Hi Jason, nice to meet you. Yes, I will admit that one would have to go to an evangelical theologian to know the exact ins and outs of the Lordship concept, but I get it that evangelicals have a tradition of praying, “Lord what do you want me to do”, and then they listen for an inclination in the heart or something.
re: “What I try to focus on is that all our faith and hope depend on two things that God cannot do. He cannot cease to exist and He cannot stop loving.”
One of the difficult things to understand is how can He be loving when He casts folks into the lake of fire to be tortured for eternity?
Our choices throw us into a lake of fire. God does not send us to Hell. We choose Hell. God sends us a life-raft (His Son Jesus). It is up to us to either take hold of Him or to think we know a better way (spoiler alert, there is no greater way).
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No same person would choose to be tortured 24/7 for eternity. And who do you think is casting the person into the lake of fire? (Rev 20:15)
Jesus said to fear Him who can cast body and soul into Gehenna. Why fear Him if He wouldn’t do it? We have to call Him Lord and do what He commands. There are plenty of Catholics, Protestants, and Evangelicals who call themselves Christians but excuse themselves from some commandments. We all sin, but there’s a difference between sinning and recognizing it as wrong versus breaking commandments because we decide that we’re not required to obey them.
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I don’t know if you’ve ever heard some atheists joke about Hell. They think it is going to be some kind of Party. I often feel sorry for these individuals. Now I know they are simply mocking God (or in their minds, the idea of God, since they do not accept He exists), but they are still choosing self > God and therefore death > Life.
There are some, in my opinion, bad theologians who believe that everyone is going to Heaven. Because, how could a good God send people to suffer for eternity? I like to think of God as loving Father. He does not will for His children to choose life of sin and He will help His children when they cry out to Him for help and assistance. But, if this child thinks he knows better than His Father and continues to live a life without Him in it, then that child is choosing the life without His Father in it (for eternity).
God forgives 70 x 7, but if we cut ourselves off from Him and the Family, then we are choosing not to be forgiven. Does this make sense?
Peace to all,
The me the Trinity is the most confusing to understand unless one uses logic as the seashell to explain, such as the Child mystic to St Thomas Aquinas at the Beach in France in the 12th century. St Thomas turned around, looked back and the little mystic just disappeared.
I thing the confusion today in the Trinity is in the definition of the persons in being existing before creation was ever created was even created are the cause of the confusion, to me, logically.
Peace always,
Stephen
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Cade_One,
re: “They think they would be going to be some kind of Party.”
So, they wouldn’t be choosing to be tortured for eternity; they would be choosing to be going to some kind of party.
Peace to all,
I like the question is The Bible the Mother of the Church or is The Church the Mother of the Bible?
Peace always,
Stephen
re: “There are plenty of Catholics, Protestants, and Evangelicals who call themselves Christians but excuse themselves from some commandments.”
Especially the 4th (or the 3rd if you’re RC).
It is commendable that you have a good understanding of your Mormon friend and a wonderful perspective on sharing message of Jesus Christ. It is important to remember that converting others to Jesus Christ is the work of the Holy Spirit and is not ours. Our first priority and duty are to live our lives in such a way that we bear witness to the Savior and His Holy Church without needing to speak. Additionally, we have a responsibility to love others and share what brings us joy, happiness, and peace.
We pray for the salvation of our families, friends, acquaintances, all of God’s children, and to stand as disciples of Jesus Christ in all places and at times. The Spirit will touch the hearts of those who are ready to follow the path leading to the holy sacraments of Mother Church.
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Outside the busiest abortion clinic in Philadelphia, which I look on as the gates of Hell, on Saturday mornings there are usually a bunch of people praying and trying to offer help to the clinic’s customers, and there are usually dozens of people shouting insults at the prolifers and often blasting lewd music and dancing to it. I could picture these people dancing right into Hell, but I pray for them.
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Very well said. Welcome to the forum : )
That bishop and priest are out of touch with conscious. The essence of concience is the voice of Jesus speaking to us within our hearts. When one hears a voice within his heart, telling him to kill someone, he should pause and reconnect with Jesus, and sincerely ask him what is the right thing to do. And according to ur sincerity, we will be guided. Ishan das
Most thoughts of killing someone do not come from the heart, but a firing response in the brain, though it might be referred to as a “crime of passion,” it is not from the heart.
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You may be correct to think in this way, although there is evidence that the most important aspects of the “mind” (such as conscience) are in the heart (according to Ayurvedic science and Chinese medicine). Actually, this was also the understanding of the Christian church prior to the advancement of materialistic science. But assuming you are correct that the impulse to kill comes from the brain, this goes to point out the importance of remaining fixed up in internal meditation, holding the presence of Jesus always enthroned within our hearts. The Bishop and the priest referred to (in the quote I was responding to) would be benefitted by keeping this in mind. Anyone who is not purposefully engaged in an on-going sense of communion with God and His Son, can and will be dragged off course by the dictates of the mind and senses at any second. In fact, even the so-called “good” man, the ethical man, is off track in the sense that it is only by grace that we can be closer to God, and without availing oneself of the Grace of Jesus, no one can come closer to God. “It is not by good works alone…”. we have no power to save ourselves by the strength of our independent will. Therefore Jesus encourages us to “accept the yoke that I wear”. We can only get it from him. That’s why he came to this planet.
I’m not disagreeing. I’m saying that thought of killing someone is not from the heart, but rather from head. The conscience tells these thoughts to “simmer down” ; )
I think of the Trinity this way: God is like a mainframe computer. He has the complete “program”. Jesus is like that computer linked to that mainframe-he has the same programming plus a specific purpose. The Holy Spirit is like another computer in the system. He has the same programming plus a specific purpose. All one system, but different purposes. That makes sense to me!
In my mind, that would be demonic. I don’t believe God would ever tell us to just arbitrarily “kill” someone. That would have to be a set of circumstances wherein a life was required to be taken to save another life and that circumstance would be extraordinary.
I would run far away from any clergy that claims that!