Posts tagged apologetics
-Isaiah 45:6
Posts tagged apologetics
1 Cor. 5:4-5 In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
These verses may inspire strange pictures of the “one” mentioned being wrapped in a box and bow and presented to Satan personally. What is really going on here? Contextual study, with the help of Witherington’s Corinthians commentary (158), provides some likely answers.
- What is it is to “delivered unto Satan”? A few have suggested execution is in mind, but that would hardly make sense if the point was to save this unrepentant person. The more likely meaning is an expulsion from the church — and here, not to Satan personally, but to the world, and the realm where Satan is the “god of the world”. (See similar use in 1 Tim. 5:15, where “Satan” can hardly be supposed to mean Satan personally.)
- What then is the “flesh”? If this is not execution, then “flesh” must be understood another way — in fact, a way it is used elsewhere in Paul as well as in other Jewish literature, to refer to the weakness and sinfulness of humanity. (As in 1 Peter 2:4, For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. )
- Then what is the process in view? The purpose is much the same as it might be to let a drunkard drink himself into insensibility, which in an honor-shame society would have been a much more effective tactic than it would be under a modern, individualistic, “I’m proud of myself and don’t care what anyone else says” paradigm.
Note that this man’s sin is “such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father’s wife.” (5:1) This is not something like alcohol where he will be able to find drinking buddies or social support; his acts would be a disgrace to the whole of society, even non-believers. It is Paul’s hope that the man, expelled from his social network in the church, will be shamed and left with no recourse but to repent, since no other group will accept his behavior either.
(Source: tektonics.org)
[Very interesting questions received in my ask, with a reference to this video.]
Thank you for writing!
It’s a very good question and one that I’ve made myself!
Imagine, for a moment, that your best friend has cancer. You see all the effects of the cancer: you notice lumps on their bodies,…
You can see the rest of the post HERE.
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I actually strongly disagree with this post.
While TheAnswerGirl does make a few good points, she fails to answer the question accurately (No offense to her! I follow her and love her tumblr, but I believe that the Bible has something different to say about this…).
So why DOES God care if I believe in Him or not? Let’s look first at what Scripture has to say about this:
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
Genesis 1:26-27
It’s really easy to get impersonal when you’re reading these types of passages. God seems like an old dude who creates man as if man were just another part of the light, land, seas, plants, and animals He created before. But it says here that God wanted to make man in His own image!
Now you’re probably asking something like “Okay…so what the heck kind of significance does that have?” Well let me ask you this: ever seen the way a mother looks at her newborn infant? Even though she had no part in shaping her baby’s physical or spiritual creation - she is little more than a “carrier” for the baby, after all - she loves and loves and loves the creature who came forth from her womb. How much more does our God CARE for those He has created!
Like the psalmist says in Psalm 139:13
For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
And God gives an analogy of how much He loves us in words that we can understand here:
As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you;
Isaiah 66:13
Oh, how He loves us!
As if these declarations weren’t enough, there’s more. When God’s chosen people the Israelites spurned Him, refusing to worship Him faithfully and turning to their idols time and again, God reveals His ultimate plan to win them back in Isaiah 53:5-6:
But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed.All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him (Jesus) the iniquity of us all.
Though we rejected His all-consuming love for us, He never rejected us. Though we spitefully gave up on Him, He never gave up on us. Though we became His enemies, He still fought for our love. And even when He came to earth in the flesh, even when He humbled Himself to the point of becoming a Man, still we shouted “Crucify him, crucify him!” (Mark 15:13, Luke 23:21)
And yet as we were shouting for His death, still He offered us everlasting life, even til His dying breath.
For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 5:7-8
How can anyone then DARE to dilute the absolute, overwhelming power of God’s love by suggesting something like “God doesn’t exactly CARE”?
But it still does not end there! In Zephaniah 3:17, our God declares the day of His triumph, when His people will finally return His love:
The LORD your God is in your midst,
a mighty one who will save;
he will rejoice over you with gladness;
he will quiet you by his love;
he will exult over you with loud singing.
We, who should have burned in the deepest hells, are counted as worthy by the most holy God! And we are not merely counted worthy, we are loved.
We are loved.
He loves us. That is why God cares whether or not you believe in Him.
