have, we keep in mind that they may be right and may be used of God to correct us, or they may be wrong. Either way, we tread carefully about this and have faith that God will direct. We always maintain carefulness and openness for correction while not falling for anyone who convincingly presents their views.
Everyone should just let the Holy Spirit guide them into all truth. Problem solved.
__________________
Hebrews 13:23 Know ye that our brother Timothy is set at liberty
And would you worship a god like this because you love him or because you are afraid not to?
How can the same God that commands us to love and forgive our enemies, kill and torture His? It would give ultimate meaning to he phrase "Absolute power corrupts absolutely"
I'm not talking about things that we don't understand, or things that happened because we live in a fallen world where we are given free will. I get that bad things happen to good people, etc. It's when things that we universally acknowledge as being evil are called Holy because someone says that God told them to do it. If God wanted to give the Jews the promised land, and wanted to clear out the people in it. God could have have done it himself. He could have created a new land out of nothing, and placed in the middle of all the other populated lands. He could have made an island rise up out of the sea....
I am fully reconciled to and love the very God who saved me, even though in times past, He unleashed a terribly fury upon others, and will do so again. I fear Him, as well, as well I should.
Before God was Savior, however, He was Creator.
He has absolute, SOVEREIGN control and right over everything He creates, just as much as an author does over his or her novel.
You may think it immoral or unjust, but note again what Brother Lafon has written.
Do you let your child lecture you on your judgment as a parent? Or do you set rules and boundaries for your child that you yourself do not obey because they do not apply to you?
Are you then unjust and immoral because you sovereignly supercede the rules, obligations, and boundaries you place on the child of your own creation?
Further, you have to look into the past a bit more to see why God sent Israel into Palestine with a sword. It wasn't genocide. It was capital punishment for inhuman wickedness on a national level.
And not just subjective wickedness, but actual wickedness, up to and including human sacrifice, especially of children.
If someone in your neighborhood kidnapped your child and burned him/her alive in a Satanic ritual, would you want ultimate justice?
Of course you would! And would you judge the police, prosecutors, judge, and jury immoral murderers if they sentence that person to death? Would you think that the man who pulled the switch or injected the chemical was an outrageous savage?
Not at all. You would see them all as righteous instruments of justice.
So why is God and the nation of Israel judged so unfairly? They were, in principle, the exact same thing.
__________________
For anyone devoted to His fear:
Who determines the correct interpretation and application of scripture, and what makes them the correct, definitive, and absolute right with all others being wrong?
Isn't obvious?
We are the ones, individually speaking, who determine "the correct interpretation and application of scripture".
We have free will, don't we?
We speak what we believe. We consciously choose what we believe, doctrinally speaking. We take a position on any verse of Scripture. But we wouldn't take such a position if we didn't think it was correct, would we?
What makes us correct is if and when the Lord vindicates our interpretation and application. This is what the Lord said vindicated His teachings.
If the Lord does not so vindicate, then the interpretation and application was and is wrong.
__________________
For anyone devoted to His fear:
I am fully reconciled to and love the very God who saved me, even though in times past, He unleashed a terribly fury upon others, and will do so again. I fear Him, as well, as well I should.
Before God was Savior, however, He was Creator.
He has absolute, SOVEREIGN control and right over everything He creates, just as much as an author does over his or her novel.
You may think it immoral or unjust, but note again what Brother Lafon has written.
Do you let your child lecture you on your judgment as a parent? Or do you set rules and boundaries for your child that you yourself do not obey because they do not apply to you?
Are you then unjust and immoral because you sovereignly supercede the rules, obligations, and boundaries you place on the child of your own creation?
Further, you have to look into the past a bit more to see why God sent Israel into Palestine with a sword. It wasn't genocide. It was capital punishment for inhuman wickedness on a national level.
And not just subjective wickedness, but actual wickedness, up to and including human sacrifice, especially of children.
If someone in your neighborhood kidnapped your child and burned him/her alive in a Satanic ritual, would you want ultimate justice?
Of course you would! And would you judge the police, prosecutors, judge, and jury immoral murderers if they sentence that person to death? Would you think that the man who pulled the switch or injected the chemical was an outrageous savage?
Not at all. You would see them all as righteous instruments of justice.
So why is God and the nation of Israel judged so unfairly? They were, in principle, the exact same thing.
Imagine this speculative scenario:
You grow up in a brutal orphanage. You see no hope of ever getting out. You own nothing, and no one there but the other orphans care a lick about you.
In time, you learn that before they died, your parents left you a home to live in a state far away.
When you turn 18, you leave the orphanage and make your way to the home left for you.
When you get there, you find it overrun with gang-banging squatters who have turned into a crack house. You find out young girls are being prostituted in and out of the house, that people are dying of drug overdoses, that some have been murdered there, and who knows what else.
You are incensed. Your promised home, something you've never had your entire life, after a life of misery and despair, lies in near ruins.
What would you do, to what extremes would you go to, to see the home regained and transformed into a proper domicile?
If the mayor and police chief of the city tell you that they will raid the house, SWAT teams and all, and take down the drug dealers, will you stop them? Tell them no?
If when the police arrive and raid the home, 9 out of 10 of the drug dealing pimps and thugs get killed in the battle, are you going to mourn and weep over them and judge the police as unfair?
Or are you going to thank the mayor and police chief for finally giving you your long desired home?
Get the illustration?
The mayor is God, the police chief is the "captain of the Lord of Hosts", your parents who left you the house are Jacob and Rachel, the orphanage is Egypt, and you are Israel.
Now, I realize this only goes so far. The scope is massively different. But in principle, the idea is a parallel.
Sin, in all of its forms, is an offense to God. You must get a revelation of what it means for God to be holy. The wages of sin is death. Every human on the planet, has a law of sin in their members, active or not. All people, even children, will grow up and into sin. They will default their own eternal life and separate themselves from God, eventually. It IS GOING TO happen.
For God to order the deaths of sinners like the Philistines or Canaanites, or etc. is not some horrendous immoral act of God. It is the base line requirement for their sins. All the laws about capital punishment and etc. and any other instances in the Old or New Testament in which God commands the death of someone, is just.
Your sins, my sins, the sins of your neighbor next door, all demand justice against an eternal, holy God. The fact that God, by grace, in the "fulness of time" sent forth His Son to be the Savior of the whole world, to grant remission of sins that are past, present, and future through His death, burial, and resurrection, is such an awesome display of COMPASSION and LOVE, it boggles the mind that we who call ourselves Christians don't comprehend it better.
We who were dead in trespasses, aliens and foreigners to the covenant of promise, deserving only of divine wrath, have had the HIGH privilege and blessing of getting to meet the Lord, receive His Spirit, and be promised an eternal life in a joy-filled, beautify kingdom which has no end.
And all of that, yes, all of that, and so much more, was, and is given to us by *gasp* the God of the Old Testament.
__________________
For anyone devoted to His fear:
Everyone should just let the Holy Spirit guide them into all truth. Problem solved.
You always whittle the actual point I made down to something less.
__________________ ...MY THOUGHTS, ANYWAY.
"Many Christians do not try to understand what was written in a verse in the Bible. Instead they approach the passage to prove what they already believe."
Timmy makes it so even a caveman can understand it....LOL
(That was my favorite one)...LOL
But not a fair translation.
__________________ ...MY THOUGHTS, ANYWAY.
"Many Christians do not try to understand what was written in a verse in the Bible. Instead they approach the passage to prove what they already believe."
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