Only God "Can Forgive Their Wickedness"

"If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples indeed, then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:31-32)

You “will know” the truth he said. Jesus was talking to the Jews who had believed in him. Yet they were not free yet for they did not "know the truth". Believing in Jesus does not set you free, only the "truth" about Jesus can do that.  

The promise was that if they “hold to” his teaching (when they received it) they would then be his followers and the truth of his resurrection, and theirs, would "set them free" from the fear of death. They were Hebrews who because of the law were “held in slavery by their fear of death” which comes to all who are unable to perfectly obey it. The devil would see that all sin and therefore die…

“…by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham’s descendants." (Hebrews 2:14-16)

We all share in that fear of wrath and death if we are honest, both Jew and Gentile. And only when we “hold to” the hope of resurrection do we become, like the Jews, “Abraham’s descendants” "by faith" in the grace of God...

“…because the law brings wrath…the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham's offspring--not only to those who are of the law but also to those who have the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all. He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed--the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not.” (Romans 4:15-17)

After God gives "life to the dead", and all are "made alive", then all will know the truth and all will be set free from the fear of death. For now however, only those who hold to the truth of the resurrection in faith are “just” and capable of being set free.

“Now the just shall live by faith...As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive…No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” (Hebrews 10:38; 1 Corinthians 15:22; Hebrews 8:11-12)

There is a lot of wickedness in this world, and I do NOT FORGIVE it, and I do not believe we should.  We should fight to eliminate all evil from the world by any means that is available - but after they get what is coming to them in this present evil age, and when they are "made alive", God will "forgive their wickedness and remember their sins no more".

That is grace, and that is love - we do not possess it now -  Soooo....

Vote for Trump, lock and load, help him rid this world of the bad guys and let's make America Great Again!

Saddle Up

“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets." (Matthew 22:36-40)

Let me make an observation. You, I nor anyone else who has ever lived, with the exception of Jesus Christ, love like this. Ergo, you, I and everyone else, with the exception of Jesus Christ, have broken the “Law and the Prophets” which makes us all SINNERS.

“…there is none righteous, no not one…all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:10, 23)

Furthermore, you, I nor anyone else who has ever lived, will ever love as set forth above in this life, even after we become believers of the “gospel of God” (the gospel which few seem to comprehend), even though some come much closer than others.

But we have HOPE. One day, after our resurrection, ALL of us sinners will be changed and will love God and our neighbors, for we will ALL be like Jesus…worth loving.

“…I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart” (Ezekiel 36:26)

And when will this happen? At our resurrection

“But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead.…just as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive….Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust (Adam), we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven (Jesus)” (1 Corinthians 15:20-22, 49)

A final personal observation on living in this present evil age. It is OK to reject the philosophy of pious, self-righteous, politically correct liberal hypocrites who claim we must love and be tolerant of all people and cultures (you know who they are). And it is OK to reject any radical form of religion whose aim is to make others slaves or tolerant to their particular dogma in this life. These are folks who should NOT be loved in this life, but rejected just as Jesus rejected them...

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces...You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are...Woe to you, blind guides!...You blind fools! " (Matthew 23:13-23)

Jesus was addressing the radical Jewish leaders of his day, but the same could be said to the radical clerics of Islam today, or radical Christians for that matter.  

So for the rest of us, and to quote Data in Star Trek: Insurrection (1998), “Saddle up, lock and load”…try to love folks, but when it becomes necessary to protect our families and freedom..."aim and fire."  

The purpose of evil in this world is to humble us, and it does.  But becoming humble does not mean we should become weak and do nothing to defend ourselves. On the contrary, it should make us resolved to protect the weak and fight to set them free.