i can't forgive myself for all the things i've done but you do. bleed one more time for me. (original) (raw)

(Cross-posted)

Someone on my friends list on MySpace posted the following as a bulletin. They will remain nameless, because this isn't about trying to make any specific person look bad. I responded to their bulletin. I then decided to post my response as a bulletin as well, as it may very well be of help, encouragement, and enlightenment to others...
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He wrote:

Subject: "God; Butcher & Cosmic Rapist"!

Bulletin: The calvinist concept of God goes something like this; God only selects a few out of all of creation to be saved, the rest of us are f*ck*d! Actually, He needs us as well, He created us to be part of the blackness, the backdrop if you will for the stars of his redemption to shine more brightly. A God that creates the vast majority of humanity for the sole purpose of bringing them to destuction.....this my friends, is the good news of the gospel?

My Response:

Him: "The calvinist concept of God goes something like this; God only selects a few out of all of creation to be saved, the rest of us are f*ck*d!"

Me: Of course, this is ridiculous! You do know this, don't you (I'm asking a genuine question here - not to be taken as an insult, by the way)? I certainly hope so. I hate to quote the most quoted scripture in the bible to you since it has almost become cliche, but in this case, I feel it is appropriate.

John 3:16 says, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that EVERYONE who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

EVERYONE can have eternal life. Of course, there *IS* a qualifier though - you have to believe in Jesus as the Son of God, which, I'm assuming, you already understand. Then again, in 2nd Peter, we see, in speaking of the last days, that God is giving more time, which means more opportunity for everyone who will repent TO repent.

2nd Peter 3:9 says, "The Lord isn't really being slow about his promise to return, as some people think. No, HE IS BEING PATIENT FOR YOUR SAKE. He does NOT want anyone to perish."

THAT IS MERCY!!

Him: "Actually, He needs us as well, He created us to be part of the blackness, the backdrop if you will for the stars of his redemption to shine more brightly."

Me: This is simply a bunch of garbage! Jesus himself was born in a barn. He was FAR from being considered royalty. He was born to parents who were FAR from being considered a royal family in the eyes of the world. In countless examples in the bible, you'll find that God intentionally uses those who are considered NOTHING by the world's standards and raise them up to do GREAT things! If there is one thing that is true, it is that God is no respecter of men:

Matthew 20:16 says,

"And so it is, that many who are first now will be last then; and those who are last now will be first then."

No one on this earth plays "second fiddle," so to speak, as pertaining to the relation between the Unsaved and the Saved. He didn't create any of us to be part of the "blackness", as you called it to make the redeemed shine any brighter.

Jeremiah 29:11 says, "'For I know the plans I have for you,' says the Lord. 'They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.'"

Him: "A God that creates the vast majority of humanity for the sole purpose of bringing them to destuction.....this my friends, is the good news of the gospel?

Me: This is simply an attempt to make God seem like an angry, bitter, and sadistic God, and I will not let this go unchallenged. The above quote from you is a gross misinterpretation of the message of the Gospel, and it is a manipulative distortion of the Word of God.

Then there are those who will say that all paths lead to God. This is merely the product of an amateur mind. If all paths lead to Him and "hell" is made irrelevant, then why would He state in competing doctrines, or 'paths,' that "This is the ONLY way"? Thereby, inspiring men throughout time to wage war and partake in genocide. This would indicate that senseless murder would be on all our hands (humanity as a whole), incited by a God of Love?!?! If this is true, then God is certainly NOT a God of Love. That would be the definition of a sadistic God playing his creation for puppets and playing His creation for fools. That is NOT a God of Love. Nor is it a God of Justice. Nor is it a God of Righteousness, Honor, and Fairness. There can ONLY be ONE truth if there is a "God" at all!

Well then, some would then conclude that God does not exist. However, the fallacy of this mindset is this:

If there is no "God", then we should not have made this discovery that there is indeed, no "God." Why? Because "God" would be without meaning, and therefore, would not be fathomable nor comprehensible to the human mind. It's simply a matter of Original Thought. I challenge and defy the atheist and the agnostic to think of something that does not exist. If they try, they will fail. Why? Because if it does not exist, how would they have the awareness to think of it? It is impossible! Sure, you can make something up and say "Pink Flying Elephants." To that, my reply would be that "Pink" exists. "Flying" is something that we all know to be a factual reality of life, as some of us do it often on planes. "Elephants" also exist. You already had the awareness to think of "pink" as did you already have an awareness "flying", as did you already have an awareness of the existence of "elephants." So, you come back to your same problem. You still haven't come up with something that did not exist before you thought of it. Since we have established that there is indeed a "God", I will re-emphasize that there can ONLY be ONE truth if there is a "God" at all!

Just what *IS* the good news of the Gospel? Here it is in a nutshell...

Many people may ask (and HAVE asked me), "but why should I be punished for the sins of Adam and Eve? This isn't fair! I'm not the one who disobeyed God and ate from a tree that I was told not to!" That's a fair question. Aside from the fact that Adam and Eve's sins gave birth to sin to all humanity, and therefore by default, we all inherited sin when we were born, it is still a fair question to ask.

BUT...

You know what (and this is going to blow your mind)? GOD AGREES WITH YOU!!"... Yes, that's right! I'll say it again. GOD AGREES WITH YOU!" He DOESN'T think you should be punished for the acts of Adam and Eve. He agrees with you in that He also DOESN'T think it's fair that the rest of us should be punished for what THEY did. So, in order to make things right, he sent His own Son to earth to receive the punishment that WE deserved as a consequence for OUR OWN failures. And if we accept this sacrifice in our hearts and embrace it, we WILL have eternal life!

Allow me to illustrate to you what the Love and Grace and Mercy of God is like. Imagine for a moment that God is sitting right next to you in a physical human form. Laid out on the floor are ALL the sins and temptations of the world. That is, EVERY form of sin. Then, God says to you, "Which one of these is yours? Which one of these sins do you have this BIGGEST struggle with?" You point to a particular sin and tell him, "THAT is the one I can't seem to beat." Then, God pulls out this bucket and pours out His Holy and Righteous blood all over the place - covering the entire floor. He didn't just pour it over the sin you pointed at, but instead douses everything on the ground. He then says, "There. It doesn't really matter which one you struggled with the most. I decided to cover them all for you, because that's how much I Love You!"

Again, THAT, my friend, is MERCY! THAT, my friend, is LOVE! He is not some angry, bitter, and sadistic God who is bent on sending most of us to the fires of hell while he favors only a few. EVERYONE is on equal ground. It is all simply a matter of whether each one of us as individuals will choose to accept or reject the solution that He gave us to this sin problem that plagues humanity. It all boils down to this:

Accept the God of Love and escape hell. That's the bottom line. And it is something that EVERYONE has the opportunity to receive - not just "some." Whether they make that decision or not is completely different issue altogether.

THAT, my friend, is the GOOD news of the Gospel!

Richard Puckett
www.VeiLofDisdaiN.com

BTW, I don't know if your bulletin that I responded to was your own words, or if you were sarcastically paraphrasing some garbage that was given to you by someone else. If they are your own words and feelings, please take to heart the message I have given you. If they were just something that someone else was trying to convince you of, feel free to forward my response to them.

Take care, God bless!