Sunday, June 28, 2020
Herbert W Armstrong: A Dangerous Cult Leader
Tuesday, June 23, 2020
God-ordained OR Man-made?
Thursday, June 18, 2020
Juneteenth: Freedom from Slavery
Since we have been united with him in his death, we will also be raised to life as he was. 6 We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. 7 For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin. 8 And since we died with Christ, we know we will also live with him. 9 We are sure of this because Christ was raised from the dead, and he will never die again. Death no longer has any power over him. 10 When he died, he died once to break the power of sin. But now that he lives, he lives for the glory of God. 11 So you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus.
12 Do not let sin control the way you live;[a] do not give in to sinful desires. 13 Do not let any part of your body become an instrument of evil to serve sin. Instead, give yourselves completely to God, for you were dead, but now you have new life. So use your whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God. 14 Sin is no longer your master, for you no longer live under the requirements of the law. Instead, you live under the freedom of God’s grace.
15 Well then, since God’s grace has set us free from the law, does that mean we can go on sinning? Of course not! 16 Don’t you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living. 17 Thank God! Once you were slaves of sin, but now you wholeheartedly obey this teaching we have given you. 18 Now you are free from your slavery to sin, and you have become slaves to righteous living.
19 Because of the weakness of your human nature, I am using the illustration of slavery to help you understand all this. Previously, you let yourselves be slaves to impurity and lawlessness, which led ever deeper into sin. Now you must give yourselves to be slaves to righteous living so that you will become holy.
20 When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the obligation to do right. 21 And what was the result? You are now ashamed of the things you used to do, things that end in eternal doom. 22 But now you are free from the power of sin and have become slaves of God. Now you do those things that lead to holiness and result in eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 6:5-23
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans%206&version=NLT
Tuesday, June 2, 2020
GOD AND THE MORALITY OF A NATION
“How can God heal our land and forgive the sins when abortion and same-sex marriage are laws and many people are anti-Israel. Doesn’t this prevent his healing and forgiveness?” a viewer named John asked on the television program.
In response, Robertson said John was "right."
“The Bible says ... turn from their wicked ways," said Robertson, adding, "We are not turning when we have done terrible things. We have broken the covenant that God made with the mankind. We have violated his covenant.”
“We’ve allowed this terrible plague to spread throughout our society. And it’s a small wonder God would hold us guilty," he said. “But the answer is, you confess your sins and forsake them. Then he heals the land. It’s not before."
see https://www.out.com/news/2020/4/21/pat-robertson-same-sex-marriage-plague-caused-coronavirus
Likewise, many years ago, Herbert Armstrong wrote in his The United States and Britain in Prophecy:
It will now be made plain — from God's own warning prophecies — that this greatest multiplied intensity of corrective punishment will fall on Britain and America — including British peoples in Commonwealth countries. And it will strike them down first!
But they are not the only nations to suffer corrective disaster. God is Creator of all other nations, too! God is concerned about the people and races we have called "heathen." They, too, are human. They, too, are made in God's own likeness, with the potential of being molded into God's spiritual and character IMAGE! God sent the apostle Paul to Gentile nations!
All mankind has rebelled against, rejected, and turned from God and His ways! There can never be peace on earth until all nations will have been turned to God and His ways, ruled by His supreme government!
All mankind, right now, is caught in the vortex of the swiftly accelerating crisis marking utter destruction of this world's man- built, Satan-inspired civilization...God will use a Nazi-Fascist Europe to punish Britain-America. Then He will use the Communist hordes to wipe out the Roman Europe. We are entering a time of world trouble — utter world chaos! There is war, strife, violence in Asia, Africa, South America — as well as Europe and North America. The population explosion is a worldwide threat to human existence. Crime, violence, sickness, disease, inequality, poverty, filth, squalor, degeneration, suffering — these infest ALL nations!
For these (and many other) preachers, the sins of a nation invite Divine punishment. But which sins are societal in nature, and which sins are personal in nature? Is abortion a sin? Who decides? Does individual conscience play any role in determining whether or not it is a sin? And, if it is a sin, is it a personal sin, a societal sin or both? Likewise, is homosexuality a sin? OR Is same-sex behavior the sin? And, if we say that homosexuality is a personal choice, how can it also be a societal sin? Does a Supreme Court decision make everyone guilty? What about the folks who reject abortion and homosexuality? What if there are fifty people in the nation who reject these behaviors? What if there are only ten people in the nation who reject those behaviors?
What about America's other sins? What about the sins of stealing lands from Native Americans and breaking treaties with them (not to mention all of the deaths that those policies generated)? And, since these were government instigated or led sins, aren't these sins clearly collective in nature? What about the sin of slavery? What about the hundreds of thousands of deaths associated with that institution and the war that was fought to end it? What about all of the societal, political, economic and criminal justice inequities that slavery engendered in America? And how many generations did it take to wipe away those sins? Were those sins laundered away by the generations who succeeded the generations who actually committed those sins? Does a painting that was stolen from a Jewish family actually become the legitimate property of the descendants of the Nazi who stole it? And, if previous generations didn't suffer Divine punishment for their sins, why must the current generation pay for theirs? Is that justice? Is that fair? And, if we say that those individuals paid for their sins, what does that do to the entire concept of collective punishment?
Is God just waiting to pounce on sinful nations? OR Has God "bound everyone over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all"? (Romans 11:32) Are particular nations going to be singled out for Divine punishment because of their sins? OR Have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God? (Romans 3:23) Is God eager to zap wayward nations? OR Does God want "all people to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth"? (I Timothy 2:4) And, if that's truly what God wants, is that what's going to happen? Hmmmm, maybe this whole subject isn't as straightforward and simplistic as some of these evangelists would have us believe?