Faith and Values Letters 2/1/2008

God is merciful

An answer to Davis Danizier's Faith & Values Letter of Jan. 11 : God is merciful and doesn't want any of us to perish. Read 2 Peter 3:9. God wants us to recognize him for who he is, our creator and loving father who wants us back. Adam and Eve chose to obey Satan instead of God and they entered Satan's world of misery and hardship, which we are all in today.

In the creation, everything was very good, and Adam's family's needs were met by God. Our correcting and forgiving our children comes from God. The prodigal son parable, Luke 15:11, is a likeness of God's love and forgiveness. If the son died before his return, he would not have received his father's forgiveness.

Why would God send his son, Jesus, who went through cruel and unbearable treatment but still determined to complete the door (Romans 6), which we who believe can enter and be a child of God, not Satan, if the act wasn't important? He remembers our sins against us no more when we believe and are obedient to the great sacrifice he and his sons made for us. Why would the unbelievers be accepted who refuse the great gift of forgiveness given to all nations? Read Colossians 1:13, 14, 2:12-14.

Ruth Burkhart


History repeated, results the same

Not too long ago, the Faith & Values letter by Edward Karlson, "Everyone was born saved," (Oct. 19, 2007) was short on some information to fully understand. &ellipsis;

The biblical Scriptures are full of what "was" just snowballed into "what is" and what "will be," indicating past, present and future that seemingly points to history being repeated, only by different individuals in different locations and at different times, yet results are the same. 1. For example, the impotent man, had he been "born saved," why would Jesus instruct him, "To sin no more less a worse thing come to thee" (John 5). It appears the man did something previously to bring on his problem. Does this sound familiar?

2. Also, why would the Philippian jailer ask Paul and Silas (Acts 16:27 to 31), "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" The answer the jailer was instructed to do then is just as valid as today. "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved" (not saved again).

The Apostle Paul also had rejected the Lord he denied prior to his Damascus road experience (Acts 9). This same Lord gave Saul of Tarsus a new life (beginning) with a reason to live and a purpose to go with it. To live as the Apostle Paul put it (maybe because of his experience) 2 Corinthians 5:17, "Therefore if any man (woman) be in Christ, he (she) is a new creation, old things are passed away, behold all things become new." …

Mary Beede


Creationists busy creating 'facts'

Regarding George Peabody's Jan. 4 comments regarding Gould denying missing links, here's what Gould really said: "Transitions are often found in the fossil record. Preserved transitions are not common and should not be, according to our understanding of evolution (but they are not entirely wanting, as creationists often claim."


