Bible Questions? III

You'd be surprised; the previous ranting post gave me to feel peace with God.

 

I can see where shaking the fist could be a sensible antidote to shame. It is the proper use of denial.

 

Communion, reception of the Body-Blood-Soul-Divinity of Christ, is a special union with God. Being in the state of mortal sin, we say that we reject God's love and grace.

We must receive sacramental confession (though in grave circumstances, it may be forgone---just as in grave circumstances Communion from the Orthodox Church may be acceptable) prior to Communion if we commited a mortal sin.

See: 1 Corinthians 11:27-29

 

So then what if God, in order to fulfil his desire to demonstrate wrath and to make known his power, sustained and tolerated with much patience the vessels of wrath made for destruction, . . Romans 9:22.

Does God make people so he can destroy them? I don't believe he does, but was wondering if anyone has any thoughts on this scripture.

 

When I read that in what I call "context" - the surrounding verses around it, it seems it is really saying, and leading to...is that What if God does endure awful, destructive people and/or forces so that at a certain time He may later SHOW them what He is all about, so to say. In a way (which I have read Romans, but didn't off-hand recall that, until I re-read it in my KJV) I feel it is sort of reiterating there will come a time He will uphold those "he had afore prepared unto glory," (chosen - imo), and the following verse even says be it Jew or Gentile. (Which for them was a super big deal, then...remember, they were having to let the Gentiles "in" on their savior!)

 

After three years of this nonsensical thread you have failed to answer even the questions that you yourself brought to the table.

 

Although I know he does not identify as JW, the first and last seem to be taken right off the front of a Watchtower Magazine.

My question is not so much Bible focused, but misunderstanding of the Bible focused: When, and how did Cain's sacrifice of fruits and vegetables become him defying god's command for blood sacrifices? As far as I can tell, Cain is angry at Abel simply because God seems to like him more.

 

but G-d is suppose to love everyone equally? Cain is acting on his own and making his own assumptions..

 

No, it is the people themselves that have made themselves vessels of wrath fit only for destruction.

 

Do you have question or did you just come here to deliver your message from the peanut gallery?

 

I don't think God loved either of them more. I just think that Abels sacrifice was more befitting to messianic prophecy and so accepted his over Cains. Perhaps Cain didn't have the correct offering because he lacked faith which is why God explains to Cain that he must master sin otherwise sin will master him. I think the jealousy was misplaced and was a result of a lack of faith, not that God loved Abel more because God loved them equally; His jealousy was just a result of the effect sin has on the person's mind (it warps the truth) and he became paranoid.

By God saying that if he does good, will he not be accepted? Shows that all he has to do for everything else to be forgotten and to be accepted is to start doing good and to not allow resentment cloud it because forgiveness is free and always available.

 

There was no command at the time for blood sacrifices and thus Cain was not defying God with his sacrifice of fruits and vegetables.

But think about it if you and your brother offered God the same sacrifices that Cain and Abel did and God did not approve or your sacrifice what would you do?

Personally, I would trade some of my fruits and vegetables for one of Abel's lambs and sacrifice that to God because that is the sacrifice that God seemed pleased with.

I wouldn't get angry with my brother and kill him.

Cain's killing his brother even after God's warning seems to show that Cain was not interested in pleasing God and was only interested in "saving face".

 

Exactly, the feelings of pride, resentment and whatnot warps God's love (I don't mean actually warping his love since God can't be warped) to the point where they choose to not please God rather than pleasing him. Same for the Pharaoh in Exodus, he was more interested in saving face then pleasing God.

That's a good point about blood sacrifices. I hadn't thought of that. My thinking was, would they have known from their parents about God telling them about the man that would one day crush the serpents head, and the serpent biting the heel of the man? Wouldn't they know there would one day be a sacrifice? Wouldn't that require blood? My thinking was that Cain chose what he chose maybe to be rebellious or because he didn't trust what God had said, otherwise what would get them to make any sacrifices at all unless they somehow knew God wanted sacrifices or that any sacrifices at all were pleasing to him?

 

That first prophecy was probably not understood very well at the time and it's meaning has unfolded over the years and is recorded for us in God's Word as the outworking of God's purposes.

 

That's a good point. Maybe they just gave what they worked for at the end since Abel kept flocks and Cain worked the soil. I'm just wondering why they would do that, maybe just to be nice.

 

Man seems to have an almost inborn need to give back to God part of the blessing that God has bestowed on them and thus the sacrifices.

Thinking also of the fact that in the Mosaic law there were also offerings to God of grain and first fruits, it would seem that God may not have been so much displeased with the offering of the fruits and vegetables of Cain, as perhaps with the spirit that it was offered .

 

Here's a question:

I copy and pasted someone else's writing because I thought they expressed the question better than I can. Please ignore the parts that aren't contextual:

"I was reading another answer that you gave to someone else concerning unforgivable sin and blasphemy. You wrote: "God defined blasphemy in Numbers 15:30-31. "But the person who does anything defiantly, whether he is native or an alien, that one is blaspheming the LORD; and that person shall be cut off from among his people. Because he has despised the word of the LORD and has broken His commandment, that person shall be completely cut off; his guilt will be on him." Hence, we learn that God's definition of blasphemy is acting in defiance of the Lord and His commandments. In others words, blasphemy is willfully sinning when you know full well that it is wrong. Since God defined it, why not accept His definition?"

When we have been taught God's laws, for example not to fornicate and we in turn go out and fornicate, we know it is wrong but choose to break that command. Are we then guilty of blasphemy? How then can we be forgiven when we truly and sorrowfully repent? I am still struggling with my forgiveness. I am so remorseful for the way I lived and I am so afraid that the Lord will not forgive my sin because I knew better. What about the verse: Hebrews 12:15-17 "Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble [you], and thereby many be defiled;Lest there [be] any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright.For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears."

Please pray for me and offer any other words of help. What is entailed in leaving the Lord? Is it falling into a sinful lifestyle for a span still believing the word of God but not walking in a righteous manner? Or is the leaving or "falling away" in Hebrews a conscious thought that you no longer believe in the word of God and could care less what the bible says? During my sinful span, I quit going to church for two years (well, I went periodically), but I felt guilty for my lifestyle. I still believed in God and His word but just let myself be drawn away into sinful situations. As I stated previously, influencing a whole host of people along the way, some fellow Christians and some non-Christians. I need to know that the Lord will forgive me."

 

Yours is a difficult question to answer.

I would first say that it is not our job to decide whether we have committed the "unforgivable sin" or not or to even worry about it. That is God's job and we should trust him and just leave it in his capable hands.

We have but one job. “‘You must love Jehovah your God with your whole heart and with your whole soul and with your whole mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. The second, like it, is this, ‘You must love your neighbor as yourself.’" Worrying about what is beyond our control, such as whether we have committed the "unforgivable sin" or not, does not help us do our job and in fact mostly hinders us from doing that job.

I suggest you keep getting to know God, learn what it takes to be his friend. Continue to learn what God wants us to do and what his will is. And if you should "trip and fall", pick your self up and dust your self off and keep on trying to move in the right direction.

I ofttimes remind myself of the differences of Saul and David. David committed adultery and had her husband killed to cover it over and all Saul did was disobey God, compared to David's wrongdoing what Saul did seems minor. So why did God turn his back on Saul and say that David was a man after his own heart?

Did God just ignore David's sin? No, David was punished for it, David accepted responsibility for his actions, asked for forgiveness and left it behind, he continued to work hard to be pleasing to God. Does that mean that David never sinned again? No, but David's love for God would never allow anything to stop him or interfere with his display of love for God.

As for Saul, he would never take responsibility for his actions, it was always someone else's fault. There was no heart felt asking for forgiveness and in the end he turned away from God and that's the difference.

The difficultly comes from bad motives, God is willing forgive anything we do, because he loves us but then some twist that love and begin to think I can do anything bad thing I want and because God loves me, he will forgive it.

Never forget God sees the heart, our motivations, he knows if we are just sinful humans that love him and have again stumbled or whether we are just trying to get over on him and are just using his love as a blind for badness.

 

He did not defy gods command for blood sacrifice. The pastoral life and the agricultural life require different mind sets. The pastoral life requires immediate awareness or vigilance to protect the flock which naturally grows fat. The agricultural requires planning, tilling the ground, saving seed, crop rotation, etc., and long periods of relative inattention. The whole story is about the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems of the human body. It's desire is for you but you must learn to master it. It, is our emotional, sensational reactive interface with the world. Cain killed able because he could not control his excited states, he was not the master of his own being, being at the mercy of the uncertain weather. This is not a story about diet or sacrifice.

 

If a person sins, but also does good works are they saved or not? This is a question I've been struggling with lately.