Just thinking… between you, me and the gatepost…
If we spend time fighting trinitarians and freewillers… will they listen? Do they care? I’m thinkin’ we’re just wasting time trying to talk to those morons. (I was one)
Instead, what if we explored more, the evangel of our salvation, as revealed by Paul.
I say this because I once heard that Dean Hough said something like, “I can’t be bothered with the book of Revelation, when I haven’t sounded the depths of Paul’s evangel yet.”
(And Dean has been sounding the depth’s of Paul’s message for more than 50 years.)
Dean, being the elder statesman of our merry troupe, I said to myself, “Ya know, that makes perfect sense.” as there are plenty of distractions about exactly how to interpret the GWT and the lake of fire, etc.
Well, ever’ since I put Dean’s thought into my pipe and smoked it… I see things in Paul’s message I never saw before. Subtle things. Patterns. Ways of thinking.
Thank God, Christ busted him on the road to Damascus.
He (Paul) has turned out to be just we we all needed to point us to a flawless Christ and a wondrous Eonian Purpose of God.
Keep in mind Dean wasn’t the first to blow off the book of Revelation.
Martin Luther also dismissed it, as well as the book of James.
(Remember, “certain men came from James”? Galatians 2.)
I’ve spent the better part of 6 months debating “the freewill chick” and she’s just as stubborn toward the truth as ever.
Her message actually offends me — when I think about it.
She is clearly dismissing God’s work in the cross of Christ and she’s SHOUTING all about man’s work, man’s freewill, man’s contribution and without it, the sinner is doomed, no matter what God wants, does, or plans.
It’s offensive really.
I know Paul went after false teachers and doctrines of demons. But I’m thinking it’s a fine line between smacking at those easy targets and jumping back into something sweet and powerful like God’s operation, God’s purpose, God’s intentions, God’s glory, etc.
Freewillers and trinitarians are not about those things.
Freewillers and trinitarians are little better than Napoleon Hill and all the SELF-HELP gurus…glorifying man and man’s ability and man’s contribution to the purpose of God.
Of course, to do that they must use the Bible like a ouija board… carefully picking and choosing verses, or phrases, to create a message with.
Never mind a concordant translation. Never mind concordant study methods. Never mind rightly dividing… and the address on the envelope.
Paul’s 13 letters are a wonderful place to discover God’s mind.
Short enough to memorize, should one want to.
Enough letters to compare and verify his message to be consistent throughout.
And get this… Paul begins his career to the bad boys in Antioch, by saying
GOD MAKES THE WORLD AND ALL THAT IS IN IT. Then he says…
GOD GIVES LIFE AND BREATH AND ALL TO ALL. Then, he continues…
NOT FAR FROM EACH OF US… IS HE INHERENT. Next he reveals…
FOR IN HIM WE ARE LIVING AND MOVING AND ARE. … Finally… he says…
THE RACE, THEN IS INHERENTLY OF GOD.
Now, on that SUPER DUPER foundation… Paul reveals that God’s purpose is built on the resurrection of Christ (and a bit of judging and the tendering of faith to all) … And that’s when the trouble began.
When they heard Paul bring up the resurrection of the dead, they laughed him off the stage.
(See ACTS 17:32)
But it’s all tied together don’t cha see.
God makes the world and all that is in it… then the cross and the resurrection makes sense.
God gives life and breath and all to all… you gotta have the resurrection in that thought !!!
Not far from each of us is He inherent… demands the resurrection when you think about it.
For in Him we are living, and moving and are… again, life beyond the reach of death fits perfectly with this thought.
The race, then, is inherently of God…. Oh my… Christ accomplishment on the cross is just what Antioch’s bad boys (and us) needed to hear.
But instead of jeering him off the stage, “WE WANT TO HEAR MORE.”
Freewillers and trinitarians hate the thought that God gives life and breath and all to all.
They hate it that God makes the world and all that’s in it.
They gnash their teeth at the thought of God inherently being very near to all of it.
And that “in Him we are living and moving and are” — forget it.
Yes, Paul says “the race is inherently of God” and they say, “There’s nothing worth saving… just scrap the whole human race in the lake of fire.” (Except for them of course.)
And onward they go, trying to PROVE their worth and their contribution to the plan and purpose of God — by using their freewill and chanting their magic formulas of the so-called “sinners’ prayer” and trinitarian made-up lingo… like witch doctors with smells and spells.
Where to start?
Somehow, I’d say start with Acts 17. – When Paul first spoke to the bad boys of Antioch.
Then hit up Galatians. Then Romans, then finished Paul’s other letters. Don’t stop tell you’ve read each of his letters 5 or ten times.
‘Won’t take you long.”
No matter which letter of Paul’s you read… they all have elements of Acts 17 in them. His is nothing if not consistent.
“All is of God” and “The cross and resurrection changes everything.”
The two biggest messages of Paul.
A third message (a minor one) is “behave yourselves” ‘cause others are watching.. even the celestials are and will be watching, cause you’re on display now boys.
Yes, we’re talking about God’s eonian purpose… His eonian building plans…. His roadmap to completion.
And dang, ain’t it exciting?
Grace to you.
Ace.
From ACTS CHAPTER 17—
22 Now Paul, standing in the center of the Areopagus averred, “Men! Athenians! On all sides am I beholding how unusually religious you are.
23 For, passing through and contemplating the objects of your veneration, I found a pedestal also, on which had been inscribed, ‘To an Unknowable God.’ To Whom then, you are ignorantly devout, This One am I announcing to you.
24 The God Who makes the world and all that is in it, He, the Lord inherent of heaven and earth, is not dwelling in temples made by hands,
25 neither is He attended by human hands, as if requiring anything, since He Himself gives to all life and breath and all.
26 Besides, He makes out of one every nation of mankind, to be dwelling on all the surface of the earth, specifying the setting of the seasons and the bounds of their dwelling, for them to be seeking God, if, consequently,
27 they may surely grope for Him and may be finding Him, though to be sure, not far from each one of us is He inherent,
28 for in Him we are living and moving and are, as some poets of yours also have declared, ‘For of that race also are we.’
29 The race, then, is inherently of God; we ought not to be inferring that the Divine is like gold, or silver, or stone, a sculpture of art and human sentiment.
30 “Indeed, then, condoning the times of ignorance, God is now charging mankind that all everywhere are to repent,
31 forasmuch as He assigns a day in which He is about to be judging the inhabited earth in righteousness by the Man Whom He specifies, tendering faith to all, raising Him from among the dead — “
32 Now, on hearing of the resurrection of the dead, these, indeed, jeered, yet those say, “We will hear you concerning this again also.”
33 Thus Paul came out of their midst.
34 Yet some men, being joined to him, believe, among whom were Dionysius, the Areopagite, also, and a woman named Damaris, and others with them.
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