Originally posted by SwissGambit
You keep bringing up the chess analogy. But I don't see how it applies to Fabian's point here. You are not denying his claim. From my reading of your posts, you have not denied that God's plan of salvation makes it possible for someone like Hitler to be saved, while others who have led far less evil lives can be damned.
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You keep bringing up the chess analogy.
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I brought up the chess analogy as a example of a flimsy reason to not like chess. Fabian's reasoning I think is likewise a flimsy one for not wanting to be a Christian, in like manner.
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But I don't see how it applies to Fabian's point here. You are not denying his claim.
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I am not denying the claim that all sins that men sin can be forgiven and that even at a late hour of one's life.
I am examining the implication that this plan is foolish because the offender, after all, gets to go to a happy place called Heaven immediately. This makes God look totally more foolish than what I perceive going on there in His plan of salvation.
The danger of living in one's sins all of one's life and postponing repentance is that it may not work. The heart grows harder and harder and harder. It is a fact that because divine judgment is not carried out immediately in the sinner's life, his heart is set more and more upon continuing to sin.
What happened to Hitler is between God and Hitler. None of us know. But a sinner can so harden his heart with continual postponement and rationalization, that even in the hour they would like to believe, they cannot. They have locked themselves into a labyrinth of reasonings.
Some people reading these discussions will probably one day desire to believe in Jesus late in thier lives. They may find that because they played around and played around amusing themselves with arguments, that they cannot now believe.
For this reason I believe the Bible warns
"Seek the Lord while He can be found. Call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return to the Lord. And He will abundantly pardon ..."
"Today, if you hear His voice, harden not your heart ..."
There is something to seeking Christ while the Spirit of Christ is near.
"Seek the Lord while He can be found, call upon Him while He is near ..."
Can a man be forgiven of all his sins on his death bed? Yes. I believe so. I also believe that we should heed the warning though, to seek the Lord
"while He can be found".
Don't risk hardening your heart further. That would be my earnest advice to any person considering this matter.
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From my reading of your posts, you have not denied that God's plan of salvation makes it possible for someone like Hitler to be saved, while others who have led far less evil lives can be damned.
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There are only two ways that a human being can approach God.
He can approach God as one who has never sinned. Or he can approach God cleansed of his sins in the blood of Jesus.
My friend, my argumentative friend, or maybe not my friend too much, regardless, YOU choose which way you wish to approach God.
Degree of guilt here will not have an effect. You have to ... now listen .... You HAVE to understand that PERFECT is PERFECT. Holy is holy. Pure is pure. Righteous is righteous.
He's PERFECT Swiss Gambit. The God behind this universe is eternally Perfection.
I don't say that there is no revelation of degrees of sinning in the Bible. But some of us need to contemplate this matter of the complete holiness of God.
God is love. We like to know that His love is very very very strong. His love endures forever. He has really really strong LOVE. Thank God for that love.
The other side of this is the God is holy. He is a perfection that sets His being apart from everything else in existence. The good news is that Jesus Christ has met the requirement of that perfect justice and righteousness on His cross. There is no way we can fully appreciate what the death of Jesus has accomplished to meet the demand of God. The effectiveness of that substituionary death is known only to God. For us it is like a blank check upon which an infinite amount of money can be filled in.
That worth is for God to see. It meets His requirement. It can cover me and Hitler. It can cover the sins of the whole world throughout all time. That part of his understanding I do not dispute. I encourage it.
But that is only a part of the whole scheme of God's plan.