Atheist asked: “How can Christians worship their God, who permits unbearable and endless suffering?”
Christian response,
God allows man’s free will to play-out in Time as He uses our propensity for evil as an example to the faithful angelic creation looking-on that obedience to God’s edicts, His perfect will, is of necessity if life and freedom and peace and communion are to exist with sustainability. Our entire existence in Time, which is temporary-finite, is demonstrative of the plague of evil that was initiated in the Kingdom before the creation of matter and Time and that evil was extricated from the Kingdom mandating the creation of this Earth as a repository as that evil is being dealt with partially constrained by Time and physics.
All that you are witnessing, having manifest for 6020-years thus far, is the resultant of disobedience that was initiated in the Spiritual Realm by the Evil One and is currently being played-out in the Physical Realm of Time as our creation has manifest for cause with rapidity. The horror of pestilence, murder, disease, sin, will ultimately act as a bulwark against another rebellion in the Kingdom, the New Jerusalem, as both the faithful angelic creation and the faithful of mankind in Christ Jesus, both possessing the necessity of free will, will know via experiential relevance that obedience to God’s will is infinitely superior to rebellion via narcissism culminating in unconscionable suffering and the “second death.”
Sunday is not the Sabbath (Seventh Day) but Sunday is the Lord’s Day i.e. the First-Day when Elohim separated light and darkness; when the Spirit raised Messiah from the dead; when the Holy Spirit initiated the Christian Church at Pentecost; when the Apostles worshiped, read Scripture, collected charity and administered the Lord’s Supper…all on Sunday, the First-Day of the Week.
Catholicism, roughly founded/initiated in 312-313AD via the Edict of Milan by Emperor Constantine, had absolutely NOTHING to do with Sunday, the Lord’s Day, worship in the Christian Church; Sunday worship began with the First-Century Church.
The Sabbath, as an edict for corporate observance, was given SPECIFICALLY and ONLY to the Hebrew Tribes at Sinai (and converts to Judaism) and NEVER was the Sabbath given to a Gentile or the Christian Church (Acts 15). The Sabbath Day was a foreshadowing of Messiah who would provide His faithful a rest from an arduous and condemning Law that only defined sin void atonement (Romans 3:20). For the one who trusts in Jesus as Lord, they’re not under Law but under Grace (Romans 6:14) and Jesus is the fulfillment of the Sabbath’s intent and the Christian rests in Him by grace through faith (Hebrews 4; Colossians 2:16).
Every Law Keeper, SDA cult member, Theological Legalist, has absolutely NO RIGHT to insist or even suggest that a Christian observe a Sabbath Day (Romans 14). Jesus IS our Sabbath (Hebrews 4) and you have NO Right as per Scripture to condemn or accuse the one who worships Jesus on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. Please, politely and respectfully, MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS and keep your legalism and your cults to yourself!
The Canon of Scripture, with Nature as experiential evidence, clearly introduces our Creator by Name and meticulously explains the who, what, where, when, why, how, concerning our presence within Time as having been created with rapidity for cause. Why are the Scriptures and Jesus Christ as Creator so flippantly denied when no one else, no other source available to mankind has any plausible explanation for the presence of matter and Time, the Universe, our genome, LIFE? Why does the atheist so angrily with hostility, vulgarity, disregard the possibility for our Creator?
Personally, I find no other explanation for Time, matter, the incredibly complex human genome…why do you so easily and flippantly deny the possibility for our Creator seeing that science has NO CLUE concerning the most elementary of physics…the presence of matter? Please explain why you reject God with such fervency without cause and without evidence to the contrary and without logic and reason?
As noted in a FB forum: “Hell preachers set themselves up for a huge fail when they try and claim immortality is promised to the wicked.”
Christian response,
Hell, the Lake of Fire, Gehenna, was never created for mankind but for Satan and the fallen angels only (Matthew 25:41). God ordained the Gospel of Jesus Christ “before the beginning of Time” (2 Timothy 1:9-10) to provide mankind eternal life by grace through faith in Jesus Christ while simultaneously destroying “the works of the Devil” (death, Hell, the grave) through Messiah’s obedience at the Crucifixion (1 John 3:8b). Mankind will enter Hell by choice and NOT by God’s will as God’s will proclaims His desire that all men and women be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth concerning Jesus Christ as Messiah (1 Timothy 2:4).
Hell will be eternal torment for Satan and his angels as these are spirit beings and they do not die nor do they cease to exist (Luke 20:36). Unlike the angels, it is possible for mankind to lose both body and soul in Hell (Matthew 10:28); therefore, the “many” (Matthew 7:13-14) who reject Jesus Christ as Lord, God and Mediator for their sin will die in sin at the last exhalation in their physical body (John 8:24) and they will die the “second death” in Hell (Revelation 20:11-15); the “second death” is not only compassionate but the second death is necessary as our God will NOT permit unrepentant sin or anything impure to enter His Kingdom (Revelation 21:27); after all, it is Satan’s destructive rebellion/sin that initiated the creation of this Earth as a repository for Satan and the fallen angels as they are dealt with by our God while simultaneously removing their destructive sin from the Holy Kingdom (Luke 10:18); therefore, it is eternally unwise for anyone to believe that God will simply wink and excuse our sin lest that sin has been atoned for by the innocent blood of Messiah Jesus through faith in Him as our Mediator for sin (John 3:16; John 14:6; 2 Corinthians 5:17).
Those men and women who die in their unrepentant sin, at the moment of their last exhalation, they will be relegated in their disembodied state to the region Messiah refers to as Hades/Sheol-Torments (Luke 16). These unredeemed, disembodied, dead, fully conscious-aware, will remain in Hades-Torments until the conclusion of Messiah’s Millennial Reign at which time the “Judgement of the Condemned” AKA “The Great White Throne Judgment” will manifest (Revelation 20). The unredeemed dead waiting in Hades-Torments will receive a resurrected body of corruption (John 5:28-29; Daniel 12:2; Mark 9:43-48) and stand before Jesus Christ to be judged according to their works, their sin, their wickedness; their rebellion and their name will NOT be found written in the Lamb’s Book of Life and these will be adjudicated “guilty” before the Lord and they will lose both body and soul in Hell in the “second death;” the “second death” being a death of eternal finality and a cessation of all existence and remembrance (Revelation 20:14).
Observation concerning the God of the Hebrew Scriptures v. the God of the Greek Scriptures articulated on FB:“When I compare new testament with the old testament, I draw a conclusion that God in the old testament is cruel, evil and merciless.”
Christian response,
God in the Hebrew Scriptures is the very same God in the Greek Scriptures (Malachi 3:6; Hebrews 13:8). Two-wholly different dispensations and Covenants. God in the Hebrew Scriptures was maneuvering through man’s wickedness and rebellion in order to bring forth His Messiah who would be a blessing to every family of the Earth (Genesis 12:3). The Noahic generation had become so vile and wicked (Genesis 6:5) that God refused to set-apart a people group through whom He would bring Messiah into the World; therefore, all but eight were destroyed and God began anew with Noah and his family.
God suffered through the obstinate and rebellious Hebrew Nation that He set-apart through Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; these people rebelled against God and angered Him time and time again yet God remained faithful and through the Tribe of Judah, God brought forth Messiah as He had promised in Genesis 3:15 and pictured the Gospel in Genesis 3:21. Then the offspring of these very same people rejected their Messiah, falsely accused Him of blasphemy and had Him murdered upon a tree while demanding that His blood be upon them and their children (Matthew 27:25).
Far too often mankind incorrectly pictures God as a soft fellow sitting on a cloud, emotionless, observing the affairs of mankind but the truth is, our God is a WARRIOR GOD and you and I are in the midst of a cosmic war of unfathomable proportions that was initiated in the Kingdom of God before the beginning of Time; that rebellion-that cosmic struggle and its destruction was removed from the Kingdom (Luke 10:18) and this Earth was created as a repository for that war to partially constrain its warriors by Time and physics; in fact, the primary purpose for Messiah’s appearance in Time was “to destroy the works of the Devil” (1 John 3:8b).
If you understood God’s purposes and His dealings with Satan and the rebellious angels, a war that is manifesting around you this very day…you would understand God’s wrath and why He appears to be cruel and arbitrary when in actuality, God is merciful, loving, and has given Himself for our salvation through His own suffering and death on a Cross. God has given His all to provide mankind eternal life and defeat the works of the Devil via selfless love and personal sacrifice (John 3:16). Those who love God and have trusted in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Mediator for sin will understand these things in their fullness once we are free from the constraints of the decaying body of flesh (2 Corinthians 5:8; 1 Corinthians 3:12).
Confused Nigerian heretic blasphemes the Holy Spirit’s work in the Scriptures: “STOP CALLING CHRISTIANITY RELIGION CALL IT PAULINIANS. DON’T CALL BIBLE HOLY BOOK REVEALED FROM GOD because there is no single verse in the bible where jesus or God declared he himself revealed it. Bible means the collections of paul mythology and mixed it with some few truth about jesus.”
Christian response,
Christianity is the resultant of the New Covenant established and founded in the blood of Messiah Jesus (Matthew 26:28). Christianity is NOT a religion but the fulfillment of the religion known as Judaism (Jeremiah 31:31-33; Hebrews 8:8-10). Jesus Christ, our God, our Creator, our Messiah, HATED religion and came to provide mankind atonement for our sin that no “religion” could provide (Romans 3:20; Galatians 2:16).
Jesus provides forgiveness for sin and redemption leading to eternal life by grace (unmerited favor that we cannot earn through human effort) through faith (trusting-believing) in Jesus as the One who died to pay our sin-debt and by believing that Jesus was resurrected from the dead for our justification (Romans 10:9-10). This is NOT “religion” but Christianity and no one will enter into the presence of the Father in the Kingdom subsequent to the death of the body in Time except through Jesus Christ as your God and Mediator for your sins (John 3:16-18; John 14:6); otherwise, you will die in your sin and you will die in Hell (John 8:24; Revelation 20:11-15). God the Father is NOT going to permit your unrepentant sin to enter His Kingdom (Revelation 21:27); therefore, unless Jesus is your Lord and Mediator for your sin, you have NO HOPE!
The Apostle Paul’s words are NO LESS inspired by the Holy Spirit than the words of Moses and you call the Holy Spirit a liar and untrustworthy when you call Paul a liar and a false teacher. When you call the Apostle Paul a liar you blaspheme the very same God who, in His omnipotence, created Time, matter, this Universe, our complex genome and you fail to comprehend the truism that the very same omnipotent God who created LIFE is fully capable of working through His servant, the Apostle Paul, to provide you with the EXACT words He desires you have so that you can know Him personally, love Him intimately, live with Him eternally. Shame on you! You serve Satan, not God!
It is written,
15 From infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for instruction, for conviction, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be complete, fully equipped for every good work.… 2 Timothy 3 (Berean Study Bible)
Jesus said,
13 But now I am coming to You; and these things I speak in the world so that they may have My joy made full in themselves. 14 I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 15 I am not asking You to take them out of the world, but to keep them away from [e]the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth. 18 Just as You sent Me into the world, I also sent them into the world. 19 And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, so that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth. Gospel of John 17 (NASB)
Jesus said,
35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away. Matthew 24:34 (NASB)
Jesus words are before you in the Gospels and they extend from Genesis 1:1 to the final Chapter of the Revelation…do not doubt or blaspheme God’s words as they will judge you in Eternity!
“Shalom…For Yahweh so loved the world that He made the Shabbath for Him to be Remembered for Creating you and me.”
Christian response,
Not once was the Sabbath given to Adam, Enoch, Noah, to Abraham, Isaac or Jacob; the Sabbath was given SPECIFICALLY to the Hebrew Tribes at Sinai to point them to their coming Messiah who is our Creator (John 1, Hebrews 1, Colossians 1) and Who offers a “rest” from an arduous Law that mandated perfection (James 2:10) and only condemned void atonement (Romans 3:20).
Jesus is our Sabbath’s rest (Hebrews 4) and those who trust in Him are NOT obligated to a Day but to the Holy Spirit and these faithful walk in God’s Laws written upon their heart (Hebrews 10:16) and administered by the indwelling Holy Spirit through the daily process of sanctification.God’s righteousness is NOT about a Day or an edict but God’s righteousness is found only in Jesus Christ as your Lord and the receiving of the Holy Spirit as your Guarantor of relationship with the Father (John 3:16-18; John 14:6; Ephesians 1:13-14). There is no life in the Kingdom for the one who trusts in a Day or a Law for their righteousness (right standing) with God as only faith in Jesus as your Lord will provide redemption through the forgiveness of sin (Galatians 2:16; John 14:6).
Correcting the Jewish error above,
16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but so that the world might be saved through Him. John 3:16-17 (NASB)
There exists no such entity as “Liberal Christianity.” There is true Christianity that honors God the Father by grace through faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and the Christian faithful who walk in obedience to God’s will as His Law is written upon their heart and said Law is administered by the indwelling Holy Spirit through the process of sanctification.
Joe Biden is a servant of the Devil who advocates for the murder of babies in the womb and the celebration of sodomy in our Nation and agrees with secular humanists, atheists, nihilists, naturalists, that “mother earth” is to be our god and the deception of Darwin and sodomy, sexual perversion, be forced upon our posterity. Joe Biden does not represent Christianity or Catholicism; Joe Biden is a demon in flesh who serves the god of this World (2 Corinthians 4:4) in lies and death (John 8:44). Those who follow Joe Biden and this godless, humanist, administration are not practicing wisdom or discernment but are compromising with the Devil.
America, founded by God specifically to proselytize the World in His Gospel, cannot be sustained but through obedience to God’s will and His words. America is suffocating on the innocent blood of 61-million babies mutilated in the womb of their mommy subsequent to Roe-73; now, this demon in the oval office seeks to export our filth and use our tax-dollars to finance infanticide. This is why communist democrats have taken over America’s Constitutional Republic, these demons are being used as God’s tool to display and implement His wrath upon a people who have spit in His face, defiled our Land with Molech via Roe, defiled His marriage covenant with Obergefell v. Hodges (2015) and taught our children to honor the ways of Sodom and Gomorrah. America will die in Her apostasy and Christians and the Christian Church have no one to blame but themselves. We surrendered our children to Darwin, Marx, Lenin, revisionist history, atheists, secular humanists, sodomites and abortionists and communists; therefore, America reaps what it has sown. To whom much is given, much is required (Deuteronomy 28).
Atheist mocks the ascension of Messiah and the reality of a “Heaven.”
Christian response,
Where many fail in differentiating between the Realm of the Spiritual i.e. Eternity v. the Realm of Time i.e. the physical World constrained by physics, is the fact that these two-dimensions run parallel, much like railroad tracks, but seldom interface. One notable exception is the incarnation of Jesus Christ who is Spirit (John 4:24) having manifest in Time in flesh (Philippians 2:8). When Jesus exited this World, He simply transitioned “home” to the Eternal Realm.The Eternal Realm is everlasting; that is, it has no genesis and no finality just like our God has no genesis and He does not die (Psalm 90:2)…the Eternal Realm has always been and will be. Running parallel with the Eternal Realm is the Physical Realm which is created (Genesis 1:1; Hebrews 11:3), possesses a genesis and a finality (Genesis 8:22; 2 Peter 3:7-10).
When the human body dies, the spirit that is encapsulated by that decaying body of flesh is then free to simply transition into the Spiritual Realm which encompasses our very being, surrounds us, engulfs us, and the only thing preventing our interaction with same is this decaying flesh though we see shadows of the Eternal as looking through a glass darkly while constrained by Time (2 Corinthians 5:8; 1 Corinthians 13:12).
Heaven, the Realm of God’s presence, is not some distant ethereal plane in the “Heavens” above but the Spiritual Realm is all around us, consumes us and is one-exhalation from our personal reality as we experience freedom from carnal imprisonment. Every human being is created in the spiritual image of God possessing certain communicable attributes of God; one of those communicable attributes is our spirit, our true self, that does NOT die with the body of flesh (Genesis 1:26-28; 2 Corinthians 5:8).
Unfortunately and tragically, is the truism that Darwin’s deception is the most proficient progenitor of atheism known to mankind. Evolution and Atheism are kindred spirits that place/confine the mind of man into a box of naturalism and blind him from discerning the reality of life beyond the physical World. Darwin’s deception will lead “many” to death in Hell in their rejection of God’s Way to life in the Eternal Realm (Matthew 7:13-14); that is, faith in Jesus Christ as Lord for the mediation of our sin (John 8:24; John 14:6).
"RickeyD" Holtsclaw 