Then Jesus went through the towns and villages, teaching as he made his way to Jerusalem. Someone asked him, “Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?”
He said to them, “Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to. Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you will stand outside knocking and pleading, ‘Sir, open the door for us.’
“But he will answer, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from.’
“Then you will say, ‘We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.’
“But he will reply, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from. Away from me, all you evildoers!’ (NIV)
There are two kinds of people in this world. Are you one of them?
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ (NIV)
I just found this Slayer fan video. (Warning: extreme content may offend.)
There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.
Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines. (1 Corinthians 12:4-11)
… From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked. (Luke 12:48)
Come midnight, the world hadn’t ended. But there was still time … New Zealand is 12 hours ahead of GMT! I went to bed … and then I woke up. And the world was still here.
Was I surprised? No. I never thought for more than a moment that the world would end on 27 May 2012. Who would? Well, perhaps some of the visitors to The Prophesied End-Time Revealed. When I wrote my earlier post I thoughtfully kept a copy of the page as it was on 27 May. The opening paragraph read
The year 2008 marked the last of God’s warnings to mankind and the beginning in a countdown of the final three and one-half years of man’s self-rule that will end by May 27, 2012.
The opening paragraph now reads
The year 2008 marked the last of God’s warnings to mankind. The final countdown to the end of man’s self-rule began on May 27, 2012, and will end on Pentecost of 2013.
Now, that’s a bit dodgy. The end of the world isn’t nigh. It’s been indefinitely postponed. Since 2008.
In fact, Jesus says that no one will know at what hour the Son of Man will return (not even he does!), and Paul tells us that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. When I looked up chapter and verse, I found that this message is repeated over and over in the New Testament. Really, it is inexcusable for a Christian to claim he knows the specific date of Christ’s Second Coming!
“But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.
“Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.
“Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning, like servants waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him. It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes. Truly I tell you, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them. It will be good for those servants whose master finds them ready, even if he comes in the middle of the night or toward daybreak. But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. You also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.”
Now, brothers and sisters, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.
But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare.
Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; hold it fast, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you.
As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. “Tell us,” they said, “when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”
Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many.
Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, we ask you, brothers and sisters, not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by the teaching allegedly from us—whether by a prophecy or by word of mouth or by letter —asserting that the day of the Lord has already come. Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God.
Don’t you remember that when I was with you I used to tell you these things? And now you know what is holding him back, so that he may be revealed at the proper time. For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming. The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with how Satan works. He will use all sorts of displays of power through signs and wonders that serve the lie, and all the ways that wickedness deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.
The title of this post has been lodged in my head since 1983. It’s the start of the lyrics to the Pink Floyd song The Hero’s Return. The question is essentially the same as one(s) which my co-blogger Tim raised in a comment on another thread.
I would like to know with what urgency do you go about preaching the Gospel of Grace? Is the Gospel the most important truth to you as a Christian? or is being a Christ[ian] merely like being a member of the ‘Rightest’ philosophy/book club?
What[‘s] more….according to your teaching of annihilation… the atheists are right. ie when you die…you die! *That is what they expect* thus what you call Gods judgement is nothing more than what the atheists already expect. Ie it equates to *no judgement* at all.
Me I expect to be judged by the very words of the King James Bible.
For me I can barely sleep at night with concern for the Importance of evangelizing the lost for Christ.
Question: Would you Die for the sake of the Gospel?
is the message of Jesus, the Christ or Messiah—God’s ruler promised by the Scriptures—specifically, the coming Kingdom of God, his death on the cross and resurrection to restore people’s relationship with God, the descent of the Holy Spirit on believers as the helper, the resulting promise and hope of being saved for any who believe and follow Jesus, and through this, a healing of the brokenness of the entire created universe.
But the Gospel is not just a message, it’s a call to action. For me, what’s most important in the Gospel are not its truths but its imperatives.
One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”
“The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” (NIV)
There’s a war going on between the forces of good and the forces of evil. (Hadn’t you heard?) Life is the battleground. To become a Christian is to enlist and become a soldier in God’s army.
The first commandment is a call to pledge your allegiance to God.
The second commandment is the battle plan. The details are sometimes a bit sketchy. Which is why it helps to pray
Tim is right that atheists expect to die. After decades of atheism I’ve grown used to the idea of personal annihilation. The hope and promise of eternal life played no part in my conversion to Christianity. Partly for this reason, saving souls seems somehow of secondary significance to me. Of course, an army needs recruits, but it also needs specialists. Some will specialise in recruitment, but we all have different callings.
That’s what I think it’s all about. I’ll add that my views on the matter are subject to change. Of course, the question which is the title of this post wasn’t addressed to me, it was addressed to Jesus. He has the answers (here, here, here and here), and we should defer to Him accordingly.
Would I die for the sake of the Gospel? It’s a bit late to ask that now, I already enlisted!
Another piece where I need say little other than shine the torch of liberty down the new tunnel being built to the Police State: http://www.stuff.co.nz/technol…
The new Privacy (Information Sharing) Bill.
Privacy = Information sharing. Just as in Orwell, war is peace, et al.
Right. Got it.
The article doesn’t State the SS officer in Wellington behind this one, but it smacks of Frau Collins, fresh from her victory of having destroyed one of the central planks of a free press: the right of a journalist to protect a source from the (largely incompetent) storm troopers at SFO: http://www.solopassion.com/nod…
Anyway, the new affront, and by now routine assault on our liberty under the brute fist of the Nanny State and her crony capitalists:
The Privacy (Information Sharing) Bill reduces the threshold under which information can be disclosed if there is a risk to public health and safety or threat to the life or health of an individual.
It also allows the sharing of personal information between agencies if done in accordance with approved information-sharing agreements.
So government departments can now share information about me, including with private sector cronies, on grounds of public health and safety. You don’t even need to have read Orwell, just watch the six o’clock news, to know there is nothing that can’t be justified somehow under the catch-all ‘public health and safety’.
As fast as the previous Labour Socialist Statists financially raped and plundered the productive with their envy taxes, these National Socialist Statists are destroying individual liberty at a similar breath-taking pace. This State we live in, behind the IRon Drape, is huge: there’s no where you can hide from it, and that’s just how they want it, sorry, you. That’s just how they want you, your life and bank accounts available to them at all times. And the sheeple go ‘bah bah, get Mark Hotchin, tax the rich pricks, redistribute, redistribute’.
Fools and simpleton dolts.
Thanks, Mark, for keeping the torch of liberty burning. (Aren’t you supposed to be on holiday?)
I post this by way of introduction to The Third Watch. Welcome to the blogosphere!
“Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning, like men waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him. It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes. I tell you the truth, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them. It will be good for those servants whose master finds them ready, even if he comes in the second or third watch of the night. But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. You also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.”
Peter asked, “Lord, are you telling this parable to us, or to everyone?”
The Lord answered, “Who then is the faithful and wise manager, whom the master puts in charge of his servants to give them their food allowance at the proper time? It will be good for that servant whom the master finds doing so when he returns. I tell you the truth, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. But suppose the servant says to himself, ‘My master is taking a long time in coming,’ and he then begins to beat the menservants and maidservants and to eat and drink and get drunk. The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the unbelievers.
“That servant who knows his master’s will and does not get ready or does not do what his master wants will be beaten with many blows. But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked. (NIV1984)
I note that whereas the 1984 New International Version has
It will be good for those servants whose master finds them ready, even if he comes in the second or third watch of the night.
the 2011 New International Version has
It will be good for those servants whose master finds them ready, even if he comes in the middle of the night or toward daybreak.
… “For Christ sent me not to Baptize, but to preach the Gospel:…” (1Cor1vs17)
Paul clearly teaches that he was not sent to baptize.
Now compare this with Christs commission to Peter and Co…
“Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is Baptized shall be saved; he that believeth not shall be damned…” (Mark 16vs15,16).
We see this is also recorded in Matthew “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost…” (Matt 28vs19)
Thus Christ *Did send Peter to Baptize!*
This distinction between Paul and Peter ought to be enough to show you God had different Commissions for each of them…
In Luke 24 vs 46-49 Peter is told to “Begin at Jerusalem and to ‘tarry’ there until they recieve the ‘Power from on high’.”… and in the first chapters of the Book of Acts , having been taught by the risen christ 40 days ‘The things pretaining to the kingdom’ (1vs3) We find Peter obediently Staring his ministry in jeruselem, preaching to the Jews ‘That it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise again the third day, and that repentance, and the remission of sins sould be preached in all nations…(compare Luke24vs46,47 to Acts 2 esp14-47)
Note in this chapter The Death of Christ on the cross is not preached as a glorious attonement for sins, but as a terrible act of sin and rebellion against God! (read Acts2vs22-23 KJV)
“Ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain:”
Note that He preaches the Cross and resurrection of Christ …not as salvation but as prophetic evidence the Christ is Lord… and that By his resurrection they stand in Judgment of God…and God would render the Enemies of Christ ‘his footstool’
“Let all of the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.” (Acts2vs36
“What shall we do?”… cry those Jews whom were pricked in their hearts by peters Preaching of Condemnation?
“Repent and be baptized every one of you for the remission of Sins” (vs 38)
“Save yourselves from this untoward generation” (vs40)
Then the believers sold all their possessions and had all things common. (vs44,45)
(They did this in expectation of Christ eminent return and setting up of his kingdom)
And We find Peter again Preaching The Cross *as Murder…not salvation* in Acts 3vs 13-18 …and most importantly in vs 19,20 he says “Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord and he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: whom heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his prophets since the world began.”
Note that Peter is tell Israel to repent of their Evil rejection of their messiah…Christ.
Note that Peter does not preach that Salvation occurred by the work of Christ on the cross, but would occur at a future time.
And if you read the rest of the Passage of Acts 3 you will see that Peter is specifically preaching to the Jews in respect to the Covenant God had with their fathers.
When you put all this together you realize that Christ Sent Peter to Re-offer the kingdom to Israel using the Death , Burial, and resurrection of Christ as evidence that Jesus was indeed the REAL DEAL , and that after they had repented and received their messiah the disciples were to spread out throughout the world and preach the gospel of the kingdom for a witness unto all Nations (Mat24vs13,14…) Then the end would Come with the Return of Christ as King of Kings and Lord of lords, destroying the antichrist and the enemies of Israel…. And that those whom had not received the mark of the Beast, those whom had endured unto the end…they would be saved… the rest would be thrown into the Winepress of the Wrath of God. (Rev19, Rev 14vs 18-20)
Then Christ will establish his millennial kingdom in Israel. (Rev20vs4)
Yet The Jews rejected the preaching of Peter… and his commission did not get passed the first stage… Did not go out into all the Earth….. thus the end did not come (Mat24vs13,14). Instead a great persecution of the disciples sprang up and though Peter continued in Jerusalem, many were scatted into the regions about yet preached to Jew only. (Acts 8vs1, Acts 11vs19).
And because Israel failed to repent, the Kingdom of Christ was postponed and the Nation of Israel was reserved unto Judgment. Thus began 2000 years of persecution and slavery for the Jews. “And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the gentiles, untill the times of the gentiles be fulfilled. (Luke24vs24)
And it is during this dispensation of the Judgment of Israel, that god raised up Paul to Preach Free Salvation to the gentiles. It Is to Paul The God reveals the secret mystery that was previously hidden…that the Death, burial, and resurrection of Christ was the divine atonement for the sins of Mankind.
It was to Paul that God sent to preach this Gospel of salvation…without works. (Eph2vs8,9)… thus with Paul’s Gospel the act of Baptism is not necessary. When we believe the Gospel we receive the righteousness of Christ (Pil3vs9, Rom5)…and he took upon himself our sins.
When Christ was Baptized…we were Baptized…we receive his righteousness.
“Christ’s Baptism by John” is part of the series of sacred paintings made by Woonbo Kim Ki-chang. / Courtesy of Heaven’s Door Gallery
I have got to leave off here as I’m off to see my Family for xmas. I post this Sunday message a day early. It is by no means exhaustive yet I am out of time. I hope it at least show you that Paul’s commission was different to Peters commission, that Paul’s view of the Cross was very different to Peters…. Paul Loves the Cross! Peter preached it as murder. I hope you see the difference between The Gospel of the un-circumcision (No Works…not a part of the Covenant of Circumcision), fro Peters Gospel of the Circumcision (The preaching Of Christ as King of the Jews). (Gal 1vs11,12, 2vs7,8)
Ask yourselves why those Christians whom deny the truth of Dispensationalism do not today sell all their possessions and have all things Common…as the followers of Peters Preaching did in the early Book of Acts?
They are hypocrites! ( I will be putting a message about this dispensational aspect soon.)
Anias and Sapphira struck Dead for trying to decieve the Apostles regarding selling all their posessions and laying the money at the Apostles feet. (Acts 4vs32-37, 5vs1-12)
May The Lord Bless those of you with the eyes to see and ears to hear this message.
Tim Wikiriwhi Libertarian Dispensationalist Christian…Sinner saved by Gods Grace.
Praise the Lord for his mercy unto me.
Capill syndrome, named after New Zealand’s notorious sex offender and former high-profile politician Graham Capill, is characterised as follows.
Shout loudest about that which you fear others uncovering.
Those who yell the loudest about something seem to have something they desperately don’t want us to know.
In psychology, Capill syndrome is known as projection. Projection is a psychological defense mechanism where a person subconsciously denies his or her own attributes, thoughts, and emotions, which are then ascribed to the outside world, usually to other people.
In literature, Capill syndrome is immortalised in the Shakespearean line, “Methinks she doth protest too much.”
I wonder about self-proclaimed Christians like Capill, I really do. Had Capill really never read Luke 6:41-42?
And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but perceivest not the beam that is in thine own eye?
Or how canst thou say to thy brother, ‘Brother, let me pull out the mote that is in thine eye,’ when thou thyself beholdest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite! Cast out first the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to pull out the mote that is in thy brother’s eye.
What is possibly more amazing than the fact that so many people quote this verse and the concept of not judging, is that so many people could get the real meaning so completely wrong. This is especially true since the context makes it clear what Jesus meant by these words. When Jesus said that we should not judge unless we be judged also, he was not saying that we are to never judge if behavior is sin or not. What he was doing was giving us a caution to make sure that we are willing to be judged by the same standard of judgment. This verse is not a warning against judging an action. It is a warning against self deception and hypocrisy.
The way we know this is the same way that we usually know what the Bible teaches. We look at the context. The verse that immediately follow helps explain what Jesus was saying. For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you. Matthew 7:2 In other words, if you are going to say that what someone else is doing is wrong then you better be prepared to be judged by the same standard. If you don’t want your life to be scrutinized, then don’t judge others. If you can stand the scrutiny then go ahead. Think of Al Gore telling us that we need to cut down our energy use in order to save the planet and then finding out that he has three large homes and the carbon footprint of Godzilla. He needed to read this verse first.
What Jesus was doing was cautioning us to make sure that we are willing to be judged by the same standards by which we judge others. In other words, “Judge, and be prepared to be judged.” Does that sound at all familiar?
One day there will be no more pain, like an opiate wonderland
No more worry, it will all just end
And all of our forward movement will finally cease
The human machine will finally bleed
The human machine will finally cease to be
So set yourself free
And disengage from reality
So set yourself free
And disengage from reality
The grounds will shake and your children will tremble
Soon enough the machine will fall
And we will all crumble
The human machine will finally bleed and cease to be
We’ll finally be set free
Be set free
Be set free
Just be glad you know what life is
Be glad you know
You know what life is
You know what life is
One day there will be no worry
No more pain, it will all just end
And all of our forward movement will finally cease
Objectivism‘s founder Ayn Rand, for all her genius, was a bad philosopher. She, and her successor Leonard Peikoff, attempt to define God out of existence in what maverick philospher Bill Vallicella likens to “a bad ontological argument in reverse”.
It is like a bad ontological argument in reverse. On one bad version of the ontological argument, one defines God into existence by smuggling the notion of existence into the concept of God and then announcing that since we have the concept of God, God must exist. Peikoff is doing the opposite: he defines God and the supernatural out of existence by importing their nonexistence into the term ‘existence.’ But you can no more define God into existence than you can define him out of existence.
Catholicism and communism … Their differences pertain only to the supernatural, but here, in reality, on earth, they have three cardinal elements in common: the same morality, altruism—the same goal, global rule by force—the same enemy, man’s mind.
Note that Rand uses the term ‘reality’ to refer to this world only, excluding the next. Perhaps this use of the term is not so uncommon. Surely, Mitch Lucker had some such definition in mind when he exhorts us to “disengage from reality”.
From a Christian perspective, to disengage from reality is to disengage from this world. This world is Satan’s dominion. Jesus said (speaking to the Jews)
Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me.
Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out.
From a Christian perspective, to disengage from reality is to follow Christ. To disengage is also to let go, to set free, to remit, to release, to pardon, to forgive.
Disengage is a song about forgiveness and about following Christ (with lashings of Christian eschatology). Stretching too long a bow? Just be glad you know what life is.
