Re:Get to the truth. - 2005/03/18 11:34Wow Aaron. What a moving post. Thanks. I heartily agree!
True Christians do have the duty to act as ambassadors of that intense, expansive love of God and His son to all. Though, if we have experienced that love ourselves, it should feel like no mere 'duty' to express love to our fellowman. Rather we would feel happily impelled - compelled - to do so. For "the love of the Christ has compels us..."
Much Philia.
Phi.
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Aaron
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Re:Get to the truth. - 2005/03/18 11:41Greetings Phi,
it should feel like no mere 'duty' to express love to our fellowman. Rather we would feel happily impelled - compelled - to do so.
This is exactly what the spirit is saying. May PEACE be upon YOU and upon your ENTIRE household.
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donbodo
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Re:Get to the truth. - 2005/03/18 16:24Shaihulud,
You said that the word is easy to define in your earlier post, and then defined it as all those who are in enmity with God. But who is that?
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Shaihulud
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Re:Get to the truth. - 2005/03/19 10:07James said:
4 Adulteresses, do YOU not know that the friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever, therefore, wants to be a friend of the world is constituting himself an enemy of God.
Well how could one be a friend of the world? What is the world that is at enmity with God. Notice you just have to be a friend of the world. Abraham was called Gods friend. Why? Because he put his faith in him and for that he was called a righteous man. So it is simple those who put their faith in this wicked world under Satan's control are the worlds friends.
We know that Satan controls all government. So if people put there trust in the governments they are putting their trust in Satan ultimately and they are friends of the world.
(1 John 5:19) We know we originate with God, but the whole world is lying in the [power of the] wicked one.
(Luke 4:6) and the Devil said to him: “I will give you all this authority and the glory of them, because it has been delivered to me, and to whomever I wish I give it.
(Matthew 13:19) Where anyone hears the word of the kingdom but does not get the sense of it, the wicked one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart; this is the one sown alongside the road.
3 If, now, the good news we declare is in fact veiled, it is veiled among those who are perishing, 4 among whom the god of this system of things has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, that the illumination of the glorious good news about the Christ, who is the image of God, might not shine through.
3 And I saw one of its heads as though slaughtered to death, but its death-stroke got healed, and all the earth followed the wild beast with admiration. 4 And they worshiped the dragon because it gave the authority to the wild beast, and they worshiped the wild beast with the words: “Who is like the wild beast, and who can do battle with it?
8 And the fourth one poured out his bowl upon the sun; and to [the sun] it was granted to scorch the men with fire. 9 And the men were scorched with great heat, but they blasphemed the name of God, who has the authority over these plagues, and they did not repent so as to give glory to him.
10 And the fifth one poured out his bowl upon the throne of the wild beast. And its kingdom became darkened, and they began to gnaw their tongues for [their] pain, 11 but they blasphemed the God of heaven for their pains and for their ulcers, and they did not repent of their works.
So right down to the end, people will refuse to trust God and refuse to repent. They will put their faith in men which will be to there destruction.
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donbodo
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Re:Get to the truth. - 2005/03/19 11:05Shai,
That's a really good point. Friendship with the world = putting one's faith in the world. I agree with that. But I'm still not sure that your definition of "world" is right. You say it is, more or less, everything that is under Satan's control (a world which God could not possibly love) and that this should be equated with the governments. But it sure is alot more than that. John describes the attributes of the world as "the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, and the showy display of one's means of life" (1 John 2:16). These don't sound like the attributes of governments. Sounds more like pleasure-seeking and materialism.
On a side note, the phrase "wicked one" has often been interpreted as a generic, i.e., wicked person, and not as referring to one specific wicked person or "Wicked One," the Prince of Darkness. How do we know this is Satan in 1 John 5:19 and Matt. 13:19? Also, the phrase "god of this system of things" I think does refer to Satan, but I have to acknowledge that the scripture doesn't say anything about governments. So it is interesting that there are really just two scriptures that talk about Satan as in control of governments--First, Luke 4:6, which we have to assume does not mean merely that Satan had the power to put Jesus in a position of authority over the governments, but that he also controlled the people currently in power and every other aspects of their governments, AND that he has the same control today, even though the kingdoms are different. Second, Revelation 13, which we have to assume does NOT refer to the Roman Empire, as most scholars believe, but to governments that include those of today (in fact, ALL of those today).
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Shaihulud
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Re:Get to the truth. - 2005/03/20 04:57Yes Dondodo Satan controls not just the governments but the very spirit that is in the world such as the desire of the flesh and eyes. It is this spirit that we must avoid.
1 Cor 2:11 For who among men knows the things of a man except the spirit of man that is in him? So, too, no one has come to know the things of God, except the spirit of God. 12 Now we received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is from God, that we might know the things that have been kindly given us by God. 13 These things we also speak, not with words taught by human wisdom, but with those taught by [the] spirit, as we combine spiritual [matters] with spiritual [words].
(Revelation 16:14) They are, in fact, expressions inspired by demons and perform signs, and they go forth to the kings of the entire inhabited earth, to gather them together to the war of the great day of God the Almighty.
4 However, the inspired utterance says definitely that in later periods of time some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to misleading inspired utterances and teachings of demons,
So this spirit of the world is inspired by Satan.
Also 1 John 5:19 says The wicked one not just wicked one and that the world is in his grip of power.
(1 John 5:19) We know we originate with God, but the whole world is lying in the [power of the] wicked one.
This scripture sums it up well.
15 Do not be loving either the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him; 16 because everything in the world—the desire of the flesh and the desire of the eyes and the showy display of one’s means of life—does not originate with the Father, but originates with the world. 17 Furthermore, the world is passing away and so is its desire, but he that does the will of God remains forever.
The world means everything that is against the spirit of God. It's means of governing, it way of life, its desire, all which is inspired by Satan and the Demons.
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