Welcome to the forum mcqueen. I am glad to have you here.
Quote:The bible says that the fool has said in his heart there is no God.... what is a fool?...
In the origional Hebrew/Chaldee dictionary (Strongs Concordance) the word "fool" was defined as being used in this context for this scripture:
5036 nabal (naw-bawl); stupid; wicked (espec. impious):--fool (ish, -ish man, -ish woman) , vile person.
Impious implying the person being called a fool is lacking in reverence or proper respect (as for God or one's parents).
Psalm 14:1-3
1 The fool says in his heart,
"There is no God."
They are corrupt, their deeds are vile;
there is no one who does good.
2 The LORD looks down from heaven
on the sons of men
to see if there are any who understand,
any who seek God.
3 All have turned aside,
they have together become corrupt;
there is no one who does good,
not even one.
After having gone back to this scripture and read it I have come to the conclusion that this does not exclude those who have faith. Which is half the problem within the body of Christ today. We say we "seek God" because we go to church every Sunday, but on Monday how many go back to the way they were living on Saturday? We say we "do good" because we feed the poor, help those who are hurting, pray for the sick, and yet we are quick to exclude those who oppose us vehemently sometimes. Doesn't the grace of God abound to all who are willing to accept it?
Romans 5:14-15
14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come. 15 But the free gift is not like the offense. For if by the one man's offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many.
Who are we to judge who is included in the "many" this scripture uses? Jesus Himself said:
Matt 7:21-23
21 "Not everyone who says to Me, ?'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 Many will say to Me in that day, ?'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?' 23 And then I will declare to them, ?'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!'
"I never knew you." implies to me that God is looking for relationship above service (not that service is to be cast aside completely) because service without relationship is vain. How can we serve God if we don't really know Him? If we don't know Him then we don't fully know His will. Yet there are many who think that just because they go to church on Sunday they do know God and His will, rarely ever practicing what they preach, or what they learned outside of the church doors. Yet they go about telling everyone else how it is they ought to live. I find this incredibly offensive as someone who believes in God because then those who don't believe as we do have an excuse to throw us all into one category as has been done to them.
Ok so what's my point? I don't know if I really have one. LOL I just needed to say this. I apologize if this offends anyone here who claims christianity. That is not my intent. I just get frustrated sometimes with the inconsistancies I see around me.
Have you ever heard of a neurologist?
Stumble It!
Tweet This
Bookmark on Delicious
Share on Facebook
Share on MySpace