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Post by Admin on Jul 12, 2023 14:44:40 GMT -5
In one study of the concept of a worldview the writers propose that a worldview typically addresses these four questions:
Who am I?
Where am I?
What's wrong?
What is the remedy?
To have a worldview, the writers argue, is to operate with some sense of what the answers are to these questions.
Even when people cannot adequately articulate their answers, they approach life with some grasp of what it means to flourish as a human being and why our actual lives are often so dysfunctional.
And all of this serves to shape the decisions people make in guiding their lives.
How would you describe your worldview at this time?
Is your description based on your view of end times, or something else?
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Post by Admin on Jul 12, 2023 14:49:18 GMT -5
God's basic call was to a mission, to a task...
What was he calling them for, and what was he calling them to?
God was engaged in a redemptive task in the world, and he was calling a people who would give their lives to join Him in His redemptive mission.
Thus God's basic call was to mission, not a call to receive something or to accept something.
Do you agree with this?
They misunderstood why they were called and the nature of their call.
They thought God had called them primarily to bless them, to give them something.
Thus they failed to carry out the purpose of their call;
The New Israel is called for precisely the same purpose as was original Israel.
While belief was involved....the emphasis was on the results, the fruits, the expression of valid belief.
The people involved were not rejected because they did not believe, but they failed to fulfill the purpose for which they were called.
Are we succeeding, or are we also failing at this time?
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Post by martinmarprelate on Jul 13, 2023 10:29:08 GMT -5
In one study of the concept of a worldview the writers propose that a worldview typically addresses these four questions:
Who am I?
Where am I?
What's wrong?
What is the remedy?
To have a worldview, the writers argue, is to operate with some sense of what the answers are to these questions.
Even when people cannot adequately articulate their answers, they approach life with some grasp of what it means to flourish as a human being and why our actual lives are often so dysfunctional.
And all of this serves to shape the decisions people make in guiding their lives.How would you describe your worldview at this time?
Is your description based on your view of end times, or something else? Good questions! I'll stick my head above the parapet! Who am I? I am a child of God by grace through faith. Where am I? I am a citizen of heaven placed by God upon this poor fallen world. What's wrong?(a) With Me. Although I am a new creature in Christ Jesus, and have died to sin (Romans 6:2), I still have a relic of sin remaining, not in me, but in my mortal body (Romans 6:12) and the desires of the flesh war with the Spirit and vice versa, so that I don't live as I would wish (Gal 5:17; Romans 7:21;23). I therefore need to mortify sin in my flesh (Col 3:5-10), confident that sin shall not have dominion over me since I am not under law but under grace (Romans 6:14). That does not mean that I don't need to obey the Commandments (Matthew 5:19) but that the law can no longer condemn me. (b) With the World. Although we are of God, the whole world lies under the evil one (1 John 5:19). What's the Remedy? The Return of Christ is the only complete remedy, but the preaching of the Gospel, which incorporates, I believe, private witnessing and the distribution of God's word, is God's appointed means of saving sinners (eg. Mark 16:15; 1 Cor 1:21). Christians should also seek to live as salt and light in the world, and to do good to others (Matt 5:13-16). My end-times view is 'optimistic Amil.' I believe that Christ may return at any time (Matt 24:44), that the Gospel is to be preached to all nations (Matt 24:14) and that a vast number of sinners will be saved (Rev 7:9-10). |
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Post by Admin on Jul 13, 2023 11:09:42 GMT -5
Hello MM,
Yes you see it clearly. We are called to be saints who serve God in His growing, spreading, Kingdom. In our day just striving to be a faithful member of a local assembly seems to be a challenge. We cannot afford to be at ease in Zion as churches seem to decline and Islam and other cults look to make headway.
Much of my reading the last ten years seems to be on this concept, and struggle. I have posted on this extensively in an effort to get feed back and correct the ship getting it back on course.
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Post by martinmarprelate on Jul 13, 2023 12:11:48 GMT -5
I would urge those who are not preachers to pray for those that are. It is the preaching of the word that brings about growth, especially in these days when people can hear ministry on line.
I have to go out now, but I will post again later. Thank you for your kind words, and for making this forum possible. I do pray that many of those whose hearts God has touched with the desire to see Christ lifted up in our churches will find their way here.
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Post by martinmarprelate on Jul 25, 2023 17:55:02 GMT -5
God's basic call was to a mission, to a task...
What was he calling them for, and what was he calling them to?
God was engaged in a redemptive task in the world, and he was calling a people who would give their lives to join Him in His redemptive mission.
Thus God's basic call was to mission, not a call to receive something or to accept something.
Do you agree with this?
They misunderstood why they were called and the nature of their call.
They thought God had called them primarily to bless them, to give them something.
Thus they failed to carry out the purpose of their call;
The New Israel is called for precisely the same purpose as was original Israel.
While belief was involved....the emphasis was on the results, the fruits, the expression of valid belief.
The people involved were not rejected because they did not believe, but they failed to fulfill the purpose for which they were called.
Are we succeeding, or are we also failing at this time? I don't believe that the view expressed here is correct. The purpose of the Sinaitic (Mosaic) covenant is never said to be the conversion of the nations. It is in the Abrahamic covenant that blessings to all nations are mentioned. The purpose of the Sinaitic covenant was that the Messiah should be born, according to the flesh, of the physical seed of Abraham. For this to happen, it was necessary that Abraham’s descendants should be preserved as a separate entity and kept from merging into the surrounding nations until Christ should come. Therefore the Israelites were given special laws, which they were ordered to transmit, not to the Gentiles, but to their children (eg. Deut 6:6-9). In the new covenant, the situation is different. The Messiah has come, and the word is now to be sent out into the world. 'But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvellous light' (1 Peter 2:9). How are we doing with that proclaiming? Well actually, not too bad. In the past 200 years or so, the Gospel has gone out into all the world (cf. Matt 24:14). While the USA and UK are becoming increasingly backslidden, the number of Christians worldwide is increasing exponentially. In China in 1950, when the missionaries were thrown out of the country, there were thought to be around one million Christians. Around 1990, I remember reading that there were around 20 million. The latest figure that I've seen for Christians in China is 120 million! God is on the move there as He was back in the Roman Empire and nothing will stop Him. In Iran at the time of the Islamic Revolution, there may have been as few as 250 Christians. Now, after 35 years of hardline Islamic rule, there are estimated to be at least a million, maybe many more. IMO the Lord Jesus is the Rider on the white horse in Rev 6:2, and He is conquering and sacking the borders of hell, and nothing will stop Him (Matt 16:18b). He will have a kingdom with subjects of so vast a number that no man can count them (Rev 7:9-10). The task for Christians in the USA and UK is to call our respective nations back to Christ; but even in this we shall succeed to the extent that God has determined, '"Not by might, not by power, but by My Spirit," says the LORD of hosts' (Zech 4:6). |
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Post by Admin on Jul 25, 2023 18:25:51 GMT -5
This book I pulled this from was written about 50 yrs ago, so it might be a bit dated. Progress has been made mostly on what was called the foreign field in missions. I do not think the writer was focused on the difference of the two Covenants but if I recall he referred to Deut 4;
5 Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as the Lord my God commanded me, that ye should do so in the land whither ye go to possess it.
6 Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.
7 For what nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them, as the Lord our God is in all things that we call upon him for?
8 And what nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day?
9 Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life: but teach them thy sons, and thy sons' sons;
He was demonstrating a parallel role or mission. An appeal is also made to the triumphal entry in Mt 21...Jesus was looking for the nation to have produced the fruit mentioned in Isa.5. They failed Mt.21:43, but we will not.
I intend to develop more of what he offered, but have been catching up on several books I am working through.
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