When he (Lot) hesitated, the men grasped his hand and the hands of his wife and of his two daughters and led them safely out of the city, for the Lord was merciful to them. As soon as they had brought them out, one of them said, "Flee for your lives! Don't look back, and don't stop anywhere in the plain! Flee to the mountains or you will be swept away!"
The men were the holy servants of the Lord that were sent to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. They told Lot to run so he might not perish with the sinful people of these cities. When he hesitated, they grabbed him and his wife and daughters and dragged them out of the city. Then they yelled at them to run away and not stop or look back.
God wanted to save Lot. That is the fact to keep in mind with this passage. God first had His servants tell Lot to run. When he hesitated, God had His servants forcibly make Lot leave his possessions and his home. When God wants someone to be saved, He makes sure to save them. Now this might start to sound like a lack of free will. Does that mean that God actually makes us become Christians and others not Christians? In no way is this true, not for us, and not for Lot and his family.
The servants of the Lord warned Lot and his family not to look back at all. To look back is trying to remember and worry about what is being left behind, to yearn for it. Lot's wife did not heed this warning. She looked back, and upon doing so, she was turned into a pillar of salt. God gave them every driving force besides taking control of them in order to save them. He left the final choice to them. In the same way, God can do everything in His power to bring someone to believe in His Son Jesus Christ. My life was filled with His intervention and power. I wouldn't exist if it weren't for His working in my parents' lives, let alone my being a Christian. There are some people who would argue with this as well and say that God is showing favoritism by doing more for other people to bring them to His glory and Love. That is a lie. Romans 1:20 makes that clear:
For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities - his eternal power and divine nature - have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
We have been given free will just like Lot and his wife and daughters. Because of this, we can have no excuse because God calls to everyone who lives, only those who listen to Him will receive Him.
This can sound harsh to so many people on the outside of God's Love, but to me, this passage is beautiful. Replace Lot with yourself, and the Lord's servants with the Lord Himself. Imagine our God being so Loving as to come down to our lowly place in order to tell us to run to Him and have faith in Him so we don't perish. And every time we might hesitate, He grabs us by the hand and pulls us while yelling clearly that this world is going to perish and that He doesn't want us to desire it. He yells that He wants us to desire Him instead, so that instead of dying, we get to live on with Him. The part where He grabs my hand to pull me to safety, it gives me so much Joy to know I am saved by this God, this God who never changes or lets go. He has forgiven us so long ago knowing full well all of our sins, and He still died and says even now, you are forgiven, now please come with me and let me Love you. That is our God.
So go out and share Him with those around you, for you might just be one of the servants God is trying to save someone else with.
Thank You For Reading
Long Live Jesus Christ
Amen
7 comments:
So because individuals have free will, its still okay for, say, an individual in an Islamic community, say, a tribe of nomads with no way of hearing of Christianity, to be condemned to hell by virtue of ignorance? Ignoring what? Can man ignore that which he can't see? Is it man's fault that your God's qualities are so invisible that without directly hearing about this God, there is no way of even knowing he's there?
There's free will, yes. But if free will is a justification to condemning an individual to Hell, regardless of their background, then God is bringing individuals into the world solely to condemn them, for, according to your doctrine, God is in control of the existence of every individual, and as a result, any individual who exists, never hears of him, and consequently is condemned to hell has been condemned out of a virtue quite opposite of love...
Invisible doesn't mean not there for one. Air is invisible but we feel it and know that it goes in and out of our lungs. We see water very easily as well. And we feel it and drink it, it is pleasing, but if you try to breathe water instead of air, you feel pain and drown. This is natural. Man is not as ignorant as you say. And these qualities of God are not so ignorable. Neither is the natural fact that we know when we do something wrong. You can ignore both if you try. The verse in Romans says that man is without excuse. And that goes for even nomads. And how can you speak for the things Islamic nomads experience unless you are one? I am not saying I do either, so I don't know the personal way they could be called by God to come to Jesus. But I base what I say off of the Bible's words which I have faith in. Man is without excuse.
So according to my faith, man is without excuse and it is up to him/her to accept this offer God makes. God can do anything He wants, and does a lot for us, but it comes down to our free will choice of Him or something else. If we don't pick Him, then we are hell bound. That is sad to me. I don't condemn anyone who does not believe, but I pray for them.
Air can be calculated, my dead TeeJay. Even sub-atomic particles can be detected with proper equipment.
The bible demands acknowledgement of God and Jesus in order to 'escape' hell. Which means that anybody who never hears the "good word" that you people so readily proclaim is condemned. Man's without excuse. Say, (and don't you dare call this example superfluous, because certain concepts of the Bible are just as if no worse), from a very early age a group of kids were cast on an island. Since there are no adult figures or individuals to tell them the "good news", they will never meet God's criteria for going to heaven at any point in their lifetime. Thus, being condemned to hell. For what? Not knowing?
The Bible also says in John that In the Beginning was the Word, the Word was with God and the Word was God. John 1. To hear God say anything is to hear His Word. And you example is still the same. Kids are still human. They have human nature, and because the same verse in Romans says that man knew it by the world around them. Having adults there or not doesn't matter. So despite you asking me not to say it's a superfluous example, it still is compared to ways God works. And we only came to know air after feeling it. And what we know about anything and in this physical world changes. We have even only started to realize that some things in this world exist. Which I find incredible by the way. My point is that we are not all knowing and cannot at any point test and prove every single thing there is. We never have been able to. We've only been able to, to quote Paul, see in part and know in part. It is only when we join God that we can see everything complete through Him.
No matter what example you make, the fact that this is what the Bible says, "man is without excuse" stands. I am just a dude in college. And for me, this means that I am called to Love on people around me, and share my faith with who I can that will accept it. Man is without excuse because reveals His qualities through the world around us. But going out myself to tell people is a way to help. That is why I am told in Matthew 28 to go share the Gospel with all nations.
I can promise on the nature of my God and the way He is, if anyone has ever sought Him out, they have received Him. For that is who God was, is, and always will be. If you can't accept that as true, then maybe that means you just don't want to accept that there is a mighty God who Loves you and wants you to trust Him. I hope that's not true, but if it is I pray for you.
Your first comment is the key. I believe in the words of the Bible. Because you don't, nothing I say will ever give you satisfaction. You only want to argue for the sake of arguing. This has been made clear by your sudden loss of temper and foul language.
Jesus is God, you know one part, you know all of Him. You find the nature of God and realize from that. But because you are so against even the thought of my God existing, you can't even begin to know what that means. So in other words, you and I are both stubborn and solid in what we believe. I am not going to change my mind, and you have made it clear that you are not going to change yours. My words are falling on deaf ears. So to paraphrase what Jesus said to His disciples, "If you come to a city that does not receive you, leave the city and shake the dust from your sandals." Meaning, don't waste time in a place with people who will not even head a word. Leave that place and move on to somewhere you can be used by God to share faith with others. I will defend my faith as long as it falls within useful guide lines, but I am not called to defend Christianity. God is all powerful to me, He doesn't need me to waste time defending Him when I could use it for serving Him effectively. Feel free to leave another comment, but I probably will not answer it if it continues this pointlessness. You probably have a better use for your time as well. If you care so much about the types of people in your examples for instance, you could find a way to help them yourself. The one thing you and I can both agree on, is that this life on earth is short. Don't waste it on something that goes nowhere.
And a warning, I don't tolerate cursing anywhere in this blog. Your comment will be deleted along with any others that have cursing in them. It is foul and shows a lack of restraint and disrespect.
At least you can admit your stubbornness...that's half the battle. I'm open minded. If you would use logic instead of relying on the bible for everything, I'd love to talk.
And another thing. In the bible, there is this verse:
"Then Saul's anger was kindled against Jonathan, and he said unto him, Thou son of the perverse rebellious woman, do not I know that thou hast chosen the son of Jesse to thine own confusion, and unto the confusion of thy mother's nakedness?" (1 Samuel 20:30, KJV)
This is the friendly, translation. BUT. "Thou son of a perverse rebellious woman" translates to, if you go from Hebrew to English roughly, son of a b*** (censored for your sensitive ears). But I'm sure you don't want to even think of that. He called the individual what, in their time, was a song of a gun.
The Bible is logic to me, that's why we can't agree on anything. haha And if all you get out of the Bible is the fact that someone insulted a another person's mother, I see there really is no way I can explain anything to you. Never the less, hope you have a good life.
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