God gave the Gentiles repentance, Acts 11:18
When God gave the Holy Spirit to the Gentiles in Cornelius’ house, what this showed the Jewish believers was that God had given them repentance leading to life.
Ideas about the Kingdom of the Heavens around us and the unity of believers in Christ within it
When God gave the Holy Spirit to the Gentiles in Cornelius’ house, what this showed the Jewish believers was that God had given them repentance leading to life.
When Peter preached that the people should “repent,” he explained that meant that they were to “turn away from their wickedness” and so, in their behavior, “listen” to Jesus. Jesus did not come to entertain us or to offer advice, but to turn us away from our own way to obedience to him.
When God sent Moses to deliver his people from Egypt, the Pharaoh who ruled Egypt responded to some of the plagues with false repentance. That is, he tried to “make a deal” with God, and even admitted that he was in the wrong, only to renege on his agreements as soon as God removed the plague. With each “deal” on which he reneged, his heart became more hardened. But this is always what happens when, out of fear or remorse, we try to “make a deal” with God rather than obey him.
True repentance would have required high priest Eli to act to remove his sons Hophni and Phinehas from office. Hophni and Phinehas were using God and their offices as a magical charm and using others, as many in the Church do today. The people also learned to do these things from their example. Instead of removing them, Eli just nagged them, and he and all Israel paid the penalty.
This post is the beginning of my attempt to focus on the question of how God speaks (or permits Himself to speak) to us today. It presents a summary of the various positions commonly held, from which discussion will proceed in later posts.
This is the index to a series of posts on the voice, words and Word of God, the centrality of God’s voice to everything, and the argument that God both still speaks and still speaks to us, Links will be filled into the outline as future posts are written.
Prophets tell forth God’s words to an individual, church or situation, giving God’s perspective which is not plainly visible without God’s illumination. The purpose of prophecy is to edify the Church. Prediction of the future is not the essence of prophecy. Many great preachers were likely prophets, though not recognized as such. This function is still important to the Body, and therefore still present in it.
The place and function of angels is not often mentioned in Scripture, because they exist as messengers and ministering spirits, serving us on God’s behalf, not themselves, bringing God’s message not their own. They are never the dominant subject of any scripture.
Balaam spoke with God and was given a true revelation of the way God viewed the children of Israel, but misinterpreted it. reversing its true meaning, due to his own greed. God said he saw no iniquity in Jacob because he had chosen them; Baalam thought he meant that he had chosen Jacob because he saw no iniquity in them. The result was fatal for Baalam and the Midianites.
Between the end of the First Century CE and the end of the Sixth Century, Christianity grew but also deteriorated in a number of ways. The deterioration arose mainly from the infiltration of Greek philosophy, a change in emphasis to mass evangelism and the politicization of Christianity, followed by the questionable conversion of Constantine. These changes set up many of the specific parts of Christianity that Islam either adopted, or reacted strongly against. They also set up mucj of later European history.
A God who Speaks, Church purpose versus church growth, Compulsory Christianity, God Acts by Speaking, God Never Stopped Speaking, God Speaks to Us, God's Voice, Heresy, Historical Background, Injustice and Lawsuits, Islam and Christianity, Jesus the Son, Other Gifts of the Holy Spirit, Our Oneness in Christ book revision, Peril of Seeking Numbers, Peril of Seeking Power, Peril of Seeking Respectability, Religious violence and persecution, Replacing Relationship with Morality, Social control and statecraft, Son of Man, The Bible, Through the church, Trinity, Unity, Wars as consequences, What Islam borrowed from Christianity