Why do some people believe and some do not?

[Magenta]

We put on the Righteousness Of Christ ~ “The work of God is this: to believe in the One He has sent.” You were dead in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, in which you used to walk when you conformed to the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit who is now at work in the sons of disobedience. The Son gives life to whom He is pleased to give it. If Christ is in you, your spirit is alive because of righteousness.

 

[Genez]

You seem to have a bit of bitterness in your heart towards me. No doubt I have been offensive. So I hope you will accept my sincere apology.
Grace and peace.

I have no bitterness in my heart towards you.

 

[Cameron143]

I have no bitterness in my heart towards you.

Sure you do. Go back and review the posts. I'm not even addressing you in the majority of the posts, but you respond to each negatively and critically. That's bitterness.
At any rate, my apology is sincere. Grace and peace.

 

[Magenta]

They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed, and depravity. They are
full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent,
arrogant, and boastful. They invent new forms of evil; are senseless, faithless, heartless, merciless.
Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things are worthy of death,
they not only continue to do these things, but also approve of those who practice them. .Paul.

 

[Jimbone]

Hey @Cameron143 @Rufus @brightfame52 @Melach @ParticularWife

Why the radio silence? Afraid that Toto might pull back the curtain?

Why are you antagonizing other believers? Why are you so dead set on dividing the body? You're a joke of your own making and your behavior here is an insult to Jesus name. I pity you and pray God brings you actual peace in life one day.

 

[cv5]

Why are you antagonizing other believers?

Or am I educating and warning?

I mean Jesus did the same to the Pharisees who (like the Calvinites) wrongfully believed that they were born saved and that God hated the reprobate gentiles so much that they were born to damnation.

Next question: why the radio silence?
Jesus silenced the Pharisees similarly BTW

 

[studier]

Or am I educating and warning?

I mean Jesus did the same to the Pharisees who (like the Calvinites) wrongfully believed that they were born saved and that God hated the reprobate gentiles so much that they were born to damnation.

Next question: why the radio silence?
Jesus silenced the Pharisees similarly BTW

Kind of hard to argue with, really... In the end He's the arbiter of thoughts and intents...

 

[GWH]

Or am I educating and warning?

I mean Jesus did the same to the Pharisees who (like the Calvinites) wrongfully believed that they were born saved and that God hated the reprobate gentiles so much that they were born to damnation.

Next question: why the radio silence?
Jesus silenced the Pharisees similarly BTW

Good point! I had not thought of that parallel/comparison.

 

[studier]

Good point! I had not thought of that parallel/comparison.

Which parallel - educating & warning?

 

[posthuman]

Good point! I had not thought of that parallel/comparison.

it is not always the case that when someone stops talking to you, you have left them speechless

 

[PaulThomson]

NKJ Matthew 13:15 For the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, And their eyes they have closed, Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, So that I should heal them.'

• This is referencing the LXX Isaiah6:10.
• Their hearts became dull (Greek). The Hebrew means insensitive, unreceptive.
• Their ears are hard of hearing: Greek weighty, with difficulty. Hebrew: slowness, heaviness, dullness, hardness
  • The Hebrew is the same word used in Ex re: Pharoah's heart. I didn't go back and check the Greek.
• Their eyes they have closed: Greek to close. Hebrew to smear over, blind.
  • Note the active sense here: they closed their eyes.
• There's an interesting twist in Isaiah because the Hebrew when read in isolation says that God is essentially doing this, but the LXX does not translate it this way and the NT references quote the LXX. So, I'm going to add this note from the NET Bible that provides some observation on why the LXX difference (My highlight of the first sentences.

I don't see any indication in the Hebrew that God is essentially doing this. He seems to be telling Isaiah that this will be what Isaiah will do: that the result of Isaiah's preaching will be that the people will make themselves less willing to hear.

It would be like God telling Donald Trump, "Go and make the Democrats more and more insane and wicked by speaking out against and cataloguing their insanity, crimes and corruption. Their hearts have become dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, Their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears. lest they should understand with their hearts and turn so that i would heal them."

They are already corrupt and belligerent. They don't want to be healed of their corruption. Having their corruption exposed will simply make them more corrupt in their attempts to silence their critics. Is God making them become more corrupt? In one sense, yes. If he did not send Trump to expose them, they would not have felt the need to ramp up their corruption and accelerate their programme. But it was their choice to refuse healing and get worse in response to the exposure. But there can really be no blame levelled at God or Trump for the Democrats' rabid response to the truth being exposed and the increase in corruption they produced in their reaction to exposure.

 

[PaulThomson]

Yes, I understand the "calloused" definition and usage. Callouses on the hand for example form from extensive use and the feeling through a callous is much less sensitive than through skin without callous. Thus the heart when used repetitively in disobedience becomes more and more insensitive to God. Both the lexical definition and the word callous are speaking of insensitivity. I normally prefer to translate closer to the actual definition and then elaborate from there. The paraphrasing in translation seems to never end.

Also callouses are self-inflicted. You don't wake up in the morning with callouses you did not cause yourself.

 

[studier]

Also callouses are self-inflicted. You don't wake up in the morning with callouses you did not cause yourself.

As in "extensive use" and "used repetitively in disobedience"? "self-inflicted" seems to be a continuing theme in this thread. Then at some point the Lord assists the self-infliction.

 

[studier]

I don't see any indication in the Hebrew that God is essentially doing this. He seems to be telling Isaiah that this will be what Isaiah will do: that the result of Isaiah's preaching will be that the people will make themselves less willing to hear.

Isn't the last part of your post the point? When Jesus references Is6 in Matt13, and Paul does the same in Acts28, they both say the people closed their eyes. When God knows a peoples' heart, ears, eyes and sends them a message knowing what they'll do with it, this in essence is where the Text says He hardens, closes, etc.

 

[PaulThomson]

Isn't the last part of your post the point? When Jesus references Is6 in Matt13, and Paul does the same in Acts28, they both say the people closed their eyes. When God knows a peoples' heart, ears, eyes and sends them a message knowing what they'll do with it, this in essence is where the Text says He hardens, closes, etc.

Yes. But His intention is not to harden them, but to inform/enlighten them. I object to the implication some seem to infer, that God wants them to become even harder.

 

[studier]

Yes. But His intention is not to harden them, but to inform/enlighten them. I object to the implication some seem to infer, that God wants them to become even harder.

You're not making much of a case here.

 

[posthuman]

I don't see any indication in the Hebrew that God is essentially doing this. He seems to be telling Isaiah that this will be what Isaiah will do: that the result of Isaiah's preaching will be that the people will make themselves less willing to hear.

God literally tells the prophet, "make" their ears dull. that's a commandment.

so unless you think it's Isaiah doing it, um, you are really stretching to get around the fact.

 

[posthuman]

Yes. But His intention is not to harden them, but to inform/enlighten them. I object to the implication some seem to infer, that God wants them to become even harder.

if it was God's intention to enlighten them by speaking in intentionally obscure metaphors rather than clear speech, why did God fail to do so?

is He not very good at communicating, or does He really not understand people's hearts?

 

[Magenta]

How does God change the heart? Magic or obedience?

Why do you introduce magic? Circumcision is not magic, though it makes obedience possible.

Just as Scripture says: so you MAY love God. Obedience born of understanding
trumps following the letter of the law when your heart is not in it.

Did you ever respond to this? I don't think I have heard anything from you to me at all since that day...

Philippians 3:3; Colossians 2:11; Romans 2:29b ~ For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh. You were also circumcised, in the putting off of your sinful nature, with the circumcision performed by Christ and not by human hands. Circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code.
Thank you for the inspiration! .

 

[PaulThomson]

You're not making much of a case here.

I've been persuaded. What scripture do you believe disqualifies the perspective that God wants everyone to become softer-hearted to His truth, and never wants to harden hearts to His truth?