You did not choose God out of your own free will. God did not give you a new heart because you decided to have faith and repent of your sin. Your righteousness was given to you by Christ because you were chosen by God from eternity—he is the only perfectly righteous person—and not because you decided to invite Jesus into your heart.
The emergent movement is the clearest example today of what Paul calls in our text as an appeal that “[springs] from error or impurity or any attempt to deceive… with words of flattery,†all with the intention of pleasing man rather than God. It is not any different from the “seeker-sensitive†movement that caters to [...]
Therefore,we must never think that there is no justice. In this world, we frequently see that murderers, rapists, plunderers, liars, adulterers, thieves and robbers go scot-free. We become so furious when we see them get acquitted for crimes they obviously committed merely because of a technicality, political connections, or celebrity status. Isaiah 59:17-20; 1 Thessalonians [...]
Together with most of the other New Testament writers, Paul affirms that the last days were inaugurated in the first-century A.D. when Christ first came down from heaven. If this is true, then like the Thessalonians, we are to be equally steadfast and patient in our hope for Christ’s return.
Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.
6:53 PM Thursday, May 23 2013
