dizerner, should it not offend our "sensitive emotions" when we read that God delights in the destruction of men, women, children, and even babies? (Psimmond, Apr 24)
I did not read that Diz meant it like that that, I read his post and the text from Proverbs explaining that God told them to repent and they did not, therefore the judgment stands. i hope your not suggesting that Gods commands, if broken or disobeyed, are inconsequential. Or, what God said would happen, never ever actually comes to pass (because God is too loving to bring it to pass). In theory this makes God the false Prophet, and or at least a prophet of whom we will never ever know was true, because we want to interpret Gods Love to mean God will postpone and extend all final Judgment beyond the point of ever coming true.
So, rather than believing God is capable of relating words to thinking adults, we instead believe a lie that 'the disobedient and unrepentant are eternally children in their ability to think, and who will need ages upon ages to finally mature enough' to simply believe
God meant what HE said, in His Word. The idea that the future holds untold millions of opportunity’s to repent is a repackaged lie. God Himself instituted the death penalty, it is called death.
In the same way that I have no 'pleasure' in spanking my own children, I must follow through with my warning to them for their disobedience. Because it is a fact that they will soon be adults, they will have to make up their own mind, and they will be be responsible for their own decisions. God knows what He created, and He is fully aware of what we can understand and that we should be capable of understanding His Word. God’s word says we ‘should’ understand, but that we refused to understand. To infer that post-judgment God 'delights' in the destruction of the rebellious is to add unto Gods words. God simply said He will destroy, and that we will die.
Second, to stone a prophet, you have to prove that his prophesy was false. How could their contemporaries do this? (Psimmond Apr 21)
You can go to almost any church in America today and hear people say "God is telling me..., Yesterday, God told me..., I'm waiting on the Lord, and when he tells me..." (Psimmond Apr 21)
Just wanting to answer this, since I am sickened at the modern view of modern prophets and apostles in the church. First, I think we misunderstand if we think the only prophecies made by biblical Prophets were the ones we have written down, when actually it seems the Prophets had 'already' established themselves with Prophetic statements that came true 'in their own contemporary time' and thus established their ability to reveal the oracles of God. Secondly, because of a shallow concept of prophecy modern persons often glibly use the phrase God told me or spoke to me, and then in some cases assume some prophetic gift if they mutter this statement enough. But assuming our conversations with God are giving us an authoritative word, office, title or justifying us as having some further divine communication, that involves others, would be stepping into the oath a biblical Prophet had to accept, that of death for giving a false prophecy.