Results 321 - 340 of 500
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Results from: Answers On or After: Thu 12/31/70 Author: Reformer Joe Ordered by Verse |
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Results | Verse | Author | ID# | |||
321 | Holy Spirit and Holy Ghost? | Rom 8:14 | Reformer Joe | 53984 | ||
Nope. Same word in the Greek: "pneuma" Hope this helps! --Joe! |
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322 | Spirit of Adoption/ God as Father | Rom 8:15 | Reformer Joe | 88951 | ||
As someone who is the father of soon-to-be-adopted twin girls, I would recommend Robert A. Peterson's book _Adopted by God_. You can read about the book at http://www.prpbooks.com --Joe! |
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323 | Is God's will prosperity/healing always? | Rom 8:28 | Reformer Joe | 67564 | ||
A God who does not get what He wants because of the decisions of human beings not to "receive it" would be a very weak God indeed. We do not "unlock" God's power. If God's true desire is for people to possess material wealth, then someone had better explain that to faithful Christians in the poorest Third World countries how they are living out of God's will. People should have explained to Paul that rather than collecting offerings from richer churches to help poorer churches, that he should have smiled and told the poorer churches to "claim their blessing." And all those great people of faith in church history who died of diseases! If only some "enlightened" Christian from the 21st century had told them it didn't have to be that way! It is indeed God's will that poverty be relieved -- by means of Christians (Acts 20:35; Romans 15:26; Galatians 2:10; James 2:2-6,16). The Christian life is not to be one of accumulation of wealth (Matthew 16:26; Matthew 19:21; Luke 12:33), but one of generosity (1 Timothy 6:17-19). And health is not guaranteed. Timothy was instructed to treat his ailment rather than to claim deliverance from it (1 Timothy 5:23). Epaphroditus recovered from his sickness which almost led to death. Did he not know to name it and claim it before it got that bad? Maybe Paul didn;t instruct him in the faith well enough (Philippians 2:25-27). The bottom line is that the prosperity gospel is not biblical, nor was it taught at all in church history until the 20th century. Did all of God's great preachers and teachers for 1900 years just miss this teaching which is so central to much of materialistic American evangelicalism today? I think not. --Joe! |
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324 | Predestination | Rom 8:29 | Reformer Joe | 30483 | ||
Beth: Welcome to the forum! There has already been a lot said regarding predestination on the forum (some think perhaps too much). I would recommend that you do Quick Search using the words "predestined" or "elect" to view some of these answers. To briefly address your post, while I hold that predestination is a biblical doctrine (see Ephesians 1 and Romans 9 for more on that), notice that the verse you cited says that the elect are not just predestined for Heaven, but predestined to be conformed to the image of Christ. Therefore, everything else in the Bible still holds true. Only those who are in Christ and being conformed by the Holy Spirit to the image of Christ are those who are predestined. In other words, the group of believers in the gospel is the same as the group of the elect. The fact that one is a follower of Christ is evidence that he has been chosen. Hope this helps! --Joe! |
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325 | Predestination of each individual? | Rom 8:29 | Reformer Joe | 52862 | ||
Jeshuafreak gave some good verses. Here are a few more: "But we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth." --1 Thessalonians 2:13 "Paul, a bond-servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the faith of those chosen of God and the knowledge of the truth which is according to godliness" --Titus 1:1 There are really a great number of threads that have addressed this already, really. As you can understand, it can be a pretty touchy subject, and there have been a lot of people (including myself) who have addressed this more than others would like. I suggest doing a "quick search" at the right for words like "elect" or "chose" or "predestine." If you are looking for a book that examines predestination using the Bible, I would recommend _Chosen by God_ by R.C. Sproul. For a different perspective, I am sure that there is not shortage of people who would point you elsewhere. In addition, you might want to look at http://www.whatloveisthis.com which was set up as a Web site refuting a current book which denies that God chose those whom He would save. You are going to get much more than you expected by asking your question. Brace yourself, and pray for wisdom and clarity! :) --Joe! |
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326 | Can we lose our righteousness? | Rom 8:34 | Reformer Joe | 54243 | ||
You are asking two different questions here. We are in a continuous judicial state of righteous before him because of Christ's righteousness on our records. We are declared righteous and a truce exists between us and God at the moment we possess saving faith in Christ (Romans 5:1). Can we lose our justification? Nope. See Romans 8:34. Our salvation is preserved by God. However, our lives can show us to have been never truly justified in the first place. --Joe! |
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327 | Can we become more righteous in state? | Rom 8:34 | Reformer Joe | 54252 | ||
No, we will not become more justified or less justified. We do become more righteous as the Holy Spirit conforms us to the image of Christ. --Joe! |
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328 | More Righteousness? | Rom 8:34 | Reformer Joe | 54255 | ||
Simple...it is not more righteousness to get us into heaven. Christ's righteousness is sufficient and efficient for that. However, God then works in our lives to make us more like Christ. The evidence of the faith by which we are justified are the works that result from the Spirit's transforming work in our life. Justification by faith is immediate and eternal. I am bound for heaven because of what Christ has done for me. Sanctification begins at justification and continues throughout the believer's life. That is why we read in the New Testamant that our destinies are sure, and yet we are still to press on and strive and work out that salvation. That labor that Paul writes is the cooperative work we engange in with the Spirit in our sanctification. Again, this is not earning heaven, but rather the evidence that we are His (1 John, 2 Peter 1, James 2, Romans 8) and a process which the Spirit will complete when we are indeed made perfect in all our thoughts and behavior in glory. --Joe! |
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329 | The Purpose of Hell? | Rom 9:20 | Reformer Joe | 29799 | ||
I do... Why did God create hell? For the same reason He has done everything else: to glorify Himself, to make his attributes known. In the case of hell, the existence of it glorifies the justice of God. You and I, despite the fact that we are part of God's creation, have willingly committed cosmic treason against our Creator, when he himself has made it clear that we are to glorify Him (which is only the most appropriate thing to do since He is infinitely holy). Therefore, the Bible has a good description for us: "But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God" --Romans 2:5 God's wrath is real and it is directed at all of those who by their unrighteousness have declared themselves His enemies. And who falls into that category? 'as it is written, "THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE; THERE IS NONE WHO UNDERSTANDS, THERE IS NONE WHO SEEKS FOR GOD; ALL HAVE TURNED ASIDE, TOGETHER THEY HAVE BECOME USELESS; THERE IS NONE WHO DOES GOOD, THERE IS NOT EVEN ONE."' --Romans 3:10-12 Well, that would include all of us among those who are completely DESERVING of hell. There will be no one in hell who does not know that s/he belongs there. I think it is only sensible to fear God's wrath, for it is holy, perfect, all-powerful, and comletely unrelenting once released (and don't forget deserved by all). "It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God." --Hebrews 10:31 I think you have the concept of "punishment" mixed up with "rehabilitation." Hell is for condemnation of God's enemies, which include all who "suppress the truth in unrighteousness (Romans 1:18)." All of this is absolutely horrifying news for the human race...if that were the whole story. But while God demonstrates his justice by the existence of Hell, he also profoundly demonstrated his mercy by sending Jesus Christ to take upon Himself the just punishment of all those who will trust in Him. For those who trust not in themselves, but in Christ's sinless life (thereby not deserving punishment), death on a Cross (meeting the demands of God's justice on behalf of their sins), and resurrection from the dead (demonstrating that God's justice had been satified toward them) are promised eternal life in Heaven. Despite the fact that I deserve to go to hell for each and every violation of God's perfect moral will, Christ Jesus paid for each and every one of my violations of God's perfect moral will 2000 years ago. Therefore, as Romans 8:1 tells me, there is no condemnation for me. God's unwavering justice and retribution for my sinfulness has been met in Christ, and God's mercy has been demonstrated toward me as well. And in all of this, God is glorified, just as glorified as He is when he sends the wicked and unrepentant to eternal damnation for rebellion against an infinitely prefect Creator. Hell is by no means a place of learning and applying a lesson. It is final judgment. As of right now, where do you stand if you were to meet your final judgment now? Knowing that your rebellion against God deserves full and eternal condemnation, are you trusting in the only way out God provided? "And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved." --Acts 4:12 If you have a Bible, I would suggest that you look at the first three chapters of the New Testament book of Romans to see more clearly the extent of our rebellion against God, and God's gracious provision of a way out when that is the last thing we deserved. Then read the first chater of 1 Peter to see what God promises those who are followers of Jesus Christ. Salvation is more than sparing us from God's just wrath; He went much further than that, adopting and promising an inheritance to all those who will trust in Christ for forgiveness. And remember, this is nothing anyone ever earned: Christ earned it for us. "But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life." --Titus 3:4-7 Hope this clears up the miconceptions you had! --Joe! |
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330 | Whats up with Judgement, calvinists plz? | Rom 9:21 | Reformer Joe | 61344 | ||
You wrote: "I am wondering if a calvinist could explain to me why God, if all things are ordained by him, would judge people? what I mean is, if God made us all, and God chose everything we would do, why did he give us the 'illusion' of freewill, and why would he judge us for things he made us do?" That is a good question. So goood, in fact, that the Spirit-inspired Paul addressed it in the New Testament. Here is what God has to say about it: 'You will say to me then, "Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?" On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, "Why did you make me like this," will it? Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use? What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? And He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory, even us, whom He also called, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles.' --Romans 9:19-24 Probably not a satisfactory answer for many, but it is the one God gives. Notice that there is not one shred of commentary here regarding man's choice in the matter. The Potter has the right. We are born as "children of wrath" by our very nature as Ephesians 2:3 states. We are part of humanity, which was represented before God by Adam. He blew it for all of us when he fell. Jesus Christ, in turn, rescued/saved/redeemed the "vessels of mercy" which he "prepared BEFOREHAND for glory." You wrote: 'I can understand it if I except God delegates Authority to man so that we may choose to love him, then I can see why all the suffering and death and pain are worth it to God, because some will "choose" to love him, But if in the end we cannot choose, why did he not simply make us perfect in the first place?' He did create humanity morally upright in the first place, but fallible. Humanity fell from that position of moral uprightness. You wrote: "God is outside of time, so to me words like foreordained, and foreknew, are meaningless in the context of God himself, though they obviously have meaning to man." It is true that God transcends time, and even created time. However, He does also act within the time-space dimensions of the universe that he created. Despite knowing the end from the beginning, he still responds to our actions. This is how I see things like Genesis 6 where God "is sorry" that He made humanity. He knew how they would turn out, and he knew that Christ would redeem His people from among fallen humanity, but God in his holiness also makes a perfect space-time response to the pre-Flood condition of the world. It is a mind-numbing thing to assess both the transcendence and the immanence of our Lord, but we have to be careful not to go too far to either extreme. "Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways!" --Romans 11:33 --Joe! |
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331 | Vessels prepared for destruction? | Rom 9:22 | Reformer Joe | 70355 | ||
"Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use?" --Romans 9:21 --Joe! |
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332 | What do "any" and "all" really mean? | Rom 10:9 | Reformer Joe | 74854 | ||
Post #6365 --Joe! |
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333 | Joe, is your reasoning not circular? | Rom 10:17 | Reformer Joe | 20365 | ||
Your Mormon comment simply reveals your scoffing of anything of intellectual value. How typical. Preaching/teaching is NOT "icing on the cake." It is a God-ordained, essential aspect of our Christian lives. Except in rare cirumstances where such teaching is completely unavailable (like being in solitary confinement in Vietnam or something along those lines), it is the way God has intended for Christians to grow. This is why your view bothers me so much. You take all that the New Testament reveals as God-ordained and works commanded by God of believers and put them in the category of "helpful suggestions." We are commanded to teach sound doctrine, hold to sound doctrine, and to toss people out of fellowship who refuse to adhere to sound doctrine. Doctrine is TEACHING, Bill. That is what the word means. How in the world can you dare call Holy Spirit-inspired teaching "icing on the cake" that you can do without? "That's okay, God; I don't feel the need to listen to what you are saying through this guy; I prefer just you and me and my Bible. Let's do it my way." Why don't you look at the whole of my argument rather than taking one sentence out of context? I said there is a DYNAMIC between the two. Go back and read it again and comment on the point I was actually making. It is you who thinks it is a great thing for new converts to abandon any external teaching whatsoever, thereby intentionally choosing one over the other. You are so prideful to trust that you have such a clear ear for what the Holy Spirit is saying. The fact is that you still sin, Bill. Accept that your tendency to sin will often cloud your mind of what is from the Holy Spirit and what is the thing that Bill wishes the Holy Spirit were saying. I do the same thing, as does every Christian to a greater or lesser degree. In this case, it is your prideful anti-intellectualism that has you so completely unteachable, no matter how many verses are cited pointing you out to be WRONG. You write: "You can't criticize me (or you shouldn't) for believing a certain way BECAUSE of what I have been taught and then turn around and say that EXTERNAL teaching is just as viable as what the Holy Spirit does?" The external teaching is ALSO what the Holy Spirit does. There's your problem in one sentence. You are not open to correction from anyone, and that is sin. --Joe! |
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334 | Joe, how do you know truth? | Rom 10:17 | Reformer Joe | 20463 | ||
Bill: "Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth." --John 17:17 I am quite sure that I will find out in Heaven that I was wrong on a lot of things. And ultimately, on issues which the Bible has touched on, it will indeed be a matter of not following Scripture. It is not Scripture that is unclear, but our interpretation of it which errs. Even removing the question of false teachers (and teaching should always be tested), one's interpretation can be influenced by vestiges of sin oin our lives, by the environment we live in, by our education (or lack thereof), by animosity toward individuals/churches/systems which have "burned" us in the past, etc., etc. That's why it takes careful study, a reasoning mind, a listening ear, and reliance upon the Holy Spirit to discern truth. Yes, the Holy Spirit is our teacher (John 14:26), but that does not imply that we are always the best learners. God will accomplish His purposes in my life, but He has more than one arrow in His quiver which he uses to bring that about. Scriptural truth is not a quick study, and God never said that growing in knowledge of the truth would be some easy 3-step procedure. It is not a "clean" process, either, where all truth on every Christian issue is settled in our minds upon conversion to Christianity. So how do I KNOW that I am being taught truth? I prefer to say that I am convinced that I am being taught truth, but here are a few reasons which I consider to be strong evidence: 1. It is internally consistent. 2. It takes into account the whole counsel of God's Word, rather than building a theology out of three verses and twsiting the rest of Scripture to fit the model. 3. It explains reality (e.g. human nature). 4. There is a long, unchanging historical tradition which has held the same views, a tradition made up of men used by God in very mighty ways throughout the last 2000 years. 5. God's Spirit testifies within me to the truth. Having examined other world views and theologies, they don't meet the preceding qualifications. Some of these others may meet one or two, but never all of these that came right off the top of my head just now. Personal searching of the Scriptures as well as listening to both sides of such debates has settled my mind on the important issues. I am always open to hearing new arguments from those who hold opposite views; I just have not found any to be terribly compelling thus far. Therefore, I consider what I hold to be truth; and like Martin Luther, unless one can show me from Scripture or from reasonable deductions from Scripture where I am wrong, I will consider myself adhering to truth. That having been said, there are some issues which have not been settled in my mind; and even the ones that are settled at times are not of such a nature as to be called heresy. However, heresy does exist, and God has called on us to identify it and expose it as the false teaching that it is. He has not left us with some "cosmic guessing game" as far as most of the examples you brought up in your post. I also know that you hold very strong positions yourself on a lot of the issues you mentioned. So, turning the question back to you, how do you KNOW what truth is? --Joe! |
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335 | AA agnostic wants practical proof of God | Rom 10:17 | Reformer Joe | 37973 | ||
I agree with Greg's advice. Our job as believers is to reveal Christ and make disciples of those who give their lives to them. Conversion is ultimately the work of the Holy Spirit, and while He may use us as His instruments as we proclaim the truth, it is He who convicts the sinner of his sin and changes his heart. My advice? Feel free to read books on the intelligent design of the universe. One good site for a lot of that info is http://www.discovery.org/crsc However, realize that while that information can be extremely useful in shooting down the psedo-intellectual arguments against a Creator, the words of Scripture are God's primary means of bringing the sinner to repentance to receive Christ as Lord (Psalm 138:2). If the person is willing to discuss Christianity at all, share primarily the nature of God as revealed in Scripture as well as our sinfulness and the slvation offered in Christ. Scienfitic arguments for the existence of God, while often true, are not THE truth. Only the Bible contains the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so trust in the sufficiency of Scripture for God to accomplish His purposes (Isaiah 55:11). --Joe! |
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336 | Tie Isreal to "The Church" | Rom 11:17 | Reformer Joe | 27636 | ||
Okay...tall order, since there is so much Scripture here. This will be quite a "tip of the iceberg thing." Start off by reading Romans 9-11. Israel and the church are branches of the same tree. The Gentiles have been grafted on, but they are no less a part of the tree. Gentiles are spiritual descendants of Abraham: "In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice." --Genesis 22:18 "And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's descendants, heirs according to promise." --Galatians 3:29 "to be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel," --Ephesians 3:6 The people of God are not merely those who are descended from Abraham. Being an Israelite genetically did not mean that one was an heir to the promise of Abraham or his spiritual descendant: "They answered and said to Him, 'Abraham is our father.' Jesus *said to them, 'If you are Abraham's children, do the deeds of Abraham...You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies." --John 8:39,44 "But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel; nor are they all children because they are Abraham's descendants, but: 'THROUGH ISAAC YOUR DESCENDANTS WILL BE NAMED.' That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are regarded as descendants." --Romans 9:6-8 "Therefore remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called 'Uncircumcision' by the so-called 'Circumcision,' which is performed in the flesh by human hands--remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace, and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity." --Ephesians 2:11-16 Christ made the two into one new man. How is this for a start? --Joe! |
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337 | "consigned to disobedience?" Free will? | Rom 11:32 | Reformer Joe | 52690 | ||
Hi, Sherri. You wrote: "This verse troubles me...because if God really did shut up all in disobedience (so that he could show mercy on them), then how did we have the free will to sin?" Humanity has always had the free will to sin. As a matter of fact, as a result of the Fall, the unbeliever doesn't have a nature that allows her to do anything BUT sin (Romans 8:6-8). The Bible declares that theough Adam's transgression we were made sinners (Romans 5:19) and we are by nature "children of wrath" apart from Christ (Ephesians 2:3). Romans 3:10-23 gives the clearest picture of who we are by nature apart from Christ. "Were we consigned to disobedience through inheriting the old nature from Adam?" Exactly. Romans 5 compares Adam to Jesus Christ. Everyone who has ever lived was born "in Adam," so to speak. Our first parents, as our representatives, brought about a curse upon the whole human race as a result of their sin. We are born with a disposition against God. Just like I didn't choose to be born male, white, healthy, or American, I didn't choose to be born an enemy of God. It was the result of circumstances outside myself. However, we all live out that nature until some of the human race is transferred to God's kingdom, so that we are no longer "in Adam" but "in Christ." Read Romans 5 and notice the comparison between Adam's transgression and Jesus' perfect obedience. And lest we think this unfair that one man's transgression resulted in a condemnation for other human beings, it is important to remember that we played no role in the righteousness that was earned for us by Jesus Christ, either (other than committing the actual sins that He died for)! :) --Joe! |
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338 | Are we diosobedient without Faith? | Rom 11:32 | Reformer Joe | 52717 | ||
You wrote: "As God's child I believe I am clothed in a robe of righteousness. I can not enter the kingdom of heaven without this Faith, nor is God pleased." Well, it is more than our belief that saves us. It is the reality of what our faith is in. It is true that we must have faith in order to get in heaven's door, but that faith itself is the gift of God (Ephesians 2:8-9). God is pleased when we have faith, and without faith it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6). However, God is far exceeedingly more pleased by the life Christ lived for us. Jesus is our substitute in every way. He lived for us the life we couldn't live. He paid the penalty that it would take us eternity to pay. He rose from the dead as our elder brother, the first participant in God's resurrection of mankind to be completed at the end of the age. The best way to look at it, I think, is that God sees us as sinful (He is aware of our sins and still disciplines His children for them, so He is not BLIND to them), but considers us as perfectly righteous on account of Christ our representative. He sees the sins, but he sees the "paid-in full" sign on each one of them and sees Jesus' perfect righteousness as applying to us as well. --Joe! |
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339 | Hands of an angry God | Rom 13:1 | Reformer Joe | 38953 | ||
Good call, J.B.! Jonathan Edwards was not only one of the best preachers ever produced; he was also one of the greatest intellectuals in the history of the New World. Despite the bad rap that the world (and the wishy-washy evanglical church of today) has given the Puritans, you really have a hard time going wrong with such powerful, God-centered, Christ-exalting preaching. I am honored to be part of a congregation that follows the theology of Puritanism. Want more good reading? Try tracking down Edwards' "The End For Which God Created the World." --Joe! |
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340 | God place people in political positions? | Rom 13:1 | Reformer Joe | 73242 | ||
In the United States, both are true. We elect most of our officials, and God sovereignly controls who gets in office as well. Since nothing happens without God either causing it or permitting it (or some combination of the two), all of it falls under God's decree. Even the wicked rulers of the world are established by God for His purposes to be fulfilled. "Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God." --Romans 13:1 --Joe! |
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