Hello Shawn, I want to respond to your remarks (post #4) because they bring up a good question.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MOSES  Side note:
This is slightly off topic but it is something to think about.
If God promised Noah and his descendants (all mankind) that he would never again destroy the whole earth (by flood), then why do so many Christians not believe this promise and teach that God will destroy the earth, but this time by fire?
That does not sound like much of a promise "I promise not to destroy the earth again, by water (fingers crossed)..but I will destory it by fire"
e.g., I punched my neigbor in the nose because he deserved it...then I promise to never punch him again..(because next time I will hit him with a hammer).
That is not much of a promise.
Personally, I take God's promise as secure, that he will never again destroy the earth...(but when he promised that to Noah, it just so happens to fall within the context of the flood) |
This is what the LORD actually promised,
"...neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done...(Gen 8:21)
I establish My covenant with you, and with your seed after you...neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth....the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh." (Gen 9:9, 11, 15)
I preached on the flood (and the final judgment) to a tribe of primitive Africans that had never seen a boat, although they had a pond near them. I told them to envision a house that floated on the water. They understood that the flood was not simply "destruction" but a cleansing of the earth from the evil that had overrun it. And in the final judgment, seeing as God's people were now too many to put on a boat, God sent His Son and all who were "in Him" (I often illustrated this with a bottle of water with a leaf in it) these would not perish when the final flood of fire came, because everyone who had the Spirit of the Son in him or her would be fireproof, and would not burn, but the fire would be a joy to them.
He will not smite every living thing again because now there is a vast multitude of people who belong to Him — the holy nation which shall be the new humanity dwelling on the cleansed and renewed earth — so the fire Peter speaks of in 2 Peter 2, and Malachi in his 4th chapter, is a ridding of all that causes death and sin and defilement (Rev 21:27), that God may keep His promise to His Son's Bride that when He makes all things new, and wipes all tears from her eyes,
"...there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away." (Rev 21:4)
It is the fire of purification, the prelude to joy.
This is why we call on people to seek refuge in Him in whose heart is the fountain of eternal youth, that they perish not with those who love death.
Linear Mode
