RAGING FINGERNAILS

 We are witnessing an excercize of unbelievable pain. Let's look at the backstory which normal people would say, "That's insanity."

We're all familiar with the dispicable event but here's a summary: "On October 7th, 2023, the Palestinian Islamist militant group Hamas launched an unprecedented terrorist attack on Israel, killing some 1,200 people (mainly civilians). 240 Israeli citizens and foreigners were taken as hostages and taken into Gaza." The reason: they were Jews. It's on the hostages that we'll focus.

In America and, I suppose, elsewhere, the friends and relatives of the hostages began to post pictures of them in public places and on the grounds of university campuses; photos of men, women, children, and babies, now in the hands of savages who beheaded and burned alive their innocent victims. Again, why? Because they were Jews.

The posted pictures were a lest-we-forget gesture. These 240 hostages are not to be forgotten; they are trying to hang on in a hell on earth. They are somebodys' sons and daughters; comeone's wife;someone's father; someones' mother.

It's inconceivable but it's true; the posting of their pictures ingnited a rage among antisemites. It was a rage from head to toe, infecting even their fingernails. The Jew-haters began to tear down and destroy the posters, tearing them from where they had been afixed.

And this is where their fingernails come into play. Melonie Phillips, a Jew and a British author witnessed people tearing taking down the posters from wooden poles, say like telephone poles by digging their fingernails into the wood in order to tear the the pictures and their messages down. Finger nails embedded into the posts! It's difficul to imagine the pain that would cause, but fueled by the octane of rage, they did it. She and others remarked on the eyes of those with fingernails afixed in the tearing: there was something off and odd about them. They said their looked demonic.

Such hatred against a people who comprise a global population of only15.7 million. Thats 0.2% of the world's population. Their land is the size of New Jersey. Yet, the  fallen world is obsessed with the Jews and with Israel. the UN codemns them with every vote; students in the universitys hound, harass, and assault them rioting along the way.  

This is a supernatual rage from the evil side of the universe; a fury so deep it's in their fingernails.

THE PASTOR AND JOHN 3:16

 I ran across the website of a conservative, Bible-believing church in our area. I came across it because I was searching for something else. The church had a page which instructed the reader on "How to Accept Christ Into Your Life", so I thought I'd ck it out. I did and found "Four Steps" to accept Christ into your life. You and I know that when we read something like that, the article is off in the wrong direction. Here are the 4 steps:

1. Admit your need. (I am a sinner)

2. Be willing to turn from your sins. 

3. Believe that Jesus Christ dies for you on the cross and rose from the grave.

4. Through prayer, invite Jesus Christ to control your life through the Holy Spirit. (Receive him as Lord)

 

We suggest praying the following prayer to accept Christ as your Savior and Lord.

 

"Dear God,

I know I'm an [sic]sinner, and I ask for your forgiveness.

I believe Jesus Christ is Your Son. I believe that He died for my sin and that you raised Him to life again.

I want to trust Him as my Savior and follow Him as Lord, from this day forward. Guide my life and help me to do your will.

I pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen"

If I were to go to the pastor and say, "I'm considering joining your church but before I do, I need to know, do you know and believe Jn. 3:16?" No doubt about it, he would answer with a resounding,"YES!" as he pounded the Bible on his desk. Then I would ask him, "Please tell me, where do you see that I must "be willing to turn from my sins" in Jn. 3:16?

I would continue, "Pray and invite Jesus into my heart?"  Then, politely, I would ask, "Where do you find that I must "pray, and invite Jesus Christ to control my life through the Holy Spirit?" Another question, "Where in any gospel invitation in the book of Acts (or anywhere else) do we find the Apostles telling anyone "to ask God to forgive them to be saved?" Where do we find that the person to be saved has to pray a prayer, even something called "The Sinner's Prayer?"

If he were honest, he would have to say, "I don't see any of them in the verse. I see only one requirement which is, "whosoever believes."

I could reply,  "Then you don't believe John 3:16, do you?"

 

 

HE ACTUALLY SAID THIS?

The philosophical system that is Calvinism can, at times, force the Calviist to say some ludicrous things. 

A case in point is an answer one of the leading Calvinists, R. Sproul, gave to this question: "How can I be be happy in heaven if my mother isn't there but is in Hell?" That's a good question and one we'll answer in our coming study on "Heaven." Sproul's answer floored me.

He said, "When you look down from heaven and see your mother in Hell, you will rejoice!" 

We need to stop here and remind ourselves that oneof the peals of TULIP is "Unconditional Election" which means  "God chose certain individuals for salvation based entirely on His grace, irrespective of their actions or choices. This decision reflects God’s sovereign will, established before the creation of the world."

There it is: God did not chose that person's mother to be one of he elect to be saved and go to heaven. He,  by not choosing her to go to heaven, authomatically chose her to go to hell. 

Why did He chooe her for hell? The Calvinist would have to say, going by their system, that she is in hell to show the glory of God. Keep in mind, that by their system, some babies will wind up in Hell. All this somehow to show the glory of God.

Therefore, Sproul said that when some son ,in heaven, sees his mother or his child in everlasting torment, he will be overjoyed becausse by his mother's being in Hell,she is glorifyig God, He will prasie God thety are there.. 

We say to this, "Really? Is that your answer? Jesus, seeing the rejection of Israel, "burst into tears." (Literal translation.) He did not rejoice.