Spoke with some Mormons this morning. Met at a cafe.
Went through the Isaiah passages and Revelation 4:8.
God is incomparable. He never learned. He has no ancestry. He’s the first and the last.
He never was tutored toward godhood.
He never was mentored toward divinity.
by Kevin DeYoung
Q. What do you understand by the providence of God?
A. Providence is the almighty and ever present power of God by which he upholds, as with his hand, heaven and earth and all creatures, and so rules them that lead and blade, rain and drought, fruitful and lean years, food and drink, health and sickness, prosperity and poverty—all things, in fact, come to us not by chance but from his fatherly hand (Heidelberg Catechism Q/A 27).
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"I am not satisfied with my repentance," you say.
by Horatius Bonar
You say that you do not feel yourself to be a sinner; that you are not "anxious" enough; that you are not "penitent" enough.
Be it so. Let me, however, ask you such questions as the following:
Every employment has its own particular perils and pitfalls, occupational hazards which are simply attendant on fulfilling the task in hand. In this post I want to share three healthy and holy fears which should characterise the mind and heart of a faithful minister. These are not the pathological fears which seize all of our hearts in times of despondency, but are more akin to the fear of deep water which keeps one safe at sea, or a fear of collision which keeps one vigilant on the roads:
If he feign another rule of faith besides the written word of God, we reject, repudiate, and refuse to acknowledge any such, and reduce the whole rule of the catholic faith to the scripture alone.
When any divine dispensation goeth cross to our affections, yea, our prayers and expectations, yet even then can faith bring meat out of the eater, and find many occasions of praise and thanksgiving to God; for nothing falleth out so cross but we may see the hand of God in it working for good.
"When I was with you day after day in the temple, you did not lay hands on me. But this is your hour, and the power of darkness.” - Luke 22:53
The time during which evil is permitted to triumph is fixed and limited by God. We read that our Lord said to His enemies when they took Him, "This is your hour and the power of darkness."
Question:
Does man have free will?
Answer:
Man has natural liberty to make voluntary choices (not coerced) but after the fall, while he still has natural liberty, he has lost the moral ability to choose what is good. He chooses evil of necessity due to a corruption of nature, and cannot do otherwise, so his will is in bondage to sin.
The proper study of God’s elect, is God. The highest science, the loftiest speculation, the mightiest philosophy, which can ever engage the attention of a child of God—is the name, the nature, the person, the work, the doings, and the existence of the great God whom he calls his Father! There is something exceedingly improving to the mind in a contemplation of the Divinity. It is a subject so vast—that all our thoughts are lost in its immensity; so deep—that our pride is drowned in its infinity!
