gospel

Nelson Mandela, the former South African president, is in London for the week to celebrate his 90th birthday. He is set to attend an outdoor concert that is in his honor in Hyde Park on this coming Friday. The performances will include Queen, Annie Lennox, Leona Lewis, and the Soweto Gospel Choir. Amy Winehouse will also perform if her doctors say that it is okay for her to do so. The proceeds from the concert will go to 46664 charity, which is the AIDS charity named after the number Mandela wore while he was imprisoned by South Africa’s apartheid authorities.

read more

There are over 30 repeated references to Hell in the Old Testament alone. In the Gospels, Jesus speaks of Hell more than of Heaven. There are over thirty repeated references to the existence of Hell in the Old Testament alone. For instance:

read more

The reason I guess I'm asking is because we don't hear that type of music alot. I was listening to Aol radio, and clicked to christian country, and was pleasantly surprised at the what was played. What a friend we have in Jesus, I'll Fly away, Coat of many colors, whispering hope. It was a great feeling hearing that music all day today. When I was just a little girl, my granny, Great grandmother, she loved to sing gospel.

read more

There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile; but glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For God does not show favoritism.
Romans 2:9-11

The future judgment which Paul has been describing will be universal. All people will experience it and the measure used will be the same for all human beings.

read more

But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God's wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed. Romans 2:5

When we compare the spiritual climate of our present day with that of some earlier generations, we cannot help but be struck by the contrast in attitudes to the issue of future judgment.

Today, thoughts that God will one day judge the earth and everyone in it are said to be "primitive" and "superstitious", having been replaced by the idea that all reality taking place in this present age. In earlier generations, by contrast, thoughts of the age to come and the judgment that would precede it were far more prominent in Christian preaching and in their effect on people's present lives and experiences.

read more

Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God's kindness leads you toward repentance? Romans 2:4

This is such a rich, profound and challenging question.

Remember, Paul is addressing religious people in this second chapter of his letter - reminding them that the judgment that the human race is under extends even to people who regard themselves as moral and religious.

read more

Now we know that God's judgment against those who do such things is based on truth. So when you, a mere man, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God's judgment? Romans 2:2-3

How easy it is for religious people to judge others - only to judge themselves in the process. Look around - it's very common.

How important it is, therefore, to understand the gospel that Paul is setting out in his letter to the Christians in Rome.

read more

You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things. Romans 1:2

Perhaps you have been reading my blog for a number of weeks or months. If so, thank you.

Perhaps you agree with much of its message.

Maybe you agree with the description Paul has been giving of the spiritual state of the human race.

read more

They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Romans 1:29-31

Paul’s argument is reaching a crescendo. After describing how the wrath of God is being revealed through the moral and spiritual collapse of society, he concludes his argument by this relentless list of human evil. Paul wants us to be clear about the fact that the human race is in a state of sin and that God is acting in judgement against us.

read more

Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. Romans 1:28

Here for the third and final time in this opening section of the book, Paul uses the language of God “giving over� the human race to its sin. He is obviously keen to make sure his readers understand this truth.

In an attempt to protect people from the (false) idea that God creates human sin, modern writers often go too far in the other direction and talk about the sinfulness of the human race as if it were something that God has no control over. We are sometimes presented with an image of God as a heavenly wringer of his hands - full of good intentions but powerless to act in the face of human wickedness. Nothing, of course, could be further from the truth.

read more

Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.

Because of the controversial nature of my last post, and because of the current debate on the issue inside and outside of Christian circles, I am devoting this post to some anticipated questions arising from my former posting. If you have a question that is not addressed here, please feel free to submit a comment or a private message and I’ll do my best to respond promptly.

read more

Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion. Romans 1:26-27

Because of the controversial nature of this subject matter, I will cover these verses over two blogs. This one will take the form of a line by line examination of the verses themselves. The next blog will deal with some common questions and objections that are often raised by them.

read more

Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. Romans 1:24

This is one of the most frightening verses in the entire Bible.

It reveals the action that God has taken in response to humans suppressing the truth about God and constructing physical or mental images of false gods in his place.

The verse states that "God gave them over". At the beginning of this section of the letter, Paul states that the problem facing the human race is that God's wrath is being revealed against human sin. Now, in this verse, we learn how this wrath is being expressed and outworked. It's happening in and through the moral breakdown of human society.

read more

Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. Romans 1:22-23

We have seen how sin distorts the mind and darkens the heart of men and women.

Now, continuing his explanation of the reality of God's wrath being revealed, Paul expands this idea. Not only are we darkened and futile in our thinking. We are also self-deceived. claiming to be wise, they became fools. People's foolishness is shown primarily by a breathtaking exchange that has taken place.

read more

For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Romans 1:21

The Christian gospel starts not with a solution but with a problem. Mankind is under the wrath of God because they are actively suppressing the truth that he has revealed about himself in and through the created world.

read more