When did God give you free will? Just asking, you know.
Cbcpreacher wrote:(I received what I expected from Yamil).
No idea have you JD wrote:During the year 1954 I averaged preaching twice daily for 365 days. First Baptist Church, Algiers, New Orleans, is preachingto more people every week than practically all the other churches combined, and that's not boasting – that is just stating a plain fact.
You tell me how the gospel is good news to the vast majority of people whom God has chosen expressly for the day of destruction and when you preach, you tell your congregation that and be honest with any seeking soul that does not want to go to hell.
You tell them that your gospel is a great big ELECTION with a little bitty jesus.
I say it is a false gospel!
JD YOUR IGNORANCE IS GREATER THAN THE SUM OF YOUR BIBLE UNDERSTANDING but you will need to go to this web page to understand what real calvinism is!
'Calvinism Gives Fire and Enthusiasm to True Evangelism'
L. R. Shelton
http://www.radiomissions.org/sermons/cal-fire-enth.shtml
'I am a Calvinist to the core – not a Hypercalvinist. I cannot be still for preaching the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ that one of God's elect may be saved. During the year 1954 I averaged preaching twice daily for 365 days. First Baptist Church, Algiers, New Orleans, is preachingto more people every week than practically all the other churches combined, and that's not boasting – that is just stating a plain fact. True Calvinism will put enthusiasm, zeal, andsoul-compassion into soul-winning, and mission work. Now let me give some reasons whythat is so.'
GO AND DO LIKEWISE
jago wrote:JD this is not the thread for discussing the revelation of John.
Why would evangelists take the gospel to more than 10% of the people if the gospel is not "good news" to them? And why is evangelism even necessary to those who have been elected if there is no possible way in which they will ever perish? And why, if salvation is all of God without any input from man, does God even want us interferring in his plan of salvation and getting in his way and sharing in the glory of it? And why tell the world that God has elected only a few, a very few, and the rest are created for the day of destruction and they have no hope. Even God could not save them now if he wanted to.
These doctrines appeal to a precious few of you fellows who think you are elect and are therefore special but they do nothing in a practical situation but deny the wonderful plan of salvation that the gospel is indeed good news to the masses because Christ died for them and they can be saved. Your gospel feeds the massive egos of people like Walt and Murray and those who are quoted in these silly commentaries, and of course, you.
In many countries there are no western style missionaries or pastors but christians minister one to another. The web and radio are also very valuable tools in reaching the unsaved.
JD this is not the thread for discussing the revelation of John.
MurrayA wrote:.However, we should transfer the discussion to one of the eschatology threads.
MurrayA, their are 49 sets of "sevens" in the revelation. Since all the doctrines of Scripture have their beginning elsewhere in Scripture and flow into this book and are consummated there, it seems fitting that God uses his number for completion this many times, don't you think?It is like a freight train that originates at the terminal and picks up freight cars along it's route until it becomes a tonnage train and then pulls into the final terminal where all the cars are then switched to tracks and sent to their final destination. In the case of the freight car called the church, it has been "predestined" to heaven and glory so it is first to be sent out of the yard to heaven in Re 4:1,2. The seven representative churches has informed us concerning the trip to the terminal.
Funny you should mention "s-word." Osteen has used that phrase. Or I should say, he doesn't use the s-word, as was pointed out to him recently.
JD,
God is sovereign. He even gave me free will. Guess he is sovereign enough to do such things.
Mike wrote:"91% of Christian workers minister to less than 10% of world population. How do you feel about this?"So, JD and Murray, how do you feel about this?
Does anyone have the audacity to think 91% of the christian workers can just make a decision from free will to go to the other 90% who have never been witnessed to?
We are not to blame so don't try to put me on a guilt trip.
However, we should transfer the discussion to one of the eschatology threads.
As to the subject of this thread, it is really a question of the decline in missionary zeal and candidature.There are several reasons for this:1. A growing universalism in so-called evangelicalism, such that many no longer believe that the heathen really are lost, that somehow the Lord will let them in if they do their best.
2. A loss of consciousness of sin, both in themselves and in others. "Sin" has become the "s-word".
3. An insularity in churches, whereby people are preoccupied with what will make them feel good. The Joel Osteens of this world (et al) only foster this mentality.
So, JD and Murray, how do you feel about this?
1 The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John:
Now, you may say the message to these churches are not part of the revelation of Jesus Christ if you like, I am not going to try to stop you. You can say they have no prophetic (predictive) value at all and they were never intended to have any. It is your life. You can do as you please.
However, I am not as smart as you and I have learned to believe simple words that God speaks whether I understand them or not. I have not, nor do I desire to learn how to deny them.
This is the reason I assign you men cult status. Of all the doctrines we have ever discussed here, you fellows have understood none of them. Yes, you impress the simple ones like Lurker with your good words and fair speeches and some other of the mind numbed robots but in the end you believe nothing. You especially do not understand the church of Jesus Christ.
All my conversations wth you have been about things you do not believe! Now, here is another!
I could hardly have put myself clearer. I would guarantee that most others on this board know what I am getting at. Yet you blame me for opaqueness, when it's your own inability to understand the issues involved.
It's not that John and Jesus were wrong, it's that you are - in your narrow - and naive - definition of "prophecy" as "all prediction".
An old definition has it, summarising the Biblical evidence:"a prophet is someone with God-given hindsight, insight, and foresight." Add to that the element of Divine call and commission and that is it in a nutshell.
I have put to you a good deal for you to chew on, but you cherry-pick and reply only to the bits you think you can handle. Please interact with ALL of it!Meanwhile, cease displaying your abysmal ignorance of prophetic interpretation.
MurrayA wrote:Tell me why, for example, the books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings - histories - are called in the Jewish Canon "the former PROPHETS".
MurrayA, the Revelation begins in Chapter 1, verse 1 and it includes the things that John saw, The glorified Christ, the things that are, the churches, and the things that shall be here after the churches, the triubulation, the glorious coming of Christ, the millinium, the judgment of the wicked dead, and the eternal state in the New Heaven and the New Earth.
Where do you find the histories called former prophets anyway???????
Good to hear from you again. Everything you wrote is all too true... anymore I just watch and shake my head.
God bless, Tim.
. . .
Murray,
Your patience with JD is commendable but his strength is his hard head. A dictionary, indeed, to define what the bible defines...
Follow after charity, and desire spiritual [gifts], but rather that ye may prophesy. For he that speaketh in an [unknown] tongue speaketh not unto men, but unto God: for no man understandeth [him]; howbeit in the spirit he speaketh mysteries. ***But he that prophesieth speaketh unto men [to] edification, and exhortation, and comfort.*** He that speaketh in an [unknown] tongue edifieth himself; but he that prophesieth edifieth the church. (1 Cor 14:1-4)
I hope you keep pressing JD for an answer as I'd like to see how he defends his assertion that the "Laodicean church age" is now. And maybe he will tell us how John has been preaching to these seven churches over the past 2000 years.
