02-11-2008, 09:23 PM
Shlama all,
The problem with evil is that the more we focus on it, the more we believe in it and the less we believe in God's power and will to change it.
It is written: "See,this alone I have found, that God made man upright, and they???they have sought out many devices." Eccles. 7:29
God cannot make an evil person, and scripture says he made man upright. We should look at sin as deviation from our own good nature with which God designed us. Someone quoted Isaiah 64. We need to consider Isaiah 53:6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
All of us are in the same boat. We have all started out as God's sheep in the fold of God, and we all went astray. We got lost at some point.
We all turned away from God and went our own way. None of us is right to point a finger at another and accuse him or her of being worthless and unsavable.
That smacks of Phariseeism: "Thank you Oh, God, that I am not as other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican" Luke 18:11.
Paul Younan wrote above:
The apostle Paul said he was the chief of sinners. We need to consider what he said. He had been the worst sinner alive in the world at the time. If anyone was evil (and I don't grant that premise), he was. But our Lord saved him and turned him completely around as an example of his saving grace and power. He became the greatest apostle and servant of God, and wrote most of The Peshitta, as Paul has pointed out. He practically established the Gentile churches with his bare hands by God's grace, and before he died, he wrote:"
I would not have believed Saul of Tarsus should have been saved, nor could have been saved, if I had known of him and lived at the time. None of the disciples trusted him when they first heard of his conversion. He stood by and held the coats of the men who stoned Stephen to death for his faith and testimony of The Messaih and against their unbelief and hatred toward God, but even Stephen prayed "Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.", even as he died.
If we look at our Savior, we will not think anyone is beyond His salvation. If we think otherwise, we show that we do not know Him or trust in Him.
"If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it." 1 John 5:16
I seriously doubt that we know anyone who has sinned the sin unto death, nor do we get to arbitrarily decide what that sin is. We should then pray for the life of those we see sinning, and believe such will receive life from God.
Bryk hu Makhyana d'Alma (Blessed be The Savior of The World),
PS Paul, please check your PM's at <!-- e --><a href="mailto
aulYounan@peshitta.org">PaulYounan@peshitta.org</a><!-- e -->
Dave
The problem with evil is that the more we focus on it, the more we believe in it and the less we believe in God's power and will to change it.
It is written: "See,this alone I have found, that God made man upright, and they???they have sought out many devices." Eccles. 7:29
God cannot make an evil person, and scripture says he made man upright. We should look at sin as deviation from our own good nature with which God designed us. Someone quoted Isaiah 64. We need to consider Isaiah 53:6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
All of us are in the same boat. We have all started out as God's sheep in the fold of God, and we all went astray. We got lost at some point.
We all turned away from God and went our own way. None of us is right to point a finger at another and accuse him or her of being worthless and unsavable.
That smacks of Phariseeism: "Thank you Oh, God, that I am not as other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican" Luke 18:11.
Paul Younan wrote above:
Quote:The majority of our beloved Peshitta was written by a murderer, until Meshikha saw fit in His wisdom to change his heart and use him for His glory.
The apostle Paul said he was the chief of sinners. We need to consider what he said. He had been the worst sinner alive in the world at the time. If anyone was evil (and I don't grant that premise), he was. But our Lord saved him and turned him completely around as an example of his saving grace and power. He became the greatest apostle and servant of God, and wrote most of The Peshitta, as Paul has pointed out. He practically established the Gentile churches with his bare hands by God's grace, and before he died, he wrote:"
Quote:If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister;."
I would not have believed Saul of Tarsus should have been saved, nor could have been saved, if I had known of him and lived at the time. None of the disciples trusted him when they first heard of his conversion. He stood by and held the coats of the men who stoned Stephen to death for his faith and testimony of The Messaih and against their unbelief and hatred toward God, but even Stephen prayed "Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.", even as he died.
If we look at our Savior, we will not think anyone is beyond His salvation. If we think otherwise, we show that we do not know Him or trust in Him.
"If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it." 1 John 5:16
I seriously doubt that we know anyone who has sinned the sin unto death, nor do we get to arbitrarily decide what that sin is. We should then pray for the life of those we see sinning, and believe such will receive life from God.
Bryk hu Makhyana d'Alma (Blessed be The Savior of The World),
PS Paul, please check your PM's at <!-- e --><a href="mailto
aulYounan@peshitta.org">PaulYounan@peshitta.org</a><!-- e -->Dave