{"id":12260,"date":"2021-07-28T15:04:00","date_gmt":"2021-07-28T15:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pjhmail.wordpress.com\/?p=12260"},"modified":"2021-07-28T15:04:00","modified_gmt":"2021-07-28T15:04:00","slug":"colossians-123","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/12260\/colossians-123\/","title":{"rendered":"Colossians 1:23"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pastor John,<\/span><\/p>\n

How can Paul say the hope of the Gospel has been preached to very creature ?\u00a0 I understand creation speaks to the heart that there is a Creator and that being has provided for all by the natural elements (rain, sun, food, life, animals, plants, trees) testifies that the creator cares.<\/span><\/p>\n

Colossians 1:23.\u00a0 … provided that you continue in the faith, established, and stable, and unmoved from the hope of the gospel which you have heard, which has been preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, was made a minister.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Wendell<\/span><\/p>\n

============<\/span><\/p>\n

Hi, Wendell.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Paul only meant that the\u00a0gospel had been preached\u00a0to every race, both Jew and Gentile.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

If we take what Paul said literally, we may start acting as crazy as “Saint” Francis of Assisi.\u00a0 He took Paul literally and went around preaching to animals.\u00a0 This is from the internet:<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

“Francis of Assisi, patron saint of animals and environment, could be viewed as the original Earth Day advocate. … Francis cared for the poor and sick, he preached sermons to animals and praised all creatures as brothers and sisters under God.”<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Don’t do that.\u00a0 Stay sensible and just confess Christ to\u00a0the humans that you meet.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Hope that helps.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Pastor John<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

============<\/span><\/p>\n

Pastor John,<\/span><\/p>\n

Decades ago, I was given permission to fish on property owned by the Catholic church. As a caveat, I was instructed by the priest to pray for each fish that I caught.<\/span><\/p>\n

I showed no disrespect, but I thought the requirement sounded funny. We eat fish. It seemed strange to pray for a fish that I was going to eat. I could just not eat the fish if it needed saving from me. The man’s request seemed to put fish on a plane that God did not create for a fish.<\/span><\/p>\n

After seeing Wendell’s email today and\u00a0your reply, I realized that many people\u00a0today would probably find virtue in what the priest required of me. At the very least, they would make room for his personal belief system.<\/span><\/p>\n

But there is no virtue in a personal\u00a0belief system when it comes to God; it is just being self-willed. Anything done in the name of God that isn’t from God makes us our own God just without saying so.<\/span><\/p>\n

Jerry<\/span><\/p>\n

============<\/span><\/p>\n

John,<\/span><\/p>\n

Your response was not what I was thinking about. Let me say it this way.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I was thinking creation preaches that there was a Creator, but I can\u2019t see where all have had the gospel he preached.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For that to happen doesn\u2019t a preacher need to be sent?<\/span><\/p>\n

Wendell<\/span><\/p>\n

============<\/span><\/p>\n

Hi Wendell.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

I suppose we have to say that God sent His creation, don’t we?\u00a0 “The heavens declare the glory of God.”<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Pastor John<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

============<\/span><\/p>\n

Pastor John,<\/span><\/p>\n

Your conversation with Wendell sparked some thoughts.\u00a0 The gospel is the sweet message of the revelation of Jesus, the son of God who was hidden from the foundation of the world.\u00a0 And Jesus was only revealed once he came to earth, died, ascended, and sent back the holy Ghost.\u00a0 But the heavens were declaring the glory of God since creation, even while the Son was hidden.\u00a0 What changed with the heavens from declaring God’s glory to preaching the gospel of Jesus?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And yet if it\u2019s not the heavens that preached the gospel to every creature, how could Paul say the gospel had been preached to every creature when he, or others during his day, had not traveled to every part of the world yet to preach the message of Jesus?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Richard F.<\/span><\/p>\n

============<\/span><\/p>\n

Hi Richard.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Nothing changed with the heavens at all.\u00a0 The only thing that changed was man’s understanding of what the heavens were declaring.\u00a0 It is exactly like the law and the prophets.\u00a0 The law and the prophets were declaring nothing but God’s glory, as far as Israel knew, until the Son was revealed.\u00a0 Then men began to understand that the heavens were declaring the glory of both the Father and His Son.\u00a0 And as David said, there is no place on earth where that message has not been heard:<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Psalm 19:<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament displays the work of His hands.<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. Day after day pours forth speech, and night after night declares understanding.<\/span><\/li>\n
  3. There is neither speech nor language where their voice is not heard.<\/span><\/li>\n
  4. Their line goes out over all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Pastor John<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

    \n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Pastor John, How can Paul say the hope of the Gospel has been preached to very creature ?\u00a0 I understand creation speaks to the heart that there is a Creator and that being has provided for all by the natural elements (rain, sun, food, life, animals, plants, trees) testifies that the creator cares. Colossians 1:23.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-qa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12260"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12260"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12260\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pastorjohnshouse.com\/mailbag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}