Jarthur001
Active Member
Most people would claim Acts 13 is a call by God to the Church to send out the Gospel to the Genitals and decision was made on this subject at the the church in Antioch.Brother Bob said:Trying to start the day off on a good note.
Have a good day.
As far as Asia goes I am sure they were dying all the time but Paul wasn't the only preacher around.
1) Paul and Barnabas begin a missionary journey to Cyprus.
2) and then on to Pamphylian coastal cities
3) and southern Galatian cities of Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe
4) then back to Antioch and to Jerusalem
Acts 16 tells of the 2nd trip. Are you aware of any other record of mission trips made by the early church to the genitals at this time? In time others did reach to the genitals. But this was the very early days of the outreach to the whole world.
Why did Holy Spirit have them not preach to some? God only knows why, but it is clear it was part of His plan. It is clear that some died before they heard, for the event of Christ death had just happened. There was no CNN TV to get the word out. The main tool God used was the Church. Thus the trips.
The truth of total depravity is the most biblical proven doctrine of the 5 ponits. "God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." "There is none righteous,no,not one." "All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." "Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us".
When Paul preached on the mission trip he was very conscious of the fact that those to whom he was preaching were totally depraved. He told the Corinthians that "the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned".
Paul and all the apostles of Christ knew that by nature every one to whom they brought the gospel was totally depraved. He tells the Ephesian and Colossian believers that they "were dead in trespasses and sins" and that they "were sometimes alienated, and enemies in your mind by wicked works".
This meant for the apostles, and it means for every missionary today, that those to whom the Gospel is brought will not want to hear what is preached.