Aesthete
New member
No, I said "refuse Him," not refuse the role He has prescribed for us. The Bible says He has mercy on whom He will have mercy, and whom He will He hardens. So those who refuse Him and never repent would fall in the latter category.
The Bible makes it clear that no one whom He has chosen will refuse Him. Jesus said, "No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day." (John 6:44)
So what are you doing here? You're stumping around for slavery, copy-pasting some incoherent nonsense your pastor told you and annoying people, but you're not accomplishing anything. You cannot accomplish anything. By your logic, there's nothing for a person to do in this life. God will save whom he will save, or he won't. And by your testimony, he desires that most of us should not be saved, but rather to die in eternal agony.
I'm glad your version of God does not choose me, I'd worry about the company I was attracting frankly. I do not love torturers, slavers, or sadists, nor desire that they should love me.
A wise man once advised me to judge a person by the fruits of their labor, not by how smoothly they can talk. What fruit are you growing?
There are only two possibilities for anyone in this world, either you are for Jesus Christ or against Him. That's what Jesus said. There's no middle ground. Many who say they are for Him are not, as they believe in "another Jesus." These are such as are, "deceiving, and being deceived." As for the category of "atheist" - the Bible indicates contemporary atheism is willful ignorance (2 Peter 3:3-5). Because, otherwise, it is clear and knowable to men that God exists, being clearly understood from what has been made. Me, I was essentially an agnostic right until the time God put it in my heart to seek Him. Jesus Himself, during His earthly ministry, did remark that the prostitutes and tax collectors were entering the kingdom before the self-righteous, religious chief priests and elders. So it does not follow that just because someone calls himself an atheist, that he is further from the kingdom of God than a religious person. The opposite is quite possibly true, in many cases. Therefore, if by any means, I could explain why the Bible treats slavery the way it does, then I'm inclined to do that.