Scott Downey
Well-Known Member
yes, that is right, the natural man does not understand, In fact they cannot ever. It is up to God to be merciful to the unsaved so that they be saved, God does that by changing their heart, giving to them a new spirit, otherwise they will never believe in Christ.I believe how we treat people is a testimony of the living Christ guiding us through this world, from within us.
We are a testimony.
Jesus tells us, the natural person does not understand the things of God, they are foolishness to them.
The truth of God, the gospel of Jesus, is spiritually discerned.
God changes that. Not us. We are examples to the natural person. They do not understand the things of God, but they will remember how those who claim to treated them in his name.
God even sends strong delusion on the wicked who refuse to repent so that they believe the lie of the devil. They truly are locked into their fates.
Example here, however God has chosen within himself to choose to save some and that from the beginning of time for salvation, because those God loves with a great love, He saves them as Ephesians 2 says.
The Great Apostasy
1 Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, 2 not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of [a]Christ had come. 3 Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of [b]sin is revealed, the son of perdition, 4 who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits [c]as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.5 Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? 6 And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time. 7 For the [d]mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only [e]He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way. 8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming. 9 The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, 10 and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 11 And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, 12 that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
Stand Fast
13 But we are [f]bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God from the beginning chose you for salvation through [g]sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth, 14 to which He called you by our gospel, for the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.,