First, I know that I will never convince anyone else.
[It is always significant when folks deny things instead of saying what they are doing, even if they alone understand what is behind the denial]
in this case I can say with assurance of God's word and spirit that God never asked anyone in this world or the next to convince anyone of anything [so much for mass religion and it's 'schools' of indoctrination for its mock sinner priests, bishops, etc and bizarrely separated 'congregations' of sinners]
God Himself teaches all folks eventually [Joel 2:28] so anyone with patience could wait for the whole PURE Truth of God [John 16:13, Heb 8: 10-11, Jer 31:31-34 ,etc...
However , God does require some men now, very few, tens of thousands amongst billions , one in three million , to know Him now , know pure Love now ,no more abuse by sin against anyone or themselves , because God WILL make Jesus' kingdom PURE righteousness to love in the new earth, and requires to have it built by men , the few saints of this earth... but even God cannot MAKE men Love, Love by essence is given freely ...but Love brings deep complete happiness from inside to men , it only takes that FIRST STEP of ceasing from sin to convince men by the love itself to continue in Love even against the persuasions and force of this whole world ... as indeed the saints must do , a fiery trial of Love indeed, but Love is up to it... God gets His tens of thousands of saints , and each of them as powerful by Love perfected as Jesus is ...each will bring tens of thousands to
TRY Love in the righteous Loving kingdom a thousand years after the 'first resurrection' [of the dead saints] and end of this earth [death and destruction of billions]...
this then is what most men DENY ... that simply TRYING Love brings all Truth from God direct ... it gives the utter nonsense of mass religion, why would anyone even want to learn from men ,if they even thought it possible that simply by ceasing to abuse people they cold know all from God ? ... would they not at least TRY it seriously , use their WILL ,use their mind to see that abusing people with sin is 'wrong', bad for everyone eventually , actually destroying us and our world... ? So here's my puzzle of the mo' which I almost managed to listen to the answer to [LOL?] - Why does God insist on [almost?] EVERYONE being told the Truth about Love by men , when He only requires tens of thousands who listen and choose to Love...
why send Paul to begin the completely fruitless teaching of the gentiles about Israel's role as the priests and kings in their later mass salvation [Rev 7:9-10] when God knows full well that they will all be destroyed with this earth [Matt 7:13]
I ask because that is what I seem to be doing, no more than Paul ... and whilst there is a chance of perhaps finding someone amongst the gentiles whose fathers [ancestors] were of the House of Israel scattered and merged with gentiles worldwide thousands of years ago [before the Jews too were scattered] as in the new covenant [Jer 31:31-34] , there is a real possibility, it seems to me, that no-one will even listen because of divided worldwide religion of men taught by sinners worldwide already ... why does God require the Truth of Love be told seemingly to all men , that all they had to do was Love one another and they would all have been happy in life... never even needing to die to free them from sin to begin again [Rom 6:7, Rev 20:13] ?
Matt 7:13 ...broad is the way, that leadeth to
destruction, and
many there be which go in thereat:
Revelation 20:5 But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished.
That is not my job, so it is not my worry.
Well it could hardly be anyone's task for God , although very many [hundreds of thousands] do it for Satan already , leading up to Rev 13:3-4, and the return of Jesus to take the few saints before the earth finally dies under burden of the cumulative mass sin of mankind [made continual by mass religion and politics eventually combined, unified, by Satan as the final antichrist, albeit only for three and a half years ]
We all do the best we can with what we are given. Neither can anyone convince me differently, for I am taught by God as my poor abilities allow Him.
there is the crux [LOL?] of the 'problem' which is not a problem long-term, most deny that they even COULD stop sinning... they believe they MUST abuse others and themselves , that they have no choice and no WILL ... or even pretend they have no conscience, that they do not know what is Love and what is abuse of sinning against mankind and God... it is beyond inconsistent, bizarre, but very apparent ... simply DENIAL of their other beliefs in such things as free choice, independence, freedom, etc... most thus live in CONFLICT of beliefs , inner schizophrenia , typically re-enforced every Sunday . lest they should simply TRY Love and find the real God of all men , be taught by Him all they can bear to hear in this life, made happy from inside by their CHOSEN way of Love... the way Jesus
showed, as he says, the only way ... simply to Love all no matter what , and learn from God , not men, not the world....
However, I will endeavor to respond from my position of faith.
As Jesus and the few saints made clear, faith in God is faith in Love ENOUGH to DO it to all FREELY ... that is not what religion means by 'faith' ... faith is not a creed , God proved creeds fail almost mankind using poor Israel as an example with the old covenant that he told them beforehand they would not keep... words are of no use unless they persuade men to TRY Love freely ... binding anyone to a creed strangles Love at birth... look at the pointless continual dissection on this site and throughout religion when ALL that is required is the ONE thing most will NOT DO , Love without any mire sin against folks and God... to simply use one's conscience , mind, spirit, heart of Love to stop hurting people with sin and love them all , no matter what they now do... because they too must find a way to TRY Love , and the very BEST way of helping them is to Love them... even ifthey want to kill or abuse one
The question that sticks out is "how it ultimately matters". It matters, because the entire world is given to believe a lie.
well almost all ...but the tens of thousands who chose Love , stopped sinning , are rather significant , as they are the MEANS by which the others are shown Love later and billions later saved because that loving kingdom of Jesus shows them a better way than this... yes amazingly there is a better way even than capitalist fake democracy and divided mass religion of sinners [LOL?] called Love...
http://www.gspoetry.com/did-we-love-enough-yet-reality-poems-546854.html
Worship, true worship, is not falling on ones face or muttering prayers under ones breath. It is emulation.
emulation may well be a good start if one emulates the real Christ , but the image of Christ in this world is the antichristos , as Jesus pointed out ...folks love to emulate especially if it's labelled 'holy' , but emulatng Satan's fake version of 'Love' is just as lethal , perhaps more so, than choosing sin directly ... pretending sin is Love is one of Satan's favourite games with men...
So I would say one has to become aware of choosing Love freely , becoming whole as a physical being , integrating one's whole mind with meditation [which defeats denial] , learning from God by seeking in prayer whilst one strives with WILL never to deny one's conscience ever again , reflects on one's heart of Love in all acts and undoes every single lie to oneself that sin is desirable in any way whatsoever... this latter only possible with spirit baptism as men lie to ourselves about our own sin... thus one neds must convince god that one truly desires to stop abusing with sin and shows WILLING by ceasing vall sins one knows one has... then god will show the rest [ and I can say that brings one to one's knees , it is a shocking experience indeed , we can and thus do lie to ourselves about how bad for ourselves and others we become in this world...]
Thanks to the thieves and robbers that came before Him, people hide their talents in the ground, for they "know He is a hard man".
denial yes ... but also denial of denial... which God alone can and will cure in spirit baptism once one has the will... but very clearly few have the will yet, most find it in the kingdom come, not now...
What they emulate is a fiction; "God created man. [...] men create God. That is the way it is in the world - men make gods and worship their creation. It would be fitting for the gods to worship men!"~Philip
as you say, it matters not, it is simply how it is... God's masterpiece resolves it all [PROVING He is god of all men by means of the power of Love]
To emulate this piece of fiction, people must not care whom they hurt in it's name...after all, he is a hard man, ordering the slaughter of babies, the theft of daughters and calling bears from the woods to devour children.
I guess that is both the false justification of terrible sin in this world [such as leaving 50,000 and more, mainly little kids to die of simple starvation in misery EVERY SINGLE DAY because not enough even Love enough to care ... obviously the few saints cannot cope , but the divided churches of mass religion of sinners could solve this, choose not to ...
Matthew 18:7 Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!
the sadness will come to almost all men then , the shame of why we did not Love enough even to make ourselves happy , contribute our share of Love that is required of us eventually by God... but almost all continued to abuse many , not Love... we can sadly see why so few find the way, are chosen [not least for perfecting Love of all in obedience to God and Jesus] to be kings and priests who create the kingdom come where the many willlater be saved by works of Love AFTER death frees them from sin [Rom 6;7] because they did NOT choose to stop sinning voluntarily now, as all saints of this earth do , following Jesus, who showed men do NOT have to abuse others with sin .. showed the BIG lie of mass religion of Satan...
Thus followers of this thing have no trouble with souls slowly roasting on a spit, in fact some seem so eager for it they would gather the kindling.
it's indeed bizarre that men do not see that the spirit is undivided , is ONE God and nothing else :-
Deuteronomy 32:39 See now that I, even I, am he, and there is
no god with me
if one understood even the unity of the spirit then one would know one cannot destroy the spirit of man [God's image is spirit, not flesh, in which we are created] ... God cannot suffer , cannot be touched in anyway by the physical, is holy [separate] from all His (endlessly created) creations which all end as they began [as nothing] , so seem to God as illusions, dreams, virtual realities, seem to us ... separate, different in essence..
folks burn the dead [cremation] , but not as punishment... so how can they think to punish either the dead body or the spirit ??? ... howwouldphysical fire affect the spirit? How an anything stop the spirit being 'with God ' ? [except that God can create the illusion of separation , but it doesn't last!]
Ecclesiastes 12:7 Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the
spirit shall return unto God
who gave it.
Who then is the True God? It is the one Jesus emulated. The one who's very being is perfect, Love and Goodness, who values mercy over punishment and sees punishment as a way to correct.
I think we can say even more, that punishment all comes about from the evil of men, our sin , that God USES for good purpose to show men that sin leads to their discomfort , unhappiness, misery [that is what makes it sin, but men are so short-sighted ...and blinded by denial ... but FOR A TIME or times ONLY]
even in the lake of fire it is the evil of the most wicked of men that makes life unbearable and turns men in desperation at failure of the ways of evil to abandon emulating Satan and TRY Love... that is all it takes , to TRY it sincerely , judge Love rightly against sin, there is no doubt which works, which fails... the 'problem' we make for ourselves is all the folks promotig sin as 'great' , as 'progress' , as 'growth' , etc ...so for now very few yet give Love a TRY and see the truth
so no-one needs to teach in place of God , God will get around to it at the appropriate time FOR EACH in turn [as laid down in the stages of the 'ages' of His declared Plan]
but the few who Love now are PERSUADED to TRY Love by men who Love now... that much help can be given if one has the will to stop abusing others and oneself now...
2 Timothy 2:19 Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them
that are his. And, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ
depart from iniquity.