A friend and I were talking about God and His purposes yesterday. We are about the same age and we talked about how we NEED things to make sense. God created man with an inherent sense of right and wrong (see Romans 2:14); a conscience. We have a yearning for justice and bristle against unfairness. Why? We are made in God's image. So, when things don't make sense to us; especially at a theological and philosophical level, our God-given intuition sounds an alarm bell. "DANGER!!! DANGER!!! SOMETHING WRONG HERE!!!
As a teenager, growing up in a Southern Baptist church, I simply accepted things as "oh, well, it doesn't make sense but that's just how it is." This was being lazy on my part and deciding to ignore the red flags my intuition and gut instinct were throwing up in front of me. I did not understand how someone's "free" will could thwart the will of God. But I assumed that it MUST be so because the preacher in front of me kept preaching about God giving man free will. So, that HAD to be in the Bible, right? I didn't understand how if God was the Potter and He molded vessels of honor and those of wrath, how it was the person's credit or detriment as to how they turned out. That, "free" will thing again. I didn't understand and it made no sense that a person who grew up not having ever believed because they never heard of Jesus was sent to "hell" upon death OR that one who never heard of Jesus went to heaven upon death out of ignorance (I heard preachers who would argue for one or the other view).
Acts 17 speaks of the Bereans and how they were more noble than the believers in Thessalonica. The Bereans didn't just shrug their shoulders and accept things at face value. They searched the scriptures to see for themselves if these things were so.
Some questions we have MAY be a mystery to us even after searching the scriptures. This is certainly true as to WHY for example, God chooses one individual to be made a vessel of honor, while He chooses another to be made a vessel of wrath. It is His sovereign choice and the reason is not given to us. BUT, we are told that He will be merciful on ALL (Romans 11:32). We are told that the same ALL who were given a death sentence due to Adam's disobedience are the SAME ALL who will receive justification to life because of Christ's obedience. These things CAN be known. They aren't a secret. Scripture tells us. Scripture tells us also what happens at death, where everyone "goes" when we die, who the Savior is and who "does" the being saved.
So, if you sit on a pew and you read scriptures which call God and Jesus "Savior" but THEN the pastor tells you that what saves you is a choice and decision YOU make, hopefully, that still, quiet voice will warn you "DANGER!!! DANGER!!! SOMETHING WRONG HERE!!!"
If that intuition kicks in, likely, God is telling you that something isn't right. When scripture says that God's mercy endures and that God's wrath is but for a moment but THEN, your pastor says that most of creation will be tormented without end, HOPEFULLY, you will see a red flag.
Why do most NOT see a red flag? As you may have guessed, scripture has the answer for that too!
"Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; 2 Speaking lies in hypocrisy; HAVING THEIR CONSCIENCE SEARED WITH A HOT IRON;" (1 Tim.4:1-2)
Hopefully, you haven't heard so much of a FALSE gospel, that you have been inoculated from the TRUE gospel.
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