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Who is "worthy" to be elected United States President in 2016?
"Conservative" or "liberal" politics and campaigners aside, WHO EXACTLY is "worthy" of "the" "gospel?"
Those of Hindu, Buddhist, Shinto, Islam, and Judaic cultic mindset presume that no one CAN nor DOES get their sins forgiven by ANY outside party - even God Himself - but each individual has to "pay for" or "make up for" their own sins by THEMSELVES....with Jewish Pharisee excepted:
Mark 2:7 "Why does this man speak thus? It is blasphemy! Who can forgive sins but God alone?"
Luke 5:21 And the scribes and the Pharisees began to question, saying: "Who is this that speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God only?"
Matthew 27:37 And over His head they put the [dastardly, extremely despicable, and excruciatingly diabolical] charge against Him, which read: "This is Jesus the King of the Jews." [Wow! Nasty! How awful!]
38 Then two robbers were crucified with him, one on the right and one on the left.
39 And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads
40 and saying: "You who would destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross." [If you are a Non-Partisan Patriotic Senator doing his Constitutional-Duty Job, give Obama's choice of Supreme-Court replacement a Judiciary-Committee hearing]
Mark 15:30 ...save yourself, and come down from the cross!"
Luke 23:37 ...saying: "If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!"
Luke 23:39 One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying: "Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!"
How about that it's-a-personal-matter, do-it-yourself salvation?
Philippians 2:12 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
They presume that "God" HAS NOT and CANNOT die for anyone's sins, because God is "Eternal."
First Chronicles 16:36 Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting! Then all the people said: "Amen!" and praised the LORD.
Psalm 106:48 Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting! And let all the people say: "Amen!" Praise the LORD!
Malachi 3:6 "For I the LORD do not change; therefore you, sons of Jacob, are not consumed."
Hebrews 7:16 [Jesus] has become Priest, not according to a legal requirement concerning bodily descent but by the power of an indestructible life.
Hebrews 13:8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
Actually, sins (of onesself and/or others) can NEVER be atoned for nor forgiven by hit-and-miss self-attempts at self-rectifying past errant misbehavior.....nor even the desire to, from now on, live flawlessly obedient and in life-sustaining perfect compliance with and accommodation with all immutable environmental entities the Creator has created and confined His human creatures within.
For example, if our car has been damaged by being left out in heavy hail, we cannot repair the damage by thereafter keeping it garaged or under a bridge during the next hailstorm. If you tried to fly like a bird but instead fell off a cliff and painfully hit the rocks below, you cannot recuperate from near-fatal injuries by either not jumping off the same cliff again, nor another cliff, nor intending to never jump off either cliff. If we have ejaculated semen at the sight of mopheaded or sleevesless or slacksless or soxless porn, we cannot stick the goo back in by not lusting at the same or other porn, nor intending to nevermore seek sensuously-titillating sights. Nor regain the seconds progressively ticked onward and then permanently past which are then forever gone and wasted.
When window-pane glass is broken, it is not repaired by intending to never break that particular glass pane again, nor intending to never break another glass window pane. Moreover, broken window-pane glass most often can never be repaired completely to the condition it was before it was broken. Instead, a new and non-broken window-pane glass is substituted.
Such is the case with penitent sinners, and replacement of broken window-pane glass is equivalent to Christ (the proverbial Perfect Window-Pane Glass) becoming and being the engrained replacement.
Wanting to be "worthy" and actually being "worthy" by intending to PERFECTLY obey the [Judeo-Christian and Civil] Law 24/7 [a quite-noble quest indeed....part of which is ALWAYS wearing a back-of-head ponytail if you're a human female while consistently wearing long sleeves and long pants and socks with sandals or other shoes when in mixed-gender public view....AND (if you're a human female) admitting that you are the NON-equal INFERIOR gender [per Leviticus 27:1-5, Ecclesiastes 7:26-28, Isaiah 3:12, Nahum 3:13, First Corinthians 11:1-16 and 14:33-38, First Timothy 2:11-15, First Peter 3:7]....AND always stopping completely at all red stoplights in heavy traffic....AND voting against Hillarius in the 2016 Election plus insisting that only the next President in 2017 select the next Scalia-replacement Supreme-Court judge]....is of course required for salvation (temporal and eternal) as plainly indicated by pertinent and appropriate applications of various Scripture verses.
But such blessed intentions can NEVER compensate for NOR eradicate the guilt of having COMMITTED (and not "performed") past SINS of whatever types and degrees, nor remedy past ILLEGALITIES contrary to proper Biblically-based interpretation of acceptable-versus-unacceptable religion and religious expression relating to the Non-Establishment and Non-Prohibition Clauses of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.
Added to that, they who advocate nothing but "peace" and "tolerantly living together cooperatively" are non-realistically IMBALANCED both morally and socially. The forces of the Universe consist not only of ying but also yang, not only push but also pull. Gray areas are thankfully transitory, and most of life is either a definitive and finally-relaxing stop or go, black or white, day or nite, birth-gender man or birth-gender woman, involving out of which oriface they actually pee and pop.
Not only that, but one-sided "peace" is contradictory. One cannot exhibit the "peace" of being peacefully stationary at red and peacefully-stationary at green intersection traffic lights. Rather, one MUST non-peacefully and obtrusively stop at red stoplights and MUST non-peacefully and obtrusively go at green stoplights (or else get severely honked at) ...and NOT a confusing and dangerous combination of non-peacefully-disruptive opposites inclusively included. "Coexisting" yellow non-peacefully always soon morphs into either slow down before the intersection or instead speed up to clear the intersection -- NOT both.
Denying such results from a basic misunderstanding not only of God, the Creator, but also of humans (including watchful squad-car cops), the created.
God CAN DO and DOES anything HE wants, and has NO "right" to do this or that, because "rights" imply permission granted from a higher authority...and there obviously is NO authority equal to NOR higher than God Himself.
It takes submissive humility for us humans, destined for Heaven and not for Hell, to believe and accept that.
The opening verses of Genesis in most English Bibles are a bit misrepresentative by stating: "LET there be (this)..." and "LET there be (that)..." because that mis-infers that God the Creator was petitioning a Higher Power to ALLOW this or that.
Sure, one could consider it an idiosyncratic English-language "figure of speech" to put it that way, or it could be understood as the Father and Spirit giving Divine commands to the Son of God to not actively but passively allow this or that to come into existence for the first time during Creation Week. But it also could wrongly insinuate pre-existence of what was called into being for the first time, and that some Higher Power other than the Creator Himself was withholding display of pre-existing phenomena before giving permission for those phenomena to be let loosed.
Perhaps it would be preferable to instead phrase the Day-long sequences with the simple exclamations: "BE light. BE vegetation. BE sea creatures. BE land animals." And so on.
And did it take the Creator a whole 24 hours to build and activate lifeforms each Day, and increasing numbers of them, during each Day? Or did He instead do it all for that Day in a microsecond, and rest for the remainder of each Day?
There are only two types of people, though such is not always evident by heard words and observed actions:
The GOOD guys and gals are those (as it states in Romans chapter 7) whose "inmost delight is in the Law of God" [both Mosaic and more Old Testament and reiterated-Old-Testament New-Testament Law]....and the BAD or EVIL guys and gals whose inmost delight is in deliberately ignoring, disregarding, and even spitefully disobeying the Law of God.
It is either one or the other, and every person born increasingly manifests their particular choice (as they grow older) to either be FOR God, His Ways, His fanatically-extremist narrowly-broadminded saints, His environmental processes and parameters....or instead AGAINST God, His Ways, His religious-right saints, and His environmental processes and parameters.
The latter type usually reveal their contrary intentions GRADUALLY, almost imperceptably, as they continue on in life...obeying the Law NOT out of love for God nor His Law nor others, but for fear of inconvenient or painful punishment if they disobey. They presume that if they live long enough, they or someone else will figure out a way to "get around God" and maybe "do Him in" (which perhaps is how Lucifer felt in his perfect heavenly surrounding before he, all of a sudden, decided to rebel against God, wrongly presuming that he would be victorious and overpower God and His angels).
But sometimes it suddenly dawns on certain persons that they will never be able to overthrow or outmaneuver the Lord nor His saints, and that they are irrevocable destined to be eternally suspended in the tormenting invisible flames of outer darkness...and then with terror-and-hate-filled eyes blow themselves to pieces with explosive vests or gun down schoolchildren or workplace employees, then themselves.
The insanely-vicious-and-ruthless kamikazi types delude themselves into imagining that they can murder others with impunity because those then murdered cannot harm nor execute them back because they are dead, and often they then murder themselves to disallow any would-be avengers from getting the credit and honor for, and taking charge of, executing them. So the suicide crazies figure that they've "got it made" whatever happens, AND have deplorably deceived themselves into presuming that there is no afterlife of retaliatory Judgement but merely the posthumous [pseudo]-honor of [admittedly-absurd] "martyrdom" which in fact does not and never will accomplish the grandios changes they hoped it would.
Obedience or disobedience to MANDATORY commands and orders which GOD [in logical accord with natural-environment evidence] has given in the Old and New Testament, reveal the inner and intrinsic either-or motivation of each human (which I believe never changes from toddlerhood until the day they die)...despite seeming constant attitude changes in words and actions from apparent repentance to apparent non-repentance, and back and forth.
Those willfully displaying obvious fruits of the Spirit, congruent with God's Biblical admonitions, will go to Heaven....in stark contrast to those willfully displaying obvious fruits of Satan and demons against God's Biblical admonitions who obviously will go to Hell.
God's commands and orders are NOT mere recommendations, nor suggestions, nor advice for those purporting to not depend for salvational atonement by trying to obey the Law (even perfectly) for self-redemption or even having obeyed it somewhat so far, to as to self-save themselves self-righteously....and the reason for that is that mere non-Authority-based recommendations and suggestions and advice can either be taken or left with no consequential punishment associated with either positive or negative choice.
Choice WILL be made either way, but what matters is WHAT is chosen - whether right or wrong. Whether we are pro-choice, or hate choice, is - in one sense - irrelevant.
Disobedience to COMMANDS and ORDERS of necessity involves PUNISHMENT (now and hereafter) for non-compliance - even for those who profess to "live in and by the Spirit" or not legalistically self-bound to joyfully or ruefully obey whatever laws of God they selectively cherry-pick and choose.
Lamentably, many of those who obey the Law as much (or as little) as they might reluctantly do (under threat of punishment, pain, and worse) -- as, for example, grudgingly exhibiting reliable public modesty with burka or hijab or whatever, falling down barefoot on their face toward Mecca five times each day, refusing to eat certain foods and drink certain drinks at certain times, ingesting wafer-and-wine communion-tidbit appetizers for self-atonement, stopping at all red stoplights for either love of neighbor or fear of police or both, and even voting against Hillarius) -- will not make it into Heaven....IF their inner motivation is to capriciously and facetiously despise and disobey the Law of God rather that delight in it.
It is THAT simple.
Romans 2:12 ALL who have sinned without the Law will also perish without the Law, and ALL who have sinned under the Law will be judged by the Law.
Romans 10:9 ....IF you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be redeemed.
If you do NOT confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and/or do NOT believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be NOT be redeemed but instead will be damned.
No piss-with-pop nor poop-with-pudding compromising or peacefully and tolerantly coexisting with both, simultaneously or non-simultaneously.
GOD is the Boss - NOT us. HE, and NOT we, set and enforce the Playing-Field Rules.
When Jesus stated (through Saint John) in the New-Testament book of Revelation that:
Revelation 20:12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Also another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, by what they had DONE.
Revelaton 20:13 And the sea gave up the dead in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead in them, and all were judged by what they had DONE.
...by "what they had DONE" includes all sorts of things, like for example, love-your-neighbor philanthrophic benevolence,
especially to and for God's elect:
Matthew 25: 31 When the Son of man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne.
32 Before Him will be gathered all the nations, and He will separate them one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats,
33 and He will place the sheep at His right hand, but the goats at the left.
41 Then [the King] will say to those at His left hand: "Go away from me, you cursed, into the Eternal Fire prepared for the Devil and his angels;
42 because I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink,
43 I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me."
44 Then they also will answer: "Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?"
45 Then He will answer them: "Truthfully, I say to you, as you did it not to one of the least of these, you did it not to me."
46 And they will go away into Eternal Punishment, but the righteous into Eternal Life."
NOT become "reincarnated." NOT pass out of existence in some fairy-tale-fable wannabe escapism.
What other work and works MUST be done to qualify for Heaven?
Well, CALLING Jesus: "Lord" is vital, along with OBEYING Him:
John 8:3 The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her front and center
4 they said to Him: "Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. [Did they see the arousing XXX-rated show, and then LIKE that?]
5 Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such. What do you say about her?" [And what will observant Roman police say?]
6 This they said to test Him, that they might have some charge to bring against Him. [concerning emergency Roman 911-equivalent cellphone calls?]. Jesus bent down and wrote with His finger on the ground.
7 And as they continued to ask Him, He stood up and said to them: "Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her." [Have the Roman cops arrest and handcuff her, and bring her to due-process court]
8 And once more He bent down and wrote with His finger on the ground.
9 But when they heard it [as due-process Roman-soldier police watched nearby], they went away, one by one, beginning with the eldest, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before Him.
10 Jesus looked up and said to her: "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?"
11 She said: "No one, Lord." And Jesus replied: "Neither do I condemn you; go, and do not sin again."
Luke 23:42 [NOT RSV] [The penitent thief on a cross] said to Jesus: "Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom."
Luke 23:43 And He replied to him: "Truthfully I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise."
What other work MUST be done by us [US!] to merit salvation?
John 6:29 Jesus answered them: "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent."
"Believe in...?"
"Believe" WHAT?
Believe that Jesus exists and existed, believe that He and not Mary was, is, and forever will be THE immaculate Son of God, believe that His death on a cross absolves all past, present, and future sins of the duressed-by-non-solicited/non-asked-for/non-wanted-temptations penitent believer asking God for forgiveness for frequently caving in under pressure (unlike those who have said that they have never asked forgiveness for anything), believing that Gospel of gracious and non-deserving reconciliation as God's free gift to be humbly accepted not proudly nor arrogantly rejected.
Proof is all around us.
WE (not God the Creator) were born into a God-created environment which we ourselves did not think ourselves into before we got into that environment. WE cannot create anything new out of nothing ourselves, but only can and do manipulate (in various ways) GOD-created natural resources already made, available, and provided by the Creator.
Are lasers, transistors, radar, firearms, marijuana, gunpowder, geiger counters, isotopes, chemical combinations, plastics, velcro, thermometers, fluorescent bulbs "new?" Or have the natural resources from which they are made already existing before we came on the scene?
Ecclesiastes 3:15 That which is, already has been; that which is to be, already has been; and God seeks what has been driven away.
WHO can put a soul into the body of a living and breathing human? Not even the technologically-connived-and-concocted soul-less Image of the Beast mentioned in the New-Testament book of Revelation will have that, and hence will (like robotic and instincts-driven lower lifeforms) have no moral nor immoral capacities nor responsibilities nor eternal destiny ITSELF (and NOT "him"-self).
Relating to that, it will be no big deal for many of the younger generation to take the commerce-transactions-required 666 Mark of the Beast upon themselves on forehead or right hand....being that even a lot of female teens and young women have already defaced their bodies with all sorts of [admittedly-ugly-and-reprehensible] graffiti tattoos with piercings here and there, having either ignorantly or deliberately violated:
Leviticus 19:28 You shall not make any cuttings in your flesh on account of the dead or tattoo any marks upon you: I am the LORD.
Along those lines, there is nothing more erotic than the "natural woman" without fingernail or toenail polish, rouge, eyeshadow, lipstick, tattoos, piercings, high heels, stockings, on their completely-naked bodies.
In one sense, one indeed can and should try to "pay for" and "make up for" their own sins by trying to correct their past misbehavior [You MUST be perfect, as your Heavenly Father is PERFECT].... but in another sense, it should be clear by simple and honest observation of nature and entities therein that such correction -- IF the damage or failure goes past a certain point -- is impossible, and thus it is pathetically and deplorably futile to attempt self-correction and expect remedial self-restoration.
Sometimes "if it's really and irreparably broke, don't try to fix it" but instead throw it away, burn it, discard it, disown it, and depart away from it.
So can and does GOD forgive human sins, given the Authority He alone has? Isn't it humiliating for us to believe that, even though the Bible says that such is not only POSSIBLE for HIM to do but that such HAS BEEN DONE by what Jesus allowed Himself to succumb to on that cross?
God deserved to die for us, being that He imposed the Tempter, Forbidden Lethal-Tree Fruit, and human free will in the primal and "perfect" Garden of Eden. So it is only fair and just for God to die for us because of that, even though our ancient ancestors Eve and Adam were also and significantly partly to blame and at fault for inevitably falling on the Stumbling Blocks the Creator Himself imposed in The Garden.
But CAN God Himself [NOT "herself"] die?
Here is where the mystery of the Holy Trinity, the Trinitarian Godhead, must be taken into consideration.
The cultic [including muslims and hindu and even some jews] have trouble understanding the Divine "many-yet-one" concept of the Triune God:
Deuteronomy 6:4 "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD...
Mark 12:28 And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that [Jesus] answered them well, asked Him: "Which commandment is the first of all?"
Mark 12:29 Jesus responded: "The first is: "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one." [One WHAT?]
What is meant by that is this: God "in Three Persons" (according to the Christian Old-and-New-Testament Holy Bible) consists of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Singular Group is essentially One God united, but manifested to us humans as three interrelated and seamlessly-integrated personages engaged in different aspects of what is characteristically attributed to them in that Christian Holy Bible.
Corresponding to that, it is logically obvious that although Jesus Christ was and is "THE Son of God" and to Him is attributed the creation of planet Earth and everything else physically existing in the entire Universe [per John chapter one, Colossians chapter one, Hebrews chapter one], only His actual physical body verifiably died on that cross of crucifixion mentioned in all of the four gospels of the New Testament, while both His spirit and soul remained alive in the spiritual realm (keeping in mind that all humans are made in the Trinitarian body/spirit/soul image of God, in contrast to mere body/spirit-components lower lifeforms).
Not only that, but obviously neither the Father nor the Spirit died on that cross, because if they had, no Supreme Being would have been existing to perpetuate the ongoing process of continuous orderly operation of all entities contained within the Universe, in which case complete chaos would catastrophically have been the total-destruction consequence.
As I said, the Divinely-integrated Father, Son, and Spirit as God in Three Persons is a mystery, but clearly the case as plainly revealed by such Scripture verses as:
Exodus 3:13 Then Moses said to God: "If I come to the people of Israel and say to them: "The God of your fathers has sent me to you," and they ask me: "What is his name?' what shall I say to them?"
Exodus 3:14 God replied to Moses: "I AM WHO I AM." And furthermore He said: "Say this to the people of Israel: "I AM has sent me to you."
Exodus 3:15 God also said to Moses: "Say this to the people of Israel: "The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you": this is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations."
[NOTE: God's real and true name is identified by association ONLY with ISAAC and NOT with Ishmael [which is why God's name CANNOT legitimately be equated with the foreign and antisemitic name: "allah" concocted for contrived satanic-verses Qur'an/Koran by 500-years-previously-pre-existing-Christian-Bible-influenced Mohammad].
Proverbs 30:4 Who has ascended to heaven and come down? Who has gathered the wind in His fists? Who has wrapped up the waters in a garment? Who has established all the ends of the Earth? What is His name, and what is His Son's name? Surely you know!
Isaiah 9:6 For to us a Child is born, to us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder, and His name will be called "Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father [Everlasting FATHER?], Prince of Peace."
Mark 12:37 David himself calls [the Son of God/Son of David] "Lord;" so how is He his son?"
John 8:58 Jesus said to them: "Truthfully I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM."
John 10:30 I and the Father are One."
John 14:8 Philip said to Him: "Lord, show us the Father, and we shall be satisfied."
9 Jesus said to him: "Have I been with you so long, and yet you do not know me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father; how can you say: "Show us the Father"?
10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority; but the Father who resides in me does His works.
11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father in me; or else believe me for the sake of the works themselves."
15 "If you love me, you will "keep" [retain and obey] my commandments.
16 And I will pray to the Father, and He will give you another Counselor, to be with you forever,
17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because they neither see Hhim nor know Him; you know him,
for he lives with you, and will be in you.
First John 5:7 [KJV/MKJV/KJ21/JB2000 - not RSV, TEV, NIV, etc.] There are Three who bear witness in Heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are One.
Even though Jesus Christ's body actually died on that Roman cross, it was only temporary, being that He was resurrected (by the Father and the Spirit), and/or it could be said that He (being in Trinune Unity as part of the Godhead) resurrected Himself with a glorified physical human body.
Though such is assuredly difficult, maybe humiliating (and perhaps for some or many, embarrassing) to believe, and in one sense logically and scientifically impossible to completely understand and comprehend, it must be restated that God Himself "calls the shots" as to what is both "possible" and "acceptable" - NOT us limited-knowledge finite-understanding human-specks of infinitesimal insignificance compared to Him.
Anyone who does not believe that, by default and without Divine authority, proudly and arrogantly sets themselves up as a deplorably-stupid "god" in defiance and anti-subjection against the actual and real Almighty Creator God who is far superior to them in indestructibility, knowledge, power, omnipresence, and much more.