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Elisha is by himself, and 42 young men are coming up from behind him and aggressively mocking him. Put yourself in that situation - that can be pretty threatening. Note that Elisha did not resort to human reaction. He didn't run. He didn't argue or debate with them. He didn't let his ego and pride take over. He didn't let fear take over.
He put the situation in God's hands and was not deterred in fulfilling the Lord's will in going to the next town. That's the lesson for me.
The Lord's reaction is what it is. We don't know what was in the heart of the young men to do. They may have wanted to hurt or kill Elisha. The Lord knew their intent.
Proverbs 1:7 - The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge;
Obviously, some of the people above have no fear of the Lord and in fact judge His actions - as if they have any say over what He does. The Lord, at the snap of a finger, can send bears to maul someone. You should at least have respect or fear for the sheer power of that ability.
What you guys don't get is that the Lord is the center of everything. Everything revolves around Him. It ain't about us. The Lord is not obligated to cater to what we want, or how we feel, or what we think is right, or how we think He should behave. He made us. He can do what He wants with us.
When in reality what I judge is the PEOPLE who wrote this trash-- as GOD would never have accommodated such a "curses" and the writers are merely trying to put the FEAR OF GOD into the people..
When His disciples James and John saw this, they said, "Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?" But He turned and rebuked them, and said, "You do not know what kind of spirit you are of; for the Son of Man did not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them."
Reducing the power of love to the love of power, does not serve as an example of holiness.
Perfect summation of how some Christian teachings reduce God to a tyrant.
Another source of conflict is when people can't understand how we can kill with no malice towards the criminal, we may even love the criminal. But that the love for the next innocent victim takes president. On many levels this is true and it can be seen in the lesson of the cross. And yes, it is an unsettling line of thought for us all. As it should be.
Nobody asked the Lord to kill anybody. The Lord did it on His own volition by sending the bears.
The Lord is working through a dwindling number of people in this area of the forum. And He is showing you who He is. But most of you continue to deny His holiness... and deny His power... for some god that you have molded in your own minds that you can control.
The Philistines in the Bible actually constructed their idols. Today, people just dream their idols up in their own minds.
When His disciples James and John saw this, they said, "Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?" But He turned and rebuked them, and said, "You do not know what kind of spirit you are of; for the Son of Man did not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them."
Reducing the power of love to the love of power, does not serve as an example of holiness.
The concise and cogent mind of Jerwade exposes the central corruption of Christ's Gospel of love!!
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Originally Posted by Pleroo
Perfect summation of how some Christian teachings reduce God to a tyrant.
Amen, Pleroo. Jerwade is a master at it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by zthatzmanz28
When in reality what I judge is the PEOPLE who wrote this trash-- as GOD would never have accommodated such a "curses" and the writers are merely trying to put the FEAR OF GOD into the people..
This is just one of the many agendas the "lying scribes" had, Z. The "hate" verses have always conjured up a picture in my mind of some old embittered Monk who hated his family and life . . . self-justifying it by transliteration. There is no room for hate in our Spirits. It corrupts and harms US. We are to foster agape love . . . that is why Christ admonished us to love even our enemies. Anyone who truly understands agape love would never accept those verses that are outright contradictions.
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Perfect summation of how some Christian teachings reduce God to a tyrant.
