Featured Not offending anyone

Not trying to offend, but the premise is not exactly represented by the facts.

Even here, we see that not too many are overly concerned with offending people in order to present what they feel to be correct. We could also see this in individual ministries. The leadership of the fellowship I am currently a member of takes a very strong, and offensive position against atheists and cults, liberal theology, and even liberal politics.

I would also suggest that while we see the caricature preachers who mean only to offend, it seems to me that who stands out more these days are those who preach a mealy-mouthed Gospel devoid of the Full Counsel of God. It is still an oddity when someone teaches there is no Hell, or that Annihilation is a valid doctrine. Becoming less true in the ranks, but, when someone departs to a message that is sugar-coated, they stand out.


God bless.

 

No, no, no, no, the "sinful" folk did not love Jesus. Sinfulness causes people to reject Jesus. No one "Sinful" loved Jesus. Not the corrupt Pharisees. Not the criminal on the cross. No one sinful.

It's also not at all the case that religion itself causes anyone to take offense to Jesus. Religion only makes Jesus relevant, for better or worse. The non-religious wouldn't care if Jesus claimed to be Christ. The Romans didn't care.

Also, in Judea, most people were religious, so it follows that most people who take offense would be religious.

 

I think sometimes this is our falling... This so true TC Such were some of you... Yes and a thousands times yes to where we are going but never look at another and forget where you came from and where you were... Because only by the Sovereign Grace and love of Almighty God are each of us where we are now... Brother Glen

 

The quote marks around "sinful" mean something. They mean that I was using the word in the same way that the gospel writers used it. For instance:

Mark 2:15-17
While He was reclining at the table in Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were also guests with Jesus and His disciples, because there were many who were following Him. When the scribes of the Pharisees saw that He was eating with sinners and tax collectors, they asked His disciples, “Why does He eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
When Jesus heard this, He told them, “Those who are well don’t need a doctor, but the sick do need one. I didn’t come to call the righteous, but sinners.”​

Jesus is not claiming that the Pharisees are necessarily righteous or that the persons He was eating with were rebelling against God as sinner. He is talking about their status in society and how each group was perceived.

I made no such claim.

Not necessarily, but I won't argue the point.

It depends what you mean by non-religious. In the context of the above scripture, the "sinners" were people who were not accepted into the religious world. What they are experiencing is God's grace in the Person of Jesus, Who is concerned about them and does not hold them at arm's length. They cared very much Who Jesus was.

Your premise is that the Romans were non-religious. That is patently false. They generally were not following Judaism (although some were) and Jesus did not specifically target His teaching toward those outside the Jewish faith. Even a casual look at the Gospels shows that Jesus encountered a faithful centurion who believed in Jesus (Matthew 8:5-13). At least some of the Romans cared.

Yes, but you have completely missed my meaning of "sinner" (the meaning from the Gospels), so it's not like you've really made a point here.

 

We don't need to go out of our way to be offensive but even just reading the Bible in church will offend some. Sad to say I've had pastors who, working their way through the Bible, would skip verses dealing with the forbidden topic so as not to offend. Not good.

We cannot give the good news of salvation if we cannot speak the bad news of sin. Whatever the sin. All sin. And yeah, today so many preachers want to "lead people to Jesus" without ever saying the only ones He CAN save are sinners.

Nickels and noses rule. Salvation of the lost loses.

 

You preach the gospel and you will offend folks. It's the most offensive thing to mankind.

 

Depends on how one defines those terms though, as the Gospel itself whn preached and taught will be sweet to those saved by it, but very offensive to those who stay lost!

 

We are all sinners... Saved but still sinners... But instead of me explaining lets hear what the Apostle Paul has to say about in to the Roman brethren... Brother Glen

Romans 7:9 For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.

7:10 And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death.

7:11 For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me.

7:12 Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.

7:13 Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.

7:14 For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.

7:15 For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.

7:16 If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good.

7:17 Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.

7:18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.

7:19 For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.

7:20 Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.

7:21 I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.

7:22 For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:

7:23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.

7:24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

7:25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.

 

How do you, the elect, differ, regarding sin, from the unelect? How do you differ?