Subject: Date: Thu, 19 Sep 2002 16:08:33 +1000 From: Victor To: webmaster@jesus-is-lord.com Greetings, Many Christians have been deceived into believing that grace is a doctrine of forgiveness that has no moral conditions attached, and nothing more. In the bigger picture, however, grace has a tougher side. The Bible teaches that God sometimes employs radical disciplinary measures and He chastises those who belong to Him. The history of ancient Israel shows that God will handle His people roughly if that is what it takes to get their attention focused on Him. When grace is administered in a punitive way it leaves people bruised and battered but out of that experience they acquire an openness to God that they did not have before. Few things are more redemptive in their final outcome than the pain and suffering of a conscience that has registered the sense that God is angry. The kingdom of heaven will be filled with repentant sinners who are there precisely because their unmanageable guilt led them to Christ. For many, not the sense of God's love, but the sense of divine anger, became their first step towards salvation. Sinners need first to know they need a Saviour before they will accept a Saviour. In the book of Romans Paul preached the law as a preparation for receiving Christ. The doctrine of righteousness by faith is only properly presented when it is joined to the biblical doctrine of judgment. People need to be told that the “wrath of God [will soon be] revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men”. (Romans 1:17,18) The preacher who does not preach the binding claims of the Law of God preaches Christ poorly. It was not some Jewish legalist but the apostle Paul himself who wrote: “For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law will be justified”. (Romans 2:13) If it is true that no one is saved by their good works it is equally true that no one is saved in sin. Many who profess to be followers of Christ have forgotten this. To many who sit in church pews today the word is given; “because you are lukewarm, and neither hot or cold, I will spit you out of My mouth”. (Revelation 3:17) Why is it that so much connected to worship today sounds like entertainment? Why do so many young women come to church to bare their comely parts and parade their underwear? Why are preachers dumb in the presence of irreverence and gross immodesty in the church when the judgment will require them to give an account of these things? Why? Because the people have forgotten that God is holy. God has been reinvented and many now worship a figment of their own imagination. Some years ago I was sent to a prison farm for stealing cars and the unlawful possession of stolen property. We arrived at the prison camp on a very hot summers day. As we got out of the escort vehicle we were approach a very muscular Englishman who walked with the stealth of a stalking panther. We did not know it a the time but we were about to receive an introduction to Timothy Connolly. Timothy was an ex sergeant major in the British military police with a formidable reputation. He was once a champion boxer in the British army and in his new role he functioned as the one man reception committee for new arrivals. When he was about ten metres away Timothy began to shout at us with a voice that sounded like many thunders. We were ordered to hold our hands high and straight above our heads and to run on the spot at a furious pace. As we did this Timothy would stand very close behind us and shout directly into our ear with all the volume of a mega ghetto blaster on steroids. A very hot summers day began to get hotter and hotter. The sweat was pouring down my face so fast I couldn't see and the salt was stinging my eyes. After a time my arms became unbearably heavy, my legs felt like they were going to fall off but Timothy kept up his awful shouting, telling us to keep our arms straight, to bring our knees higher and demanding that we continue to run nowhere at a faster rate. Soon we became aware of only three things, the heat, the pain, and a sense of utter confusion. When we thought things could not possibly get any worse, they did. Timothy suddenly decided to give us a demonstration of his firepower. After a long time of vigorous exercise in the blazing sun I began to lose my sense of balance. As I began to drift sideways instead of remaining in one spot as I had been ordered Timothy showed that he had a cure for that. If I staggered towards the left Timothy would send a looping right that sent me back in the direction I had come from. Timothy's primitive methodology over corrected the problem. The impact of Timothy's punch would send me too far in the other direction for his liking so he would apply a haymaker to the other side of the head with surgical precision that would put me back about where I was supposed to be. The guy in the line up next to me was a toughened street fighter and just as he muttered to me that he was about to give Timothy a taste of his own medicine the nightmare ended. I guess Timothy got tired. What shall we say of Timothy, that he was nothing more than a brutal, sadistic human being? I don't think so. As I got to know Timothy I found him to be tough but fair, and a man who only did what he did because he thought it was the only way to bring order out of chaos. Timothy believe that a small amount of pain in the beginning had a therapeutic value that helped to prevent much more pain at a later time. Timothy administered his version of justice without malice, his only intention was to bring about a harmonious relationship between the prison inmates and the authorities that would benefit both. Timothy simply believed that if everyone gave their entire obedience to a central authority peace would prevail. He believed the only way to establish lasting peace was to provide a demonstrate of its opposite effect. When I became a Christian I came to learn that Timothy was a man after God's own heart. If you don't think that could be true you haven't read the Old Testament. Over and over God employed the same method Timothy used in an attempt to bring the nation of Israel to its senses. The judgments on Israel were devastating and brutal, at times mercy hid her face completely, but judgment became a means of salvation because suffering turned the people back to God. Because judgment has been delayed on our account many imagine the Christian Church lives under a different regime to Israel, but how wrong they are. God is the same, yesterday, today, and forever. Judgment is coming, not only on the world, but on the church itself. Paul spoke of “the goodness and severity of God”. Soon we will know what divine “severity” means. Very few will accept the warning, but the time is coming when they will wish they had. Many now vainly believe in salvation without holiness, that worship without reverence is acceptable, and that indifference to the divine presence is permissible in sacred places. That is why judgment is coming. King regards, Victor --------------------------------------------------------------------- Name: evoleye.txt evoleye.txt Type: Plain Text (text/plain) Encoding: base64 Description: evoleye.txt