This morning I was reading the Bible in part of my devotion time, and I was reminded again of you. I thought I might share some of my notes with you.
30 The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, but violence takes lives. 31 If the righteous will be repaid on earth, how much more the wicked and sinful.
Prov 11:30-31 (HCSB)
· I just read this in light of the Islamic teaching of Jihad. The wicked (those who deny the testimony of the Lord Jesus - 1 John 5:10-11) are being repaid for their idolatry, and their rejoicing in the power and rage they feel when the commit these acts. The are having their earthly lives cut short, but sadly they are being taught that this is the way to paradise. And this is a sinister lie of the serpent, that sends them straight to hell.
Have you seen the news reports about the wildfires, the cyclones, the earthquakes? All of these are terrible human tradgedies. But you know, all of this was predicted by Jesus, and recorded in three different books of the Gospels (Matt. 24, Mark 13, Luke 21).
Matthew 24:5-13 5 "For many will come in My name, saying, 'I am the Christ,' and will mislead many. 6 "You will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not frightened, for those things must take place, but that is not yet the end. 7 "For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and in various places there will be bfamines and earthquakes. 8 "But all these things are merely the beginning of birth pangs. 9 "Then they will deliver you to tribulation, and will kill you, and you will be hated by all nations because of My name. 10 "At that time many will fall away and will betray one another and hate one another. 11 "Many false prophets will arise and will mislead many. 12 "Because lawlessness is increased, most people's love will grow cold. 13 "But the one who endures to the end, he will be saved.
The bible teaches us that God is a God who punishes unrihgteousness both now and for eternity. I think we agree on that.
Romans 1:18 18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,
Romans 1:21-22 21 For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. 22 Professing to be wise, they became fools,
See, this is a part of Yahweh's plan, which He has told us about it from the beginning. He took his covenant people, the Jews, descended from Isaac and Jacob, and God, who always keeps His promises, promised through the prophets thousands of years ago to take away the sin of His 'chosen' people, through whom He wanted to bless the earth.
Zechariah 12:9 - 11; 13:1 9 "And in that day I will set about to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. 10 "I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn. 11 "In that day there will be great mourning in Jerusalem... Zechariah 13:1 "In that day a fountain will be opened for the house of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for impurity.
We see that the words of the prophets is coming true, namely because not only did the prophecies of the Messiah come true in Jesus (www.100prophecies.org), but Israel was restored in line with God's promises to Israel (Ezekiel 36, 37). And politically things are moving into position to fulfill Ezekiel 38 & 39, when Russia and her Muslim allies come against Israel. Then Yahweh Himself will fight for Israel to defend her.
Zechariah 12:8-9 8 "In that day the LORD will defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and the one who is feeble among them in that day will be like David, and the house of David will be like God, like the angel of the LORD before them. 9 "And in that day I will set about to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.
I hope my friend, that you will hear God's Word.
John 1:14 14 And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.
1 John 5:9-12 9 If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater; for the testimony of God is this, that He has testified concerning His Son. 10 The one who believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself; the one who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has given concerning His Son. 11 And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. 12 He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life.
Showing posts with label new testament. Show all posts
Showing posts with label new testament. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Tony Campolo, Jim Wallis: The Marxist Delusion and a Christian Evangelist
This is a good article analyzing one of Campolo's latest works...
The purpose of Campolo’s letters to two young evangelicals (Timothy and Junia) is to convince them that the “Religious Right” in America is their sworn enemy, and if they wish to get serious about God’s business, which is assisting the poor and oppressed to bring in the Kingdom of God, they must reject the Jerry Falwells, the James Dobsons and the Tim LaHaye’s of the conservative wing of Evangelicalism and stake their claim with the true “progressives,” namely the Sider, Wallis and Campolo camp. This camp will bring forth the Kingdom of God on earth in spite of the constant foot dragging of their non-progressive, conservative, Evangelical counterparts.
Campolo conveniently forgets to mention, or else does not know for himself, that the baggage he asks these two young, naïve evangelicals to carry with them in bringing about the Kingdom is simply a plethora of failed radical ideas and agendas that make impossible any and every effort to establish that Kingdom-- unless, of course, the Kingdom of God is a socialistic "paradise" something on the order of a Stalinist farming collective or Moscow under Brezhnev. Those horrors, and not Campolo's airy utopian dreams, are what his ideas repeatedly yield, and to where they inevitably lead.
Campolo has renamed his leftist camp “the Red-letter Christians.” (7,8) ("Red" indeed.) By this moniker Campolo means that his camp is seeking to put into practice the Sermon on the Mount, which is all in red letters in his Bible. What this name implies about the book of Acts or the letters of Paul, Peter and John is not exactly spelled out. Campolo, for example, never quotes Acts 5:1-4, probably because there the concept of private property is favorably mentioned. Campolo is, at heart, an anti-capitalist (142). So are Sider and Wallis. So are the liberation theologians.
Relative to his two young readers, Campolo’s position is summarized quite frankly and forthrightly: “There was no question in our minds that in the struggle for justice, God sides with the poor and oppressed against the strong and the powerful. For the first time, these students understood liberation theology, and they supported it—if by ‘liberation theology’ we mean the declaration that in the struggle to end injustice God sides with the poor and oppressed against their oppressors” (265.)
So much of Campolo’s book is decidedly ambiguous, one might even say it is flatly contradictory -- not simply when he talks about ethics and public policy, but even when he talks about himself. He claims to be a Fundamentalist and not to be a Fundamentalist; to be pro-life and not to be pro-life; to be anti-gay marriage and not to be anti-gay marriage; to be conservative and not to be conservative; to be anti-capitalist and not to be anti-capitalist; to be liberal and not to be liberal; to believe in universal salvation and not to believe in universal salvation; to denigrate America’s middle class values and to admit being middle class himself; to hate the rapture and not to hate the rapture; to despise dispensationalism and to really despise dispensationalism. One is reminded of Luther's exasperated assessment of Erasmus: He is a slippery eel only Christ can grab.
for full article, see http://www.christianworldviewnetwork.com/article.php/1597/David_Noebel
The purpose of Campolo’s letters to two young evangelicals (Timothy and Junia) is to convince them that the “Religious Right” in America is their sworn enemy, and if they wish to get serious about God’s business, which is assisting the poor and oppressed to bring in the Kingdom of God, they must reject the Jerry Falwells, the James Dobsons and the Tim LaHaye’s of the conservative wing of Evangelicalism and stake their claim with the true “progressives,” namely the Sider, Wallis and Campolo camp. This camp will bring forth the Kingdom of God on earth in spite of the constant foot dragging of their non-progressive, conservative, Evangelical counterparts.
Campolo conveniently forgets to mention, or else does not know for himself, that the baggage he asks these two young, naïve evangelicals to carry with them in bringing about the Kingdom is simply a plethora of failed radical ideas and agendas that make impossible any and every effort to establish that Kingdom-- unless, of course, the Kingdom of God is a socialistic "paradise" something on the order of a Stalinist farming collective or Moscow under Brezhnev. Those horrors, and not Campolo's airy utopian dreams, are what his ideas repeatedly yield, and to where they inevitably lead.
Campolo has renamed his leftist camp “the Red-letter Christians.” (7,8) ("Red" indeed.) By this moniker Campolo means that his camp is seeking to put into practice the Sermon on the Mount, which is all in red letters in his Bible. What this name implies about the book of Acts or the letters of Paul, Peter and John is not exactly spelled out. Campolo, for example, never quotes Acts 5:1-4, probably because there the concept of private property is favorably mentioned. Campolo is, at heart, an anti-capitalist (142). So are Sider and Wallis. So are the liberation theologians.
Relative to his two young readers, Campolo’s position is summarized quite frankly and forthrightly: “There was no question in our minds that in the struggle for justice, God sides with the poor and oppressed against the strong and the powerful. For the first time, these students understood liberation theology, and they supported it—if by ‘liberation theology’ we mean the declaration that in the struggle to end injustice God sides with the poor and oppressed against their oppressors” (265.)
So much of Campolo’s book is decidedly ambiguous, one might even say it is flatly contradictory -- not simply when he talks about ethics and public policy, but even when he talks about himself. He claims to be a Fundamentalist and not to be a Fundamentalist; to be pro-life and not to be pro-life; to be anti-gay marriage and not to be anti-gay marriage; to be conservative and not to be conservative; to be anti-capitalist and not to be anti-capitalist; to be liberal and not to be liberal; to believe in universal salvation and not to believe in universal salvation; to denigrate America’s middle class values and to admit being middle class himself; to hate the rapture and not to hate the rapture; to despise dispensationalism and to really despise dispensationalism. One is reminded of Luther's exasperated assessment of Erasmus: He is a slippery eel only Christ can grab.
for full article, see http://www.christianworldviewnetwork.com/article.php/1597/David_Noebel
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
