Aside from all the promises false prophets and evangelists have made over the years, with regards to people being saved. Embracing the idea that without the Church none shall be saved. Two critical points of fact distressingly are not mentioned. Firstly many fail to acknowledge God's sovereign and independent efforts apart from the Church! And secondly the fact that even during the Millennial reign under ideal conditions many shall still refuse Christ! Indeed even against many promises of huge worldwide revivals, we are seeing not an increase in the harvest but rather a dwindling! Preaching the gospel of Christ is still important and necessary, in an ever increasing dark world. That whosoever would hear and respond to the love and grace of God Almighty. But self perpetuating ministries of the Church seem to be awash with a sense of their own importance! IMHO. What say you ? TR hi TR. well, in the matthew 13 parable about the sower, only one type of soil out of four kinds was fruitful, and that soil produced inconsistent results. this world isn't going to all repent before the rapture or before the second coming. its amazing that people alive in the millennial kingdom will not want to be loyal to Jesus, who provides the best rule that society has ever been under. it goes to show that we are born with error, inherited from Adam. we scatter and water the seed, but its God who brings the increase more about that parable... :agree with you both. Down through the ages its always has been a small remnant of believers. Before the church age, during the church age and after the church age because strait and narrow is the way - thru the finished work of Jesus Only. Matthew 7:13-14 ————— The only great revival will occur after the rapture during the first half of the tribulation from the effective ministry of the 2 witnesses and 144,000 Jewish men. Revelation 7: 9,13, 14 After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they? And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. ————— In a perfect environment with Jesus reigning in person its hard to comprehend that man will still reject Him and choose to follow satan. What in the world is satan going to promise them so they rebel? Will it be the same trick he used to con the 1/3 angels to their doom? Revelation 20:7-9 And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog, and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them. ————— Meanwhile Isaiah 5:14-16 indicates hell keeps enlarging itself ... Therefore hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure: and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoiceth, shall descend into it. And the mean man shall be brought down, and the mighty man shall be humbled, and the eyes of the lofty shall be humbled: But the Lord of hosts shall be exalted in judgment, and God that is holy shall be sanctified in righteousness. I can picture at the Great White Throne the unsaved will try to plead “if only we had a perfect environment to live in, then we would have believed and followed”. But Jesus is going to show them - He provided that perfect environment and many still rebelled and rejected Him as their Lord. Well stated Geri7 B-) TR Unbelievable, how true! It’s not so much what he promises them as much as he continues the same 95% truth and 5% lie. They continue to be blinded by the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye and the pride of life. An example, a drug addict or alcoholic lives from fix or drink to the next, many do not acknowledge they even have a problem, many say they can quit at any time. Yet, they will at times sell their very soul for the next high or escape. I once had a patient look me right in the eye and say about Heroin “ it gets into your soul and takes your life”. So true, is the verse John 8:44 “You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” I cannot even imagine seeing Christ and not loving Him, only through God’s mercy and the Holy Spirit guiding will a soul even desire to draw near to the Son. Yet, I believe that even during the millennium (no proof here, just hope for the lost) Christ will continue to draw those that are to be saved. Like the hired servants in Matthew 20:1-16 1 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. 2 He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard. 3 “About nine in the morning he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. 4 He told them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ 5 So they went. “He went out again about noon and about three in the afternoon and did the same thing. 6 About five in the afternoon he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, ‘Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’ 7 “‘Because no one has hired us,’ they answered. “He said to them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard.’ 8 “When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.’ 9 “The workers who were hired about five in the afternoon came and each received a denarius. 10 So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. 11 When they received it, they began to grumbleagainst the landowner. 12 ‘These who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.’ 13 “But he answered one of them, ‘I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? 14 Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. 15 Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’ 16 “So the last will be first, and the first will be last.” just saying :feedback :unsure:
It takes relationship with Jesus to fix us, not an ideal environment.
In this age between the first and second coming, this is how production goes...
“And the one on whom seed was sown on the good soil, this is the man who hears the word and understands it; who indeed bears fruit and brings forth, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty.” Matthew 13:23
1Cor 3:6-8, 2Cor 9:10
https://slbc.org/sermon/the-coming-kingdom-017/#transcriptlink
Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.
