Quote:
Originally Posted by Dr. Anthony J. Toole
There've been too many false dawns.
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As we see God's Majestic Plan™ unfold, and let's face it the universe is a pretty majestic place but He loves us so much, there's an easy rule of thumb. Who is implementing the methods ordained by
Christ and who is resisting them? Which legislative body aligns with His will and, secondly & much easier to determine, which do not?
I say
easier to determine, in the just-read-their-laws sense, because direct contraventions are black and white. For example if someone passed a law requiring idols to be set up, it flat-out contradicts what God (who is Jesus) already said. What happens next, offering milk to the thing or prostration on the floor in its vicinity or depositing money in a box for the idol to use, is immaterial because God prohibits making such objects in the first place.
John 6:2 And a great multitude followed him, because they saw his miracles which he did on them that were diseased.
In that example, though, emulating
Christ—a primary characteristic of
Christians—is less precisely specified. There would be many ways to benefit diseased wretches depending on their condition. Providing a scabrous alcoholic with gin doesn't seem miraculous to me whereas healing a leper whose foot had dropped off because he didn't trust in God, making him whole again is clearly miraculous. And provided it wasn't red, a tot of gin shared afterwards could even be appropriate. Or again, to pick another reference at random:
John 6:3 And Jesus went up into a mountain, and there he sat with his disciples.
Again somewhat vague. It would be easy enough to tell if someone was NOT doing that but climbing up and perching there like a display of garden ornaments seems to miss the mark.
Understanding what God's standard is enables us to see where those principles are being implemented today. That in turn helps us to appreciate the breadth of His Perfect Love® and how much suffering He witnessed to make His will known to us, how much wrongness needed to be cleansed from the world in order for His message to be preserved across the centuries. He instructed The Disciples to be armed – and as we've already seen this was not for merely decorative purposes. He secured The Promised Land© as a preserved haven for those He loved and in the same way will secure His promise for all
Christians in these last days as we see taking place now. Although we don't know which actually will be THE last day, we do know what leads up to it. Charlatans in the past have identified "false dawns" for various reasons (all bad) which helps us to understand how important His message really is and what the world endured for us to hear it. Where would we be now without
Christ?
Ecclesiastes 9:18 Wisdom is better than weapons of war: but one sinner destroyeth much good.