"For God did not appoint us to wrath...."

There are many people who think God is mean and vengeful and doesn't like people.  He wants to punish us.  Nothing could be further from the truth. 

9For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, 10who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him.

Nothing could be further from the truth.  God did not appoint us to wrath…we brought that on ourselves.  Or more accurately I should say that those who reject God brought that wrath on themselves. 

The truth is that God appointed us to be able to obtain salvation.  That was God's wish for each of us.  But God also gave us free will which means each person is free to embrace God or reject Him.  Those who choose to reject God make a decision to reject God's kindness and to invite His wrath.  But that isn't the state of life that God appointed to us.  Make sense?

A question of innocence.

When civilians are killed during war time we often hear about how the innocent were killed.  But were they really innocent?  They supported what their leaders were doing.  Or at least they didn't oppose their leaders. 

You're probably wondering where I am going with this.  Let me set up this piece of Scripture and then I will explain on the other side.

This is the story of how Peter was in jail and an Angel came and got him out.  There were many guards there who were to make sure that Peter didn't get away and they failed.  Therefore Herod had them killed.

Acts 12:18-19(NKJV)

Then, as soon as it was day, there was no small stir among the soldiers about what had become of Peter. 

But when Herod had searched for him and not found him, he examined the guards and commanded that they should be put to death. And he went down from Judea to Caesarea, and stayed there.

The guards were killed for not doing their job, they let Peter escape.  There are many who might say "that wasn't fair, God supernaturally through His Angel helped Peter escape.  Therefore the guards were innocent.". 

Were they?  I would suggest that the fact that they were there working to suppress God's word makes them anything but innocent.

 

Why did this "please the Jews"?

Doesn't this make you wonder?  King Herod has just had one of the disciples, James, killed with a sword.  The next sentence says it "pleased the Jews".  Here is my question.

Why did it please the Jews?

Acts 12:2-4(NKJV)

Then he killed James the brother of John with the sword. 

And because he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to seize Peter also. Now it was during the Days of Unleavened Bread. 

So when he had arrested him, he put him in prison, and delivered him to four squads of soldiers to keep him, intending to bring him before the people after Passover.

Why is this such a big deal to me? I ponder that.

As I've read Scripture over and over I haven't found anywhere Jesus said we had to believe in our hearts and confess with our lips that Jesus is Lord to get salvation.  From everything I've read, with Jesus it was 100% a heart issue.  There was no magic incantation.  That seems to have come from Paul as far as I can find.  Here is the first such example.

Romans 10:9-10(NKJV)

that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 

For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. 

Now I've made this clear repeatedly but I'll say it again just to make sure everyone understands.  I'm not against confessing with your mouth.  I think it is a good thing.  Not bad at all.  My only point is that when you compare what Jesus said was needed for salvation and what Paul says, there is a difference.

The thing that concerns me here is man has a habit throughout history of adding to what God gave us in the Bible.  That's generally not a good thing because from there it is a short hop to "listen to us, not to God".  That was the choice that Joan of Ark faced and failed at.  She had always listened to God instead of man.  One time it became too much and she gave in and listened to man.  That was her downfall.

Now an argument could be made that Scripture very clearly says Paul was chosen by God for His role and therefore Paul has authority to speak.  That is certainly a compelling argument.  But does Paul have authority to add requirements to what is required for salvation? 

Why is this such a big deal to me?  I really don't know although I have a guess.  A bunch of us had an assessment done through church where it identified our spiritual motivators.  One of mine was accuracy in Scripture and Biblical understanding.  It's just part of my makeup, part of who I am. 

There have been many times I have suppressed writing about this but God keeps bringing me back to it.  Even after I wrote this today I tried to move on and write something else to post.  I was just going to keep this one for myself.  God wouldn't let me.  Weird. 

Anyway I long ago learned to trust God and I am going to trust Him now by sharing this.  And just to be clear this should not challenge anyone's salvation in any way.  The only way to God is through Jesus, irregardless whether it is heart only or heart and mouth!

"God shows no partiality"

I think this concept sometimes gets taken out of context.  A lot of people seem to think this means that God doesn't show a preference at all.  I think a lot of people miss the second part of the verse. 

Acts 10:34-35(NKJV)

Then Peter opened his mouth and said: “In truth I perceive that God shows no partiality. 

But in every nation whoever fears Him and works righteousness is accepted by Him. 

I think the proper interpretation is that God shows no partiality among those who believe in Him.  In other words Greek and Jew are saved equally in God's sight.  Scripture tells us repeatedly however that God favors those who believe over those who don't. 

Want proof?  Those who believe are saved and get eternal life.  Those who aren't saved get eternal damnation instead.  I'd say there is some partiality there.  :)

Salvation is not found in "Mother Earth"

There are many who worship the earth.  According to Scripture, those people will be disappointed.

Jeremiah 3:23(NKJV)

    Truly, in vain is salvation hoped for from the hills,     And from the multitude of mountains;     Truly, in the Lord our God     Is the salvation of Israel.

Who killed Jesus?

Who killed Jesus?

Thursday, September 07, 2017

8:56 AM

I find it interesting how irate the Jewish Community gets when you say that the Jews killed Jesus.  The thing is there are several Scriptures that say that it was the Jewish Community who was responsible. 

Acts 3:12-23(NKJV)

So when Peter saw it, he responded to the people: “Men of Israel, why do you marvel at this? Or why look so intently at us, as though by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk? 

The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified His Servant Jesus, whom you delivered up and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let Him go. 

But you denied the Holy One and the Just, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, 

and killed the Prince of life, whom God raised from the dead, of which we are witnesses. 

And His name, through faith in His name, has made this man strong, whom you see and know. Yes, the faith which comes through Him has given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all.

“Yet now, brethren, I know that you did it in ignorance, as did also your rulers. 

But those things which God foretold by the mouth of all His prophets, that the Christ would suffer, He has thus fulfilled. 

Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, 

and that He may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before, 

whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began. 

For Moses truly said to the fathers, ‘The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your brethren. Him you shall hear in all things, whatever He says to you. 

And it shall be that every soul who will not hear that Prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people.’  

Here is another Scripture from the Gospel of John that predicts it will happen.

John 7:1(NKJV)

After these things Jesus walked in Galilee; for He did not want to walk in Judea, because the Jews sought to kill Him. 

What is interesting is when you look this subject up you see articles where Jewish believers go to great lengths to obscure and evade their responsibility.  They start out by attacking the New Testament itself as being anti-sematic.  Then they go on to point out that it wasn't the Jews who killed Jesus it was the Romans because Jesus was crucified and that is a Roman method of execution. 

Now technically that is true but it is true only because the Jews requested that Jesus be killed.  Pilate was going to let Jesus go and kill one of the other prisoners.  The Jews rejected that and repeatedly called for Jesus to be crucified.  Therefore the responsibility, no matter how much they would like to obscure the truth, lies with them.

Now as the verse in Acts points out, "

“Yet now, brethren, I know that you did it in ignorance, as did also your rulers. 

But those things which God foretold by the mouth of all His prophets, that the Christ would suffer, He has thus fulfilled. 

Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, 

and that He may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before, 

whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began."

Nobody wants to condemn the Jews for all time or anything.  Scripture acknowledges that they did it out of ignorance and that all they have to do is repent and all will be forgiven.  But instead of repent they choose to keep defending their actions. 

Interesting that they remain one of the groups opposed to Jesus when Jesus was foretold in there Holy writings as the Savior sent by their God to save them….and they rejected Him.  How sad!

For me it comes down to who am I going to believe?  Those telling me it wasn't the Jews fault or Scripture that I can read with my own eyes which clearly tells me with was?