For God so loved the World (the answer to God's Wrath)

How do we escape the wrath of God?

John 3: 16-21 "For God so loved the world, that he gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever beleiveth in Him, should not perish, but have everlasting life.

For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

He that believeth on Him is not condemned; but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

For everyone that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds be reproved. (exposed).

But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought of God.

In these verses we see that Jesus Christ came to save the world, but that those who will not believe are not saved, but condemned, by their own refusal to give up their evil deeds and come to the light.

The word world in these verses comes from the Greek word that we have transliterated into the English word Cosmos, and denotes all of the material world, and by reduction, all of the worlds inhabitants.

So, as I stated in my last post, Christ came for all, but not all have received, and that as verse 18 of John 3 states, He who believes not is already condemned. Since the fall of man through Adam as the Federal Head of mankind, all born are stained in their flesh with the stain of sin.

What about newborns and children too young to understand the Gospel?

God is a Merciful God, not just a Vengeful God. I trust his mercy applies to not only the children of undeveloped understanding, but to adults who have the mental capacity of a child with no comprehension. In the book of Samuel, 2nd Samuel 12: 15-23 we find the account of how the first child that King David had with Bathsheba, became very ill and David would not eat, and lay all night upon the ground (or floor).

On the seventh day of the child's illness, he died. The servants and ministers of the household of the King expected David to be in mourning and great grief upon the death of his child, but were confuse when he rose up, washed, anointed his head with oil, and changed clothes. Further, he ordered the table to be set for him to eat. When the servants asked him about this, King David said: "While the child was yet alive, I fasted and wept: for I said, Who can tell whether God will be gracious to me, that the child may live? But now he is dead, where fore should I fast? can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.

David believed without any doubt that he would see his son when he himself would pass from this life and go to be with the Lord. He knew the promises of God concerning the coming Messiah, and like Abraham, his faith was counted unto him as righteousness. That righteousness is the righteousness of Christ, which by Faith, we receive, and wear as a garment which covers our sins. More on this subject of righteousness that comes by faith, later.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow.

Not quite a Calvinist

In Christianity there are many divisions, even within denominations. One of these is "Calvinism".
Thought they were written after the death of Calvin, they are understood by many as his teaching, and are called the Five Points of Calvinism.

Total Depravity (also known as Total Inability and Original Sin)
Unconditional Election
Limited Atonement (also known as Particular Atonement)
Irresistible Grace
Perseverance of the Saints (also known as Once Saved Always Saved)

In what ways, do I agree and disagree with these five points, know by their acronym of TULIP.

Total depravity: I agree with this, that we are beyond God's Gracw without His intervention to change us. In Genesis 6: 5 we find"And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that everey imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually".

Unconditional election: Noah was chosen, not because he earned God's Grace, but because God CHOSE him. As Genesis 6: 8 says " Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord". Grace is unmerited favor. Where I would disagree with the Calvinist viewpoint on this is that some teach that God chose before the foundation of the world, some unto grace, and some unto destruction; an arbitrary decision. This is to say that some never had a chance for God's Grace.

Limited Atonement: Calvinism teaches that the work and sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross was sufficient only for those whom God had chosen. To me this places limits on the value and efficacy of the Blood of Christ. I believe Christ's Blood was sufficient for all, but that not all will receive the efficacy of it, because they deny that He is the Messiah, the only begotten Son of God, Lord and Master of all of Creation, and One of three persons in the Trinity; One God, three persons, not attributes or modes, but three persons. We can not understand it, how this can be.

Irresistible Grace: As I understand, and indeed have read on Calvinist web sites, this means that one who is chosen by God, can not resist his Grace; that Salvation is his whether he chooses God or not, but that because of the irresistibility of God's Grace, that the person will obey God. This denies the ability of a person to resist God's beckoning and the witness of the Holy Spirit. This doesn't mean I believe in Free Will as viewed from a purely Calvinistic point of view. Man has no free will as such, but answers to God or Satan. When we resist God's will, we may think we are exercising free will, but in fact are doing the will and bidding of Satan, who led Adam and Eve to do his will in the Garden of Eden, serving the desires of the flesh, rather than following the will of God.

Perseverance of the Saints, also know as "once saved always saved": I believe that once we are saved, we can not lose our salvation. This can lead into all manner of arguments over whether a man who falls into a sinful life after professing Christ was ever saved in the first place. To this I say, only The Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, can judge this. If a man never shows any signs of repentance, that we see, it is tempting to conclude that he was not ever saved. However, only God sees the actions of a person twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, all the days of th persons life. We see bits and pieces.

The Apostle Paul told us in Romans : 38-39; For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come. Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. This is the security of the believer. It is God who keeps us in Jesus Christ, and not our works. Works will flow from the abundance of the Spirit of God in our hearts, as He guides us; and the only way to have he Spirit of God in our hearts is to believe and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

For my Jewish brethren; I can only say that God has promised salvation unto Israel, that in the Tanach, Ezekiel tells of the time when the nation of Israel will call upon Him for Salvation, and He will defeat the enemies of God and Israel, that He will teach the nations; but even God spoke through the Prophets if those of Israel who would/have been cast out for their unfaithfulness to Him. The Christian Church does not replace Israel, is not Israel, but is the universal church, invisible, consisting of the Saints. The Christian Church is not any "Christian Denomination". These represent people who may or may not have received salvation, and have divided over doctrinal issues. I believe that when Messiah comes, we will all recognize that He is God, and that he is One God. It's a confusing issue; so just trust God, and seek His Truth; do not despise your brethren who follow the Way of Christ.

Change

As you can see by the new title of my blog, I have decided to orient it more towards discussing Judeo-Christian values and belief.

The wrath of God is real. Those who ignore His Word and the witness of the Holy Spirit regarding the Savior Jesus Christ will believe on Judgment Day, but there will be no mercy for them.

In the current Presidential campaigns, many see Barak Obama as the Messiah we need for this nation. Make no mistake, he is not a messiah. He is an eloquent speaker, and there is not necessarily anything wrong with that. However, none of the candidates of any party will save this nation from the judgment that God will pour out on it, as well as the rest of the world.

I disavow the Rev. Fred Phelps and his little band of family members who call themselves a church, and make a mockery of Christ in the way they demonstrate at the funerals of our troops, saying it makes them glad to see the suffering of the families, because, according to the Phelps clan, it is just punishment for this nation for tolerating homosexuality.

Homosexual behavior is a sin, as are adultery, child molesting, stealing, and the rest of the name sins, or sins that are covered under the heading of, let's say, fornication. Child molesting isn't specifically named, but it falls under fornication, as well as causing injury to another person.

We need to seriously consider the direction this nation is headed in morally. Sexually transmitted diseases are on the increase among teens, teen pregnancy, after a decade of decline is up sharply, and many of our young people are looking for respect by shooting each other.

I am an absolutist on the Second Amendment. Law abiding citizens are not to be frustrated by government regulations that seek to take the means of self defense from the hands of the citizenry, and place them only in the hands of law enforcement agencies and our military. This is utter foolishness. Criminals will find ways to obtain guns no matter what laws we pass. They already do this. The vast majority of our Federally Licensed Firearms Dealers are operating legally. It is people who buy smuggled and stolen guns and sell them to criminals that are the biggest problem.

On the Presidential Elections:

No matter who wins, we as the voters are responsible to hold them accountable. Whether Obama, McCain, or Clinton; if they don't perform satisfactorily, throw them out in the next cycle.
If Barak wins, I pray that he turns out to be a good President for this nation, but I have doubts.
He has the second most liberal voting record in the Senate. Hillary wants to give us Universal Healthcare; if people don't want insurance, they shouldn't be force to buy it. McCain has his problems, too, but I think is the best candidate of the three to get us through the war in Iraq.

I am a conservative, and I am compassionate. However, we have too many Federal programs sucking the tax payers dry, that are not performing as promised. Head Start is one of those programs. A simple cost/benefit analysis shows that it is a wasteful program that produces little in the way of real results.

Whatever your political affiliation is, learn about the issues that you feel are most important. Research your favorite candidates record on those issues. If you still feel they are qualified, get out and vote. If you decide they aren't, decide who is the best qualified candidate and vote.
Don't skip voting and then complain about who we get.

Become active in your parties district or community level meetings. It is up to We The People to bring the change that everyone wants, but no one agrees exactly on just what needs to be changed. Want to change Washington as Barak Obama suggests, then vote out the scoundrels. I believe that two-thirds of the House and most of the Senate needs to retire, and get fresh blood in those seats. People who know when to work together for our good, and when to take a strong stand against something that is not good for the nation as a whole.

Politics,Politics,Politics

Well, the Primary cycle will soon be over and the endless campaigning will be ratcheted
up.

No matter what party you choose, or if you are an independent, please pay attention to the candidates past record, as it is an indicator of their thinking. Remember also, you don't have to vote a straight party ticket.

Both major parties are in serious need of reform, they have lost touch with reality and no longer represent the people, but represent the party.

Not a registered voter? Get to you local voting registrar's office, or give them a call, some even have e-mail; ask for a registration form and register to vote.

See ya at the polls in November.

Absence and the Second Amendment

Okay, it's been a while since I posted anything here. Long story short, my computer crashed, and after being unable to do a restore, even with a setup disk, I had to take it to the shop.

The young man who restored my system for me was fast in getting the repair from disk started, and I was out of there in less than an hour.

I still don't know what caused the crash, I was looking at gun magazines, trying to find a very hard to find clip for my new pistol, which is not manufactured anymore.

Thanks to zealous gun control advocates, a whole company in Spain went bankrupt when high capacity magazines were banned, along with various weapons that are no more powerful than a good hunting rifle, but "look scary".

People, the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America makes it clear that the people, that is each private citizen, has the right to keep and bear arms.

As originally written, there is only one comma in the amendment: A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.

As you will currently find it in contemporary print, it has had two extra commas added, thus reading: A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.

The current version is grammatically awkward, and is used by Gun Control Nuts to argue that the Militia means the State and National Guard units.

At the time the Constitution was written, the Militia consisted of every able bodied man of a particular range in age. Most men owned their own arms, they used them for hunting for food, and protection against those who would rob them and their families or kill them. When the Militia was called up, every man showed up with his rifle in hand. The fledgling nation did not have a budget for arms, and commanders often paid for supplies such as black powder and ball ammunition and later submitted a claim to the government for repayment. During the Revolutionary War, George Washington paid for supplies and wrote notes of promise to suppliers that they would be paid by the new government.

For a good idea or what the original intent of the writers of the Constitution was, we need only read the Federalist Papers: http://www.foundingfathers.info/federalistpapers/

Media Hostility

Why are the media in general so hostile to good news from Iraq?

A recent story headline in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram said "Little Joy In Baghdad", but the story actually was about the positive results of the initiatives in Iraq, in particular the ability of

Iraqi Christians to celebrate Christmas with a great enough sense of security to put up trees in their homes and to go out to attend Christmas services at their churches.

This is not the first news report from the wire services (this one was an AP article), that I have seen that had a negative headline, but a positive story. Why do they do that? Is it that they know that the majority of Americans will read the headline only, conclude that things remain in chaos in Iraq, and decide there is no point in reading the article, thereby missing out on the real story?

Something else to think about; those against the war like to point out that this one has now gone on longer than WWII. Well, that is not exactly true. WWII stared a number of years before the United States entered into it. For Europe, that war had been going on for at least a period of two to three years.

We were also in Viet Nam for a longer time than we have been in Iraq. We had military advisers in Viet Nam before 1960, and didn't leave there until 1974. People check your facts. Stop believing the lies of politicians.

Teen Pregnancy

So, another teen star is in the news for being pregnant. And the point is?

Teen age girls/women in this country are showing an increase in statistical incidence
of teenage pregnancies. You can not tell me that they don't know about birth control
when birth control information is all over the media.

Don't try to tell me that Evangelical Christians are to blame for it because we have
insisted that sex education should emphasize abstinence as the only fool proof method.

I am a firm believer in the Truth of God's Word in the Scriptures, and that includes
the Ten Commandments. That also means that I have sinned, because I have broken every one of the Ten, and I was in need of the Salvation to be found in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross.

Our children need moral guidance, and most of my generation threw away their moral
compass in the 1960's. Again, I confess, that included me, but I have found forgiveness
and repentance.

For God's sake, literally, Christians need to forgive these young teens while not abandoning
the effort to train up our own children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
We can't judge them, and it is God's Word that judges their sin. While we can call sin, sin,
let us not abandon these children who will have children to the work of Satan, but let us be
salt and light; reaching out to them to bring them the Good News of the Gospel of Jesus
Christ, that hopefully, they might take the remedy that God has offered, and find their
moral compass, and raise their children up in a higher standard than that which many of us
have practiced.