The Good Book | Bible

The owner of a wordpress blog that I stumbled upon poses that question, 'Does GOD Love Everybody?', and supposes to answer it by focusing on the early history of the Israeli people. He begins by examining the stories of the Hebrews once they had been freed from slavery and attempted to claim the land GOD had promised them. He questions the murders committed by the Hebrews against those around them. I don't dare try to defend or explain that, it is GOD's business after all. And I have yet to know a world without wars and conflict. I have yet to know a world without people who vehemently despise and hate GOD, who could care less if HE exists or not. Do such people deserve to die? I would never utter such words as I myself could face similar judgement. But if GOD rejects you, then that is it. Who are we to question HIM. But if HE has chosen you and you then reject him...good luck (though I'm not saying all will be lost).

But back to the question - does GOD love everybody?

Where in the Holy Bible does it say GOD loves everybody? Where does it say GOD loves unconditionally? Because it says 'FOR GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD?' are we to suppose that means everyone and everything walking upon it? You ever consider that it means, GOD loves HIS creation, so HE threw them a rope? Remember, the rest of it says, THAT WHOSOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM (JESUS) SHOULD HAVE EVERLASTING LIFE. GOD's love is deep and unending, sure. But it is not unconditional.

GOD loves HIS creation, but many of us could care less about HIM. It says quite plainly in the HOLY BIBLE, GOD will reject those who reject HIM. Are we to suppose that Lucifer (aka Satan) is loved by GOD? Don't be foolish.

Before I give you my response to the blogger's post, here is a verse for you to ponder. It's in the Holy Bible found in Malachi 1 (NKJV):
2 “I have loved you,” says the LORD. “ Yet you say, ‘In what way have You loved us?' Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?” Says the LORD. “Yet Jacob I have loved;
3 But Esau I have hated, And laid waste his mountains and his heritage For the jackals of the wilderness.” (If you want to know why GOD hated Esau, read Genesis).

Anyway, here is my response to that particular blogger's question. And I am not posting a link to his Web site because I do not promote ignorance of GOD and HIS Holy Word. You can find those lies pretty easily by yourself.

My friend. You are totally free to believe what you believe, just make sure you’re not embracing lies.

GOD does love the world… that is HIS creation. But that doesn’t mean it is unconditional. Show me in the Holy Bible where it says GOD loves unconditionally.

Have you not read that HE will reject those who reject HIM? As it says in Matthew 7 (NKJV):
21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.
22 Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’
23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’

And how about Matthew 10 (NKJV):
32 “Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven.
33 But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven.

And take note of what else Jesus the Christ said about our Father's love for us in John 16:26-28 (NKJV):
26 In that day you will ask in My name, and I do not say to you that I shall pray the Father for you;
27 for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me, and have believed that I came forth from God.
28 I came forth from the Father and have come into the world. Again, I leave the world and go to the Father.”

Please take special note of that, as it is the conditional promise in John 3:16 that everyone seems to forget about. GOD loves us and will save us IF we believe that HIS unique son Jesus is the Christ HE sent into the world to give us eternal life. You have to believe to receive, my friends. You can't hang around GOD forever if you secretly hate HIM and if you hate HIM, you reject HIM and if you reject HIM, you reject HIS son Jesus the Christ.

Numbers 14 (NKJV):
26 And the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying,
27 “How long shall I bear with this evil congregation who complain against Me? I have heard the complaints which the children of Israel make against Me.
28 Say to them, ‘As I live,’ says the LORD, ‘just as you have spoken in My hearing, so I will do to you:
29 The carcasses of you who have complained against Me shall fall in this wilderness, all of you who were numbered, according to your entire number, from twenty years old and above.

Many of us know full well about HIM, but for our own particular reasons, we reject HIM. Does that mean HE now hates us? I don’t think so, my friends. And I am sure we are still welcomed at HIS table. But we have known HIM and have turned our backs to HIM. So perhaps HE has now turned HIS back to us (or covers HIS ears when we attempt to speak to HIM, or closes HIS eyes to us)… that doesn’t mean HE has forgotten about us, as we have surely not completely wiped HIM from our own minds.

GOD loved David, but punished him for his sins. GOD loved Moses and even took his body so that Satan could not gain possession of it (read Jude 1, specifically verse 9). But GOD would not allow Moses to see the promised land…the same Moses HE chose to lead the Hebrews from captivity and had wandering around the desert for decades… GOD forbade him from stepping onto the land (HE let him see it from afar, however), because Moses himself had disappointed GOD. Read it in Deut. 32:48.

GOD IS LOVE. GOD loves you. GOD love me. GOD loves the sinner, but hates the sin. GOD doesn't just love Christians alone. How could that be if none of us are born Christians? We were all born sinners. Romans 5:8 says, "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Just remember, the gift doesn't sit on the table forever...you must grasp it while you can.

Ephesians 2 (NKJV):
4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,
5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)...

But GOD will not be mocked or made common. HE will rebuke those and punish and discipline those whom HE loves. No Christian expects that all will be well in their life… that them or their loved ones will not see death, oppression or illness. That is the world. If a so-called Christian believes that life will be made perfect for them and that all the pieces will fall into place once they turn their life over to Jesus the Christ, then they are still very much in darkness. Jesus did not die upon the cross and conquer death so that we could be healthy and wealthy all our days upon the earth… it was so we can have salvation…a perfect life after death.

Get it out of your head that GOD is some kind of puppet or statue in a church confined by walls or your wishes or will or actions. GOD is bound by no man or anything at all. HE will not bend for you. You must bend for HIM. If you are unwilling to do that, then I suppose you are lost. There is no compromise. HIS Way or the very broad high way that leads only to one place...eternal damnation.

And do yourself a favor the next time someone dares tell you that GOD loves unconditionally - ask them about Jacob and Esau.

I leave you with some words from 2 Peter 3:
1 Beloved, I now write to you this second epistle (in both of which I stir up your pure minds by way of reminder),
2 that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior,
3 knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts,
4 and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.”
5 For this they willfully forget: that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water,
6 by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water.
7 But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
8 But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
9 The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

-Theist @ http://goodbible.blogspot.com


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This is a post from my other blog, The Bible Means. It's a very relevant post, so I figured I would share it on here, too.

I was re-reading through the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) recently and realized something for the first time when I came across the verses of St. John 8 (KJV):

2 Now early in the morning He came again into the temple, and all the people came to Him; and He sat down and taught them.
3 Then the scribes and Pharisees brought to Him a woman caught in adultery. And when they had set her in the midst,
4 they said to Him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in adultery, in the very act.
5 Now Moses, in the law, commanded us that such should be stoned. But what do You say?”
6 This they said, testing Him, that they might have something of which to accuse Him. But Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with His finger, as though He did not hear.

Because of years of listening to sloppy preaching and biased theories, I had always assumed that this unnamed woman caught in adultery was Mary Magdalene, one of Jesus' top (female) disciples.

I had also always been taught that Mary Magdalene was a prostitute...and had heard many teachings that this woman caught in adultery was actually a prostitute. Confusing? It should be, because most of it is a lie.


To get to the truth of it -- using the Holy Bible alone, as it is the only true Word of GOD that we have today -- I examined several key verses. It didn't take much time at all to discover the truth.

First off, Mary Magdalene is first mentioned in Matthew 27:56 "among whom were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joses, and the mother of Zebedee’s sons"... which describes the disciples who were watching Jesus' crucifixion. So, this is Mary Magdalene's introduction -- a dedicated, loving disciple of the Christ.

We learn a little about M. M.'s history in Mark 16: 19 "Now when He rose early on the first day of the week, He appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom He had cast seven demons." Two important things are revealed here. One, we learn that Jesus and M.M. met when the Messiah freed her from demonic possession. Lastly, the fact that M.M. was the first disciple to see the resurrected Jesus says a lot. Not even Jesus' mother Mary got to see him first... he appeared to one of his disciples...whom I can only infer from this text was a very important person to him. No, I'm not going the 'Da Vinci' code route by insinuating that there was some unrighteous intimate relationship between this disciple and the Son of GOD. I'm simply saying, just as Jesus favored Peter to help lead/create the Church, he may have first appeared in his resurrected state to M.M. for a reason.

So, to summarize where we are right now, Mary Magdalene had previously been possessed by demons; watched Jesus' crucifixion; and was the first to see him after his resurrection. No where has there been any indication that she was a prostitute or adulterer.

Before we continue, there is one more thing that I should mention. Mary was apparently from the town of Magdala, which is why she was called a Magdalene. However, there is some evidence that shows that even the name of the town was translated incorrectly. The Jewish Talmud (the books covering the law, etc. in the Old Testament) and other historical references indicate that the town was mostly likely called "Migdal" or "Magadan" (Greek manuscripts). Despite all of that, the town's name was ascribed to Mary just to let others know which Mary this was...since Mary was an extremely popular name during that time. As a matter of fact, it notes in the concordance of my Bible that there were seven persons named Mary in the New Testament, and it describes M.M. as 'A Galilean follower of Jesus.'

I would also like to note that the term 'prostitute' doesn't appear anywhere in the Holy Bible (KJV) except for in Lev. 19:29. 'Harlot' however is mentioned plenty of times, but nowhere in the Gospels do any of its usages make reference to or speak of M.M. or anyone in particular for that matter. It's simply mentioned as one would talk about a group of people, such as saying 'publicans' or 'tax collectors', you'd say 'harlots.'

Finally, this 'woman caught in adultery' was never given a name, nor do we know her town of origin. Jesus simply refused to condemn her and told her to sin no more. No mention of demons, Magdala, Mary or the like. This was just one of the many people in the Gospels that Jesus used to glorify His Father GOD.

So who was Mary of Magdala? -- She was a devout disciple of Jesus who helped support his ministry financially and I'm sure she did her part in helping to spread the Truth. She wasn't an adulterer. She wasn't a prostitute. She had been demon possessed before meeting Jesus, was healed, and took up her cross and followed him.

Where did this awful slander come from? Why would anyone want to purport such a lie and misconception? Is it just carelessness/ laziness that people continue to believe such a false teaching of Mary Magdalene? I don't know the answers to these questions, but considering Christian history, specifically in terms of the Catholic Church, I don't find it unlikely that these men who made the decisions of what books would enter the Bible, conducted the demonic Inquisitions, etc., would have an interest in discounting one of Jesus' top disciples -- a woman. After all, what were the other twelve's sin? Are we to believe that Peter, Thomas, Matthew, etc. were all blemish-free before Jesus? I think not.

And I guess I should note that I'm not so passionate about rectifying the image of M.M. because I think former prostitutes are deplorable creatures. Quite the contrary, because we are all sinners, and as far as I've read in the Bible, GOD is no respecter of persons when it comes to judging sinners. Sin is sin, and can all be forgiven...except for sins against the Holy Spirit of course.

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