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When I look around Christian internet communities (not here) I see many battering one another and putting each other's pet doctrines down and just being downright nasty and rude. I wonder how much that detracts unbelievers away from believing in Christ.For Jesus said in Jn. 13:34-35:
"A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."
The biggest problem that Christians have is carnality:
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Luke 15:28 And he was angry, and would not go in: therefore came his father out, and intreated him.
Either caused by not knowing 1 John 1:9, or having 'heard it' at some point
but just never doing it. Or even worse, getting tripped up by something like the elder prodigal son and going into perpetual carnality which will lead to scar tissue on your
soul's frontal lobe.
Going back:
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John 13:35 By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.
Unfortunately I still haven't found my BibleWorks, so I don't know what class condition ἐάν is there, but I have a GOOD FEELING it'll be third class.
IF (third class) you love one another--
maybe you will, and
maybe you won't.
If as a Christian you're so far off that you're not even doing 1 John 1:9 or know about it, you're not even going to have the capacity to know doctrine, let alone have Christ's thinking so that 'all men' will know you're a Christian. In fact, due to the high rates of carnality, it effectively inverts John 13:35 to something like... "all men shall know you are carnal as a believer"--since you exhibit patterns and misery that are so extreme, an unbeliever cannot accomplish such feats. On the "plus side" the unbeliever may recognize something so horrible in the carnal unbeliever that they may have second thoughts that there's more at play than what meets the eye...
So not all Christians are going to follow through with 1 John 1:9
to get to a point of capacity for doctrine at John 13:34-35. Therefore being a believer
never guarantees John 13:35. It's fascinating to see that hardly anyone does 1 John 1:9, even after you keep repeating it.
This is a known phenomenon and the biggest problem of Phase 2 which is the believer in time learning Bible Doctrine.
Then let's say you have someone who refills themselves to death, they'll run into the next problem if they don't do faith-rest because they'll never be in any of the Wills of God nor will they be inclined to learn doctrine. You can't learn doctrine without faith-rest (Genesis 2:3).
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It seems to me He could be coming back soon, but I could be wrong on that. I just don't see how we can continue on much longer on the track we are going on this planet. Things are way out of control and I am amazed that our country has not been totally destroyed.
At the present moment it would do no service to God (and as result
us ourselves) if He pulled the plug:
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Heb 12:1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
Heb 12:2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
It's easy to be distracted by world events and think things have been worse than ever before--but some of the worst periods of history have been the Exodus generation and the Dark Ages. It's surprising time even continued past that.
Right now there's a lot of doctrine being resuscitated / and if I see it right, there may be a lot of 490 believers condensed in this period in a single chunk; God's planning for something rather huge. Which is impressive because you typically only ever have
one for every 490.
With the advent of computers and globalization, all of this has become almost effortless. So there's no better time to raise up some super-believers.
But what I'm wondering is... "why now", and "what does it mean for the future". Once
everything is resuscitated and in the open ready to be deployed to the appropriate recipients it will be the most unique point in the Church Age dispensation.