Tag: Jesus

Theology

2 Peter 2:1-3 False Prophets and Teachers then and now.

Bob SnyderLeave a comment

1But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves.2Many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned;3and in their greed they will exploit you with false words; their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep. 2 Peter 2:1-3 NASB

Here Peter is warning that there will men who deceive people into believing they are speaking the words of God to them, and that these men will be among them. (The believers) These false prophets will teach false doctrines that are destructive in intent towards the church and towards the personage of Christ. The Gnostics were the main group that was being warned against here. They taught that all flesh material things are evil and a hindrance to the spiritual things which are good. They also taught that Christ was either a purely spiritual being who only appeared to have a body or that the body he had was just a shell to be shed at the crucifixion. Gnostic teachers would come to town and claim to be prophets. They would stay in a home and teach for the time they stayed. Usually they would find the home of a woman whose husband was away or a widow’s home. They would seduce them with lies about some deeper knowledge that could only be gained by them through sex or money. The Gnostics had no problem teaching that Christ was God, but denied His human nature. On the other had we had the Judaizers who were teaching to keep obeying the laws for righteousness instead of teaching the appropriate doctrine of grace through faith, in Christ’s work and righteousness.

Because of these false teachers, good teachers and the truth would get a bad reputation. People then didn’t know the difference just like many people now. We always hear about some Christian doing something or teaching something that is bad. When this happens people tend to lump everything with the words, “Jesus” or “Church” together, and throw the baby out with the bathwater. So the way of truth was maligned. These same teachers would stay in the household where they were guests, eat the food, do no work, and lead people down the wrong path towards mysticism or legalism much like what happens today except ours are on television, going door to door, or selling books marketed to all of the undiscerning.

The warning was needed then and it is needed now. We must be vigilant and be on the alert for false teachers and lying men (and women) who say they are speaking the words God gave them. There is some comfort in verse 3. “…Their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep…” We know that our God is true and all knowing. Nothing escapes His notice or knowledge. All of the deeds of these abusers are weighed against them and they shall surely be punished for their crimes. God is just and will punish the wicked and restore the victims. We can trust Him.

Church · Theology

Saudi Arabia: MERS cases reach more than 400, more than 100 dead

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Saudi Arabia: MERS cases reach more than 400, more than 100 dead

This was one of the headlines from one of the articles on Reuters site for today 05/05/14. A particularly nasty virus from Saudi Arabia is killing one out of four people that get it. When some tragedy strikes Islamic countries and people some of us respond with joy. How is that Biblical? How is that at all different from the world? It isn’t. God says, “You have heard that it was said, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR and hate your enemy.’ “But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. “For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? “If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? “Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matthew 5:43-48)

As Christians we might err and say among ourselves, “See, I knew that God would punish those Muslims for their evil ways!” I know I have heard people speak this way, but how are they behaving any differently than the Muslims they hate? It seems to me that we shouldn’t hate anyone. We can hate what they do, we can hate who their master is, and we can hate their satanic doctrines, but we mustn’t hate them. God said in His word, “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. Be of the same mind toward one another; do not be haughty in mind, but associate with the lowly. Do not be wise in your own estimation. Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all men. If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men. Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, “VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY,” says the Lord. “BUT IF YOUR ENEMY IS HUNGRY, FEED HIM, AND IF HE IS THIRSTY, GIVE HIM A DRINK; FOR IN SO DOING YOU WILL HEAP BURNING COALS ON HIS HEAD.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” (Romans 12:14-21)

Hate proves we are not in the will of God and our hearts are hardened. We must consider ourselves the servants of all. We need to esteem ourselves as lower than others. Our sins put Christ on the cross. We know Jesus, they don’t. We don’t have any excuse for behaving like the world. We can’t be pragmatic like the Muslims of the communists. We operate on faith. We don’t solely rely on what we can see and prove. We have the word of God, and we must apply it to our lives. Faith is in stark contrast to pragmatism. It operates in direct conflict. We do things that don’t make sense to them. We need to be obedient to God. This is worship, to truly apply His word to our lives. So let us pray for them to be converted by God. Let them become our brothers and sisters in Christ. This world is suffering and the lost are a multitude of peoples. What hope have they, Except for the faithful to share the gospel and for Christ to save them.

Apologetics · Church · Theology

God is eternal and unchanging.

Bob Snyder5 Comments

Biblical ignorance is one of the biggest obstacles for the evangelist to overcome. There are many false doctrines and misconceptions being propagated in society today. We have to answer so many false claims while practicing apologetics. Hopefully we can fix one of those problems today with this article.

God is eternal and unchanging. God has always been, and He has always been just as He is. He has never not been, or been in any different state.   He does not change. The nature of being uncaused and eternal is what we call, “the aseity of God.” The nature of not changing is what we call, “the immutability of God.” Both of these qualities are important when understanding God’s eternality and many of His other attributes. For today we are going to focus on His eternality, aseity, and immutability.

How do we answer, “If God is unchanging, didn’t He change when He turned into Jesus?” This demonstrates a woeful ignorance of theology. Children in the Puritan era might have asked this, but certainly not adults. It is true that if God’s nature changed during the incarnation we would have a problem. An eternal Creator that was not immutable could not be counted on to always be just, or good. So the fact that God is immutable is a blessing for us. God did not turn into Jesus at the incarnation. God was always as He is, Triune. He is one being in three persons. At the advent of Christ, the second person of the Holy Trinity, the eternal Son, joined Himself to human nature without mixing, or mingling His deity with His humanity. This is what we call the hypostatic union. It means that the incarnate God is 100% God and 100% man, joined together perfectly in accord with the will of God. The incarnation did not change God. This misinformed idea reveals how little we are trained in theology and Biblical truths.

The Mormons say that God was once a man, who was created by a father and mother god through natural means, who themselves were once mere humans, who were created by a father and mother, and on and on perpetually. This is how they understand their god to be eternal. How does our God differ? Our God is explained by His word. We know that He created everything. We know He didn’t just move matter around to form some things on this planet. If He created everything, and is the source of all things, then He would have no pre-existence as a man. He would not have been created by other gods, who were once human. He would be eternal all in and of Himself. I would ask the Mormons, “Who was the first god who made the first man, who later would become a god? Why wouldn’t you worship this first god who supposedly made the first man? Why would you worship a being who is not the creator of everything?” The God of the Bible is truly a transcendent being. He is above, and beyond any imaginings a person would have in conceiving a false god. That is why when you encounter a false religion it is easy to spot problems. Of course this is only true if you are a person who has been saved, and knows the true God. Once you know Him you can spot a fake. How could anyone worship such limited beings as the ones they imagine? It should blow us away when we hear some of these descriptions.

The God of the Bible created everything there is without diminishing Himself. He created it out of nothing. There was nothing there for Him to build things out of versus the god of Mormonism who just reformed matter and was the great great great great great great great great grandson of some other little god.   The winner is, the God of the Bible. This is one of the many reason that Mormons are not Christians. They might claim to be, but if they believe the doctrines of their cult, then they are not Christian. We obviously worship a different God than they do. Their god is a finite creature, created by others.

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Ours is NOT! We need to be happy about this, and correct them when they publicly claim to worship the same God. They cause confusion, and draw support when we don’t explain the differences.   A god who was created is not a god at all. Only a God who is transcends creation, who made everything without diminishing himself, who made everything from nothing makes sense.

What does it mean to be, “eternal?” Have you ever thought about this? Most of us have thought about what it would be like to live forever, but all we can really conceive of is living a very long time. We can’t imagine what it would be like to have no beginning or end. It is something that only God can understand fully.  Another idea about eternality, is that it is unseen.  We are in a temporal creation.  What we can see is limited by our nature.  God is being eternal.  We might ask, “Is it possible for any other being to be eternal outside of God?” The Bible says we will live forever with God if we are saved, but that isn’t being eternal. That is just being resurrected to everlasting life. We had a beginning. God created us, and He keeps us alive.  We were caused to exist, and He is the one who upholds our existence.  Even after we have left our temporal existence behind, and step into eternity, it will be because we have been made to do so by God.

It doesn’t it make sense to have another eternal being outside of God. If there was then God would not be alone and unique in His deity. There would be other Gods with separate wills, and equal power. We know that God says in His word that He is the only one, and that He is not a liar.

What about the gods of other faiths, are they eternal? This is simple, No.  They have never been.  They can’t be. For something to be eternal it would have to have always been, is being, and always will be.

If they are false, because they are not eternal, or actual, then what is going to happen to their worshipers, and why? If they never repent, and put their faith in Christ, then they are under the condemnation of their sin. They will die, and be found guilty of their sins. They will be in Hell suffering the torment of God’s wrath being poured out on them, not because they believed different, or because they didn’t grow up here, but because they are guilty sinners just like us.

How can they be saved? We must preach the gospel of Christ to them. They must repent of their sins, and trust in the work of Christ on the cross solely.  When they find out that they are sinners, their hearts must be convicted of this. They must be humbled, and become penitent. Then they must confess their sinfulness to God, and ask Him to forgive them. They must submit to God as their new master. They need to accept that they cannot earn favor with God. They need to rely, and fully trust in the finished, perfect,  atoning, work of Christ on the cross.

Church · marriage · Theology

Marriage, as a Typological Representation of Christ and the Church.

Bob SnyderLeave a comment

I-DO-Marriage-Series

In today’s culture, many people are embracing the doctrine of egalitarianism, as it is applied in theology. They go so far as to ignore what scripture says. For them, it is more important to conform scripture to the corrupted and sinful judgments of humans, then to be sanctified in obedience, and humility to the standard of scripture.

Egalitarianism, as it is applied to human equality is noble. In so much as it is not improperly applied. It is true that God is no respecter of persons. In His perfect and holy sight we are all justly damnable. Every man, woman, child, from every race, religion, and creed, are all sinners. In Christ we love and treat all with humility. We should consider ourselves as the worst sinners, while considering others better than ourselves. So does this notion of considering others as better than ourselves fit with egalitarianism? A noble idea is not noble at all when seen in the light of true humility and mercy. Christ left majesty and dwelt among His creations in the flesh. He washed the lowly, sinner’s feet, bore our scorn, made propitiation for the expiation of our sins, by enduring the wrath of God until He declared, “It is finished.” Philippians 2:6-11(NASB)

who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

In the true faith we are all equally adopted and justified by Christ, but we mustn’t err by taking egalitarianism so far as it offends the word of God. “How far is that?” you may ask. Scripture, I believe is very clear. It is so clear, in fact that I am not going to list every single verse that refutes it. A plain reading of the scriptures, from beginning to end is an overwhelming avalanche of proof, that God has ordained the complimentary roles of male and female.

Marriage, as a typological representation of Christ and the Church is diminished by egalitarianism. The deeper theologies are robbed of their import by such societal concessions. If we understand that man, through sin, is separated from God and that through Christ he is rejoined, it is a marvelous thing. We see this typological example in marriage. Woman was separated from man. She went out of his flesh. In marriage the woman is joined again by the power of God to her husband. They are beautifully unified again part of the same body. Christ is our head and over us he rules. We the Church are His body, and we submit to His loving rule over us, His bride.  Marriage portrays such a beautiful thing. The gospel of Christ is portrayed in each marriage ceremony. When we see a married couple we should be reminded of the work that Christ did on the cross to justify us with God. When we look upon our beloved wife we should see someone who we would lay down our lives for. When our dear wives look upon us they should see someone who is willing to sacrifice all for them. We all should be mortified at the perversion of marriage in the world. It has been perverted by brazen things like polygamy, and same sex marriage, but even the subtlety of egalitarianism should offend us. Instead we embrace all of these. Ashamed of nothing, proud, and arrogant, we tell God how we will understand Him. We tell God how we will do things, and never truly repent with a bent knee and penitent heart.

Marriage is truly ordained by God. It is a union that should preach the gospel to us as believers and be a witness to the world. Let us pray for God to perform His will in our lives against our fleshly desires. Let us affirm His word and be conformed to His sovereign will in all things.

Apologetics · Church · Theology · Uncategorized

If Politics And Government Are Not The Answer, What Is? (Part Two)

Bob SnyderLeave a comment

So to continue from the last article, I concluded that politics and government were not the answer to our problems as a nation. Some of the things that led me to conclude that were the scenarios I ran, presupposing that I would be in government. I thought, what could I do when the nameless representatives of some super-powerful, world-wide consortium, comes to me and says, “Vote this way, or your family will die in a house fire, or we will release these doctored pictures of you to the press, showing you with a prostitute in a hotel room with five pounds of cocaine, or you have a lot of money in your account right now, do what we say or people will find out, and ask questions.” These people are so powerful they answer to nobody. They are above the law. They have people killed, and direct the courses of the nations. They don’t do it for God. They do it for their real masters. I believe these are the powers and principalities of the Bible. Men who are so powerfully, influential who receive their marching orders from the devil, and his legions. As the Bible says, these men are not my enemies, they are controlled by them. If you kill these people, more people will fill their roles. It is pointless. I grew up in an America that no longer exists. We have to wake up to the real problem, it is sin. Mankind is totally depraved, and the only hope for us is Christ. We wonder to ourselves, why anyone would want socialism, acceptance of gay marriage, legalized gambling, legalized drugs, socialized medicine, minimum wages, labor unions, big government, no prayer in school, over-sexualized kids, gratuitous sex and violence on television, blasphemy of God and the Bible in the media, and on and on and on it goes. Total depravity, kidos! Our sinful natures drive us to all kinds of evil. What should we do? Preach the gospel to everyone we meet. Think about it, what would be more beautiful than a country full of devoted Christians who love Christ above all else? God says in His word that if we love Him we will obey His commands. If we all preached the gospel and made disciples of all men, if we obeyed this command, “…’YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND…” or this one, “…YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF…” or if we prayed for our enemies, What if we stayed married and worked it out, or Fathers were more than a paycheck and fix-it-man, or Mothers were more than a cook and shuttle service, what if we took responsibility for ourselves and families instead of insisting on some governmental fix? Think about how it would look compared to the secular Europe or the islamic middle east. Even if the world-wide government continues to work it’s evil will, we still have to focus on Christ and His goodness. We might not be able to ever change the course of the nation, but we are all responsible for our own sins and will be judged. We will be found in Christ or in the world. Personally, I like the famous hymn from Rhea F. Miller,

“I’d rather have Jesus than silver or gold;
I’d rather be His than have riches untold;
I’d rather have Jesus than houses or lands;
I’d rather be led by His nail-pierced hand

Refrain:
Than to be the king of a vast domain
And be held in sin’s dread sway;
I’d rather have Jesus than anything
This world affords today.

I’d rather have Jesus than men’s applause;
I’d rather be faithful to His dear cause;
I’d rather have Jesus than worldwide fame;
I’d rather be true to His holy name
He’s fairer than lilies of rarest bloom;
He’s sweeter than honey from out the comb;
He’s all that my hungering spirit needs;
I’d rather have Jesus and let Him lead “

So while we can, we need to repent and put our faith in Christ, the true hope of man.

Uncategorized

If Politics And Government Are Not The Answer, What Is? (Part One)

Bob SnyderLeave a comment

imagesCA80MT8K

For many years, I was a dyed-in-the-wool, hard-core, conservative, Republican. I was so Right-wing, I made Rush look like a moderate. You name the stance, and I was firmly and extremely on the right. I couldn’t watch the news unless it was from Fox. It got so bad I couldn’t even watch Fox anymore. Everything made me frustrated or mad. I vowed to go into politics when I retired from my career in Corrections. I figured that the only way for things to get better was if I got into the game and made some allies. I figured if there is a secret organization behind the scenes pulling the strings, I would make my own cabal to fight them.
For years I considered, “what if” scenarios. I tried to account for variables that could occur. I ran scenario after scenario by my cohorts. It was like the scene from the movie, “War Games” where Matthew Broderick tricks the W.O.P.R. computer into stopping the nuclear attack by playing tic-tac-toe. woprIt came to the conclusion that what it was doing was futile. That’s exactly where I found myself. I realized what I was doing was futile.

Theology

The theology of prayer, and an omnipotent, sovereign God.

Bob Snyder1 Comment

We tend to think of prayer as having an effect on God and His decision making process. It is sort of like petitioning a parent for something desired. If God is sovereign and omniscient, how can we change His mind on anything? He already knows what we are going to pray about before the situation even occurred, before we realized we were going to pray, before we were born, before the Earth was made He knew what we would be praying for and had already determined whether or not He would answer the prayer with a yes, no, or wait. Since this is true, we might ask, “Why should I even pray?” Simply put, we should pray because we are told to be in prayer without ceasing. So the short answer is that we do it to be obedient to God.

congregational-prayer

We are going to look at some deeper reasons to pray. Just like a child who understands to obey out of knowledge of punishment matures into obedience out of love and respect so too should mature Christians obey. We move on to deeper understandings. I think that prayer is a blessing, grace, and it is sanctifying. We are blessed because of the work of Christ He made it possible for us to pray directly to God with Him as our intercessor instead of a human priest in a temple. Christ hears us because the Holy Spirit has made our prayers acceptable to God. It is a grace, because in prayer we sense the relationship with God and feel closer to Him. It is something He has given us to involve us in the carrying out of His will. It is sanctifying because as we are conformed to His word and will we pray for the things that our new natures desire. This also ties into the grace of prayer. Through prayer we express the desires of the new person. We show and see our new love. We can start to understand how God is using us in His sovereignty to accomplish His will when we pray. It is a sweet moment to come to God in prayer for any reason when we know we are being obedient to Him in our prayers. Our obedience is worship.

We are free to think our thoughts, feel our feelings, and do our deeds, but only in the will of the Creator in as much as He has ordained. We could go our entire lives without ever being enlightened to this reality. Many people do go on feeling, thinking, and doing without ever knowing the reasons behind it. Their lives remain a mystery to them. It is like a big uncertain, unfolding story where they are the unqualified masters of their own destinies. We could go on believing we are the masters of our own destinies. Matter of fact, Hollywood loves to promote this ideology. (A very good reason to be suspicious) A cast die does not land, a bird doesn’t fall dead from the sky, and man doesn’t direct his steps, God has determined all things. This doesn’t diminish our experiences or dull our feelings. If anything it should give us great peace as we go on about our days. “…And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose…” The two ideas do not conflict. They are not mutually exclusive. Just because we might not understand exactly how this works doesn’t mean that it doesn’t. So I encourage you to go on praying out of obedience and love towards God. After all it is for our good to do what He has willed.

Apologetics · Church · Theology

I’m a mormon now! Yep, just call me LDS.

Bob SnyderLeave a comment

     I’ve decided to be a mormon now. I am LDS. I don’t believe Joseph Smith was a prophet. I don’t believe the book of mormon. I don’t believe that I need to be baptized into the mormon cult. I don’t believe that God was once just a man.  I don’t believe that Jesus and satan are brothers.  I believe in the Triune God of the Bible. I believe in His word, the Bible, as being infallible and inerrant.  I believe that the 2nd person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ, is God incarnate, and that He lived a perfectly sinless life, obeying all the laws to earn righteousness.  I believe He obeyed the will of the 1st person of the Trinity, God the Father, and went up on a cross to bear the sins of all who would be saved.  Their debt was imputed to Him, and His righteousness was imputed to them, so that they could be justified in the sight of God, thus glorifying God through the salvation of sinners.  I believe that God, being just, will pour out His wrath on those who have not been granted repenctance and faith.  He will be glorified in the damnation of sinners, by demonstrating His justice.

     So as you can see, I’m not really mormon.  I talked with a mormon man yesterday.  He insisted he was a Christian.  I asked him, “Are you a Baptist?”  He said, “No, I’m a mormon.”  I said, “Then you are NOT A CHRISTIAN!!!” 
nochristian
He looked very perplexed.  He didn’t understand why I was so offended.  I think he believed he was the one who should be offended.  I explained to him, “If you are a Christian then I am LDS.”  Then I told him the things that I mentioned previously in the first paragraph of this article.  To which he uttered a firm, “You can’t be a mormon if you don’t get baptized into the church!”  I then said, “Exaclty my point.  Thank you.  So then, ipso facto you are not a Christian.”  I was going to explain that if there are in fact, doctrines that make one mormon or not, then there are also doctrines that must be affirmed by a believer to verify that they are Christian, but alas the lad stormed off in a huff.

     So my mormon friends, I emplore you, please stop telling your people to declare, “I’m a Christian!”  When in fact they are not.  If you are so pleased with being LDS, just declare that you are LDS, but don’t insult, and offend me by blaspheming the one true God, whom I, and all true Christians serve.  We are not fooled, and neither is God.  Truly, we find it quite disturbing that you would consider them to be compatible, and obviously, so do you when confronted with the doctrinal differences.

Theology

Grace is not an item to be doled out

Bob SnyderLeave a comment

Grace is not an item to be doled out, and issued to sinners like a communion wafer. Grace does not come down a procession of human authority. A man does not receive it, to then pass it on in some diminished way to those under his authority. So that they, then might allow others to partake of the ever diminishing portion. No! Grace is a state of existence, inside the unmerited favor of Christ our Lord. He, is our grace. In Him we abide and His grace is efficacious. He is our propitiation, amen.

Uncategorized

The Noetic Effects of Sin, and How it Affects Our Reasoning.

Bob Snyder2 Comments

      I know it sounds complex, but trust me it isn’t… or perhaps it is? The word, “noetics” means; the science of the intellect or of pure thought; reasoning. So what we are talking about here today is how our ability to reason has been corrupted by sin. See, I told you it wasn’t that complex, but wait, there’s more! When we start getting into the concept I think we will all be amazed at how affecting this problem is.

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      Adam and Eve were made with good minds. They functioned free of sin. Well, then came the fall. They sinned, and God punished them, and their progeny. (us) Part of what happened is that we gained the knowledge of good and evil. We also gained the corruption of our ability to reason. We became spiritually dead and enslaved to sin. God says in His word;

9What then? Are we better than they? Not at all; for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin;

10as it is written, “THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE;

11THERE IS NONE WHO UNDERSTANDS, THERE IS NONE WHO SEEKS FOR GOD;

12ALL HAVE TURNED ASIDE, TOGETHER THEY HAVEBECOME USELESS; THERE IS NONE WHO DOES GOOD, THERE IS NOT EVEN ONE.”

13“THEIR THROAT IS AN OPEN GRAVE, WITH THEIR TONGUES THEY KEEP DECEIVING,” “THE POISON OF ASPS IS UNDER THEIR LIPS”;

14“WHOSE MOUTH IS FULL OF CURSING ANDBITTERNESS”;

15“THEIR FEET ARE SWIFT TO SHED BLOOD,

16DESTRUCTION AND MISERY ARE IN THEIR PATHS,

17AND THE PATH OF PEACE THEY HAVE NOT KNOWN.”

18“THERE IS NO FEAR OF GOD BEFORE THEIR EYES.”

19Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God;20because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.

      So God says there are none who understand or seek God. Think about this, if our reasoning wasn’t corrupted we would objectively reason through problems without pride or anger affecting those conclusions. Have you ever been so angry you couldn’t think clearly and made a bad decision you regretted later? Well that wouldn’t happen if we weren’t sinners. Imagine a mind operating free from sinful influence. Do you know who has a mind like that? I’ll give you a hint, the answer is what every kid in Sunday School says when they don’t know the answer… If you said, “Jesus” you are correct. So if you are not God, then you have the problem of sin affecting the way you perceive, process, understand, and apply everything that comes into your head. That’s right kids; we are all under the curse of original sin.

      Here is another example, have you ever been so enamored with a person that they could do no wrong according to you? Most of us could say yes to that. The problem is that they are just as much a sinner as everyone else. They aren’t the person you perceived them to be. The mind was not able to properly understand and judge the information available because of sins affect on reason.

      Our perceptions are affected by sin. We see what we want to see. We don’t see what is actual. Our reasoning of what we see is affected to. We run everything through a filter that is changing what goes in so that what comes out is not actual. When we are processing the unreal perceptions through a conduit that affects those perceptions we come up with flawed conclusions. These flawed conclusions are then applied to our situations with varying results, none of which are founded on actuality.

      We are so deeply corrupted by sin that we would never be able to repent and have faith in the God of the Bible without His direct intervention in our lives. So think about how you think and if you think the way you thought you thought or if you think the way sin makes you think if you think of sin as a thing that can affect the thinking of thoughts you think. smiley