This quarrel between God and man is a mutual quarrel. God is angry with man; and man is angry with God (Zech. 11:8; Rom. 8:7). It is a universal quarrel. All the sons and daughters of Adam, without exception, are born as children of wrath by nature (Eph. 2:3). God is angry with men. Those who tell unregenerate, unbelieving men and women, or even children, that God loves them, make a terrible presumption that is without warrant in Holy Scripture. God is angry with the wicked everyday. God loves righteousness and hates iniquity; and all men, by nature, are iniquity. God only loves sinners in Christ and for Christ’s sake. In Christ, God is love. Out of Christ, God is a consuming fire. No one has any basis for thinking that God might love him until he believes on Christ. Our faith in Christ does not cause God to love us. It is the result and evidence of God’s love (I John 4:19; Heb. 11:1).I stopped and thought for quite some time on this statement (I added the emphasis in bold above). I know I have certainly been guilty of telling an unregenerate person that "God Loves Them." According to Mr. Fortner, I have no business doing that because I am presuming something that is not mine to know. I looked up the references that Mr. Fortner sprinkled throughout his text. Consequently I feel that this subject could stand quite a bit of scrutiny and could possibly necessitate a pretty big shift in the approach that one might take toward evangelizing the 'lost.'
What are your thoughts on this portion of this week's topic?
Are there any other statements in this week's lesson that jump out at you as this one did to me?
3 comments:
I feel god dose love the unsaved. But in todays culture many people feel they donot need to be saved because god dose love they. I have some problems with Mr fortner verbage. But this will make me do some research on the topic.
Who is this Fortner guy away? What he his back round? I will research.
I looked around to see what I could find out about Don Fortner. According to www.donfortner.com Don Fortner is the Pastor of Grace Baptist Church of Danville, Kentucky. He is also a publised author and conference speaker.
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