I would like to share a recent conversation on FB with Greg (last name withheld). I commented on a story concerning current affairs and the dangerous times America is facing. Educational! Mark Benson I agree (with the article), as we also draw near to His day - the Rapture. Greg: If you people spent as much energy doing Christs work as you do pining for The Rapture, we would truly have a better world. But, I guess nothing is worth doing if you plan to leave anyway, right? (sorta like not cleaning the apartment youre leaving, because you wont have to live there any more!) Mark Benson: Greg, you are assuming that we are waiting on top of a mountain doing nothing but pining. That we are disassociated from all the responsibilities within the sphere of our influence and obligations, to be all that we can be both for the benefit of heaven and earth. The trouble in our world is that the majority of people do not acknowledge the Creator and Savior of all mankind, that without Him we cannot fulfill His design to really live righteously in the here and now! Greg: ISIS certainly acknowledges a Creator... and the Middle East has a long memory... they have never forgotten The Crusades - which were just the Christian version of the Islamic Jihad today. I would argue that MUCH of the worlds misery was CAUSED by the acknowledgement of/belief in a Creator, and the viewpoint that ones religion is the ONLY way to salvation - that all others are doomed to perdition. (I have even personally heard - this is TRUE! - a rabid fundamentalist state that murdering certain people isnt really a sin, because they are damned, anyway!) The hubris involved in claiming to know the will of ones God - claiming to KNOW what He/She is thinking staggers the imagination. Please dont think of my comments as criticism. Those who believe in a higher power have the NEED to... some claim this need is Jesus knocking on the door of your heart, or the souls aching for reunion with God, etc. I just dont ag After being churched for over six decades, after working HARD to suspend my disbelief, after serving several churches through membership, music and leadership - I have come to the belief that religion is simply institutionalized superstition. In the random chaos of the universe, I can accept that things happen without a plan. I roll my eyes when I see a news report of, say, a pair of twin children in a car accident where one dies horribly, and one survives unscathed... only to hear people say the dead one was Gods will, while the survivor was a miracle baby! Really? We humans are always looking for a REASON WHY things happen - from lightning, thunder, volcanoes and disease to the motions of the stars and planets. I prefer to look for the REAL answer, and not blame/credit everything to the supernatural. I also think it is up to US to fix things on this Earth, and NOT to wait for deliverance. Small problems often grow to monsters while we wait or run from them, or simply expect someone else to save us from them... Mark Benson: Gee Greg, Ive been born-again for 41 years and have studied the scriptures diligently as well. Through a living relationship with Christ Ive had the strength and wisdom to live in and for Him with great joy through every sorrow and jubilation that comes with life. I do not listen to the opinions and assessments of those who purport to speak on behalf of God or His Word. I find that spiritual balance comes through His Spirit indwelling the saved sinner walking by faith in His grace alone. Human nature is able to contort and reconfigure many of lifes events to satisfy almost any philosophy. The temporal issues of a world under sin does not trump the eternal relationship with the One who came to conquer sin and death through the resurrection. The world will continue to inflict itself with what we see now and what has been seen since the fall and into the future but it will end one day. Then all will give an account for every word and action committed. Grace provides for restoration with our God and Savior through faith alone. And with that you and I will continue to live and die to see and test the reality of our beliefs.
Posted on: Thu, 06 Nov 2014 19:15:19 +0000
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