Difficult Questions that every LDS Mormon needs to answer.

Guest Post: The Unity of the Abrahamic and Mosaic Covenants by Peter B.

There seems to be a tendency among Christians today to oppose parts of the Bible against each other. This is often the case when dealing with the relation between the Old and New Testaments. Another place this happens is in dealing with the relation between God’s covenant with Abraham and His covenant with Israel under Moses. Some will say that the covenant at Sinai was a case of “free grace exchanged for law” and that “The Abrahamic covenant had ministered salvation and assurance because it imposed only one condition – faith. This the legal [i.e. Mosaic] covenant could not do.” (Unger, 78) Was the Mosaic covenant a return to works-based righteousness? Was it a break with the grace of God’s covenant with Abraham? Or was the Mosaic covenant a grand expansion of God’s promises to Abraham? As we look at the nature of the covenants with Abraham and Israel we find that they are not contrary to each other, but are two expressions of God’s redemptive covenant of grace, the one built upon the other. 

The basis for both the Abrahamic and Mosaic covenants is the same. Both are founded upon God’s sovereign choice. God took the initiative to call Abraham out of Ur. He appeared to Abraham and made covenant with him. It was God’s gracious choice to do so, and Abraham simply responded to it. We see this also with Abraham’s son Isaac and grandson Jacob. In both cases God rejected the older son and graciously chose the younger. God chose Jacob over Esau without regard to anything intrinsic in them “in order that God's purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls.” (Rom. 9:10-11) This continued in God’s covenant with Israel. It was still a covenant based upon sovereign election. “The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.” (Deut. 7:6) The Israelites did not earn their place before God. No sinful man can earn a place of right standing before God. God put the Israelites there. God declared in no uncertain terms that He did not choose, save, and love the Israelites because of any inherent value in them, but “because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers.” (Deut. 7:8)

Melody's Blessed 19th Birthday

 Melody's Sweet Mercy

 Greek

  Gifts

 Sweet Mercy

Enjoying Greg & Regina 

 We picked up Lance & Victor in Sacramento

after their Colorado Shepherds Conference at Kevin Swanson's. 

Saying Good-bye

To Do List

The sleep of a working man is sweet.

 Melody's Requested Birthday Books

"Since God created everything,

nothing can be interpreted apart from God." RJR

Educational Neutrality?

We received the following comment from Jeff. Below is my response.

"I find it unsettling that the Christian homeschooling right pushes their beliefs on their children. I have no problem with teaching children the belief system of Christianity, but have you ever considered teaching your children to think critically and having them evaluate religious and non religious ideas objectively? Of course not, from day they start to think they're taught to accept creationism and only let them see the creationist side of things. Can't ever have them see what the Secular or Islamic or Jewish sides say about their parents ideas.

Always under the bias of their parents until they are old enough to do their own study, but by then, they've adopted their parents bias."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Education is never neutral. "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, But fools despise wisdom and instruction." (Prov. 1:7) Objectivity is impossible apart from Christ, for in Him are hid "all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." (Col. 2:1-3) Those who do not want to retain God in their knowledge, God gives over to a debased mind. (Rom. 1:28)

You are either teaching your children to love, fear and obey God (Deut. 6:4-9) or to hate God and flout His Law. It is only the fool who says, "There is no God." (Psa. 51:1)

Reality flows from the mind of God and all knowledge is revelational of Him. Therefore, rebellious man seeks to suppress the truth of God in unrighteousness. (Rom. 1:18)

God created man in His image of knowledge, righteousness and holiness with dominion. Fallen man perverts this image. He demands “knowledge” apart from Christ, a (self) “righteousness” and “holiness” in rebellion against God and a destructive dominion that destroys not only himself, but society in the process.

There are only two kinds of men: regenerate and rebellious. 

Secular humanism (atheism) and Islamic worldviews have pretty rotten fruit, which is one reason why you (presumably) live in America under the shade of Christianity’s tree and not in communist China, Zimbabwe, Afghanistan or Iran. 

Isaiah proclaims, "To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them." (Isa. 8:20)

Caldwell Esselstyn: Making Heart-Attacks History

"During the late 1980’s, Dr. Dean Ornish and Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn began reversing atherosclerosis, and more importantly greatly decreased the number of reoccurring cardiac events in participants who adhered to a plant-based diet and often other lifestyle modifications. Recently Dr. Esselstyn has replicated his initial findings in around 200 participants over the period of a decade, with publication pending results showing a phenomenal success rate of a 99.5% reduction in reoccurring cardiovascular events." ~McDougall Newsletter: February 2013

Ladies, would you like your husband to live long and healthy?  Men, do you want to enjoy your wife for all your days?  There's no need to bankrupt your friends at Samaritan Ministries.  Please listen to Dr. Esselstyn.