Showing posts with label Holy Spirit. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Holy Spirit. Show all posts

Thursday, September 8, 2011

“The Christian Trinity Consists of God, Jesus and Mary”

Not at all! The term “Trinity” does not occur in the Bible but is used to describe God in the three “persons” of the Father, his Son Jesus (not by sexual union) and The Holy Spirit—all God. Mary, the mother of Jesus, was simply God’s servant to give birth to Jesus—though she was a very special and unique servant (no one else had such a privilege).

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Unconditional Forgiveness?

When John the Baptizer was sent to “prepare the way of the Lord”, he preached repentance. (John 3:1-12) According to the gospel of Mark, the first thing Jesus preached was, “The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!” (Mark 1:14)

Jesus instructed his disciples to go to the brother who has sinned against them, show him his fault and hope he listens—or repents; if not, he outlines more steps to take. If after all that, the sinning brother still won’t listen, he is to be treated as a “pagan” (non-believer). (Matthew 18:15-17) Jesus further told them, “If your brother sins, rebuke him and if he repents, forgive him. (Luke 17:3 emphasis added) Repentance as a qualification for forgiveness is a major part of the framework of the Bible in both Old and New Testaments.

A second qualification for forgiveness is that the sin must be forgivable. Jesus said, “But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit (calling the Holy Spirit’s ways evil) will never be forgiven, he is guilty of an eternal sin. (Mark 3:29, 30) John said, “There is a sin that leads to death. I am not saying that he should pray about that.” Since he didn’t specify which sin that is, I can only conclude that he referred to blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.

So no, God’s forgiveness is not “unconditional”. However, in his mercy he may occasionally grant forgiveness without repentance just as he “sends the rain on the righteous and the unrighteous”. (Matthew 5:45)

Forgiveness is often confused with God’s love. Followers of Jesus are to love each other, their neighbors, those who insult or persecute them and their enemies—that would seem to be everybody.

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

“God Must be Mad at You.”

“God must be mad at you since you had a stroke, cancer, etc.” or “What did you do to make God mad?”If you had truly done something so bad that God would “strike” you, you are not likely to be a follower of Jesus, and more like King Herod (Acts 12:23), Saul (Acts 9:3) or Elymas (Acts 13:8-11) or as Ananias and Saphira who had done something directly against the Holy Spirit. (Acts 5:1) In any case, you would know if he had and you would know what you had done.

God simply doesn’t go around beating up his children. In addition, he has given us his word, our consciences and the Holy Spirit to let us know when we’ve done wrong—better yet, to avoid doing wrong in the first place.

The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work.1 John 3:8

"Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!
Matthew 7:9-11

You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. John 15:3

His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?"
"Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus, "but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.” John 9:2,3 (The man’s healing.)