BIBLE PROMISES - Page 2

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Rachel Henderson
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BIBLE PROMISES - Page 2

Postby Rachel Henderson » December 14th, 2016, 10:28 pm

The verse in Exodus 20:12 states: “Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you. It is reaffirmed in the New Testament in: Ephesians 6:2-3 - “Honor your father and mother”—which is the first commandment with a promise—“so that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.”

During my lifetime, I've seen mothers who honoured their parents and yet lived short lives, like my mother who honored both her parents and grandparents. On the other hand, mothers who dishonoured their parents and yet lived to ripe old ages of over 80 years of age. There are even criminals, such as serial killers, rapists and paedophiles who live long lives on the earth. While at the same time, a shocking number of innocent people are sentenced to death. One of the ways in which we honor our parents is by having a clean criminal record.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, "tells you that a surprising number of innocent people are sentenced to death," Samuel R. Gross, the lead author, said in an interview with Newsweek. "It tells you that a lot of them haven't been exonerated. Some of them no doubt have been executed." The headline on newsweek.com is "One in 25 sentenced to death in the U.S. is innocent, study claims."

Do all these convicted criminals deserve to live and my mother who was a godly, holy, righteous mother deserve to die, along with all these other devout Christians?

Charles Manson, the convicted American serial killer is still alive today at the age of 82 years. Charles Albright, known as the eyeball killer, is 83 years. The nurse Jane Toppan, a serial killer, lived to be 81 years of age. Edward Theodore Gein was an American murderer and body snatcher. He died at the age of 78 years. Ian Brady, the child killer is 78 years. Robert Hansen, the serial killer died at the age of 75 years. Dennis Rader is 71 years of age. Phillip Jablonski, another serial killer is 70 years of age, and the list goes on and on. Incarcerated criminals enjoy the fresh air and sunshine with fitness and recreational activities, including sports, gym, pool tables and so forth. These prisons are more like holiday resorts.

Charles Manson, the ringleader of the killer cult still remains unrepentant even at the ripe old age of 82 years, just like many other criminals. I'm puzzled as to why God allowed all these criminals to live long lives. Was He waiting for them to turn to Him and repent? But God has foreknowledge. We find instead, that they committed more and more crimes, while growing old without any sign of remorse?

Psalm 91:16 states: "With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation.” This verse is supposed to be referring to devout believers. Instead, we see that the criminals are the ones who are living long lives. Why would God want to satisfy scum of the earth with long lives?

The Bible also states that God has foreknowledge. Therefore, He knows in advance whether anyone will repent.

Isaiah 46:9-10: "Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure:"

If God made us for a reason and that is to begin a relationship with, serve and obey Him, then why doesn't He grant long lives to those devout Christians who do good deeds. It is God who decides when we are born and how long we live according to:

Psalm 139:16: [i]"Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be."

God is the one who planned the days of our lives in advance, choosing the exact time of our birth and death. This goes for criminals too, as well as many famous atheists who have lived to ripe old ages including: Diana Athill (99), Katharine Hepburn (96), Baba Amte (94), Uri Avnery (93), Julius Axelrod (92), Marlene Dietrich (91), Kai Nielsen (90), Henry Burstow (90), Jorge Amado (89), Eric Ambler (89), Tom Lehrer (88), James Randi (88), Paul Kurtz (87), Edward O. Wilson (87), Larry Adler (87), Mary Adams (86), Jemima Blackburn (86), Michael Martin (84), Philip Roth (83), Steven Weinberg (83), Victor Stenger (81), Robert Altman (81), Woody Allen (81), and many others.

The verse in Isaiah 30:18 states that the Lord is a God of justice. "Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you; therefore he will rise up to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him!" Where is the justice? I'm absolutely appalled and disgusted by the injustice not only in the Christian community, but in the world today. I believe these injustices promote and encourage evil all the more.

Many devout believers have been martyred who were very faithful to God, like Stephen and all of the twelve apostles who died as martyrs during the first century, with the exception of John, the writer of the Gospel with his name and the Book of Revelation who died a natural death, at 94 years of age, close to the year 100 A.D.

A report issued by a Christian organization fighting religious persecution states that a Christian is killed for his or her faith every five minutes across the world. It has escalated dramatically over the centuries, with more Christian martyrs in the 20th and 21st centuries than in the preceding 19 centuries — going back to Jesus Christ’s earthly ministry. The situation is only getting worse.

Over 75% of Christians persecuted in North Korea who are subjected to torture, imprisonment and all sorts of punishment do not survive to tell their stories.

Currently, more than 200 million Christians around the world are threatened because of their faith. Is God pleased with martyrdom? Does it give Him satisfaction to see many Christians martyred for their faith. Does God consider it a sacrifice that brings glory and honour to Him, thereby pleasing and acceptable?


Thank you.

God bless you,
Rachel Henderson

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dolfan
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Re: BIBLE PROMISES - Page 2

Postby dolfan » December 20th, 2016, 5:08 am

Rachel, you are a busy thinker or reader or typer -- or all three. :)

There is a premise in your posts about promise. Maybe you are aware of it, maybe not. But, the whole of your thought process hinges on this idea: God owes me.

Look at your own words -- and I don't mean this impolitely.

Can you tell me please why does God's word promise so much and yet fulfils so very little to nothing in the lives of many devout Christians[?] ... [W]hy do not all devout Christians live long lives and have optimum health as countless scriptures promise[?]"


Your post begins from the point of accusing God on one hand, and touting Christians as deserving "long lives and optimum health" on the other.

Regardless of what is said in all of those verses and passages that you quoted --- very thoroughly, I might add --- my prayer for you is that you will come to a knowledge of who God really is. My prayer is that He will do a work in you that causes real love for Him and for who He is to spring up in you. For your benefit, I pray that He will do that swiftly because either you are genuinely hurting and grasping at air for answers or you are not being honest with yourself about who He is. I don't want you to be in such pain or disillusionment or --- frankly --- darkness.

Lord, You have proven yourself to a creation who is owed no proof. You have revealed yourself to people who love darkness rather than light. It takes me 3 seconds to see it in myself because I know I am a wicked man in my own heart. You reveal ME to me, too. Will You do for Rachel what You do for me? Will You show her an accurate and truthful picture of her own wickedness before Your holiness? Will You bring her to love You for who You really are in Christ? Will You pour mercy after mercy on her as You do to me? Will You bring her to walk away from every idea of herself as someone who deserves You or Your love or Your kindnesses and supply? Will You lead her to the freedom of knowing Your goodness in spite of her own difficulties and dark days? Will You convince her, too, of Your nature as God our Healer even if she or people she loves remain sick? Will You bring her into Your kingdom so she can see that it is Your good pleasure to give it to Your children, even if that means not having things that her imagination and her studies and her listening to false teachers and wrong ideas of You have convinced her are hers? It is only a work that You can do, Lord. Use other men and women, if You will, people whom You've filled with Your Spirit to walk her through the places that lead her from where she is to where true knowledge of You is. People who will do that in love. Amen, in Jesus' name.
Human government bears the same relation to hell as the church bears to heaven. (David Lipscomb, On Civil Government, 72).


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