Results 1 - 11 of 11
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Results from: Answers On or After: Thu 12/31/70 Author: brother paul Ordered by Date |
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Results | Verse | Author | ID# | |||
1 | Judas' betrayal | Matt 27:4 | brother paul | 179674 | ||
Dear Angies, We do not judge. (Matt 7:1, Rom 2:1) It is not my place to pass comment on one of Christ's chosen disciples. Where Jesus and Judas are is their business. There is one who 'reproves the world of sin', and He is the Holy Spirit. (John 16:8) It is clear that Judas felt convicted of sin by his actions and what he said. (Matt 27:4,5) The fact that his actions were vital to the outworking of God's plan, that we might believe is scriptural. (John 13:18) How does this affect God's sovereignty? He works through human failour and triumphs in His purpose. 'The darkness and light are both alike to Him.' (Psalm 139:12) 'My lie is unto His glory.' (Rom 3:7) 'The sin must become exceedingly sinful.' (Rom 7:13) In total darkness the light becomes stronger. My previous post said I would no longer deal with this subject, but I felt your question deserved an answer. Yous and His Paul |
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2 | Just wondering | Bible general Archive 3 | brother paul | 179640 | ||
Dear Angies, Question 2, I have to be brave, because how I would preach on this is against accepted orthodoxy. There is a difference between 'salvation' and 'resurrection'. Your resurrection is assured; your predestinated final end in Him is not doubted, it is predestined. Your salvation ia different' it is dependant on faith. Let me explain, 'sozo' in Greek is salvation, ,'anastasis' is resurrection, one is the rescue and the other is our final position before God. We can lose our sense of salvation without losing our final recociliation in Him. Therefore we need to 'believe to be saved.' (John 3:16) We need to 'believe' to be saved from from the anguish of this world, 'saved' is rescue. If we do not continue in belief we will not experience His salvation. (Matt 10:22,24:13.Mark 13:13) But our resurrection in Him and predestinated glory is not in question. (Eph 1:4.5 and 1:11-13) Our salvation can be in question, but not our resurrection. If we are worried or anxious, then we have lost faith, our salvation is lost, our rescue from the world's troubles is doubted, (Matt 6:25. Luke 12:22) we have lost faith and belief. We have lost our 'sozo', our rescue from the anguish of human nature, but that does not mean we have lost our final hope with Him. The early church preached resurrection not salvation, (Acts 4:2, 4:33, 17;18, 17;32 23;6, 23;8, 24;15. 24;21, Rom 1;4, 6;5, 1 Cor 15;12,13; 21;42, Phill 3;10,11, 1 Tim 2;10 Heb 6;2, 11;35, 1 Pet 1:3, 3;41) It is abandoment to God, having the courage to walk we know not where, giving all to God. Be assured of your resurrection, but maintain your faith in salvation. Yours and His Paul |
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3 | Just wondering | Bible general Archive 3 | brother paul | 179635 | ||
Dear Angies, To begin to answer your multiple question, lets take it one at at a time. How would I preach? I would start with John 5:39, 'Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternel life; and they are they that testify of me.' The Old Testament was the Bible of the New Testament church. They searched the Old testament for images of Christ. Therefore when the dove descended on Jesus and the Father says, ' Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.' (Mark 1;11) did the first century church see a parallel with Genesis 1:4, 'And God saw the light, that it was good.'? Jesus is the light (Jn 1:9) He is the way, the truth and the light, He is the light of the world. He was with the Father before He came into the world, and the co-creator of all tnings. (Col 1:16) Genesis 1:16, 'let US make man in OUR image, after OUR likeness.' I would then develope the theme of the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove. Bible students always value the first mention of a word, subject or object as highly significant. Genesis 8:8-12 the first reference to a dove, where Noah sends out the dove three times. The first is when she finds no place to settle, is this the offer of God to Israel in Ex 19:6 when He wished that they should become a nation of kings and priests? It was refused, they replied 'let us not talk to God lest we die.' (Ex 20:19) They were scared of death to self, they did not trust Him. They asked to go under law, not God's arrangemenr but theirs. You tell Moses and he will tell us. The day of provocation, (Heb 3:15) The second time the dove goes out she can rest for a time, with Jesus. She returns with the olive branch, 'plucted' off, ready for grafting. (Gen 8:11, Hb. taraph' highly significant) Jesus will be the start of a grafting of the vine. (Romans 7) The third and last time she does not return, she has found a resting place with the 120 of the first century church at pentecost. The essense of Christ is His 'divine nature' (2 Pet 1:4) and where we have the combination of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, there He Is. I would finish with Col 1:27, 'The Christ in you the hope of glory.' Yours, and His Paul, Give me a little time on the other questions |
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4 | Paul, the Answers Are? | Luke 5:8 | brother paul | 179519 | ||
Hello Hank, Jesus was 'the lamb slain from the founding of the world.' (Rev 13:8) Adam was instructed 'to keep' (Hb. shamar') or guard Eden, (Gen 2:15) because there must have been some sort of danger already present. God said 'in the day that thou eatest', not 'if'. (Gen 2:17) This sounds to me as prophetic. I do not believe that our sovereign God is into crisis management, merely reacting to unforeseen events as they unfold. Before 'project earth' was initiated there must have been divine agreement that man would fall and Christ eventually crucified. This creative process would with unfailling purpose 'form man into His image'. (Gen 2:7) Therefore what we see and witness is the outworking of His plan, not the frustration of it. He is 'all in all', (1 Cor 14:27,28) 'to the pure all things are pure.' (Titus 1:15) God uses Satan, sometimes it he is like God's sheepdog, when a lamb strays He sets him off to get it back. Satan is allowed to roam the earth, (1 Peter 5:8) he was cast out of heaven to the earth, (Rev 12:9) and he is deliberately let out of prison that he might deceive the nations. (Rev 20:7,8) This is not accidental, it is for a reason. Therefore the blinding of minds for a time, deception and seperation from Him are necessary proceedures to complete His design. Judas, he was the only on of the twelve to fulfill prophecy. Christ had to be betrayed and sold for thirty pieces of silver. (Zec 11:12,13) These prophecies identified Him as the Messiah. If they had not been fulfilled then the plan would have collapsed. Without judas would I be a Christian? Jesus 'chose twelve and one was a devil', (John 6:70) and Jesus did nothing but what he saw the Father do. (John 5:19) I ask another question, if Christ needed a devil to complete his ministry and only copied the Father, did the Father also need Satan? I think He did. Jesus told Judas 'that thou doest, do quickly.' (John 13:27) When confronting Jesus before the throne of judgement could Judas reply, 'I did what you told me to do'? To be resurrected I must first be dead, sin brings death. To be forgiven I must be a sinner. To be redeemed I must need redemtion. To be delivered I must be in a place where I need deliverance. By God bringing me to a positon where I cry for His forgiveness, redemption, deliverance and ultimate resurrection has been His plan. To get me to that place He has used Satan, sin and the failure of human life. My lie has been to His glory. (Rom 3:7) My fall is His victory. Yours, and His in Him, Paul |
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5 | Did the Apostles have a choice? | Luke 5:8 | brother paul | 179246 | ||
dear KumKum, I agree, I dont think they had a choice. To strengthen your question look at Jer 1:5. Isa 44:24, 49:1,5, and Eph 1:4,5. Here is the conundrum...... we must have free will to be able to be conformed into the image of God, because He has free will, otherwise He would not be God. But God binds Himself by His own laws by using His free will. This is exactly the path Jesus follows, he uses his free will to abrogate all the decisions to his Father. (John 6:38) He uses his free will to limit what he does to the things his Father has already stated. Because God is love and free will is the essential component of love, we need free will to be able to love. Those people who do not yet know God cannot love because they are in bondage to sin and are driven by their own desires and agendas, they cannot demonstrate true love because they are motivated by selfish lusts and do not emulate the divine nature. The only people I find in scripture who are free are those born of Him. ' the truth shall make you free' and the the 'freedom of the sons of God'. This is where legalism and orthodoxy separates itself from the Spirit. We have to rethink the meaning of 'sin' and 'salvation' in the ultimate plan of God. Was not everything He made good? What we might call 'evil' might be part of His creative plan and purpoose. What we call 'sin' may have been designed. Do we continue to eat of the tree of knowledge of ggod and evil? Pray about it, seek the Holy Spirit who brings us into all truth. (jOHN 16:13) Maybe there is a time when God chooses to call everyone to be reconciled with Him. That would make it fair. Christ came to save the world, do we believe He is going to do it, or fail? Yours and His, in Him, Paul |
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6 | Mark 9:1, Matt 24:34, 16:28, Luke 9:27 | Matt 24:34 | brother paul | 178463 | ||
Dear Fufilled, I am happy for you. It is a great blessing to hear from Him. The four verses you have been given have a common theme, the immediacy of Christ and our salvation. When Jesus spoke the words in Matthew 24:34 the hearers would have assumed they would see the things described. 'This generation' meant them. He was encouraging them to appreciate the 'now' of God, and the first fulfillment of the prophecy was in 70 A.D. Therefore they must also have seen and understood a 'coming of Christ' in the first century. Did they understand a presence and intimacy that was like a return? That is where we should be, seeing Him in a real sense, now. Has this deeper understanding been going on throughout the intervening years? Psalm 22:30 says that His seed is accounted to the Lord as ageneration. We are His seed who live in His coming now. We stand and witness how He rules in His kingdom. A kingdom is that which is ruled by the king. When we accept Him as king and therefore become His subjects in His kingdom...now. No end gaining, living always for tomorrow and what will be. He is the great 'I AM'. If the now is right then the future is not a problem Just a few thoughts, bless you Yours and His Paul |
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7 | verse explains nonChrist knowing savior | 2 Cor 5:15 | brother paul | 178167 | ||
Dear Kim, Thank you for your question, Romans 10:6,7 says we should not say in our hearts 'who will ascend into heaven, or who shall descend into the deep.' ...... salvation is God's business, not ours. BUT there are many scriptures that speak of an inifinite grace of God that is so great that I often wonder if ultimately he could reconcile everyone through Christ. What a victory that would be. 2 Peter 3:9, ' He is not willing that any should perish, but all should come to repentance.' The 'willing' here is 'boulamai' in the Greek, not a want but an edict, His sworn will. The term 'Papal Bull' has the same root, it is a law. Romans 14:11, 'Every knee shall bow' ... bow here is 'kampto', not forced to bow, thats 'sankampto' which occurs in Romans 11:10. 'Kampto' means to worship and reverence voluntarily,....... are they saved? Is there a way that God will bring averyone to Him, through Christ? What a thought? Is Jesus the saviour of the world? (John 3:17) Is he going to do it? Does he fail? 'Saviour' is the Greek 'Soter', it refers to a completed act not an offer of possibility. A life guard has not 'saved' anyone until they were in danger of death although he might have offered the possibility of rescue many times. Other verses, 1 Tim 2:4, 4:10, Rom 3:22 8:21, Luke 3:6, Rev 5:13, Psa 22:27,28, 72:17, 102:18, Heb 8:11, Phill 2:11, 1 Cor 15:25, Col 1:20, Gen 12:3, 18:18, 2 Cor 5:19. etc. etc. Yours, and His, in Him, Paul |
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8 | no joy,no strength | Job 1:1 | brother paul | 177022 | ||
Dear Teresaa The Lord is advancing your faith. I know it doesnt feel like it, I know because I have been there and probably will be again. There are times when we must abandon all things to Him. We must remember He is dealing with everyone, your husband, sons and relatives. If at this moment we turn to Him and say, 'its alright you can forget me for a while, You solve the other problems' you help Him, it makes it easier for Him. You become His fellow worker in the salvation of others. It is abandoment to God where salvation is His business, not ours. Many christians who have reached deeper spirituality speak of the experience you now endure, the long night of the soul, the wilderness experience, the night they wrestled with the angel. (Gen 32:24-32) This is when the angel touched Jacob's thigh, and we never walk the same again. It profoundly changes our spiritual walk. It is God's word that it is His 'will' and testament, His 'boulomai', that none should perish, but all attain to repentance. (2 Peter 3:9) How long did He wait for us? Our time is not like His. You quote Job 1:1, 'a man that eschewed evil and feared God'. Yes, when he began his time of being dealt with by God, he did eschew evil, but by the time we get to the end of the book it testifies to a very different man. Chapter 40 shows how he no longer answers or judges, he no longer eats of the tree of knowlesge of good and evil, but lets God make all the decisions. The true faith which like Abraham, 'who walked he knew not where.' (Heb 11:8) Our prayers are with you, and He has promised you the victory..... may His blessing and peace be with you, Yours and His Paul |
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9 | my sister is living a lie | Phil 3:17 | brother paul | 176955 | ||
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10 | Amplified Bible; Rev. 4:5 | Rev 4:5 | brother paul | 176897 | ||
Hello Msberry To understand the new testament we need to appreciate the way the first century church interpreted scripture. Jesus said 'the scriptures speak of me'(Jn 5:39), and for the early christians it meant the old testament. They saw the old as an adambration of the new. The new was written from the old. There are seven days of creation which speak of His method, not only of the earth but also of us as individuals. We are that earth, the dust which was spiritually formless and in darkness. Then He brings light, by His Word, the light of the world, and that light is good. (Parallel Gen 1:4 and Mat 3:17) We then learn to divide the waters of life giving truths, 'the water above from the waters below'. (Gen 1:6 and 2Tim 2:15) On the third day we become the seed in the ground. The forth day sees the physical manifestation of that light, the sun, moon and stars. An exhaustive study is not possible but I hope you can see the principle. These seven steps are echoed by the seven steps of Israel's history and the 'thousand year days' of bible history.(2 Pet 3:8) It also explains why we have to 'get into the seventh day of God's rest'. (Heb 4:4) We have to 'overcome the sixes of man's number' (Rev 15:2) because 'here is wisdom', wisdom that we must understand. (Rev 13:16) There are seven different steps, seven ages of spiritual development, seven different ways God relates to us, a sevenfold spirit of God. There is a mystery to be known, 'a mystery of the ages'.(Col 1:26) When we comprehend the ways of God as well as the acts of God we become like Moses who knew His ways, whereas Israel only knew His acts. (Psa 103:7) Finally, Christ seeks those who 'give them their portion of meat in due season'. (Luk 12:42) We must learn His ways to be competent ministers and disciples of Jesus Christ. Yours, and His, in Him, Brother Paul |
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11 | How many people will go to heaven? | Bible general Archive 3 | brother paul | 176881 | ||
Hallo, Romans 10:6,7 says, 'Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven?.. Or who shall descend into the deep?' I know I can become very judgemental of others and try always to consider everyone as 'saved' even if they have yet to realise it. By my judgements I am judged, therefore while I judge that they are to be 'saved'; so am I by God. Has the use of the terms 'saved' and 'salvation' become confused with the biblical truth of ultimate spiritual resurrection in Him? Is it possible to lose my sense of salvation and still retain my hope? This could explain why my rescue or salvation from the troubled world around me is dependant on my faith, endurance and belief, (Mat 24:13, Jn 3:16, Heb 6:6) while my final destination is totally God's responsibility. If my faith weakens I no longer feel protected by Him, becoming anxious and disturbed, without salvation. 'Saved' in Greek means rescue. It is used in Acts to describe the condition of the shipwrecked survivors. The verses dealing with the 'eternal' life of the righteous (eg Matt 25:46) uses the greek 'aion' or age, this does not mean endless. At our physical death the 'saved' blessed life with the Lord will change. This spiritual 'age' of our life will end and another relationship with Him begin. Jesus IS our salvation, we ARE saved and we will be resurrected. Yours and His, in Him, Brother Paul |
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