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Thread: A proclamation on Mars Hill

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    A proclamation on Mars Hill

    Acts 17:16 Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him when he saw that the city was given over to idols.
    17 Therefore he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and with the Gentile worshipers, and in the marketplace daily with those who happened to be there.
    18 Then certain Epicurean and Stoic philosophers encountered him. And some said, “What does this babbler want to say?”

    Paul talked about being a Jew to Jews, Greek to Greeks etc. This time he was a philosopher to philosophers. He was still speaking the truth rather than vain babbling of course.

    22 Then Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious;
    23 for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: "TO THE UNKNOWN GOD." Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you:
    24 “God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands.
    25 Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things.

    He proclaims him almighty creator and sustainer but what relation do we have to him per default apart from existing and being sustained by him ?

    27b He is not far from each one of us;
    28 for in Him we live and move and have our being

    How far away from us is he ? Zero inches. He didn't create us then step back to sustain us from a distance of total separation. He is everywhere present but this goes beyond merely existing in parallell with us. We are actually contained within him. Do you see the possibility of conflict there if we are found to be at odds with him ?

    30 Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent,
    31 because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.”

    The Bible declares God to be many things. Love, light, life. By our sins we are devoid of and feel no connection to his love, his light, his life. They only become real to us when he manifests them by his Holy Spirit through the gospel message and then we may connect. The Bible also declares God to be a holy, consuming fire. We don't perceive that in any way either until he manifests it. Jesus baptizes us with the Holy Spirit and fire so our connection to that fire can be as tangible as our connection to his love, light and life.

    At the moment God approaches us through grace, wanting us to connect to him in a positive sense. To depart from our hate, darkness, death and unholy filth and become offspring of him instead, being filled to overflowing with who and what he is, becoming ministers of the same grace. But in the end when that provision has come to an end, there will be judgment.

    Do spiritually dead sinners perceive no connection to the almighty creator and sustainer who is situated zero inches from us all and whom we are all contained inside in the sense that they cannot, per default, perceive that connection ? Nope, he obviously holds back on manifesting his being so that we will stand a chance of connecting to him through the medium of grace instead. What would happen if he quit doing that ? The love, light and life that he is would be manifested. Externally to the sinner and without trying to connect to him. The holy, consuming fire that he is would also be manifested. The sinner might find some way of enduring the love that isn't moving towards reconciliation with him and even the light that he naturally runs away from since his deeds are in the darkness. And the life that he isn't of, being accustomed to being spiritually dead as an extension of his being sinful. But there is no way that he will find any way of enduring the holy, consuming fire that is now manifested. Why is that ? Because it is a consuming fire. Fire has a purifying, edifying effect on articles that are made to exist in its presence like gold, silver, gemstones. It has a destructive effect on articles that are not, like wood and straw.

    What is final judgment described as, in fundamental terms ?

    Rev 21:8 But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.

    The imagery is from the bottom of a volcano where lava heats sulfur (brimstone) and sets it on fire. Brimstone was used as a purifying agent and the imagery works well with the part of God's substance that is the most in conflict with the sinner who is contained within him in terms of his existence, if that substance should manifest fully outside the medium of grace. The consuming fire. The fire that we are baptized with has a purifying effect on us but that is because there is something in us that is of God that can be purified of that which is not of God. If there had not been then baptizing us with fire would merely purify the world of us.

    Does that mean that God's fire will consume the sinner until he ceases to exist ? Nope, the sinner is eternal by nature and doesn't cease to exist. The fire isn't quenched either. He doesn't roam around creation throughout eternity defiling it with his own substance of hate, darkness, death and unholy filth either, he is contained within a lake filled by those things. He is kept separate from a world where the substance of God's being covers and saturates everything like the sea covers the ocean floor. Where the saints enjoy his manifested presence, his love, light, life and holy fire because they are offspring of him and of the same substance themselves. The grace that is in Jesus Christ and him resurrected has resolved the potential for conflict that is in the fact that we are all situated zero inches from a holy, consuming fire of love, light and life whom we are all contained within and whom our sins place us at odds with by nature.

    From a sermon by Maria Woodworth-Etter :

    "If we go out to meet God clothed in white, washed in the blood of the Lamb; if we go out, all making the same sound; if we go out to glorify God, God will honor all the noise.
    It is not excitement. God comes down to acknowledge the praise. They pressed the button, and the power of God came down. That same power will either save or destroy us some day. The house was filled with the power and glory of the Lord."


    Heb 12:25 See that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For if they did not escape who refused Him who spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from Him who speaks from heaven,
    26 whose voice then shook the earth; but now He has promised, saying, “Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven.”
    27 Now this, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain.
    28 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.
    29 For our God is a consuming fire.

    Is there something in you that is born of God, the consuming fire ? Then it cannot be shaken and will remain.
    Last edited by Colonel; 04-09-2017 at 07:24 AM.

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