Elephants in the Room

[votivesoul]

Originally Posted by n david

1) Yes, there is an enemy and there are evil spirits at play in the world. They do only what God allows.

Are you sure about that? You mean they aren't free moral agents attempting to ruin and wreck lives all the way to Gehenna, but are under orders from God to help take souls to hell and everlasting destruction?

I guess I'm one of those who challenge, dismiss, make fun or mock some of the exaggerated claims being made in recent posts on AFF. I do so because I believe they're just that, exaggerated claims.

For example, there was a post claiming that right now in America people are being forced to take COVID tests and, if positive, they're being taken away to a government-mandated facility with no visitors or being put under house arrest. The same post claimed you can't leave your house without submitting to a test; you're not allowed to associate with more than the gov approves and for only gov approved reasons. It claimed right now America is a "literal communist dictatorship."

It's this type of post that I will continue to challenge, dismiss, etc.

I am not currently very familiar with the thread and post you refer to above, but I am sure I read it, since I read all the threads here as an admin. But consider something:

Perhaps you misunderstood something? Perhaps the author of the thread or post in question knew he or she was using hyperbole or superlatives and thought his or her readers would realize it, too?

Perhaps the issue is definitional? Did you ask the poster in question what he or she meant? That is, did you seek the matter out to make sure you weren't misunderstanding? Or did you jump straight to judgment?

For example, if the poster in question really did say we are under a literal communist dictatorship, did you ask for reasons why he or she said this and did you dialogue with the poster to get a better understanding of what he or she meant and why he or she wrote what he or she wrote, and then dismiss the claim? Or did the dismissal come first?

2) Not sure why this is considered an elephant. I don't know of anyone who disagrees that our rights are granted by God and can be removed at His will.

Is there not a thread here at AFF about a Mr. Tony Spell and the invocation of his 1st amendment right to the free exercise of religion? Christians lose their "rights" left and right all over the world, and in the USA is the only place where any believer ever cries foul about their rights. Do underground Apostolic missionaries ever try to convince saints in China or Muslims controlled countries to fight for their rights?

Our privileges have made us soft and spoiled.

3) Do you believe the church is being judged? It appears from the post that you do.

Judged? I wouldn't say that just yet. Although judgment does begin at the house of God. Rather, I would say shaken. And once fully shaken, we shall see what remains.

Do you believe the glory of the Lord has left His people (being that He dwells in us, not in Temples)?

Remember what God did at Shiloh?

Yes, I think the glory of the Lord, in some cases, has already departed from off of churches, and in some cases, it's happening right now and will happen in the future, as well.

From these very stones, God can raise up children of Abraham. The axe is ever laid at the root of any people who forget their God and don't know the time of their visitation.

The altars King Ahaz built were for himself to worship false pagan gods, not for Jews to worship.

2 Chronicles 28:19 & 23

19. For the Lord brought Judah low because of Ahaz king of Israel; for he made Judah naked, and transgressed sore against the Lord.

23. But they were the ruin of him, and of all Israel.

It doesn't matter if the altars on every street corner were for King Ahaz's exclusive use of not. Doing these things, and other transgressions accompanying these things, stripped Judah naked and ruined all of Israel.

You see then how the unilateral decision of one leader can wreck and ruin an entire church.

God despises and hates our churches?

Sure, there are many mainstream, and even a few A/P churches, who have become modernized and lost the meaning and mission of the church. But there are many more who have not and yet they, too, have suffered in this shutdown.

What God does or does not despise or hate is found in the Holy Scriptures.

What do you see God despises or hating? The references I used are from the following:

Amos 5:21,

21. I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies.

What was it about the feast days as they were being kept in Amos' time that God hated and despised?

Malachi 2:3,

3. Behold, I will corrupt your seed, and spread dung upon your faces, even the dung of your solemn feasts; and one shall take you away with it.

What was it about the solemn feasts in Malachi's day that caused God to be willing to take the feces of the sacrificed animals and wipe it on the faces of His people?

And what parallels can be drawn from the answers to these two questions?