Why Did Jesus Speak In Parables?

[Sola_Fide]

I am not making the claims that you are strawmanning onto me.

God is the ultimate sovereign, and I do not question that.

I am only pointing out that your view of God is one that is utterly devoid of mercy.

That is all.

How could you say He is "devoid of mercy" when He sent His Son to save a people for Himself? That's bizarre. The Bible is full of the mercy of God to those who deserve only wrath!

 

[cartemj06]

oh PLEASE dont bring temporality into this, its muddle enough.

 

[Sola_Fide]

+rep
I really have to hand it to AB. His doctrine actually makes the most sense (at least to me) of any Christian apology I've read here. If one actually believes that God has been, is, and will be, all at the same time, that God created, yet is outside of time, then you can see that, to God, salvation has, is, and will happen simultaneously for eternity. Hence, there is no predestination, or even foreknowledge, only His Divine Knowledge. Am I close?

Well, I'd say that to an eternal being like God, foreknowledge is the same thing as predestination. There is nothing that He foreknows that He does not also pre-determine. Why? Because He chose to create this world, knowing the storyline, and knowing the outcome.

Calvinism is consistent Biblical Christianity. It is consistent Biblically, theologically, logically, philosophically, etc.

 

[Johnny Appleseed]

it's not about how much you know it's about how much you glow

 

[otherone]

it's not about how much you know it's about how much you glow

you should acknowledge your source

 

[Sola_Fide]

Pre-destination? Really... ugh facepalm!

Ephesians 1:3-6 NASB

...just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him.

In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.

 

[Johnny Appleseed]

you should acknowledge your source

Who's Marie Curie?

I just know from personal experience that when your life passes before your eyes and the darkness creeps in its the light inside you that gets you through if you you don't have enough light then you end up in the darkness forever...love forgiveness and sacrificing your self for others builds the light...the desire to be right takes it away...

 

[pcgame]

I must make my calling and election sure:


If I fall away, it was because I was not chosen.

Are you saying that people claiming to be (Christians) that have accepted Jesus Christ as their savior are going to go to hell if they do not put an effort in implementing biblical principles? I know the Bible says that people that used to believe in God and then became atheists, never were true believers to begin with.

 

[James Madison]

Are you saying that people claiming to be (Christians) that have accepted Jesus Christ as their savior are going to go to hell if they do not put an effort in implementing biblical principles? I know the Bible says that people that used to believe in God and then became atheists, never were true believers to begin with.

Since God exists outside of time He possesses knowledge of those who are saved, regardless of any actions they have or have not taken. The righteous souls are given to those who will be righteous, while the damned will never be able to truly accept Christ because their soul does not allow it. In this sense, those who are saved are already with God and await (maybe?) the New Jerusalem.

Interestingly, the idea of a God who is not bound by the constraints of time is not a stretch. Since we know that time itself is a product of mass, gravity, and velocity, a universe with completely different laws (Heaven, if you will) doesn't seem so far fetched after all.

 

[pcgame]

are u serious

 

[James Madison]

About what?

 

[Sola_Fide]

Are you saying that people claiming to be (Christians) that have accepted Jesus Christ as their savior are going to go to hell if they do not put an effort in implementing biblical principles? I know the Bible says that people that used to believe in God and then became atheists, never were true believers to begin with.

When you say "put in an effort", I can't agree with that. Salvation is monergistic...a work of God from start to finish. Our sanctification is also a work of the Spirit. Our very ability to persevere until the end comes only from God. The ones who persevere until to the end are the ones who are the elect sheep.

 

[moostraks]

Acts 17:24 “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. 26 From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. 27 God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. 28 ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’[c]

29 “Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by human design and skill. 30 In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.

 

[Sola_Fide]

Acts 17:24 “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. 26 From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. 27 God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. 28 ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’[c]

29 “Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by human design and skill. 30 In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.

Um...yeah. That is the apostolic proclamation. Repent and believe. But so what? What we are talking about is ability.

Man is a sinner. He is lost. He is depraved. Man cannot follow the law.. Man cannot do what is spiritually pleasing in God's sight.

Romans 8:7-8 NASB

because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

When God commands men to "repent and believe", He is commanding them to do what they cannot do. God only commands men to do what they cannot do.

 

[moostraks]

Why do some people not believe?


The reason people don't believe is that they are not of His sheep. His sheep hear His voice, and the Shepherd lays down His life only for His sheep. The ones who hear are the ones who have "been given to the Son" by the Father.


God purposes that some people do not believe. .

To which I put forth:

Acts 17:24 “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. 26 From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. 27 God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. 28 ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’[c]

29 “Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by human design and skill. 30 In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.

 

[Isaac Bickerstaff]

Brilliant thread! The reason Jesus spoke in parables is not just explained but demonstrated.

 

[moostraks]

Um...yeah. That is the apostolic proclamation. Repent and believe. But so what? What we are talking about is ability.

Man is a sinner. He is lost. He is depraved. Man cannot follow the law.. Man cannot do what is spiritually pleasing in God's sight.



When God commands men to "repent and believe", He is commanding them to do what they cannot do. God only commands men to do what they cannot do.

Matthew 23:37 “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling

John 5:39 You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me; 40 and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life

John 1: 9 There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man10 He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. 11 He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. 12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

I Corinthians 10:12 Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall. 13 No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it

 

[dmo069]

What difference does it make why a make believe character speaks in parables?

 

[Johnny Appleseed]

When God commands men to "repent and believe", He is commanding them to do what they cannot do. God only commands men to do what they cannot do.

So its like putting them in a round room and telling them to piss in the corner?

 

[Johnny Appleseed]