@archeofuturist A guy I worked for gave me a similar ultimatum: ask a girl out this week or I’ll ask one for you. I asked a girl and we’ve been married for 5 years and have 3 children.
Woke up thinking about Voddie in Heaven. And MacArthur in Heaven. And Charlie in Heaven. And was jealous, because I’m not.
And I was reminded of the ascendant superiority of the Protestant eschatology these men preached.
They’re not in purgatory, purging away their sins.
There’s no more work for them to do, or penance to accomplish.
There’s no doubt of their destination, nor unsureness of their estate.
Like all the other mortals who’ve crossed Jordan’s stormy shores, there’s no need to pray for them, nor to them.
No process exists by which they must be declared Saints, because the title was affixed to them the moment they believed.
They all preached a glorious gospel, and with total assuredness they are saved. With complete confidence they are in Christ. With complete joy they are absent from the body and present with the Lord.
They all preached a fantastically superior gospel and because of that gospel, their work is now done.
@thewardoll@ToorKnives Hebrews 12:
But now he has promised, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” This phrase, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of things that are shaken..Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken.
Listen to me when I say this; Christ had to call Lazarus by name or the entire graveyard would have come back to life.
When they came at night to arrest Jesus in the garden, he asked of them, "whom seek ye?" And they answered, "Jesus of Nazareth."
"I am" said the Messiah, and John records the entire mob falling backwards upon themselves at the power that emanated from this declaration of being the same God that appeared to Moses in the wilderness, who had now become flesh.
The man possessed of a legion of demons, who in his supernatural strength could not even be bound by chains, came rushing down to the feet of Jesus the moment the Lord stepped off the boat and onto that shoreline.
Falling at his feet he worshipped him as the Son of God, and it was only by Jesus command was he permitted to leave the possessed man and enter the swine
Every encounter with an unclean spirit takes place in the same way; with worship of the Son of Man and his ultimate authority.
Even in the book of Job, it is recorded that Satan must ask permission to afflict Job before he can act, and that Satan's presence in the lowest level of heaven was not optional, but that the Lord required him to come and give an account of what he was doing on the Earth.
Despite what you've seen in popular culture, we are not an arena where good and evil "slug it out for souls of men."
The Lord, in his ultimate sovereignty, allows evil to exist only because it fulfills his purpose.
The extent to which the Ancient of Days (as described in Daniel's vision) is in sovereign control of our universe should terrify you.
The ultimate power, in such control over all things that Satan's every move requires permission and that not even a sparrow falls from the sky apart from God's will.
You need to understand that everything from the rise and fall of Empires, to the numbering of the hairs on your head are only made so by the will of the Almighty.
That is the God that we serve.
The King of Kings.
The Name above all names.
And his name is Jesus.
@cdrsalamander The average enlisted guy wearing summers, sleeves rolled inwards to the wrist, and pants bloused low looks a billion times better than this.
“i do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. i love only that which they defend."