AionOlam said:Wow, Zaac!
Jesus said, "I am the way (follow me), the truth (listen to what I say), and the life (how to live so that you may have life and have it more abundantly). He also said His yoke is easy. His message is of love and forgiveness. His condemnations were directed at those who had authority, who preached and followed the traditions of men NOT God.
And you just missed what was being said also. I know full well what the message of God is. And I know full well that His message of love and forgiveness is encompassed in EVERY WORD that is in His HOLY BIBLE and not just the verses that say Jesus loves me.
You DO NOT decide that you're not going to preach certain parts of God's Word just because you no longer think you need to preach about such things. God's Word is God's Word. ALL of it. And we are called to preach ALL of it including the parts where JESUS HIMSELF talks about the consequences of sin.
Today's religions and religious leaders are for the most part no better than the Pharisees and Sadducces. They scare you into believing out of fear of eternal condemnation, or scare you away from believing in God at all.
There may be some out there who do. But there are far more out there who have hooked their wagons onto this false doctrine of not preaching the full counsel of God's Word. There are far more pastors who are delivering teachings whereby they only tell you God loves you while completely avoiding dealing with the consequences of sin and why men need to be saved.
Somebody needs to scare the church because right now , on this very day, people have joined many churches acoss the country under this deceptive humanistic practice of only preaching part of God's Word, and their lives and the lives of those like them continue to look JUST like the world. Why? Because some pastor has convinced them that becoming a Christian has to do with them feeling good and happy instead of them being the followers of Christ that He intends for every CHristian to be. He desires the full commitment of the Christian and that is not happening because people are not dealing with sin. ANd why are they not? Because pastors don't want anybody to feel condemned about their sin and thus they have taken it upon themselvees to not talk about the very things that Jesus Christ spoke of.
The benefits enjoyed by the Christian joy, peace, fulfilment, meaning in life are often made the ground of an appeal to the unsaved. This is, of course, a motive well-designed to lead the natural man to `make a decision' for Christ, but it is misleading when separated from the preaching of the wrath of God against sin, the need for a complete change of nature and the demand for true repentance, all of which are found in the New Testament gospel.
we have made Jesus into a loving but impotent figure, standing and knocking outside the door of our lives. There is only one door handle, on the inside, where the sinner alone can control it. The feeling excited is one of pity: `He has done so much for you; will you not now open the door to Him and allow Him to bless you with His salvation?'
This leads the hearer to feel that he has done God a favour by agreeing to believe! What could be more different from the spirit of the tax collector in the parable, who dared not approach God but stood afar off and cried in humility and repentance, `God be merciful to me a sinner'?
Yet we foolishly take it upon ourselves to not preach about sin and the result of sin because it makes people feel bad?
God's commandments are simple: Love God and love one another. Even though it is simply stated, it is not simple to do - that is where by placing our faith in Jesus and His example, He can strengthen our resolve to follow these commandments.
And I'll make the truth of God's Word clear one more time. What God says in the two greatest commandments, is the summation of EVERY WORD of His Holy Bible, not just the ones that mention LOVE.
Evil and punishment are temporary. They are God's way of teaching us the difference between good and evil. He wants us all to mature. (After all, we are all made in His image.) And God will get all His wants, desires, wishes.
Then why are the Billy Grahams of the world taking it upon themselves to not preach it anymore?
When ever we sin there is a price we pay - death. And yes, there is and will be punishment, but it is of a "corrective" nature to cleanse us of our evil.
There will be no punishment for the one who has alowed the blood of Christ to cover the sin. But to listen to preachers today, who would know that they had a need to have their sin covered? All we hear is how you are going to be so joyous etc. Preach half of God's Word and you still end up with people in the church who look like the world and not like Christ. Why? Because you can't look like Him doing half of what He says.
17For it is time for judgment to begin with the family of God; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God? 1 Peter 4:17
God wants us to help water and nourish the seed of His love that is in each one of us. How do you make love grow? Not by trampling down on what little love an individual may possess (with threats of eternal damnation - especially when that's a lie). You show others through your actions in thought, word and deed. You will draw them like bees to honey. And it isn't you that is drawing them, it is God. He works through the love He gives and nurtures in each of us to draw others to Him.
And you are presenting the very same humanistic gospel as the rest. It is indeed God who draws men to Himself. And He left His Word---ALL OF IT---to do so. Not just the parts that are soothing to a person's itching ears.
Count your blessings, Zaac. If God has already called you, you should be showing the world what a wonderful gift it is, not what you think is going to happen to them if they don't receive it now.
Sheer blasphemy and this is why the world continues to spiral down. What do you mean what I think will happen to them? God makes it very clear what will happen to them if they do not accept Him. Yet we don't preach this because it would be "mean." My goodness. How do ya'll think people come into a full understanding of what a wonderful gift salvation is without having an understanding of just how completely lost we are because of our SIN?You CANNOT know the need for a savior without understanding that sin, which will send you straight to hell, has to be dealt with. You cannot really grasp the concept of redemption and salvation and mercy and grace without grasping that sin that leads to destruction is the reason you need these things from Him.
Billy Graham in his interview on Larry King displayed the attitude of a true servant of our Lord. When he spoke of punishment and shame it was directed at himself not others.
Again, nobody is telling him to condemn anyone else because he cannot. But he is still to preach the WHOLE of God's Word and not just the parts that leave people feeling good.
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