... rather than
taking into consideration that the
Gentiles in Romans 2 are in the church at Rome
...
Hi Judy,
What about Romans 1.18-32: did Paul
write this in regards to the Christians in the Rome church? Were
they the ones who were doing those things? Is this
section about the Gentile Christians there, but not
about the Jewish ones?
To me it appears as though Paul
is giving an example of what happens when ppl (either Jews or
Gentiles) in the Church hold the truth
in unrighteousness - IOW when they
know the truth but continue practicing the lust of the flesh,
eventually God turns them over to it since they love this wickedness more than they love God and
His ways.
It would seem it is, since Paul moves
immediately onto a rebuke of Jews in the first part of Chapter Two.
And, of course, in that rebuke he charges them
with having practiced the same things.
Apparently they have been judging
ppl and Paul rebukes them for this. I don't see it as
necessarily related to the problems addressed
in Chapter 1. Jesus gives the same
warning in Matt 7:1; many times we dislike in others what we dislike
about ourselves..
Or maybe I should ask this: Do you
consider the "O man" statements of Romans 2 to be in reference to
Jews only and not to Gentiles also? Many commentators consider this
("O man") vocative to be Paul's way of directing his comments to
Jews only. My question is, Do you agree with them?
No, I believe Paul is addressing the
Church at Rome which consists of both Jew and Gentile but he does
give the Jew special attention in Chapter 11.
Bill
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Thursday, December 01,
2005 9:23 AM
Subject: [TruthTalk] Calvin's
beliefs -
All of this dialogue is ironic when
one considers Calvins doctrine - which is that
because of God's Sovereignty - He
has decreed everything .. So why did she not
allow God to deal with what He had Himself decreed?
There are so many contradictions.
Last night our DIL (who not so long ago came back
to church) and
I attended a class where our pastor was
attempting to enlighten us about
'Reformed doctrine' - Our DIL (who
is a smart girl) came out of there
thoroughly confused
because at the beginning he
taught Total Depravity
and last night he covered Romans
2:14,15 (same as JD would teach it)
which is that these are pagan Gentiles - rather than
taking into consideration
that the Gentiles in Romans 2 are in
the church at Rome
(who the letter is written to) and that
they might just possibly be born of the Spirit and
have
a new regenerated nature as per Jer
31:33. Our DIL was
trying to figure out how these
'totally depraved Gentiles' have the law
of God written on their hearts and do
instinctively
the things written therein. Amazing!! No wonder ppl check their minds in at the door
and
pick them up on the way
out.
