If you have time, could you please give me your thoughts on II Thess. 2:10-12? Why will God need to send those who “Received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved,” strong delusion, that they should believe a lie and be damned, when they are already damned, if they are not of the elect? They can’t believe the truth anyway, so why the “extra” need for Him to do that?
One other thing. What is the OSPB position on voting in political elections? ...I am not clear on the subject and would appreciate your understanding of the matter.
As to voting in an election, Nebuchadnezzar testified to the sovereignty of God over the kingdoms of this world when he said, “I praise and honour Him who liveth forever, whose is an everlasting dominion and His kindness from generation to generation. And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing. He doeth according to His will in the army of heaven and the inhabitants of the earth and none can stay His hand or say unto Him, What doest thou?” This was the lesson that Daniel said God would teach him as he stripped him of all his human qualities. “this matter is by decree of the watchers and the demand by the word of the Holy Ones, to the intent that the living may know that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men and giveth it to whomever He will and setteth up over it the basest of men” (Dan. 4:17). If you have been given a mind to cast a vote for a candidate, knowing that should he win he is but the basest of men, then by all means do so with the full assurance that the lot is cast into the lap but the whole disposing thereof is of Jehovah (Prov. 16:33).
The passage from II Thessalonians pertains to the day of the Lord, the manifestation of the son of perdition and those who love not the truth. The day of Jehovah is a day when God has gathered His harvest into His barns, separated the sheep from the goats and revealed His glory to all the world. When Paul wrote the letter to the church in Thessalonica, many were becoming despondent as to when the day should come or even if it had passed. Paul assured them that those who were of the house of Esau, whom God hated, must not only be revealed as the day approached but must be ‘with all power and signs and lying wonders’. Those who were of their father, the Devil, must do his works ‘with all deceivableness of unrighteousness’. It was not enough that they hated the truth and loved the darkness, they were to be infused with a strong delusion that would excite their zeal and passion to a frenzy comparable to Pharaoh who drove the wheels off the chariots in attempt to recapture those who had been delivered. God sent this delusion, like He sent the lying spirit to the mouths of the prophets of Ahab, to deceive those who ‘had pleasure in unrighteousness’ and to manifest their works. He had blinded their eyes to the truth and stopped their ears lest they should see with their eyes and perceive the truth and hear with their ears and understand and He must needs heal them" (Matt. 13:15). They were condemned before the foundation of the world, they came forth from the womb speaking lies, their feet are swift to shed blood and they are judged (condemned) because they believe not the truth. Therefore they are without excuse before the throne of God and have nothing to plead in their defense.
This is the other river in the land of Shinar. The river of life is unto those who have been chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world and these walk accordingly so that you may know them by their fruits. These fruits are not after the works of Adam for he is of the dust of the ground but they are the ‘peaceable fruit of righteousness’ (Heb. 12:11). They believe the truth because they are born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh but they are born of the Spirit of that incorruptible seed and being hewn from that Great Rock they are living stones. They are made manifest in the good works which they have been created in Christ Jesus unto and perform all that they have been ordained unto. God sustains His people with eternal life, makes them willing in the day of His power and causes them to walk in the power of His Spirit.
The other river is a river of separation with a great gulf fixed between, and the characteristics of the inhabitants thereof are very dissimilar. They have great passion and zeal although they love darkness and make a lie. They are of the earth, born of the flesh and from beneath and they work the works they have been ordained to work and they walk the path set before them. God sustains them with delusions to believe the lie and to deny all that is of the truth. They deny that Jesus is the Christ and that He came in the flesh. They deny the sovereignty of El Shaddai. They have, like Jeroboam, created the false temple, established their own ‘day of the lord’, their own feast days and holidays to prevent the children of the redeemed from seeking that city not made with hands. God feeds them with the whirlwind, the with chaft and with the dust of the earth. “Also He hath set the world in their heart so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end” (Ecc. 3:11). God compounds the condemnation and judgment against the wicked in the same way He adds blessing and grace unto His elect. The one so that they cannot be delivered from the wrath of God and the other that they cannot be separated from His love.
Before that great day, God loosed Satan upon the earth and he brought with him the plagues and fury of God’s wrath. Yet for all this the wicked did not repent but rather blasphemed the name of God and cursed Him (Rev. 16:11). God put it in their hearts, not to repent and seek forgiveness, but rather that they should all agree and give their kingdoms unto the beast until His Word be fulfilled. He made them do His will and they hated Him all the more because they love not the truth. When that great and terrible day was made manifest the wicked in their ignorance stood about and wondered what had happened for in one day all the plagues, death, mourning, famine and Babylon being utterly burned with fire, had come and in one hour the judgment was finished.
It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God, Amen.
These words were intended by the Spirit of God to be words of comfort and assurance from the apostle to the church at Thessalonica. He wrote them, that they ‘be not soon shaken and troubled in mind, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter’. These thing must needs be so and to the children of hope they are the “everlasting consolation and good hope through grace”. As severe as the wrath of God is upon the wicked sons of Satan even so more glorious is the love God and the beauty of His Holiness to His Sons. “Beloved now are we the sons of God”
The Spirit shall reveal the truth wherein His people are free,
chet
December 5, 2011
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