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Why did God cause in his plan, for so many people to be deceived by the church?
servias:
I have been thinking about this all day. I feel bad that so many good people I know just can't (Gods WILL) or wont see the truth. I don't feel guilty but I do feel very privileged because I know I haven't been the best person by a long-shot.
So it brought me to this question..."Why did God cause in his plan, for so many people to be deceived by the church?" At first it was puzzling to me. I fully understand that its Gods WILL but their must be a good reason for this right? Then I came to this conclusion - Maybe, just MAYBE God knows that if the truth was only taught, people would think "God is too good to be true". And if they were always taught the truth in life they may be less appreciative to Gods true LOVE. And maybe because of this FEWER people would have some sort of connection with GOD. Am I way off in my thinking? I am NOT trying to rationalize what a church does but I'm trying to see it threw Gods eyes, I want to know why this was in his plan. But knowing how my brain is I am probably over thinking things. I tend to get into deep discussions with myself ;)
After this thought came to me and reminded me of this verse. 1Ti 5:8 Now if anyone is not providing for his own, and especially his family, he has disowned the faith, and is worse than an unbeliever.
DTM
arion:
Why does God allow so many people to be deceived by the church?
I think because his entire plan revolves around calling many but selecting few. It's the wisdom of God. Jesus Christ doesn't need anyone to help to judge and correct the world in righteousness. What a privilege for His select few to rule and reign with him in the next age and to be an instrumental part of bringing the world to repentance. At the beginning one of the reasons I had trouble with universal salvation is reconciling the fact that the scriptures show those who are not in the first resurrection as objects of repulsion and horror along with all the adjectives that Jesus used of their condition. But I wondered how can this be as God is love, love never fails and God doesn't change. Then it occurred to me that the horror and repulsion is from the viewpoint of those who are not in the first resurrection and not from the viewpoint of God or of the elect. When I stop to think that if I don't make the first resurrection and I am in the presence of those who were once bags of dirt like myself but now they are sinless and in their glorified bodies and I am still in my sins....there will be repulsion and horror all right but it will be the repulsion and horror of the lost seeing themselves perhaps for the very first time as they really are. For us God shows us the beast within in stages. At least that is the way it is for me. It isn't dumped on me all at once. Once I understood it this way for me the scriptures clicked together and made sense.
Kat:
Hi Dan,
--- Quote ---And if they were always taught the truth in life they may be less appreciative to Gods true LOVE. And maybe because of this FEWER people would have some sort of connection with GOD. Am I way off in my thinking?
--- End quote ---
I think you are on the right track.
Titus 3:3 For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another.
The whole human race has been given a physical existence so as to experience good and evil (the tree of life). This age is the first stage/part of the process of being brought towards immortality and it is temporary. But it is an absolute necessary part of the process, we must first live in this world and be deceived, corrupt, dishonorable, weak to the pulls of the flesh, a sinner, this is the dark backdrop we all must experience. But God promises us this is not the end of it.
Here is an email that speaks about this present evil age we are living in.
http://bible-truths.com/email3.htm ------------------------
God created evil for a purpose. So naturally He will not make evil inoperative at every turn in the road or there would have been no purpose in creating it in the first place.
Evil serves many noble purposes. One of which is a back drop for good. Good cannot be understood or certainly not appreciated without a backdrop of evil. Evil makes good appear even better and is certainly much more appreciated.
Evil is necessary for the production or development of good. You cannot name one virtue that is not in some way produced by the resistance to some form of evil.
All knowledge is matter of contrast and relativity. One cannot know what light is unless he has been acquainted with darkness. One has no conception of large unless he also knows of things that are small. Up is only up in relation to down. Life is the opposite of death, etc. To understand and fully appreciate all of these things, there are many necessary experiences to go through. God creates and puts us through these many things in the development of godly character.
All of these evils can be likened to the creation of a beautiful building. Ugly scaffolding is necessary in the construction of this building. It is ugly and serves no purpose other than in the actual construction of the building. When the building is completed, the scaffolding is torn down and discarded. It serves no further purpose. All evil will be discarded one day. And the last enemy, DEATH, will likewise be ABOLISHED FOR EVER (I Cor. 15:26) and God will "ALL in All"!!!
------------------------------------------------------------
mercy, peace and love
Kat
daywalker:
--- Quote from: DanTheMan on September 22, 2010, 06:32:33 PM ---I have been thinking about this all day. I feel bad that so many good people I know just can't (Gods WILL) or wont see the truth. I don't feel guilty but I do feel very privileged because I know I haven't been the best person by a long-shot.
So it brought me to this question..."Why does God allow so many people to be deceived by the church?" At first it was puzzling to me. I fully understand that its Gods WILL but their must be a good reason for this right? Then I came to this conclusion - Maybe, just MAYBE God knows that if the truth was only taught, people would think "God is too good to be true". And if they were always taught the truth in life they may be less appreciative to Gods true LOVE. And maybe because of this FEWER people would have some sort of connection with GOD. Am I way off in my thinking? I am NOT trying to rationalize what a church does but I'm trying to see it threw Gods eyes, I want to know why this was in his plan. But knowing how my brain is I am probably over thinking things. I tend to get into deep discussions with myself ;)
After this thought came to me and reminded me of this verse. 1Ti 5:8 Now if anyone is not providing for his own, and especially his family, he has disowned the faith, and is worse than an unbeliever.
DTM
--- End quote ---
When I first discovered BT and Ray's teachings, I was dumbfounded. I was so amazed at how Ray was destroying all the doctrines of my [former] church, with the very same book that it claimed to teach and believe in! As I "watched" him expose hell, free will, trinity, rapture, etc, etc... It made me start thinking, "gosh, is ANYTHING that my church taught true? I mean, they can't be wrong about everything, could they?" So after reading all of Ray's teachings, I become eager to know if what I had discovered [in his teaching] were true.
So I began searching, studying, praying. I downloaded eSword, and any other freebie program I could find [cuz I'm broke. :D Though I did purchase the Rotherham's translation.] I wanted to know "is there ANYTHING that the church teaches that is Scripturally true?" So far, I haven't found one thing, really... I mean, some things they say they believe are true, but when you dig into their beliefs you find they don't really believe what they say they do. [example: Did Jesus "die" for our sins? Church says yes, but then, did Jesus really "die" for 3 days? Church says no, He went to Hades and preached...]
The point that I wanted to make is that it was this burning curiosity that really got me going, and continues to push me to study and seek God and Truth. Perhaps if the Church wasn't so deceived and there were many more people in the world who really DO LOVE GOD AND WANT TRUTH, then I wouldn't have the thirst for Him that I do?
Daywalker 8)
servias:
Daywalker,
You explained it better than I could have! I have a hard time explaining what I mean sometimes but you nailed it. And I am going into all those things you mentioned.
Arion,
I really like your take on this question too. I like how you explained "objects of repulsion" of the resurrection.
Kat,
I understand that we all must understand evil to become righteous...it just seems that tweaking the word of God is absolutely a horrible sin, especially on a mass scale that it is on now. I mean these things have been taught for generations and I feel the "religious leaders" got some explaining to do at judgement. I don't feel all are absolutely evil but if a slum like me can read between the lines ::)...
But I suppose it will be as big of a shock to them as it was to me, Thank GOD WE WILL ALL EVENTUALLY SEE THE TRUTH OF OUR GOD!
Thanks you guys for the responses,
Dan
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