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NASB | Acts 17:11 Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Acts 17:11 Now these people were more noble and open-minded than those in Thessalonica, so they received the message [of salvation through faith in the Christ] with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so. |
Subject: No Joyce Meyer?????????????????? |
Bible Note: "First of all, Satan has some legal rights (let me explain before you shut me down)." I hope I didn't give the impression I was trying to shut you down. I just want to discuss the validity of our two viewpoints in light of Scripture. You wrote: "Jesus called him the prince of this world 3 times. John 12:31, John 14:30, and John 16:11" True enough, but we need to be careful not to jump to any unwarranted conclusions. First of all, the Greek word used for world ("kosmos") can be used to refer to the planet itself, but very often in the New Testament it is the word for the sinful world system that opposes God the Father and the Gospel of His Son. It is not out of the ordinary at all to consider Satan to be the (unlawful and insurgent) ruler of this enemy kingdom. Paul even goes so far as to refer to Satan as "the god of this world." (2 Corinthians 4:4) That does not mean that Satan is deity any more than saying that Satan is the prince of this world means that God has anointed him in some way as having jurisdiction over any part of the Lord's creation. "I?m not saying that God is not sovereign. Sovereignty doesn?t mean that God DOES what ever He wants, it means He CAN DO whatever He wants." Sovereignty does indeed mean that God does whatever He wants. Read Psalm 115:1-3 again (the verses I included in my last post). Nothing at all happens that God doesn't cause Himself or allow to be done (or some combination of the two). You wrote: "God has the power to do whatever He wants to on earth but there are many things that we have to ask Him to do because Satan has influence" And Satan does not have any power or influence that God does not allow him to exercise, and he ultimately uses even the deveil's rebellion to His own glory. "Did you, the creation (as you put it) have to ask God to forgive you of your sins? Since I'm fairly sure you answered yes, then you are requesting of the creator which is all I said when I said faith activates God." In the case of my own justification, He has indeed tied that to faith in Jesus Christ. Faith is a condition of justification (and is itself a gift of Go -- Ephesians 2:8). Without going into how I believe that God causes that faith as well, I can point out that justification through faith works that way because God extablished that one and only means for justification and bound Himself to it (John 3:16). That is perfectly consistent with Scripture. However, the Bible does not paint a picture of a God who is holding back to see whether we will let Him work or not. The God of the Bible is an active, intervening God whose will is supreme over the will of His created beings. You wrote: "However, since we have to believe, or have faith, in the fact that God can remove our sins and that He can open the gates of Heaven to us then we are activating something in the creator." The Bible teaches that we have faith in God as a result of the Creator's activation of us, and not the other way around (Matthew 16:17; Acts 16:14; Romans 8:29-30). --Joe! |