Conditions for Mercy: The fear and anxiety generated by the spread of the coronavirus is causing many people to look to God for mercy and deliverance from this invisible plague. While the Scriptures tell us that God is “abundant in mercy” (Numbers 14:18), many today overlook the fact that there are actually conditions for obtaining God’s mercy. David wrote in the Psalms that while mercy is one of God’s benefits, God will grant His mercy “toward those who fear Him… and to those who remember His commandments to do them” (Palm 103:1–2, 11, 18). David also wrote that God’s “salvation [deliverance] is near to those who fear Him” (Psalm 85:9), and the New Testament records that God’s “mercy is on those who fear Him” (Luke 1:50). The prophet Jeremiah warned the backsliding house of Israel, “Your own wickedness will correct you… [because]…you have forsaken the Lord your God, and the fear of Me is not in you” (Jeremiah 2:19). When Daniel entreated God on behalf of his people, he noted that God “keeps His covenant and mercy with those who love Him, and… keep His commandments” (Daniel 9:4). When we seek God’s mercy, we must also strive to meet His requirements as revealed in the Scriptures (Deuteronomy 10:12–13; Micah 6:8). During the Passover season, we need to examine ourselves in this regard… and hopefully anyone today who is seeking God’s mercy will do the same.
Have a profitable Sabbath,
Douglas S. Winnail
Winnail cannot quote a verse from outside the Old Testament that tells those in Christ to NOT live in fear. LCG is moving into Armstrongism's Passover season, a time where the works of Jesus are supposedly made manifest and yet they cannot discuss the dude.
1Jn 4:9 By this the love of God is revealed in us: that God has sent his one and only Son into the world so that we may live through him.
1Jn 4:10 In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.
1Jn 4:11 Dear friends, if God so loved us, then we also ought to love one another.
1Jn 4:12 No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God resides in us, and his love is perfected in us.
1Jn 4:13 By this we know that we reside in God and he in us: in that he has given us of his Spirit.
1Jn 4:14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.
1Jn 4:15 If anyone confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God resides in him and he in God.
1Jn 4:16 And we have come to know and to believe the love that God has in us. God is love, and the one who resides in love resides in God, and God resides in him.
1Jn 4:17 By this love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment, because just as Jesus is, so also are we in this world.
1Jn 4:18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears punishment has not been perfected in love.
1Jn 4:19 We love because he loved us first.
Fear of God, fear of his holiness should drive us towards Christ. Once we recognize the work of the Spirit in our lives, the love of God being perfected in us that fear should fade in to the distance. As a father and a husband I should fear the consequences of adultery because of the disaster it would bring in my life. However that shouldn’t be a daily fear. It should lead me to live according to some wise principles but there is no need to worry about it.
Once we are in Christ we are held tightly in the grip of His love. His love for us is secure, nothing can separate us from it (Rom 8:35-39). If I lived in daily anxiety about doing something wrong resulting in disaster for my family I would be told to seek counselling. It isn’t healthy to live in fear. That is the opposite of peace and love. It is no different in our relationship with God.
Paul wrote “we haven’t receive a spirit of slavery.” The CEV has “Spirit doesn’t make us slaves who are afraid of him.” A slave is a afraid of his master because if steps out of line he is punished. Paul contrasts this with a “Spirit of adoption.” What is fear of the Lord in the New Testament?
9 comments:
How does LCG explain the thief crucified next to Jesus?
The thief expressed faith in Christ, even though he had neither kept the commandments nor feared God. All the thief did was humble himself before his Savior. And Christ said this thief would be with Him in Paradise, not that "after you qualify in the White Throne Judgment you'll be with Me in Paradise."
That's not a message of judgement and fear. It's a message of mercy and hope. How does LCG explain it away?
April 3, 2020 at 7:04 PM
That's not a message of judgement and fear. It's a message of mercy and hope. How does LCG explain it away?
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Easy. He didn't keep the feasts and tithe. What else could they say?
Every article and sermon we hear and the words we read in the magazines is one of fear. Either fearing the world or fearing we will lose our salvation for some silly sin. The more I read the New Covenant (not the approved LCG versions) the more I see that fear has been conquered. I don't need to worry about losing my salvation at any time. Sadly, waking up to this is also leading me straight out the door of Living.
Anon, April 3, 2020 at 7:42 PM, said:
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"...Every article and sermon we hear and the words we read in the magazines is one of fear. Either fearing the world or fearing we will lose our salvation for some silly sin. The more I read the New Covenant (not the approved LCG versions) the more I see that fear has been conquered. I don't need to worry about losing my salvation at any time. Sadly, waking up to this is also leading me straight out the door of Living."
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Interesting speaking about the literature of the living group focusing on "fear," b/c it is true. Why? Fear religion!
Doug Winnail, the living group, and probably most xcogs, believe and teach Fear Religion. There is a fear of the LORD, which may easily be proved to be a fruit of God's Spirit, but there is another fear, exposed in Hebrews 2:
:14 Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;
:15 And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.
Virtually the entire world, to one degree or another, is currently experiencing the latter fear. Donald Trump says lots of suffering and death is ahead for many, "...but through no fault of their own...", and if Ephesians 6:12 is true, he may be correct in saying that. Time will tell.
Another Anon asked: "...How does LCG explain the thief crucified next to Jesus?..."
Don't look to Doug Winnail, or any in the living group, filled with their ideas of Fear Religion, to properly answer that question.
Perhaps when the day comes, when Doug Winnail, and the xcog leaders, can explain what the apostle Paul meant in the following verse, 2 Cor 5:19, you may have an answer that makes sense:
:19 "To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, NOT IMPUTING their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation." [{committed … : Gr. put in us}
Doug Winnail said: "...During the Passover season, we need to examine ourselves in this regard… and hopefully anyone today who is seeking God’s mercy will do the same..."
Well, how is Doug doing? Didn't Doug say that last year, and the year before, and the year before...?
Doug still thinks, via Fear Religion, that one must meet requirements, qualifications, prerequisites, etc. to "earn" salvation, mercy, but is that true? 2 Cor 5:19 is true, but reconciling is something God is doing. What is Doug doing? When Doug comes back year after year with virtually the same Passover message as the previous year it makes one wonder if anyone was really listening. It makes one feel like a failure, again, and again, and again, just unable to "get it right."
And then people are told their sins are again to be removed, taken away...almost like a Santa Claus with a bag full of sins prior to Passover, and throughout the year the people filled up the bag again, and need to empty it again. Why? So, they can fill it up for next year's Passover.
Fortunately, or unfortunately, Americans are now beginning to experience some of what most of the world has been experiencing, not just with Coronavirus, but financially...perhaps a beginning of sorrows for Americans, but something too much of this present evil world has been experiencing all along, but it is happening very quickly for us.
to be continued...
John
Continuing...
So far, Doug continues to blame, judge, accuse people in his group (but what about himSELF?) for failing to apparently "please some 'god.'" Are the people really at fault?
Yes, the thief, both of them, have it made; they have the victory (Matthew 25:34) from the foundation of the world (living group can't preach that either), but not b/c of anything "nice," righteous, a good choice, anything they did to earn it.
Is God really that merciful? Is what is happening all part of a Plan of Salvation, a plan that includes good and evil, where we all learn to hate evil, perhaps learn about the real enemy/ies (Eph 6:12), who will later be taken/destroyed?
Just some thoughts that come to mind this morning, but time will tell...
John
The final nail in the coffin for me was “the fear of God” sermon given by a once talented speaker.
The sermon consisted of repeating the fear of God with different tones of voice and different emphasis.
There may have been a few other words, but that is all I remember
The Armstrongist statement quoted here is a very lop-sided one. The relationship between God and man is highly polyphonic - like a symphony. But Armstrongism has identified and emphasized a single monotonous note - fear. Armstrongism collapsed the entire complex relationship between God and man into one concept - fear. There is no explanation of what kind of fear or why fear is so valuable. If this is redolent of some kind of indoctrination to you, you would be right.
A couple of my observations:
1. Fear has a place in Christian life when understood as reverence. God is not a monster though some religions, like Calvinism and Armstrongism, present him in that way. The gospel is not a scary movie. For people indoctrinate by fear, God is like the scene from Indiana Jones where the Nazis open the Ark. Terrifying, but that concept of God has utility - it is a great motivator of people. The Aztecs understood that very clearly.
2. Fear (as reverence) and love are both a part of a complex relationship with God. That relationship includes love, trust, respect, grace, mercy and truth among other qualities. But, as Paul said, "the greatest of these is charity (agape, love)." NO2HWA was right on target.
When I was an Armstrongist and deluded by their indoctrination, I was always afraid on the lead up to Passover. This fear totally displaced the love, grace and mercy of Christ's sacrifice in my mind. I was always relieved when the whole ceremony was over and I was on my way home.
LOVE DADDY, OR HE WILL BURN YOU!
In fairness, it has to be said that when people morally decline, fear is only what they will respond to. It's only fear that restrains bully types.
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