Philip wrote:Hana: John 15:18 ESV
“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.
No doubt that if we are expecting a court, some group of men and women, certain laws, etc., to protect us from those that despise our God and His teachings, then we don't understand what Scripture taught us to expect. But God DOES, at times, provide real-world abilities to counteract those intent upon hurting His people - oasises from those with evil intent. In America, we've long been blessed with having a say-so in policy and leaders. But as a whole, as Christians have failed to utilize what has been so gracefully and mercifully given, as we not spoken with one loud and collective voice, we can see the protective mechanisms we've been provided have been largely ignored. And so now a relatively and initially small but extremely aggressive and vocal minority has convinced and infected vast numbers of people to ignore God's teachings - and not just on this issue of gay marriage. Into the void of where Christians have been apathetic, has stepped great evil. Some churches have simply asserted that Scripture doesn't teach against homosexual actions and unions. But just imagine if
the Church and Christians in America truly and collectively and prayerfully stood up to the tyranny of the secularists - in LOVE, and not just in rhetoric - it would change EVERYTHING.
If the Christians in America and around the World collectively and prayerfully stood up to the tyranny of secularists in love and not just rhetoric then the political leaders would change their tune in a real hurry because they would have to deal with it. We could shake the political foundations of the planet.
Unfortunately, the churches have wimped out. Lucifer would like nothing more than Christians around the world to wimp out and not be controversial against his conspiracy. And of course his conspiracy is that Jesus Christ is not God, is not the only Son of God and that His Word does not matter. Lucifer is very good at what he does. He has offered the human race trappings for their own vanity and they have eaten them, hook line and sinker without considering the consequences.
The book of Galatians in chapter five has some excellent wisdom in how to deal with the present situation.
Gal 5:1 Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.
Just reading through comments on the news sites over the last few years, there seems to be a consensus among non-believers that resorting back to Christianity is an example of society regressing and failing to evolve. But they fail to understand because they have not studied history, that Christianity supplanted a Pagan culture that was deeply rooted in the lifestyles of the peoples of the past and that stunted those cultures from growing and it seems to me the real regression is the movement of peoples back to the very Pagan culture that was displaced so long ago. And that can only mean disaster considering what God did to Israel long ago. This commentary from judges mirrors the people of today.
Judges 2:10 And also all that generation died:
and there arose another generation after them, which knew not the Lord, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel.
Judges 2:11 And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and served Baalim:
Judges 2:12 And they forsook the Lord God of their fathers, which brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, of the gods of the people that were round about them, and bowed themselves unto them, and provoked the Lord to anger.
Judges 2:13 And they forsook the Lord, and served Baal and Ashtaroth.
Judges 2:14
And the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel, and he delivered them into the hands of spoilers that spoiled them, and he sold them into the hands of their enemies round about, so that they could not any longer stand before their enemies.
It says something very similar in 2Kings 17.
2 Kings 17:7 For so it was,
that the children of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God, which had brought them up out of the land of Egypt, from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other gods,
2 Kings 17:14
Notwithstanding they would not hear, but hardened their necks, like to the neck of their fathers, that did not believe in the Lord their God.
And God removed Israel from his presence.
I find it interesting that Christ sent the apostle Paul into the most hedonistic, sexually depraved city of the ancient world: the city of Corinth in Greece, where rape, bestiality, polygamy, polyamory, bigamy, homosexuality and child slavery were the norm. Paul preached the Gospel there. And many believed. I find it very interesting what Paul says:
1 Cor 6:11
And such were some of you: but you are washed, but you are sanctified, but you are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.
Those Corinthians which heard the Gospel and converted were guilty of all those things Paul describes. And yet Paul describes them as that was the way they WERE. When they converted, they became new creatures; true children of God, under no condemnation because they repented and were forgiven. Again as it says in Galatians:
Gal 5:16 This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.
Gal 5:17 For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that you cannot do the things that you would.
Gal 5:24 And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.
Rick mentioned those who do not enter the kingdom of God and quoted from 1 Cor 6. Paul extends that again in Galatians:
Gal 5:19 When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: adultery, fornication, lustful pleasures,
Gal 5:20 idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division,
Gal 5:21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before,
that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.
I will explain what I believe the Kingdom of God to be for those who are reading this and may not know yourselves.
The word "Kingdom" in its simplest form means the king and his dominion. The English word Kingdom, from the Greek "Basileia", denotes sovereignty which requires the actual presence of a sovereign, or king. There can be no kingdom without a monarch. We all know of countries which were once "kingdoms" but are now "republics", for the simple but sufficient reason that they presently have no king or queen but are governed by the public, which is sovereign.
The word "Kingdom", has regard to sovereignty rather than territory, and to the sphere of its exercise rather than to its extent. Using the word "kingdom" in this sense and in that which is conveyed in its English termination "dom", which is short for dominion, the expression "the Kingdom of Heaven", occurs only in Matthew's Gospel, where it is found thirty-two times. The "kingdom of God" is mentioned only five times in Matthew.
The word "Heaven" in the New Testament is frequently substituted with the word "God" by using the figure of speech called a Metonymy. A Metonymy is when one name or noun is used instead of another, to which it stands in a certain relation, in this case(relating to the subject), which is God Himself.
Most Biblical scholars agree that in all the passages where the respective expressions "kingdom of Heaven" and "kingdom of God" occur, identical words were spoken by the Lord. But when it came to writing them into the Greek language, Matthew was divinely guided to retain the figure of speech literally ("kingdom of heaven"), so as to be in keeping with the special character, design and scope of his Gospel. In the other Gospels and in the Epistles, the figure was translated as being what it also meant, "the Kingdom of God".
So while they are the same in a general sense, diligently comparing and correlating all the verses where the phrases "kingdom of Heaven" and "kingdom of God" occur, the two expressions are to be distinguished in their meaning and in their interpretation as follows:
The Kingdom (or Sovereignty) of HEAVEN
Has Christ as its King.
It is from Heaven and under the Heaven upon the Earth.
It is limited in its scope.
It is political in its sphere.
It is Jewish and exclusive in its character.
It is national in its aspect.
It is subject of Old Testament prophecy.
It is dispensational in its duration.
The Kingdom (or Sovereignty) of GOD
Has God the Father as its King.
It is in Heaven, over the Earth.
It is unlimited in its scope.
It is moral and spiritual in its sphere.
It is inclusive in its character.
It is universal in its aspect.
It is the subject of New Testament revelation.
It will be eternal in its duration.
So if the Kingdom of God being an inclusive kingdom that is both moral and spiritual, than those who are not moral and spiritual cannot enter it. And it lists all those as the Bible says in 1Cor 6 and Gal 5 who are not moral or spiritual.
I think it is a wonderful concept that Phillip brought up but I am inclined to think that in our present day, the churches will continue to wimp out and I am inclined to agree with what Abel said previously, that what we are seeing is prophecy in motion; the great Apostacy or the great movement away from the Christian faith that is outlined in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, predicted by Christ in Matthew 24.
2Tim 3:13 But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.
The present day church will probably continue to suffer persecution and may even be driven underground as it was during the Diocletianic Persecutions:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diocletianic_Persecution
However, as Christ says, He is returning to bring fire on the Earth. It is his wish that those who truly believe in Him and his entire message, will kindle those fires.
Luke 12:49 I am come to bring fire on the earth; and how I wish, if it be already kindled?