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  the greatest evil

what is the greatest evil known to mankind? and how should Christians address it?

my belief is that nuclear weapons are the greatest evil under the sun. they have the power to destroy the entire earth and all living things, regardless of what your faith is.

if Christians would make the abolition and destruction of all nuclear weapons their primary purpose, they would do more to convince others (nonChristians) of their Faith and the Truth of this Faith than any amount of preaching revival or other form of spreading the Word. the world would without a doubt know that Christians are dead serious about loving their fellow man if Christians demonstrated, acted, preached, and undertook every possible work or activity that could result in the elimination of nuclear weapons. if Christians would do this and fail, people of other faiths may well join in.

that Christians tolerate something capable of destroying God's Creation and all of Christianity does not speak well for our appreciation of God and His Great Works.

you can find out information about nuclear weapons and what Quakers are doing to oppose them at the link below:

http://www.fcnl.org/issues/issue.php?issue_id=2

I am certain there are other sources, as well.

bub

 2008/3/27 14:09
sermonindex
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Joined: 2002/12/11
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Online!
 Re: the greatest evil

The greatest evil is the evil human hearts of unbelief that crucify Christ afresh.


_________________
SI Moderator - Greg Gordon

 2008/3/27 14:21Profile
MSeaman
Member



Joined: 2005/4/19
Posts: 772
Michigan

 Re:

Quote:

sermonindex wrote:
The greatest evil is the evil human hearts of unbelief that crucify Christ afresh.



Amen.


_________________
Melissa

 2008/3/27 15:14Profile









 Re:

Greg, what do you mean by "crucify Christ afresh."

moreover, what do you think is the responsibility of Christians in a world endangered by nuclear weapons?

 2008/3/27 16:08









 Re:

Contrary to what last day deceivers such as Rob Bell, Brian Mclaren, Rick Warren, and Bono might have to say our responsibility is the same as the Apostles Paul and Peter.

PREACH CHRIST AND HIM CRUCIFIED.

[b]2Peter 3:10-18[/b]
But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace. And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures. You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.

 2008/3/27 16:16
ginnyrose
Member



Joined: 2004/7/7
Posts: 7534
Mississippi

 Re:

Quote:
sermonindex wrote: The greatest evil is the evil human hearts of unbelief that crucify Christ afresh.


Amen.

I will second that.

Physical dying by any means is not near as horrible as rejecting the gospel and spending eternity in hell.

As far as weaponry is concerned, evil men will always find a way to kill people. Outlaw one weapon, they will invent another one to replace it or finetune an existing one.

I have no confidence that man will through diplomatic negotiations eliminate war from the human landscape. Man has intensified efforts to do so and failed miserably. Men love to fight because their hearts are evil and will continue to be so as long as they are away from God.

ginnyrose


_________________
Sandra Miller

 2008/3/27 22:37Profile









 Re:

Ginnyrose,

i don't disagree with what you say about diplomatic negotiations eliminating war. war will be with us until He comes again and makes the world new.

nevertheless, atomic weapons kill indiscriminately. those who may have had time or opportunity to come to God in their life can have this opportunity taken away by such weapons. moreover, they are an offence to the Creation itself. in essense, those in control of nuclear weapons have the ability to destroy all life on earth and this is an abomination like no other. (they can destroy what God has put into being!! and they like, no LOVE, having this control!!!) no other weapons produced by man can do this.

as i said, the Church that opposes these weapons will prosper and grow in that those who oppose such an abomination will be rewarded by God. and those who speak up for the Creation will be known as true believers fighting for their fellow man's salvation, as well as their rights.

bub

 2008/3/28 10:16
ginnyrose
Member



Joined: 2004/7/7
Posts: 7534
Mississippi

 Re:

Bubba,

I agree in your assessment of the destructiveness of nuclear weapons. However, I question the church's right or responcibility to impose its opinions/convictions on the state. The state does not have a glowing reputation of taking a "Biblical" principle, putting it into practice and having it work well. Let me illustrate one tiny incident.

All of us are aware of how the Feds appeared to have bungled the relief efforts (especially FEMA) following hurricane Katrina. (Do not get me wrong: the victims had developed a mentality that it is the government's responsibility to fix whatever went wrong, so this only compounded the problems.) Sometime later, a tornado touched down in Daviss County, IN destroying homes, businesses, etc. The locals immediately went to work cleaning up, fixing, repairing, building. When the FEMA man came on the scene he was surprised to see what the locals had done and were doing. He declared there is nothing for them - FEMA- to do!

Quote:
atomic weapons kill indiscriminately[/quote

Do not all weapons kill indiscriminately? It happens everywhere all the time. Consider the fatalities that occur in Israel, in Iraq, in Afghanistan. They do not use atomic weapons. This is war. It would be 'nice' if those who fight would be more 'careful' in who they choose to kill, but this is not the case.

Quote:
as i said, the Church that opposes these weapons will prosper and grow in that those who oppose such an abomination will be rewarded by God.



Would you mind giving me a case example? I am aware of the Quakers pacifist position on this issue. I am also aware of the larger (liberal) Mennonite churches role in protesting the use of atomic weapons. I cannot speak for the Quakers because I am not all that well acquainted with them but I can speak of the Mennonites.

To what end have they been blessed for protesting the government's use of atomic weaponry? They have exchanged Biblical non-resistance for pacifism which has put them on a slippery slope of apostasy the unlike that has not been seen (I think) in all of Anabaptist history. They have exchanged evangelism, holiness for socialism, benevolence to the needy. Works of benevolence are commendable if not separated from the gospel, but in many situations this is what has happened.

And to add insult to injury, for many years the Mennonite Central Committee has refused to come out against abortion! (Do not know its present position on this issue.) War on the unborn is not worth their efforts. (I have talked to a lady who had contacted MCC about this but they were close mouthed and very uncooperative.) Now figure this out.

The liberal Mennonites have fast gone the way of popular Christianity in their apostasy in just the past 50 years. So, in my observation I have not seen any church being blessed for trying to impose their pacifist philosophy onto the government.

I am not saying I like atomic weapons: I am only saying that non-resistant Christianity has better things to do which will have better results. Too often we are ignorant of how God is working in the lives of people in the military. Pastorfrin has shared his testimony on "Let's Talk about Peace." On that thread I shared a story of a navy intelligence officer who was 6 months from retirement. The HOLY SPIRIT convicted him of his job and he left the Pentagon and now works as a teacher. (There is a picture of him, Tom Mooney, in the April/May 2008 issue of "Country" magazine, published by Reiman publications, on page 54.) He says there are others whom the HS has convicted of their role in military machine.

Bubba, God is working in the lives of people and it seems to me we do well to cooperate with him in His methods and not take this work into our own hands because that is fleshy and gets you nowhere spiritually.

My understanding and observations of life and what I have seen happen.

Blessings,
ginnyrose


_________________
Sandra Miller

 2008/3/28 11:06Profile









 Re:

Ginnyrose, thank you for your seasoned post. i'm not sure, but the Mennonites may not be taking a position against abortion for reasons unclear to outsiders. The Religious Society of Friends takes no position on this issue because Friends are not in agreement on the issue. all denominational decisions are made by consensus process, so, a few individuals can stand in the way. many Quakers oppose abortion, but the RSOF takes no position. this may be so in the Mennonite Church??

my opinion of the Mennonite Churches opposition to nuclear weapons????? LAME!!! in word only. When is the last time you saw anything in the news about Mennonites working against nuclear weapons???

this kind of protest needs people willing to live with conviction! as did the Navy man you noted.

as it is, this Great Abomination is standing in front of the Church, saying, WE are IN CONTROL! YOUR FATE BELONGS TO US!

bub

 2008/3/28 11:46
ginnyrose
Member



Joined: 2004/7/7
Posts: 7534
Mississippi

 Re:

Quote:
but the Mennonites may not be taking a position against abortion for reasons unclear to outsiders.



Bubba, one can only guess why this is so. However, in the conservative segment of Mennonites opposition to this procedure is strong with no tolerance whatsoever. The reason for this is because people believe it to be killing.

Quote:
the RSOF takes no position. this may be so in the Mennonite Church??



Likely. Mennonites have no 'pope' to steer them but they do have seminaries, and church periodicals in which ideas are shared and promoted. :-?

Quote:
When is the last time you saw anything in the news about Mennonites working against nuclear weapons???



I do not know the answer to this question since I do not have access to "Mennonite Weekly" where these kind of ideas/acts are reported. But I suppose you are right: there has been very little protests done at military bases...maybe because God has kept them too occupied with clean-up following disasters. I am talking about Mennonite Disaster Service which will go into any community hit by storms to assist in clean-up. They have refined this service which has even grabbed the attention of the news media! and now other church groups are following suit!

Liberal Mennonites have also jumped on the bandwagon of making the church friendly to unrepentant homos and lesbians. This may be their latest project, having displaced the protests against the use of nuclear weapons. Or maybe they have decided they have reached the goal politically in that people are scared of it. Do not know...reckon I will have to ask someone, like my BIL who teaches at a liberal Mennonite University...will see.

The bottom line is that modern Mennonites have strayed far from their Anabaptist roots. If Michael Sattler, Felix Mantz, Conrad Grebel, Menno Simons could see where the modern Mennonite church has gone, they would 'roll over in their grave'! I am sure they would be so embarrassed and ashamed like some conservative Mennonites are..:-o

ginnyrose


_________________
Sandra Miller

 2008/3/28 14:59Profile





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