Removing Scales From Eyes

Properly Re-Setting the Chess Board

The doctrine of divine judgement occupies most of the revelation of Holy Scripture.  Measured by volume of content, the major subject concerns God's wrath upon sin and sinners.  One imagines the reason for this is that God is holy and righteous: evil must be punished.  His purity and holiness demand it.

From the time that Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden, God's judgement upon sin looms large in the Bible's unfolding story.  Yet it is a truth which many Christians, particularly modern evangelical Christians, would struggle to acknowledge, let alone reverently accommodate in their doctrinal house.

Just to reinforce the point, we would remind ourselves of the Deluge upon the entire human race, apart from Noah and his family; of the plagues upon Egypt; of the judgement upon Israel in the desert where a whole generation perished because of their unbelief and loyalty to idols.  We would go on to refer to Sodom and Gomorrah--which became an abiding symbol for God's holy wrath upon extreme evil, including sin associated with homosexual lust and rape.  We would recite God's judgement upon the Canaanites, the Amalekites, the Edomites, the Moabites.  We would refer to the prophets from Elijah onwards whose primary obligation was to warn Israel and the surrounding nations of the judgements of God about to fall.  We would meditate upon the fortunes of the Northern Kingdom of Israel and the ten lost tribes.  We would think of the Imprecatory Psalms (rarely read by Christians today).  We would think of the recorded writings of the major and minor prophets which are primarily focused upon the judgements of God upon Israel and the surrounding nations.  The accounts and the warnings go on for pages and pages, chapter after chapter.

Ah, but the New Testament-well, yes, that's different. We live in "Gospel days".

Hear No Evil, See No Evil

Turning the Blind Eye

Inmate Was ‘Overwhelmed and Nervous’ His First Night in Prison, So He Asked a Guard for a Bible. Here’s What He Was Offered Instead

Billy Hallowell
Mar. 18, 2015
TheBlaze

A report released on Tuesday by a U.K. prison reform charity revealed former inmates’ claims about the sexual exploits that go on in British prison cells, including the presence of pornography, rape and sexual relationships that violate prison regulations.

One former inmate told a commission assembled by the Howard League for Penal Reform that he felt “overwhelmed and nervous during his first night in prison, so he requested a Bible, but the guards didn’t have one readily available.

“After some time, an officer returned and apologetically explained that he could not find a Bible but he could lend instead a selection of pornographic magazines ‘to help you get to sleep,’” reads a press release explaining the report.