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Thank you Shana for never losing your temper, for never yelling, for never insulting someone because they have insulted you .And thank you for an ongoing lesson in patience and christian love..
Thank you Shana for never losing your temper, for never yelling, for never insulting someone because they have insulted you .And thank you for an ongoing lesson in patience and christian love..
I second this! Shana you truly are an inspiration to me!
Thank you Miss Blue and ILNC. I appreciate what you have said. In the past I did let a lot of things get to me and I would react, but God has helped me and continues to. God's blessings to you both....
Thank you Shana for never losing your temper, for never yelling, for never insulting someone because they have insulted you .And thank you for an ongoing lesson in patience and christian love..
Quote:
Personally, I wish that everyone would be saved eternally. Such, though, is not realistic in view of the conditional element of salvation and the often misguided freewill of man.
Well, my friend, the salvation of Jehovah is rooted wholly & firmly in Himself. Repentance is "given" to us, faith is not from ourselves, but is the "faith of Jesus Christ", in fact, nothing but nothing of the heavenly Realm originates from/in ourselves!
End your wishing for everyone to be saved eternally. End it now: wishing by mortals bathed in mortality is like whistling by the graveyard. But our Father has declared what His wishes are. What do you think are the odds of those wishes coming to fulness?
"For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour: Who will have all mankind to be saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one intermediary between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave himself as a ransom for all mankind to be testified in due time."
"Who will have all mankind to be saved..."
Will have = Thelo=
To will. To have in mind. To intend. To purpose.
To be resolved and determined.
To desire/ to wish/ to love/ to be fond of doing.
To take delight & pleasure in doing.
Thelo = A strengthened from of "haireomai" (to take for oneself)
Jesus Christ declared "I will/ thelo rise again." This was no mere wish, I wish I could rise again, I would like to rise again, but alas, it is only a wish. I thelo rise again!
Dr. Marvin Vincent: New Testament Word Studies
"Who will have all men to be saved (ov pantav anqrwpouv qelei swqhnai). Literally: who willeth all men, etc. As who, or seeing that He, giving the previous statement...prayer to God for all is acceptable to Him, because He wills the salvation of all. Qelei willeth, marking a determinate purpose."
"Why all this stress is laid on man's will to ruin himself, rather than on God's will to save? Is man the pivot on which all hinges? To me it is bad philosophy, and worse theology, not to recognize God as Centre; and His will and purpose as supreme." Thomas Allin
Well, my friend, the salvation of Jehovah is rooted wholly & firmly in Himself. Repentance is "given" to us, faith is not from ourselves, but is the "faith of Jesus Christ", in fact, nothing but nothing of the heavenly Realm originates from/in ourselves!
End your wishing for everyone to be saved eternally. End it now: wishing by mortals bathed in mortality is like whistling by the graveyard. But our Father has declared what His wishes are. What do you think are the odds of those wishes coming to fulness?
"For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour: Who will have all mankind to be saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one intermediary between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave himself as a ransom for all mankind to be testified in due time."
"Who will have all mankind to be saved..."
Will have = Thelo=
To will. To have in mind. To intend. To purpose.
To be resolved and determined.
To desire/ to wish/ to love/ to be fond of doing.
To take delight & pleasure in doing.
Thelo = A strengthened from of "haireomai" (to take for oneself)
Jesus Christ declared "I will/ thelo rise again." This was no mere wish, I wish I could rise again, I would like to rise again, but alas, it is only a wish. I thelo rise again!
Dr. Marvin Vincent: New Testament Word Studies
"Who will have all men to be saved (ov pantav anqrwpouv qelei swqhnai). Literally: who willeth all men, etc. As who, or seeing that He, giving the previous statement...prayer to God for all is acceptable to Him, because He wills the salvation of all. Qelei willeth, marking a determinate purpose."
"Why all this stress is laid on man's will to ruin himself, rather than on God's will to save? Is man the pivot on which all hinges? To me it is bad philosophy, and worse theology, not to recognize God as Centre; and His will and purpose as supreme." Thomas Allin
The question of all questions is essentially this: can evil finally triumph over Good?
If evil ultimately triumphs
If we answer affirmatively with the popular creed of unending evil and sin, we are practically falling into dualism; if we reply negatively, we are teaching the Restitution of all things. The Calvinist settled the question by, in fact, affirming that if evil triumphs it is because God so orders, that is, because God decrees to evil an eternal existence; thus saving or trying to save God's omnipotence, but at no less a cost than that of blackening His character, yes, of virtually making Him a partner in evil.
God Satisfied With Endless Disobedience?
But the popular creed of despair and unending curse saves neither the omnipotence of God, nor yet preserves His character. Sin, the one thing most utterly hateful in His sight, He tolerates forever and ever, poisoning and defiling His works, and defying His power--satisfied, if in this brief life He cannot have obedience and righteousness--satisfied with endless disobedience and sin hereafter.
A Baffled Saviour A Victorious Devil?
He appears before all creation as trying to dislodge sin, only to fail; as sending His divine Son to save all men in order that He may return rejected, baffled, vanquished. And so the curtain falls on the great drama of creation and redemption, presenting such a picture as this- a baffled Saviour, a victorious devil, a ruined creation, sin triumphant- and so to continue forever- a heaven wholly base, a hell wholly miserable.
God's Essence
Strong as these words are, they are not strong enough, for the horrors and the contradictions of the popular creed alike defy description. And these horrors are taught, these contradictions are believed in the face of the plainest teaching of God's two revelations, His primary revelation to our moral sense, His written revelation in Holy Scripture. From the first page to the last the Bible is the story on one who is our Father- one whose 'wrath', and 'fire', and 'judgement', are at once most real, and yet one and all are the expressions of that essential LOVE which He is- One who being Almighty is sending His Son to assured victory, to reconcile to Himself all things, 'whatsover and wheresoever they be.'
Vain Attempts
I know how eagerly men strive to save the popular creed, by diminishing the number of the lost, by softening their torments, by asserting their annihilation, etc. What are all these but to many tacit confessions that men everywhere feel it impossible to maintain the creed still generally professed? What are they but in fact so many vain attempts to disguise the awful fact of God's defeat, to hide if it may be the victory of the evil one? For so long as sin lingers in a single heart, so long as a single child of the Great Parent perishes eternally, whether annihilated, or sent to hell, so long is the Cross a failure, and the devil practically victor.
"The whole of created life shall be delivered from the bondage/slavery of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God."
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