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481) 1John 2:28 . . And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he
shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at
his coming.

That directive is meant only for "little children" which is a category
identifying an elite group of Christ's believing followers who have undergone
a supernatural birth.

†. John 1:12-13 . .To all who received him, to those who believed in his
name, he gave the right to become children of God-- children born not of
natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.

Within the scope of John's first epistle, the little children have two salient
features in common-- features which they do not have in common with
ordinary rank and file pew warmers.

1• They all have eternal life right now-- no delay and no waiting period. Note
the grammatical tense of John's "have" verb. It's in the present tense; not
future.

†. 1John 5:13 . .These things I have written to you who believe in the name
of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life

2• They all have God's son by virtue of their possession of eternal life.

†. 1John 5:11-12 . . And this is what God has testified: He has given us
eternal life, and this life is in His son. So whoever has God's son has the life;
whoever does not have the life, does not have His son.

If God's testimony is true, then we may safely conclude that Christians
lacking eternal life are quite christless; and that is not a good thing.

†. Rom 8:9 . . And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not
belong to Christ.

Christians lacking eternal life are not only quite christless, but they also
abide in death, and grave danger of the wrath of God.

†. John 5:24 . . I assure you: those who listen to my message, and believe
in God who sent me, have eternal life. They will never be condemned for
their sins, but they have already passed from death into life.

Christ's statement reveals why a number of Christians lack eternal life.

1• They do not listen to his message

2• They do not believe in God

When Christians fail to believe in God, they insinuate that He's a dishonest
person of marginal integrity who can't be trusted to tell the truth.

†. 1John 5:9-10 . .We accept human testimony; but God's testimony
carries more weight because it's the testimony of God, which He has given
about His son. He who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because
he has not believed the testimony that God has given of His Son.

The little epistle of 1John is really handy for differentiating between Christ's
believing followers and his make-believe followers. Try it sometime. Ask
your Christian contacts if they're going to heaven. I'll bet you that the
majority will answer: I don't know, but I hope so. And some will even go so
far as to say: Nobody knows things like that. Those kinds of answers reveal
a profound ignorance of Christ's message; not to mention a shameful lack of
trust in God's integrity.

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482) 1John 3:6-8 . .Whoever abides in him does not sin. Whoever sins has
neither seen him nor known Him. Little children, let no one deceive you. He
who practices righteousness is righteous, just as he is righteous. He who
sins is of the Devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning.

What we're looking at are worldly-minded little children versus spiritually
minded little children. In other words: that verse should never be used as a
litmus test as to whether somebody is genuinely one of the little children.

So; what is the righteousness to which John refers? Well; up to this point,
we've looked at 482 aspects of righteousness that when put into practice,
will go a long ways towards keeping the little children abiding in Christ.

†. John 15:4-11 . . Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit
of itself, unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in
me.

. . . I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in me, and I in him,
he bears much fruit; for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does
not abide in me, he is thrown away as a branch, and dries up; and they
gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.

. . . If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish,
and it shall be done for you. By this is my Father glorified, that you bear
much fruit, and so prove to be my disciples.

. . . Just as the Father has loved me, I have also loved you; abide in my
love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love; just as I
have kept My Father's commandments, and abide in His love. These things I
have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be
made full.

According to Christ: worldly little children are really of little more use to God
than yard debris is to men.

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483) 1John 3:11-13 . . For this is the message that you heard from the
beginning, that we should love one another-- not as Cain who was of the
wicked one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because
his works were evil and his brother's righteous. Do not be perplexed, my
brethren, if the world hates you.

Evil people just naturally despise righteous people. It's one of the facts of
life.

†. Ps 37:12 . .The wicked plot against the righteous and grate their teeth at
them.

My wife and I witnessed a humorous example of grating one day. This
elderly lady made a sudden illegal U-turn right in front of us in the middle of
the street and when we blew our horn in protest; granny jutted her defiant
face in our direction as she passed by and bared her teeth at us like a
snarling dog. Start watching people. You'll be amazed at how often they curl
their lips and show their teeth because of some irritation.

One of the boys involved in the April 20, 1999 Columbine High School
shooting incident murdered a girl in the cafeteria just because she believed
in God. Isn't that amazing? That boy was nothing in the world but a
twentieth century Cain with a gun.

My own brother and I were paired similar to Cain and Abel. Both of us
worshipped the same God, as those two brothers did, and mine was even an
altar boy for a while. One evening at church, the priest asked everyone to
stand and promise that they would always honor and obey God. My brother
stood along with the rest of us, but did not promise because, he said, there
were things he wanted to do. My brother really changed after that. In time
he began treating me with an unusual amount of hostility and discourtesy;
taking every available opportunity to ridicule, mock, demean, and taunt me.

It was so odd because I honestly never gave him any justification to act that
way. Of the two of us, he was the best looking, the bravest, the most
athletic, the most popular, had all the luck with girls, went to all the dances,
owned lots of cars, always had good jobs, and knew all the right people in
school. Yet he despised me.

Do you know what made my brother hate me? It was because he sensed
that I approved of neither his character nor of his core values. I've since
discovered it's an earmark of Cainish people that unless they are admired
and approved by others, they become hateful and very resentful.

There's lots more Cainish people out there. They may not carry guns, but
they're in business, in the stock market, in the police department, in the fire
department, at the grocery store, at the mall, at the movies, on the
freeways, and at your place of work. They are everywhere: they are
everybody, and they are nobody-- sometimes they are obvious, sometimes
they are subtle. Way too many people in America hate God; and they
bitterly despise all who admire God and are in any way loyal to Him at all;
especially loyal to the Bible. This condition exists even in the best of
churches (cf. Acts 20:29-30, Jude 1:3-4) and I've seen plenty of "Christians"
who will hate your guts simply for disagreeing with their religious beliefs and
practices. Now that really ought not to be.

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484) 1John 3:18 . . My little children, let us not love only in word or in
tongue, but in deed and in truth.

What is truth?

Well; one of Webster's definitions of "truth" is: a state of being the case; viz:
fact; which Webster's defines as the quality of being actual. In other words:
truth is the way it is; viz: truth is reality as opposed to speculation, fantasy,
opinion, deception, falsehood, error, inaccuracy, inexactness, dishonesty,
theory, invention, misrepresentation, and half-truth.

The trick to loving in truth is first of all knowing the truth.

I was once asked by an atheist why Christians need so many rules when
their whole religion is summed up by just one: the Golden Rule.

Well, the world's idea of the so-called golden rule is one thing; which may
not may not conform to God's idea; hence the following commandment.

†. Rom 12:2 . . Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by
the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and
acceptable and perfect will of God.

There are no short-cuts to the truth. The good path is according to Eph
4:11-15; viz: by teachers and preachers. I do not recommend the self
taught route. People who go that way usually end up with disinformation
lodged in their heads that is not easily corrected. Beware.

†. 2Pet 3:16 . .Some of Paul's comments are hard to understand, and those
who are ignorant and unstable have twisted his letters around to mean
something quite different from what he meant, just as they do the other
parts of Scripture-- and the result is disaster for them.

Anyway, point being: love in accordance with truth may at times seem very
unloving to the world.

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485) 1John 4:1 . . Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits,
whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into
the world.

The koiné Greek word for "spirits" is pneuma (pnyoo'-mah) which means,
among other things; a current of air; viz: winds and breezes; for example
Eph 4:11-15.

The problem with testing doctrinal winds is that there exists no universal
standard for doing it. The testing of inches, meters, yards, centimeters,
cups, and teaspoons is easy because we have standards for those
measurements that everybody goes by. But really all that most Christians
have to go by are the standards of their own denomination. In other words:
truth for a Catholic is whatever Rome says it is, while truth for a Mormon is
whatever Joseph Smith and/or Brigham Young say it is; while truth for a
Jehovah's Witness is whatever the Watch Tower Society says it is; and truth
for a Baptist is whatever their Baptist minister says it is. So then, truth
among Christians is typically proprietary truth rather than standard truth so
good luck testing the spirits of Christianity seeing as how even your own
doctrinal wind is suspect.

I personally believe the Bible to be an independent, non-proprietary source
of truth. So then, if I were to put a Bible in your hands, could you use it as a
sort of sacred Geiger counter to test the winds of religious thought? No; you
couldn't; and that's because there are any number of ways to interpret the
Bible; and whose to say that your way is the one that's infallible and
speaking for God ex cathedra?

1John 4:1 is not an easy command to put into practice; and were I to
suggest a way to do it; you'd have every right to question whether I'm of
God and/or one the many false prophets that have gone out into the world.

486) 1John 4:20-21 . . If someone says "I love God," and hates his
brother, he's a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen,
how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment we
have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.

The love that's being spoken of in that verse is specific. It's not the love of
one's fellow man; but rather, the love of one's kin; but not one's biological
kin. The kin in this respect are The Father's children rather than in respect to
one's natural father's children; viz: Christians have a natural family and they
have a supernatural family.

I think that what John is trying to get across is that hatred for The Father's
children betrays one's lack of consideration for the Father's feelings.

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487) 1John 5:16-17 . . If anyone sees his brother commit a sin that does
not lead to death, he should pray and God will give him life. I refer to those
whose sin does not lead to death. There is a sin that leads to death. I am
not saying that he should pray about that. All wrongdoing is sin, and there is
sin that does not lead to death.

The most common sins unto death are those classified as capital crimes; viz:
those for which the death penalty is the right thing to do. It would be a
miscarriage of justice to pray somebody out of that jam. If the courts and
the laws of the land have decided that they must die; then they must die;
and that's that.

If a fellow believer is on death row for a capital offense; it's best to stay out
of it and let God and the courts handle it. Christians on death row should be
encouraged to man-up (or woman-up, as the case may be) and face the
music rather than expect sympathy from either their church or their
Christian friends. Christians who pray for the release of believers on death
row for capital crimes are not only attempting to obstruct justice, but also in
shameful rebellion against Almighty God's sovereign wishes.

†. Rom 13:3-4 . . For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do
you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have
praise from the same. For he is God's minister to you for good. But if you do
evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God's
minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil.

488) 1John 5:21 . . Little children, keep yourselves from idols.

The koiné Greek word for "idols" is eidolon (i'-do-lon) which means: an
image (for worship) viz: by implication, a heathen god.

Religious art such as paintings and sculptures don't really qualify as idols
until somebody gets a little too carried away; for example:

There's a statue of Ste. Peter in Rome whose big toe has been eroded over
the years by the lips of people kissing it. I would have to say that easily
qualifies as idolatry. I've no objection to paintings, statues, and stained
glass, but when people kneel to, pray to, speak to, and/or kiss those items,
then I believe they've trespassed into forbidden territory, and broken the
very first of the Ten Commandments.

†. Ex 20:3-5 . . Do not make idols of any kind, whether in the shape of birds
or animals or fish. You must never worship or bow down to them, for I, Yhvh
your God, am a jealous god who will not share your affection with any other
god!

Using that as a guideline, I would have to say that praying to, and/or looking
to, patron saints for providence and protection easily qualifies as both
polytheism and idolatry; as well as marginalizes the Bible's God and
diminishes one's affections for Him. If somebody loves the Lord their God
with all their heart, all their soul, all their mind, and all their strength, there
will be nothing left for patron saints, artworks and/or statuary; and so
idolatry would never be an issue.

NOTE: Idolatry back in Paul's day oftentimes included immoral activities with
temple prostitutes. We sure wouldn't want Christ's believing followers
involved in that sort of thing.

†. 1Cor 6:15-18 . . Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ
himself? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a
prostitute? Never! Do you not know that he who unites himself with a
prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, "The two will become one
flesh." But he who unites himself with the Lord is one with him in spirit. Flee
from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body,
but he who sins sexually sins against his own body.

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489) 2John 1:5-6 . . And now I beseech you, lady, not as writing to you a
new commandment, but the one which we have had from the beginning,
that we love one another. And this is love, that we walk according to his
commandments. This is the commandment, just as you have heard from the
beginning, that you should walk in it.

The precise identity of the "lady" of this epistle is impossible to know for
sure. Some have construed it to be the Lord's mom, and yet others as a
local church to which John mailed his letter. I tend to think it was a local
church since 2John 1:13 indicates the lady had a sister; viz: a sister church.

In 1John 3:18, John directed his readers to love in deed and in truth. Well,
2John 1:5-6 is the answer to Pilate's question: What is truth? When
believers walk according to Christ's commandments, they will be walking in
truth; and as a result, will be loving their believing brethren. And not only
loving their believing brethren, but also loving God. (cf. John 14:15, John
14:21, John 15:10, 1John 2:5, and 1John 5:3)

So then, the bottom line is: though Christians obsess and chirp about love
till the cows come home, the bald fact is that if they are not complying with
Christ's commandments, then they are loveless Christians-- just actors
playing a role. You know what the koiné Greek word for "actor" is? It's
hupokrites (hoop-ok-ree-tace') which is normally translated hypocrite.

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489) 2John 1:8 . .Watch yourselves, that we might not lose what we have
accomplished, but that you may receive a full reward.

The koiné Greek word for "lose" is apollumi (ap-ol'-loo-mee) which doesn't
mean to lose as if stolen or misplaced, but rather, it means to lose
something by its destruction like when people's homes were demolished in
New Orleans by the hurricane Katrina.

Apparently it's okay if your successor wrecks what you've accomplished in
the Lord because that will be on their head. Just make sure you yourself
don't do anything to wreck it; and it doesn't really take all that much: a little
adultery, a little immorality, a little fraud, a little embezzling, a little
dishonesty, a little abuse of power, a little hypocrisy, a little dereliction of
duty, a failure to honor promises and commitments; et al.

Take for example Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He started off as an okay
Christian man ordained to serve Jesus Christ, and then deserted the sheep
that Christ entrusted to his care and diverted his energies to political
activism. King's pastoral work went abandoned and neglected; and he
cheated on his wife too.

Moral of the story is: nobody is twisting anybody's arm to commit to serving
Jesus Christ; but once the commitment is made: then they'd do well to stay
the course and not get distracted.

†. Luke 9:62 . . No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit
for service in the kingdom of God.

†. 2Tim 2:4 . . As Christ's soldier, do not let yourself become tied up in the
affairs of this life, for then you cannot satisfy the one who has enlisted you
in his army.

Two things that Christ and his Father value very highly are integrity and
loyalty. When those are someone's guiding lights; the likelihood of their
bottom line with God showing a profit, instead of a loss, is greatly improved.

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490) 2John 1:10-11 . . If anyone comes to you and does not bring this
doctrine, do not receive him into your house nor greet him; for he who
greets him shares in his evil deeds.

The greeting in view is the holy kiss mentioned in Rom 16:16, 1Cor 16:20,
2Cor 3:12, 1Ths 5:26, and 1Pet 5 :14. The holy kiss is reserved for
brethren, not for outsiders.

Some have construed 2John 1:10-11 to mean that Christ's believing
followers are forbidden to respond to a knock on their door by Latter Day
Saints and Jehovah's witnesses, or invite them in for a chat. That's not really
what John's saying. In his day, missionaries were put up in people's homes
during their travels; thus assisting them in their mission. So then, if you
greet cultists as brethren, and/or put them up for the night, or assist them
in any way to accomplish their mission, then you become an accomplice and
assist the Devil to reap souls for the wrong place; and that includes buying
flowers from Moonies.

491) 3John 1:5-8 . . Beloved, thou doest faithfully whatsoever thou doest
to the brethren, and to strangers; which have borne witness of thy charity
before the church: whom if thou bring forward on their journey after a godly
sort, thou shalt do well: because that for his name's sake they went forth,
taking nothing of the Gentiles. We therefore ought to receive such, that we
might be fellow helpers to the truth.

The "Gentiles" in this instance can be considered, for all intents and
purposes, unbelievers because that's what most of the non-Israelites were in
the Roman world of that day. Paul and his contemporaries did not stoop to
the despicable practice of selling tickets to their meetings, and/or passing
the hat among the crowds that gathered to hear them. God forbid! No, just
as the Old Testament's ark of the covenant was borne upon the shoulders of
the Levites, so the New Testament's Christ prefers to draw his support from
the inside, from his own, rather than from strangers.

492) 3John 11-12 . . Beloved, do not imitate what is evil, but what is
good. The one who does good is of God; the one who does evil has not seen
God.

The "one who does evil" refers is a believer who walks in the flesh rather
than in the Spirit. In other words, they habitually give in to the base nature
instead of resisting it.

For now, it isn't possible to literally feast your glims on the actual person of
the Bible's God. But what John's saying is that believers who do evil are
somehow unaware who they're dealing with. I think one of the more serious
temptations is for Christians to take God for granted; and to forget that first
and foremost the Bible's God is a monarch who does not tolerate
insurrection in His kingdom. He may be your Father, but He's still your
sovereign too.

†. Mal 1:6 . . A son honors his father, and a servant his master. Then if I am
a father, where is My honor? And if I am a master, where is My respect?

†. 1Pet 1:17 . . And if ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons
judgeth according to every man's work, pass the time of your sojourning
here in fear:

The koiné Greek word for "fear" in that verse is phobos (fob'-os) which
means: alarm or fright. In other words: a little theophobia goes a long ways
towards giving God the degree of respect He not only wants; but also fully
deserves. If it's unwise to trifle with rattlesnakes, high voltage electrical
wires, arsenic, and IRS audits; then surely it's agreeable that it's just as
unwise to trifle with God.

Inquiring minds can "see" God on the pages of holy writ by means of the
Lord's personal tutoring.

†. Matt 11:27 . . No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one
knows the Father except the Son: and those to whom the Son chooses to
reveal him.

So then, a believer who's lazy at Bible study, and/indifferent to complying
with Christianity's commandments, will fail to see God, and subsequently,
they will fail to imitate Him simply because they don't know enough about
their Father in order to utilize Him as a role model.

†. Eph 5:1 . .Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children

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493) Jude 1:3 . . Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you
about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing
that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to
the saints.

The koiné Greek word for "contend earnestly" is epagonizomai (ep-ag-o-nid'
zom-ahee) which means: to struggle for

Webster's defines "struggle" as:

1• to make strenuous or violent efforts in the face of difficulties or
opposition.

2• to make strenuous or violent efforts in the face of difficulties or opposition

3• to proceed with difficulty or with great effort

Some example that Webster's gives for struggle are:

• He has been struggling with the problem of how to keep good workers
from leaving.

• They struggled for the right to vote.

• She struggled up the hill through the snow.

• She struggled to lift the package by herself, but it was too heavy.

• He struggled to get free of the wreckage.

• He's been struggling in math class for most of the year.

• The team has continued to struggle in recent weeks.

• He was living as a struggling artist in the city.

Given the peace-loving nature of true, God-given Christianity, I seriously
doubt that Jude means Christians should get involved in political activism
and/or inquisitions and crusades. So, then, I would say that struggling for
the faith means doing everything in one's power to keep the faith of one's
own church from being suppressed and/or crushed to death by people
with ideas; for example:

†. Jude 1:4 . . For certain men, whose condemnation was written about long
ago, have covertly slipped in among you. These are irreverent men, who
pervert the grace of our God as a license for unethical conduct; and
contradict Jesus Christ, our only Sovereign and Lord.

Those kinds of staff members are toxic, and if given their head in a church
and left unchecked, will eventually multiply and take over a church in the
same way that tropical, tree-climbing vines eventually smother and kill their
host trees and leave them as dried up, lifeless, empty husks of their former
beauty.

These kinds of people get on staff covertly, which means at first they look
like the real deal, but it's only a matter of time before they show their true
colors. The Ephesian church is a prime New Testament example of church
decay. When Paul said his farewells to that at-one-time shining beacon for
Christ; here is what he predicted.

†. Acts 20:17-31 . . And from Miletus he sent to Ephesus, and called the
elders of the church. And when they were come to him, he said unto them:

. . .Take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit
has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased
with His own blood. For I know this, that after my departure savage wolves
will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Also from among your own
selves men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples
after themselves. Therefore watch, and remember that for three years I did
not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears.

Paul's prediction came true. By the time of the Lord's evaluation of the
Ephesian church in Rev 2:1-7, they had become cheap goods.

When the faith of a church becomes as hollow as the one at Laodicea (Rev
3:14-22) nothing short of a wipe can save it. The whole staff has to go;
every last one of them from the senior pastor on down; and don't forget the
membership committee. Why? Because they are typically interested only in
numbers; not believers; I've seen it.

When I applied for membership in a mega church in San Diego some years
ago, I had to meet three prerequisites. First off, I had to attend the Pastor's
class for candidates. Then I had to make a profession of faith and undergo
water baptism. And then finally, I had to be interviewed by the membership
committee. For that, I was herded into a room with three other candidates
and asked to explain how I came to know the Lord.

I have an excellent testimony in that regard but the other three in the room
with me were so vague and generalizing that I thought for sure they would
be rejected; but no, they were given the right hand of fellowship same as
me. Right then and there I knew that church was infested with irreverent
men. That membership committee was just too accommodating-- the
interview wasn't meaningful at all; it was just a formality. At that point in a
church's life, the life of its faith has been over from some time and nobody
on the inside knows it; like a frog boiled to death by starting out with cold
water.

Jude isn't saying you should make an effort to revive the faith of a hollow
church; he's only saying you should take a serious interest in preventing the
faith of your church from becoming a husk.

According to 1Cor 3:6-9, churches are like farmland. Without proper
husbandry, crops fail to produce and the land risks becoming fallow.

†. Heb 6:7-8 . . For ground that drinks the rain which often falls upon it and
brings forth vegetation useful to those for whose sake it is also tilled,
receives a blessing from God; but if it yields thorns and thistles, it is
worthless and close to being cursed, and it ends up being burned.

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494) Jude 1:20-21 . . But you, beloved-- building yourselves up on your
most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit --keep yourselves in the love of
God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.

Jude isn't saying anything new in that passage; and for some it may even
seem redundant. But what we're looking at there is a very positive outlook
on the future-- an outlook that never doubts for an instant that the love God
feels for His own is an undying love: a love that cannot be thwarted. No
matter how naughty His little children are in this world; they will always and
forever be His little children for whom He will never stop being concerned.

Atheists often insist that there cannot be a Hell simply because no truly
loving parent would imprison their own children in a kiln and bake them
forever. Well, those atheists are correct. The Bible's God would never bake
His own children in a kiln; but He'll definitely bake the atheist's children if
perchance they should grow up taught to ignore the Lord's words by parents
indifferent to God.

495) Jude 1:22-23 . . And on some have compassion, making a
distinction; but others rescue with fright, pulling them out of the fire, hating
even the garment defiled by the flesh.

Some Christians are offended by fright because it violates their concept of
love. But fright can be a good thing if it's applied judiciously. For instance: it
is just as wise to be afraid of God as it is wise to be afraid of cactus spines, a
mule's kick, and/or a forest fire.

Christians neglecting to build themselves up on their most holy faith, to pray
in the Holy Spirit, to keep themselves in the love of God, and to look for the
mercy of their Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life; are seriously off
reservation. Some are so far off-reservation that somebody needs to get in
their face and confront them about their condition, even if it means
becoming harsh, insensitive, and judgmental because Christians off
reservation are also away from God's providence; and that is a very risky
situation to be in.

Some off-reservation Christians can stopped from destroying themselves;
while others are too far gone. Of those with possibilities, counselors have to
use a little God-given common sense as it isn't necessary to employ fright
with everyone-- just the ones who are particularly difficult. Some people can
be reasoned with, while others only understand fear and can be persuaded
to move in the right direction only by literally lighting a fire under them.

496) Rev 14:6-7 . . And I saw another angel flying through the sky,
carrying the everlasting gospel to preach to the people who dwell on the
earth-- to every nation, tribe, language, and people. Fear God! he shouted.
Give glory to Him! For the time has come when He will sit as judge. Worship
Him who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all the springs of water!

The everlasting gospel is very elementary. Pretty much all it says is:

1• There's a supreme being

2• There's a frightful reckoning looming on the horizon, and

3• The cosmos-- all of its forms of life, matter, and energy --is the product
of intelligent design.

Of particular interest to me is the inclusion of water in the everlasting
gospel. Scientists theorize the origin of the earth's amazing quantity of water
without really knowing exactly where it came from, nor how it got here.
Well; that is one of the things that I like about Genesis. It takes an
essentially unsophisticated, uneducated blue-collar welder like myself and
gives him answers to questions that people much brighter, and better
educated than I cannot answer.

Giving "glory" to God simply indicates giving someone credit where credit is
due; and "worship" basically just simply means admiration. It's quite natural
to admire celebrities, pro athletes, and super achievers-- to give them credit
where credit is due --but not quite so natural to do the same for their
creator.

Anyway, point being: you either believe in intelligent design, or you don't. If
you do believe, then you will admire both the originator's genius and His
handiwork. If you don't believe; then you won't admire anything about Him
- simple as that.

Those elementary truths are as valid in our day as they were in Adam's; and
will still be valid in that angel's day; viz: the everlasting gospel, as per that
angel, is timeless.

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The 496 commandments posted thus far begin with post #2

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