DJC49 wrote:
Jesus Christ Himself was probably the most challenging and "hardest" preacher there ever was. Repentance, not love, was the first command on His agenda.

Maybe preachers would do better by just reading through the gospels to their congregations. Hear Jesus speak as He spoke to the people, see how He responded to questions, performed miracles, showed mercy, confronted hyprocisy.

That's how God saved me - by hearing (reading) His Word.

Jesus in the gospels is multi-dimensional, dynamic, confrontational. He is where mercy and truth met, and righteousness and peace kissed. Psalm 85:10

You are a dear brother in the Lord through the internet, and one day I'll see you (though I've seen a clip of you on Youtube) when we are with the Lord.

I just read in John where "eternal life is to KNOW Him." We KNOW Him, and, so, we have Eternal Life NOW.

Just waiting for my new body!

F.G. wrote:
Many Christians, including myself, have experiential knowledge of that very principle (the love of sin)descibed in John 3:19-20. I was made very aware of my sin and the condemnation that awaited me and that salvation was available in Christ and that i needed to repent and have faith in Christ. I trembled at the Word of God. But I would not come to Christ, because I loved my fornication, and my drugs and my rock-n-roll too much. What wonderous love that hunted me down and brought me, by His grace, to repentance and faith. Truly does He "save His people from their sins" as His namesake is described in the Scriptures. Matt.1:21 Hallelujiah!!!

The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved.

And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie,

That they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

When I took Finance, it was not specified *Judeo-Christian, Western European* Finance. It was just Finance.

Islamic Finance is the use of money with a stated agenda - nothing more. It has a purpose - a goal, and it is scarey to consider how quickly this world domination by Islam is taking root in our society. I guess we have had blinders on, because the Ivy League Universities have been bought by Middle Eastern money setting up strongholds to teach Islamic studies.

I am really saddened by the rapidity of these forces bringing about dramatic changes in America, a land that has represented freedom unprecedented for so many people, and has brought hope for so many.

Banned wrote:
Russia has 20,000 nukes. Most of us in the U.S. will be dead in 30 minutes when the war breaks out.

But seriously, listen to Zechariah, "Now this will be the plague with which the LORD will strike all the peoples who have gone to war against Jerusalem; their flesh will rot while they stand on their feet, and their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongue will rot in their mouth." Chapter 14:12

Sounds like a description of a lethal dose of radiation - big time!

Mike wrote:
Have no fear, Christiana. There are no weapons of mass reduction.

Banned wrote:
Jesus said [the Great Trib.] would be a time more horrible than the earth has ever seen or ever will see and unless that time were shortened there would not one person be left alive.

I will make mortal man SCARCER than pure gold, and mankind than the gold of Ophir."

Since this has not happened, yet, does this refer to the time of the Great Tribulation?

I've been seeing references to a coming "mass reduction of population" in various places referring to something anticipated by the secular world.

Does this coincide with Scripture?

KK wrote:
What should concern everyone is the fact that B.H.O. will have access to highly sensitive information on every possible level -- and -- he doesn't respect The Condstitution that upholds American FREEDOMS and limited government and "LIFE", etc... --- in fact he holds great disdain for The Constitution, and this coupled with his radical lifelong anti-American associations puts one to thinking...

Following that thought, I just read an article linked from the Drudge Report about a "Black Pope could follow Barack Obama's election."

Sounds like those of European ancestry may know what it is like to be in the minority and all that entails in the near future.

TT wrote:
It's a shame that Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream has still not become a reality. Obama was elected for the color of his skin, not the content of his character.

This is blasphemous for so-called Christians to elevate a man, a mere mortal, to such a status.

MLK may have been revered for his great oratorical skills and zeal, but, he was also an adulterer while professing to be a Christian. This calls into question his profession of faith - for me.

Now, BHO has been elevated to "god-like" status among the Black population, and even in the churches, as reported by our local newspaper. Ministers are quoted as saying they voted for him because of his stand on the issues. REALLY? GMAB. Call it what it is, just don't lie about the reason.

Interesting that in the book on John Adams by McCullough, he and Abigail wrestled with the lingering effect of slavery on the nation. Now we see in the choice of BHO.

DJC49 wrote:
Man's depravity is total in at least four senses:
(1) Our rebellion against God is total. Apart from the grace of God there is no delight in the holiness of God, and there is no glad submission to the sovereign authority of God.
(2) In his total rebellion, EVERYTHING man does is sin.
(3) Man's inability to submit to God and do good is total.
(4) Our rebellion is totally deserving of eternal punishment.
Do yourself a HUGE favor, Christiana, and read [URL=http://www.monergism.com/thethreshold/articles/piper/depravity.html]]]THIS brief article[/URL] by John Piper.

When one is brought by the Holy Spirit into the presence of a Holy God such as Isaiah was in chapter 6, or when Moses was in Exodus, or Job, or when Peter saw a Jesus as "Holy God," and cried, "depart from me for I am an unclean man," the one who has been born again knows that he/she is such as you describe above.

The unborn of the spirit, religious person needs to be shown the Holiness of God through scripture. If the Holy Spirit convicts him, he too will agree with your description of sinfulness.

Faithful Remnant wrote:
As for creating conviction and contrition, does not preaching have place in that? In Acts 2, the Apostles preached and the hearers were convicted in their hearts.(Acts 2:37)
So I see DJC's point. He is trying to wake up the self-righteous and the obvious sinner...something rare today.

The Word of God preached is the Power of God unto Salvation.

DJC49 wrote:
any man outside of the faith in Christ lives in an absolutely deplorable condition. He finds that WHATSOEVER he does, no matter what it is, be it eating his breakfast, kissing his wife, obeying all the traffic laws, giving all he has to the poor, even dying in a heroic rescue attempt to save a baby from a burning building, is ALL sin and displeasing to God! In his total rebellion everything man does is sin. Everything.

None of those acts are sin in and of themselves.

Total depravity is about the total inability to contribute to one's salvation by his own efforts when Scripture tells us that, "All our righteous acts are as filthy rags."

We are God's creation - once viewed as "good" by Him, now cursed. In His Great Mercy He has provided Redemption of fallen man. You need to balance your view of God's view of man.

With your view, you are trying to create deep conviction and contrition in the hearts of men, when that is the work of the Holy Spirit.

DJC49 wrote:
BTW, this isn't a nursing home ...
(however, after reading a few posts by ***A Democratic Conservative***, one might wonder if this isn't an insane asylum)

______

lyn,

Where have you been? Thanks for the encouragement.

______

rogerant,

rogerant wrote:
Have I been to a nursing home lately? Most of those people have lost their minds?
Please explain

Is there any reason for all the many worship services to be held for such people who cannot understand - or, can they?

What about the mentally ill person? Is there any hope for them? Can they understand a "positional righteousness before a Holy God?" Or, are they doomed to hell?

I should have learned from the first time I entered this site as DefenderofTruth, never, never, never label myself as ascribing to a Calvinist/Reformed Theology position. Unless I am a scholar and adhere to every jot and tittle, I am a target of attack.

My relationship with the risen Saviour has gotten me through life and will see me through death, and in the end my understanding of Scripture lining up will Systematic Theology will mean nothing.

Have you been to a nursing home lately? Most of the people in there have lost the mind they once had, some of them great scholars.

In the end, it is the Lord exalted, High and lifted up who gets all the praise, and I am comforted by this statement: He knows His Sheep, and they KNOW Him.

You might want to shorten your gospel message so that a little child could understand. I think there'll be many little ones in Heaven.

rogerant wrote:
Presenting the Gospel to a sinner is not to provide them with practical benefits. The reason for proclaiming the Gospel to sinners is to provide them with positional objective righteousness before a Holy God.

The reason for proclaiming the Gospel to sinners is that they may be SET FREE from their enslavement to SIN.