This spreading the gospel to the nations is what Christ's true disciples did and have been doing. The non-Christian Afghans do not know the Father for they deny His Son and do not come to the father through Jesus:
"Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father either; he who acknowledges the Son has the Father also." (1 John 2:23)
Additionally, they feel they can be saved by their works (including dying in the Jihad), but the word tells us no man can work his way into heaven: "Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." (John 14:6)
Mike, at one time when I was a pagan, I would have agreed with you, now having had the scales removed from my eyes, I would urge you to follow the instruction of Christ to "Repent and Believe in the Gospel" (Mark 1:15) for as Peter preached: "Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved." (Acts 4:12)
Your Post: "Jesus prohibited from proselytizing. When you disobey Jesus this will be the result. The Afghans already believe in God."
Jesus said to the scribes and Pharisees: Mat 23:15 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.
He said this because they were wicked religious men trying to make converts to their wickedness and leading people to hell.
However, He did tell His followers to preach the Gospel to every creature and to go and make disciples unto Him of all nations. (Matt 28:19 and Mark 16:15)
My first instinct was simply to delete your comment as neither Christian nor profitable, but I'll leave it up and instead respond and let others do so.
Jesus clearly never "prohibited proselytizing" quite the opposite in fact. During his earthly ministry he sent out his followers to preach the gospel (for instance the seventy of Luke 10), he himself went about preaching the gospel and urging all to repent and believe, he went into Samaria and urged the Samaritans to believe in him telling them their worship was wrong, he gained converts there and they in turn converted others. Christ crossed the Sea of Galilee to bring the gospel to the Greeks of Gadara. When his ministry was over he COMMISSIONED his church to spread the gospel to every nation:
"And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, "teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Amen. (Mathew 28:18-20)
"While I agree that the civil magistrate has duty to defend his people from the evil that the Jahadis desire to do, the church has a duty to take the gospel even to those who would make us martyrs, remembering that once we were all just as blind ourselves."
Hallelujah for your post.
Loving our neighbor as ourselves demands the laying down our lives for the salvation of the lost world in darkness. Shout it from the highest mountain and echo it in the lowest valley. Jesus saves!! Jesus saves!!
While I agree that the civil magistrate has a duty to defend his people from the evil that the Jihadis desire to do, the church has a duty to take the gospel even to those who would make us Martyrs, remembering that we were all once just as blind ourselves
You will recall that after Jim Eliott and his 4 fellow missionaries were murdered by the Alca Indians, the response of the church was not "kill 50 Alcas for the five missionaries they killed" rather Jim's own wife and Nate Saint's sister went to the Alcas and ended up converting the whole village. The same sort of thing was done by the same Christians who were being killed by the very Romans whose eternal good they were seeking.
But regardless of whether or not the church is granted success in her endeavors by the Lord, our duty to forgive them and carry the gospel to them is just the same.
Luke 54-56 "And when His disciples James and John saw this, they said, "Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them, just as Elijah did?" But He turned and rebuked them, and said, "You do not know what manner of spirit you are of.For the Son of Man did not come to destroy men's lives but to save them." And they went to another village."
Maybe I am Peter striking off the ear of Malchus, but I'm so sick of the patheticness of the world when it comes to terrorism. Why do we tolerate it? Should we not strike them 100 fold for each missionary they kill? Or should we resort to Eph. 6:10 and leave what is physical and ONLY deal with the spiritual? Why are we so reluctant to root out evil? Warn them, then destroy them, using maximum force! It's because we tolerate and toy with evil that it's so prevalent. Why suffer Amalek to continually bite us in the heel?
The GA decision is confusing a lot of people. If the adoption of a committee report interpreting a right interpretation of the Westminster Confession in a few areas is all that happened, one is left wondering just what all it entails.
Will someone please explain what it is, and what is going on?
“ Great Sermon! ” An excellent sermon, really helped me to see Infant Baptism as being the only consistent position that Reformed christians can maintain.
Owen shows the futility of "ceremonies, vestments, gestures, ornaments, music, altars, images, paintings and bodily veneration," as proceeding from the will of man, and not God, in His own worship! A real spiritual feast defending biblical (Reformation) worship.
“ Great Sermon! ” Thanks Pastor, this was timely. When I heard about this on TV I said "I can't believe people are falling for this unholy garbage!" I'm glad Christians are standing up for the TRUTH!
“ Great Sermon! ” Thank you for this sermon brother, I too wish to have nothing to do with the worldly holiday of Christmas. To God be all Glory given wholly by his son Jesus Christ, let us not ever doubt the holy spirit, amen.
“ Excellent Reading! ” Excellent reading! Hear this wonderful narration about our total depravity, free agency, the human will, original sin, common grace, regeneration, conversion, predestination, and God's wonderful sovereign grace in the election of all true believers before the foundation of the world!
Yes, Salvation is of the Lord!
“ Great Sermon! ” You're very welcome, and you are probably right regarding the category. I just thought "audio dramatization" makes it sound like there will be music, sound effects, and different readers when it is just plain old me reading The Five Points of Calvinism. Anyway, I've changed the catagory.I just hope people aren't disappointed. ;-)
“ Great BOOK! ” Wow! I've been looking for Reformed Theology resources I can recommend to my husband who is deployed. Thanks for making this great resource available. I hope part 2 is available SOON! Just one question - shouldn't this be filed as an "audio dramtization" not a lecture?
“ I needed to hear this ” I was totally blessed by this message. I was in a relationship with a non-believer. I thought I could help him and bring him to the Lord. It didn't work out that way. I started compromising with him and sinning with him. I tried to get away many times but kept coming back. I thought he needed me. I was being dragged down by him. Things were getting worse. I finally realized that I can't save him and that I can't expect him to be the kind of person that I would like to have a relationship with. Like this message said, how can we as believers expect a secular person to have any clue as how to truly love someone and to treat them as God wants them to be treated? They can't do it! We can't make them. We need to let go of the secular boyfriend/girlfriend...let God help them.
“ Listen to this sermon! ” This is a must-hear sermon. If you do not love the Lord, you will justify all manner of sin. Wicked how we are, and yet how wonderful the words of Scripture are. Be spiritually refreshed by listening to this powerful sermon based on Joshua. PDF is great, too!
“ Highly encouraging ” Daniel's faithfulness at such a young age is astounding. This sermon and text is highly applicable to all believers, young and old.
“ Great Sermon for PASTORS! ” I wouldn't normally do this, but I did want to recommend a sermon by a friend of mine, PCA Chaplain Jay Outen entitled "How can I pray for my pastor?" Jay preached it at our church and when I initially saw the title I was expecting something that would be intended primarily to convict *the congregation.* As it turns out, *I* ended up being the person most brought under conviction.
In the sermon Jay applies 1 Peter 5:1-5 to expose the manifold temptations Pastors are brought under, and how easily they can fall into either grave sins that will destroy a ministry or simply habitual sins that will cripple it. It reminded me in some ways of Thomas Brooks' Precious Remedies and in others of Baxter's Reformed Pastor.
Anyway, I recommned it not only because its good, but because its been my experience that men in the ministry like myself to seldom hear sermons specifically aimed at exhorting, warning, and reforming us.
8/15/07 2:17 PM
5/31/07 3:15 PM
