More from the forum:
Him -
If God chose the righteous (no matter how few) before Christ, then does it not follow that it's possible to be "saved" without Christ? My understanding of the story is that they were wicked places, full of sin and where not a single person of virtue lived, hence their destruction. Now as sinful as places like London can be interpreted, granted it's a fair stretch of the imagination that believe that there is not a single person of virtue in such a vast city.
That being said, there surely are places in this world where that is indeed the case and where there aren't people of virtue, so why does God not smote them?
Me -
No, it is not possible to be saved without Christ... the entire Old Testament points to Christ as the final atoning sacrifice necessary for salvation by faith... there has to be blood shed to cover our sins... in the old testament it was the sacrificial system, but more than the simple act of animal sacrifice was believing in faith that the sacrifice was the atonement... as for God not smiting people, it is like I said earlier, He is waiting for the whole world to hear the good news of Jesus Christ because He is patient and wishes for all to come to repentance... but stop and think about all the things that go on in the world today... you and I find the wrath of God which rained down on Sodom and Gomorrah as unusual because it was fire and brimstone, but is that any different than the tsunami a couple of years ago or what happened on 9-11 or the devastating hurricanes of recent years? those disasters seem like they could be smiting to me... or how about war? We do a pretty good job of killing each other everyday... you don't think that could be the wrath of God? After the flood, the Lord made a covenant with Noah to never again destroy all the earth by flood... sometime later, He rains down fire and brimstone on Sodom and Gomorrah, two small towns in the world, but the whole world was already sinking deeper and deeper into corruption, so I postulate for you that in God's great MERCY (not wrath), He only rained down fire and brimstone on Sodom and Gomorrah, when He could have easily rained down fire and brimstone on the whole world...
6 comments:
good job of answering him! Way to go!!
it is finally getting warmer here, I think it is in mid 30's today! time for shorts and a t-shirt!
wow! you'd be roasting down here then... ;-)
I could at least work on my tan!!
I love hot weather compared to the cold!
nah! tanning just makes you look old and leads to skin cancer... :-)
you are right about that. I knew one lady who was only 40 yrs old and looked like she was 75 yrs old. Her skin had turned to leather and wrinkled really bad. She used to lay in tanning beds every winter while keeping her tan looking good. It finally caught up to her and she is paying the price for it. I lived in Arizoana for 9 years and there was a girl in my apartment complex who died while laying by the pool. She had first and second degree burns over her whole back. The sun just sapped all of her energy and she burned to death! It's a dry heat out there, you don't feel like sweating so you get dehydrated pretty easily.
on a positive note...
Spring training is going on down there for you. I would love to be out watching some good games!
yeah, but i'm not a baseball fan... i love the beach and live only 5 minutes from it, but I hardly ever go cuz I don't have time... I'm either working or serving in ministry... I need a vacation...
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