Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Posts Tagged ‘Romans’

For Roman Catholics their source of truth is the Roman Catholic Church. They trust their church for truth and for salvation, and they believe that there is no contradiction between what Scripture teaches and what an “infallible” Pope and the Roman Catholic Church teaches.

They believe and trust their church’s interpretation of Scripture, which can be a fatal mistake because they can be deceived and won’t know it. The only way they can know for sure if their church’s teachings are correct is to do what the Bereans did in Acts 17:11, compare the teachings to the Scriptures.

The Roman Catholic Church’s teaching that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was immaculately conceived, i.e., born without original sin clearly contradicts the clear teaching of Scripture. The verses quoted below are from the the Roman Catholic Douay-Rheims translation of the Bible (DRV).

If Mary was born sinless, why would she need a savior? In Luke’s Gospel, Mary says, “And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.” (Luke 1: 47 Douay-Rheims) 

If Mary’s life was pure and sinless, why did she go through the purification period and offer a sacrifice to make atonement for her sin and to cleanse her? According to Old Testament Law (Leviticus 12:1-8), the mother must be purified after a birth because the issue of blood makes her ritually unclean. According to the law of the Lord, Mary went to Jerusalem and offered a sacrifice of turtledoves or young pigeons Luke 2:22-24 Douay-Rheims.

If Mary were the only human being born sinless, why would Jesus say, “there hath not risen among them that are born of women a greater than John the Baptist (Matthew 11:11 Douay-Rheims)? Surly the sinless Mary would be greater than John the Baptist.

If Mary were truly sinless, why did Jesus downplay Mary’s importance and put her on the same level as everyone else? After hearing Jesus teach, a woman shouted from the crowd, “Blessed is the womb that bore thee, and the paps that gave thee suck.” And Jesus responded saying, “Yea rather, blessed are they who hear the word of God, and keep it” (Luke 11:27-28 Douay-Rheims). Not only did Jesus not elevate Mary when given the opportunity, He diminished her status by making her equal with everyone else who hears the Word of God and obeys it.

The following Scriptures teach that all human beings are born sinners:

Romans 3:23 For all have sinned 

Romans 3:9-12 For we have charged both Jews, and Greeks, that they are all under sin. As it is written: There is not any man just. There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. All have turned out of the way; they are become unprofitable together: there is none that doth good, there is not so much as one.

Romans 5:12 Wherefore as by one man sin entered into this world, and by sin death; and so death passed upon all men, in whom all have sinned.

Romans 7:14  For we know that the law is spiritual; but I am carnal, sold under sin.

Ephesians 2:3 In which also we all conversed in time past, in the desires of our flesh, fulfilling the will of the flesh and of our thoughts, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest:

Isaiah 53:6 All we like sheep have gone astray, every one hath turned aside into his own way: and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.

Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is perverse above all things, and unsearchable, who can know it?

Job 15:14-16 What is man that he should be without spot, and he that is born of a woman that he should appear just? Behold among his saints none is unchangeable, and the heavens are not pure in his sight. How much more is man abominable, and unprofitable, who drinketh iniquity like water?

Genesis 8:21 And the Lord smelled a sweet savour, and said: I will no more curse the earth for the sake of man: for the imagination and thought of man’s heart are prone to evil from his youth: therefore I will no more destroy every living soul as I have done.

Roman Catholics can believe either what Scripture clearly teaches about the mother of Jesus, or they can believe what their church teaches about the immaculate conception, they just can’t believe both any longer.  

Peace

I.M. Kane

Like me at https://usa.life/misterjkane

Follow me at https://gab.com/imkane

Watch my videos at https://www.brighteon.com/channel/imkane

Read Full Post »

Unregenerate Christians are self-idenfied and not God-identified, therefore, they hate the doctrine that God has sovereignly elected some people for salvation. They misrepresent what Scripture clearly teaches, which is that God calls many, and of the many called a “few are chosen.”

To their way of thinking, a God who sovereignly chooses to save only the few and punish the many is not only an unjust judge but is also an evil monster. They say a God who saves only the elect and damns everyone else is unfair and unloving and bears a closer resemblance to the pagan deities of antiquity than to the God of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob.

If Scripture is God’s written Word and the Christian’s authority for all matters of faith and practice, then what it teaches about God is what is true, regardless of what people understand or believe is fair, just, and loving.

According to Scripture, God destroyed everyone in the world except for Noah and his family; He also destroyed everyone in Sodom and Gomorrah and surrounding cities except for Lot and his daughters. The question unregenerate Christians must answer is how can God destroy the entire world and its inhabitants, annihilate the cities on the plain and everyone in them, save only a few chosen people, and remain a loving God?

Scripture also says that God chose Israel above all people to be His treasured possession and servants on the earth, and He knows only Israel among all the families of the world. The question facing unregenerate Christians is how is it fair for God to choose Israel over all the nations and the Israelites over all people on the earth and make them His people, His servants, and His witnesses?

The Scripture is clear that God does not love every person equally. Paul writes in Romans that God loved Jacob and hated his brother Esau before the twin boys were born and had done any good or evil. In addition Paul writes that God decreed the elder would serve the younger, and that He elected Jacob instead of Esau to receive his father’s blessing when the birthright really belonged to Esau as the elder brother.

Paul clearly says that God cursed and hated Esau before the boy had been born or had done anything evil, so that “the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth.” The question for the unregenerate Christian is how is it right and just for God to hate and punish an unborn child before he’s born, and has done anything to warrant it?

In the same chapter of Romans Paul writes that God raised up Pharaoh to destroy him; and He hardened Pharaoh’s heart so that God’s power and name would be known and declared throughout the world.

It’s clear from Romans that God does what He pleases and no man can call Him to account or make Him responsible for anything He does. God is accountable to no one. He is bound by nothing. He has “mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.”

Paul writes the potter has power over the clay to make from the same lump a vessel for honor and another for dishonor. Man was created to glorify God, and God is glorified through the vessels He has made. Everything God created is for His pleasure.

God is sovereign creator; what He does is just for nothing can constrain Him, and no law is above Him. God’s defining characteristic is holiness, not love; He is righteousness and justice. Who can hold Him responsible and say He is wrong in what He does? “Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct him? he that reproveth God, let him answer it.”

The law is man’s taskmaster, not God’s. God is bound by nothing, no law constrains Him. He created the law. He cannot be judged by it. God is judge, and His judgments are righteous.

Man has no rights to which God must acknowledge and acquiesce. “Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it, What makest thou?”

The truth is the unregenerate Christian’s interpretation of Scripture is a direct assault against God’s sovereignty, and he can’t believe what the Scripture clearly teaches because the unregenerate “receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”

I.M.Kane

 

 

Read Full Post »

Prayer, promise, precept APR 07 16

Read Full Post »

God is the ultimate cause

God Is the Ultimate Cause of Everything

Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did he in heaven, and in earth, in the seas, and all deep places. Psalm 135:6

And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou? Daniel 4:35

I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things. Isaiah 45:7

The Lord hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil. Proverbs 16:4

Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will? Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour? Romans 9:19-21

Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: Romans 11:22

Read Full Post »

Prayer, promise, precept jan 30 16

Read Full Post »

Prayer, promise, precept dec 18

Read Full Post »

Prayer, promise, precept oct. 12

Read Full Post »

Prayer, promise, precept oct. 11

Read Full Post »

christian symbol2

If God Didn’t Create Evil, Then Who or What Did?

By Jerry A. Kane

Occasionally I’ll respond to a comment on one of my news stories or commentaries, but rarely will I take the time to write a lengthy reply to a commenter. However, there are always exceptions to any rule.

Below is an exchange of comments between me and a responder to my latest commentary, “Whom God Means to Destroy, He First Makes Undiscerning” published at Canada Free Press:

He wrote:

“Wrong!!!!

He [God] does not make them so [undiscerning], but allows them to make themselves so.

God does NOT create evil, but allows it so they can damn themselves – then He destroys them, more often by other evil entities”

To which I responded:

“First off, I’m not always right, but I’m never wrong. Secondly, your theology appears to be Arminian, mine isn’t. I believe God is sovereign, not man. Finally, as to whether or not God creates evil, the prophet Isaiah clearly says He does:

‘I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things.’ Isaiah 45:7 (KJV)”

Then he responded:

It appears we agree on most of this – we are using different terms to say the same thing except for one item.

“Isaiah 45:7 should match Amox 3:6 where the more correct translation would be ‘..shall there be evil in a city, and the LORD not done [known] it?’ He knows of the evil, he does NOT create it. If that were so, He would no longer be God.

‘God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone.’ (James 1:13) and ‘God is light, and in Him there is NO darkness at all’ (emphasis mine) (1 John 1:15) As there is much less error in translation in the New Testament, I will believe God Himself over other ideas.

Arnminian? No, but many of his [I think he’s referring to the author of the piece, which of course is me, but he doesn’t realize it] thought processes are in the correct realm, but your [I think he’s addressing the commenter, not the author of the piece] assessment of that group is just opposite of what they say. It is their claim that God is Soverign, and that is the reality of our creation.”

And I wrote:

“How can I discuss the never-ending debate over biblical manuscripts and the central issue of Christianity with someone who knows so little, but thinks he knows so much? The short answer is I can’t. Yet, I won’t let your unsupported assertions go unchallenged.

You say, “Isaiah 45:7 should match Amox [sic] 3:6 where the more correct translation would be ‘..shall there be evil in a city, and the LORD not done [known] it?'” The word “ra” translated evil in Isaiah 45:7 (the same word used in Amos 3:6) is never translated as sin in the Hebrew text.

In the context of Amos 3:6, ra can be correctly translated to mean “sorrow, afflictions, adversity, wretchedness, or calamities,” but in Gen. 5:6, 8:21, 13:13, 38:7 and fifty other verses in the OT, ra can be translated “wickedness,” which clearly implies sin.

In the context and plain meaning of Isaiah 45:7, ra means wickedness and not calamities and afflictions as the fruits of sin. In context, if ra means external calamities in the verse “I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil,” then the word “peace” must mean a military peace, i.e., a political matter, because the phrases are parallel.

However, the verses preceding and following verse 7 are not restricted to trivial political matters, verse 3 speaks of treasures of darkness, hidden riches, and the knowledge of God; verse 6 speaks of God’s knowledge extended throughout the world; and verse 8 speaks of righteousness falling down from heaven like a pouring rain.

The following chapter in Isaiah makes it clear that God just doesn’t know things, as you put it, but He actually brings about what He has purposed:

“Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure: … yea, I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed it, I will also do it. Isaiah 46:10-11 (KJV)

You write that God “knows of the evil, he does NOT [please, let’s not be sophomoric] create it.” By “know” I assume you mean that God knows or permits evil to happen. What you fail to understand is that “permitting” man to sin does not absolve God from the charge of being the “author” of sin, as you seemed to suggest in writing “If that [God created evil] were so, He would no longer be God.”

God “permitted” Satan to afflict Job; but Satan could not have afflicted him without God’s approval. Permission does not exonerate God. If God could have prevented, not only Job’s trials, but all of mankind’s sins and temptations, if He foresaw them and decided to let them occur, how can He be less reprehensible than if He had decreed them?

Put another way, if a bystander could rescue a baby from a burning building, but decided to “permit” the baby to die in the flames, would you say that the bystander’s decision to watch the baby burn was morally acceptable because he wasn’t the one who lit the building on fire? Your position puts you on the horns of a dilemma whether you realize it or not.

You also write that my “assessment of that group [Arminian] is just opposite of what they say.” By sovereignty I mean that God has eternally decreed all that ever comes to pass, and providentially controls all things in his created universe, including the “free will” of man.

The Arminian notion of man’s free will cannot coexist with God’s omnipotence. If man’s free will to fulfill his sinful desires and purposes can resist and thwart God’s perfect will and purpose, then God is not all powerful, man’s free will is.

Neither is the Arminian view of free will compatible with God’s omniscience, because knowing all things renders the future certain. If God foreknows all things, then of necessity those things will come to pass; otherwise, they could not be “foreknown.”

Acts 2:22, 23 and 4:27, 28 teach that God foreknew, even foreordained Jesus’ crucifixion by the hands of sinful men, yet the men who carried out his execution are responsible for murder. If God ordained it, could the high priest and Sanhedrin have done differently? Could Judas Iscariot not have betrayed Jesus Christ? Scripture plainly teaches that God determined or decreed their actions.

I’m not saying that men are robots and don’t make choices. They do have “free will” in the sense of “free moral agency.”

All men have freedom of choice in that they choose to do what they want to do and can’t do otherwise. But man is not free to be indifferent, i.e. his freedom to choose is always governed by the fears, desires, and habits of his sinful nature. Yet, all his choices are subject to the eternal decrees of God.

Romans 3:9-18; 8:7, 8 and Ephesians 4:17-19 teach that man cannot choose what God requires. Man will always choose the evil desires of his flesh, which are dictated by his sinful nature. Man is never indifferent in his willingness to do anything. Even though God has determined all things that will ever come to pass, man is held responsible and accountable for his sinful actions.

As the writers of the Westminster Confession of Faith (3:1; 5:2, 4) put it:

“God … did … ordain whatsoever comes to pass: yet so, as thereby neither is God the author of sin, nor is violence offered to the will of the creatures, nor is the liberty or contingency of second causes taken away, but rather established…. Although, in relation to the foreknowledge and decree of God, the first cause, all things come to pass immutably and infallibly; yet, by the same providence, he ordereth them to fall out according to the nature of second causes, either necessarily, freely, or contingently…. as the sinfulness thereof proceedeth only from the creature, and not from God; who, being most holy and righteous, neither is nor can be the author or approver of sin.”

You’re right that “God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone.” (James 1:13).” Nowhere does the Scripture teach that God is evil; however, it does teach that God is both the cause of sin and the cause of salvation. Scripture also teaches that God is not responsible or accountable to anyone or anything for what He does; yet His creatures are accountable and responsible to Him for what they do.

God is holy and righteous, but our sinful nature taints and limits our understanding of His holiness and righteousness. As Paul writes, “For now we see through a glass, darkly… but then shall I know even as also I am known.” 1Corinthians 13:12 (KJV).

You write, “As there is much less error in translation in the New Testament, I will believe God Himself over other ideas.” I am always willing to teach those whom God has made willing to learn, but I will not waste my time and energy on people who dogmatically hold to their erroneous preconceptions of Christianity and what Scripture teaches.

So you know, I spent hours researching and writing this response, and you have taken enough of my precious time. Thank you for your response to my piece and please accept this as a final response to any further discussion.”

NOTE:  The hot links were added for this post at The Millstone Diaries. There were no hot links in my responses to in the comment section at Canada Free Press.

Read Full Post »