Re: Who made the rule that death is the punishment for sin?
Posted: Wed Sep 24, 2014 7:42 am
Paul, I just have had great read on Faraday http://silas.psfc.mit.edu/Faraday/
Thing is, we can't see what's in an unbeliever's heart and mind, we can only see the surface. But God INTIMATELY knows both!Maybe there's been more going on in the spiritual realm than we know of
Romans 1 seems to say that what one ALREADY knows, at a minimum, is that God exists, and that rejecting even what He has ALREADY revealed about Himself to an unbeliever is enough for Him to condemn them:
"For the wrath of God lis revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth (it is not GOD who hides the truth from men, but THEY suppress the truth by their own unrighteousness). For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them (So there ARE things that everyone can know about God because HE has shown it to them). For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made (and He's given this evidence ever since the World's creation, and those are powerful evidences He's provided ALL). So they are without excuse (Notice, that a lack of faith in Christ is not even mentioned - as what they ALREADY know and have rejected are enough God has ALREADY revealed to them, to condemn them. Plus, one cannot reject God without also rejecting Jesus). For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they obecame futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things (And by not honoring what God has ALREADY provided ALL people, and by THEIR making the EXCHANGE of His provision of knowledge and of His presence and provision, for idols of their own making - and the very same goes on today: false gods, money, materialism, drugs, the occult, etc, people are constantly exchanging God's truths for such things, for which they are condemned)."
(And thus the consequences:)
"Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to tthe dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator (thus, again, they EXCHANGE what God reveals and offers for the evil things they pursue instead), who is blessed forever! Amen."
"For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions (why people pursue sexual immorality - both heterosexual, homosexual and whatever else). For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error."
"And since THEY did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but egive approval to those who practice them."
IF one wants to honor what God has ALREADY shown them, He will show them more, and will draw, encourage and lead them all the way to salvation. Location is no problem for our omni-present Lord! And communicating with Him, no matter the remote outpost or jungle, is (as the Apostle Paul intones) as close as one's own breath. And let's not forget, that He is the one who put a search for Himself on people's hearts, yet they fill it with so many wrong things and false gods.
Acts 17 26-27: "From one man (Jesus!) He made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and He marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek Him and perhaps reach out for Him and find Him (So He distributed people in time and place so they would SEEK Him, and thus, His foreknowledge of all things allows Him to precisely place people in place, time and history, per His eternal purposes and plans), though he is not far from any one of us." (our own breath!).
Again, we can only see the surface of what people think and know about God. And as THEY have often suppressed and rejected even what He has already shown them, THEY have caused their own blindness as to what they CAN know but that they SEEM to not have ever known.
