Tag Archives: faith

Does God Want People to be Deceived?

Posted on by

Question: I have read the article, “Are ‘Many’ or ‘Few’ Called in this Age?”. One part has me confused. It is Matthew 13:15: “For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them” (KJV).

I realize they could have seen but their hearts were dull, callous, insensible, their ears hard of hearing, and their eyes closed so they couldn’t see. That part I do understand. The part I don’t understand is the last part: “…lest at any time they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart and should be converted and I should heal them.” Doesn’t that mean that their ears and eyes could be opened, which would lead them to understand with their heart?

If they were converted, would that mean that they repented and applied God’s law and obeyed Him, and He would heal them? If it isn’t referring to that, then I don’t understand what he was referring to. It sounds like He didn’t want them to understand or change. Would that mean that at times God doesn’t want someone to understand?

I don’t understand. I hope you can explain it for me. Thanks so much. Continue reading →

The Two Covenants (Part 3)

Posted on by

As we’ve seen in previous installments of this series, the overall reason for the giving of the Old Covenant was because of transgressions – sin – lawlessness (Galatians 3:19). “Why then was the law [the Old Covenant] made? God gave it… because so many people were doing what was wrong” (Galatians 3:19; Bible in Worldwide English version).

But within that overall framework, there are at least five major reasons for the institution of the Old Covenant that we find in Scripture. Let’s examine these five reasons now one at a time: Continue reading →

Disputing Doctrine

Posted on by

For a Christian doctrine is not something we can safely ignore or take lightly. It is one of the factors that will make the difference between ultimately perishing or having salvation in God’s Kingdom, according to Scripture. Given the fact that our sanctification and ultimate salvation are directly associated with the doctrines we hold to, it follows that we must be able to discern the difference between true doctrine and false doctrine, and that we must embrace the truth and reject that which is false doctrine.

But not everyone agrees what doctrines are true. How is that to be determined, and by whom? And how should doctrinal disputes ought to be handled? The Bible provides guidelines and instructions in answering these questions, which is the subject of this message.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Messenger Church of God
PO Box 619
Wentzville, MO 63385
USA

“Disputing Doctrine” by Messenger Church of God released under a cc-by-nc-nd Creative Commons License:This image released under a CC cc-by-nc-nd license. Click here for details.