#christianity

Originally published on Jul 26, 2019, at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQAz850uiPo by Brian Holdsworth

As I was being introduced to what Catholicism taught and expected of its adherents, I realized that there was a range of behaviours we call sins that I was going to have to divest myself of if I wanted to make a go of this thing.

And that pattern would bring me to the point of asking an inevitable question, often. If sins are wrong and God made us and the universe according to a certain intelligibility whereby his mind and intention is revealed to us through nature, why did he make some sins feel so good?

In order to answer that question it might be helpful to look at a micro use case that so exaggerates the qualities of what we’re talking about here, that it might make it easier to understand.
From what I’m told, if your greatest ambition in life is hedonistic pleasure, then crystal meth might have some appeal for you.
According to some page I found on the internet, this is what it’s like to consume meth.

The first effect is the “Rush” in which the user’s heartbeat, metabolism, and blood pressure take off surging the drug and the effects throughout your body. I’m not sure how accurate this is, but I’ve been told that meth raises your dopamine levels, which is a pleasure chemical in your brain, to levels as high as 7 times what you experience with sex.

Next, the high kicks in and this is where you experience an unrivaled euphoria that convinces you that you are the most important person in the world.

Next, you experience the binge in which you become so obsessed with the high you’re experiencing that you start to do whatever you can to keep it going, usually translating into taking more meth. This can last as long as 3 to 15 days. With each boost of the drug, the user experiences another rush that lessons each time until there is no more rush or high.

Then the user experiences tweaking when it is impossible to continue to feel the high and the catastrophic effects on the brain become pronounced. The user starts to experience horrible feelings and craving that can’t be satisfied and at this point, they’re in a completely psychotic state trapped in their own nightmare of hallucinations and psychosis.

And maybe you’ve been in a situation, where you’ve done something you believed to be a sin and asked yourself or God, if this is so bad, why does it feel so good.

I think there are a couple considerations that can bring some insight to this question. The first is that most sins are not some immersion into utter depravity, but a perversion of some good. Like sex is a good that God created as a part of life, but we can abuse sex through perversion, but those perversions still retain some measure of the good that God created it with, so there can still be experiences of pleasure even though the act has been compromised.

The second thing is that while sin may be bad, while you and I still retain some measure of goodness and innocence, we are capable of experiencing the pleasure of what it means to be good.

So with the meth example, a person who has never done meth or other drugs which alter their brain chemistry, is someone who can experience the pleasure the drug promises because their brain is healthy. But what meth does is it takes what is good in that person, their normal brain function, and abuses its potential by releasing an extreme surge of dopamine that causes an experience that the brain would not normally produce.

So, because they have a healthy brain, they are able to experience the pleasure that meth promises, but as the example reveals, after using the drug, their brain succumbs to a state of affliction from which the drug can no longer produce the pleasurable effect.
And this is how all drugs and all addictions work. The first time you do it, you experience a pleasure that convinces you that this same trigger can produce the same pleasure any time you want, but as addiction sets in, that same experience of pleasure moves further and further out of reach, until you’re just using to fend of the withdrawal.

That’s a profound allegory or even demonstration for the nature of any sin. Some sins, when you first embrace them, can produce a pleasurable experience, but that’s not because the sin is good, but because you are good and that which is good can experience what is good (that is pleasure), even if it’s tainted.

But each time you embrace some compromise of sin, it changes you from the person who was good and, therefore capable of experiencing the pleasure of the experience, to someone who is intrinsically less good.

CS Lewis puts it this way. “Every time you make a choice you are turning the central part of you, into something a little different than it was before. And taking your life as a whole, with all your innumerable choices, all your life long you are slowly turning this central thing into a heavenly creature or a hellish creature.”

Video from Eddy Tumengkol.. Eddie's Youtube channel is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLBGxcCTsJk

We live in a satanic system and it is a huge Court of Law and satan is the god of this world and we are all under judgment for our sins which is why Jesus Christ died and shed his innocent blood for the remission of sin for all man. If we are "Born Again" in our Lord Jesus Christ we are no longer held accountable for the sins of the old man who is now dead and reborn in our Lord Jesus Christ. We are new creatures in Christ. Read the Gospel of John and SEEK God and he will seek YOU. This is why this world hates Jesus Christ because satan wants none to know the Truth and be set free from the bonds of sin which keep us all in chains.

Are you sure you're going to heaven when you die? Or are you willing to chance your eternal soul and possibly end up in hell fire?? Why not make sure of the matter today, while there is still time?

The good news is: You can KNOW that you're going to heaven. The Bible clearly states:

"These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God." 1 John 5:13

You see, God wants us to KNOW, and have the matter settled. There can be no misery greater than living life wondering if some day you will lift up your eyes in hell!

The Bible so wonderfully makes salvation clear. It is a gift given of God, that cannot be earned in any way of our own doing.

"For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast." Ephesians 2:8-9

"Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost." Titus 3:5

Jesus Christ made this wonderful, free salvation possible.

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John 3:16

Do you see what the verse says? It is simply BELIEF, or rather FAITH, TRUST, in Jesus Christ that saves. I am so thankful for these following verses that tell of man who sincerely wanted to be saved, and was told how:

"Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas, And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?

And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house." Acts 16:29-30

Christ came to this earth, God in the flesh, a perfect man who never committed sin. He sacrificed His life of the cross of Calvary, shed His blood, as PAYMENT for our sin. You see, our sin separates us from a perfect and Holy God. We have no way to approach God in and of ourselves, for He is HOLY, righteous, perfect, and pure. He cannot tolerate sin. So Jesus took upon Himself the sins of the world, that we might be reconciled *(bought back) to God. We can come to the Father through Jesus Christ His Son!

"Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." John 14:6

So what must I believe, more specifically, about Jesus Christ to be eternally saved, you may ask...? You are saved by BELIEVING the good news of the Gospel, Christ's death, burial, and resurrection!

When you accept this beautiful truth, that Christ loves you and died for YOUR sins, and arose from the grave FOR YOU, TO SAVE YOU FROM HELL, and you simply say yes to Him (call upon the Lord), in child-like simplicity, offering nothing of yourself or self-righteousness to God, but clinging only to CHRIST'S MERIT and HIS righteousness, YOU WILL BE SAVED.

1 Corinthians 15 says:

"1 Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand;

2 BY WHICH ALSO YE ARE SAVED, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.

3 For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;

4 And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:"

"That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved."

Would you be willing to put your whole-hearted faith on Jesus to make it to heaven... instead of trusting yourself and your own way? If you say yes, and will trust what the Bible promises to every sinner who would believe on Jesus Christ, would you humbly go to God in prayer and ask Him to save you in the name of Jesus?

God bless you all who watch my videos. I pray many will come to know of the wonderful saving grace of Jesus Christ.

Free will or election. Only one can be true. And which one of these 'gospels' actually limits atonement? This is the subject of this classic sermon from widely regarded evangelist of days past, Rolfe Barnard (1904-1969)
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[13:32] "...we have to go on and explain that after all, nothing that God and Christ have done can save us...unless we add something to it. Now my friends if I'm not telling the truth about what's called the gospel today I want you to write me and straighten me out. We thus preach that the 'decisive factor' which [......?] ...what we really say is the Christ saves us with our help...and if you think that out what that really means is we save ourselves...with Christ's help. But my friends, if we start, as is done now, by affirming that God has a saving love for everybody, and that Christ died a saving death for everybody...and yet we do not preach that everybody will be saved, we just show how foolish we are. The man who preaches that Christ died in a saving way for everybody...has got to preach that everybody must be saved. The man who preaches that God has a saving love for everybody...has got to preach...that everybody must be saved. But we say brother Barnard we don't believe that. I know but that's what you preach.

You get in an awful stew...ohhhh...how I will [...?] about it...these folks running around here limiting the purpose and love of God:

[who say] "Wait just a minute we are simply saying that the old gospel limited the work and love of Christ simply this way...that the love of God accomplished all it was sent to do. And that the love of Christ dying for our sins means that those whom it was meant for are to be saved"

Now we need to be clear here. In this kind of preaching is the popular preaching of the day, instead of exalting the grace of God and magnifying the cross of Christ...we cheapen them. And people who preach that way limit the atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ. People say to me brother Barnard...you believe in the limited atonement? And I say no but most of all the preachers in this country do...for they preach that Christ didn't actually accomplish what he set out to do...he just made possible something he hoped might accidentally take place. My friends the old gospel says of Christ...that Christ's death saves...aaall whom it was meant to save. The new gospel says that Christ's death, as such, actually saves nobody - what's good news about that?

What's good news about that? No wonder my friends you can go into most any church in this section today, and in three or four nights you enter the line, 95% of the people in the congregation will be saying that that fellow is preaching the truth.

Then I'm not saved. No wonder my friends that Baptists who've always said we believe in the eternal security of the believer...it's hard to find the Baptist now who feels any security - WHY? Well they've believed a gospel about a God who's made salvation possible...not a gospel about a God who actually saves. Dear old brother Spurgeon whom the preachers quote today but hate his gospel...they accused him of preaching the limited atonement and he answered in this way and I quote him. Brother Spurgeon said we are often told that we limit the atonement of Christ because we say that Christ has not made a satisfaction for all men...or all men would be saved.

Now our reply to this is, brother Spurgeon says, that on the other hand, our opponents limit the work of Christ...we do not. Our opponents say Christ died for all men. Ask them what they mean by him dying for all men. Ask them did Christ die so as to secure the salvation of all men..and they say noooo...certainly not. We ask them the next question...did Christ die so as to secure the salvation of any man in particular...they answer no. They are obliged to admit this if they are consistent...they say no...Christ has died in order that any man may be saved...if...and then follow certain conditions of salvation. Now, says Mr. Spurgeon, who is it that limits the death of Christ? Why it's you...you say that Christ did not die so as infallibly to secure the salvation of anybody. We beg your pardon...when you say we limit Christ's death we say nooo my dear sir...it is you that limits it. We say Christ so died that he infallibly secured the salvation of a multitude that no man can number, who through Christ's death not only may be saved...but are saved. Must be saved and cannot by any possibility run the hazard of being anything but saved. You are welcome to your atonement, says Mr. Spurgeon, you may keep it...we will never renounce ours for the sake of it. - [20:18]

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https://anothervoicerev184.blogspot.com/2019/07/classic-sermon-limited-atonement.html

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