RE: Jesus’ Parable of the Four Kinds of Soil

Pastor John,

Do you think people are always the third type of soil in Jesus’ parable or does it develop gradually, changing over time?  I feel they don’t see it in themselves probably.  If you are the third kind, will the holy Ghost still talk to you or will He eventually stop?   Can the third type grow into the fourth if God lets them see it in themselves?  I have these questions because it scares me that I could be deceived and not even know myself.  But the times the holy Ghost has answered me or chastened me gives me great hope.

Thanks for the video on evolution.*  The holy Ghost in me loved it.  It dispelled many myths about the earth.  Amazing how many of these were the same questions I have always had, as  in “How did ocean animal fossils end up on mountain tops?”  And many more.

The meeting last night was good food for my soul!

Thank you,

Mark W.

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Hi Mark,

Our choices determine which kind of soil we are.  Based on that, I would say that a person can at least stop acting as if he is bad soil.  But I don’t know that if a person who is the third kind of soil can actually change into the fourth kind of soil.  God alone knows that.  It is clear from the scriptures that a person who is the third kind of soil does not realize he is in the spiritual condition he is in.  Sometimes, the Bible makes it plain that such people are so blind that some of them consider themselves spiritual guides to others in the body of Christ.

It is sobering just to know that within the body of Christ are both wise and foolish believers.  God speaks to all His children, by one means or another.  He always has.  But the unwise do not put into practice what they know is their heavenly Father’s will.

My father once warned me not to be hasty in judging anyone to be a wise virgin or a foolish one because, he said, there may be some foolish things about a wise saint and some wise things about a foolish one.  We will do well to leave that judgment to God, and pay attention to our own lives, making sure that we are doing the will of God.

Pastor John

PS You are welcome for the evolution video.  I learned a lot from it, too.

* https://youtube.com/watch?v=hRoQL7W5jg8&si=-ytmswk0qpKHKNaB

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https://x.com/WitnessofSpirit/status/1802089166567604548

Hi John,

I had always thought the reason Saul persecuted the Jews after they received the Holy Ghost was because they stopped keeping the law.  Since the Jews were required by God to keep Moses’ law after they received the Holy Ghost, why did Saul persecute them?

Thank you,

Randell

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That is a very thoughtful question, Randell.  It is one that I should have asked myself a long tome ago.  Thank you for asking it.

One would think that Jewish believers would have been highly respected by their fellow Jews since believing Jews were devoted to the law (Acts 21:20).  But Paul told the Thessalonians that believing Jews had suffered many things at the hands of other Jews (1Thess. 2:15).  When you asked me this question, I realized for the first time that the Bible provides us with no clear answer for it.

Leaders of unbelieving Jews hated Jesus because they envied his popularity with the people.  Even Pontius Pilate saw that they envied Jesus (Mt. 27:18).  They invented a rule that forbade the sick to be healed on a Sabbath in order to condemn him, for they saw that he healed people every day.  And they condemned him for claiming to be their Messiah.  Maybe that is why Paul as a young man joined others in persecuting their fellow Jews who believed in Jesus.  Maybe it was just a case of Jesus’ reproach falling on those who believed in him.  They were certainly not hated because of immoral conduct.

It is fascinating to me that I had never considered that the Bible never tells us why believing Jews were so hated by their fellow Jews.  They arrested Peter and John because they preached the resurrection from the dead, and many people believed them (Acts 4:1–4).  They stoned Stephen because he told them that they were resisting the holy Ghost, and that he saw Jesus standing at God’s right hand (Acts 7:51–60).  When Paul was a young Pharisee, he was commissioned to travel to Damascus to bind believers and return them to Jerusalem simply because they believed the gospel (Acts 9:1–2).  Later, the Jews plotted to kill Saul because he had found out Jesus was the Messiah and was telling it in the synagogue (Acts 9:20–23).

In no case that I have found was there any justifiable reason given for the hatred and persecution.  They were always hated for doing something that was actually good, or for testifying about Jesus.  We are seeing more and more of this irrational hatred in our time.  But let us continue in doing good in the sight of God anyway.  The reward for doing that will far outweigh anything this world can throw at us, as Paul said, “I consider the sufferings of this present time to be unworthy of comparison with the glory that shall be revealed to us” (Rom. 8:18).

Thank you for a great question!

Pastor John

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https://x.com/WitnessofSpirit/status/1800319481761435826

John,

Why are the names different?  For example, in Luke 3:36, we have “the son of Cainan, the son of Arphaxad, the son of Sem, the son of Noah, the son of Lamech.”

But in Genesis 5:32, we have “And Noah was five hundred years old, and he fathered Shem, Ham, and Japheth.”

Just Curious,

Wendell

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Hi Wendell,

Names often undergo a change as they go from one language to another.  In this case, Genesis is written in Hebrew, and James is written in Greek.  That’s all it is.

Pastor John

Would Arius of Alexandria be someone who accurately represents your views on divinity accurately?

MP

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Hi MP,

It is impossible to say with certainty what Arius taught because Christian rulers destroyed everything he wrote.  The few statements that Christians attributed to him seem to have been consistent with what the Scriptures teach.

Pastor John

Tell us what you think:

https://x.com/tommyjoe1109/status/1797641777618588138

Pastor John,

https://youtu.be/nMoyUlHDKso?si=pA9doD42YFlyQa_A

If Christianity is wrong, how could it do this?

Manny

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Hi Manny.

I am not sure what you mean by “Christianity is wrong”.  That is not the way I talk.  I do say that whatever Christianity may be right about, it is not the body of Christ.  Christianity can save no one.  And that is the whole point.

The video begins by declaring the myth that Christianity emerged in the first century AD.  It did not.  The gospel of Christ is what emerged in the first century, and its influence is what changed people’s perspective on life, or at least, many of them.  Much of what men of God like Paul and the other apostles taught about morals was just an affirmation of the moral standard contained in Moses’ law.  The positive influence of the gospel in moral matters continued to spread even after believers turned away from Paul’s gospel, primarily because what those backslidden saints turned to was Moses’ law, which condemned such immorality as was common among the Greeks and the Romans.  So, even the apostate believers of the second and third centuries who called themselves Christians held forth that good standard.

It was an interesting point made in the video, that slaves and women were attracted to the gospel because of its moral standard, but the truth is more likely that it was the power of God that attracted them most.

Thank you for asking.  It was a good question.  God bless you as you continue to seek for what is truly of Him.

jdc

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https://x.com/tommyjoe1109/status/1795457318538146223