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Regarding the Brookfield, Wisconsin Shooting printer-friendly MP3 As many of you know, a year ago there was a shooting at a local
Sabbath gathering of the Living Church of God in Brookfield, Wisconsin
that left eight dead and four wounded. A couple of days ago,
someone sent me an essay, "One Year Later" written by one, David C.
Grabbe.
I have seen similar articles and discussions and they are fine as
far as they go, but , in my estimation, miss the real heart of the
matter by a country mile.
This article misses on at least two points:
1) It's reference to the
Scattering of the Church: The Bible is clear on this prophetic
event. Heresies must come to test the faith of the individual
member. Despite the scattering, there remains Godly Calling to
those who are faithful to the Work and their Salvation Process.
The scattering has no power over Godly Calling, the Work or the
Salvation Process. It is incidental to it.
2) The concept or event of death:
Everyone seems to look to physical death as something bad or
negative. Where did this concept come from? It is not Biblical.
God invented physical death. It is a part of life. It is
something God made and all that He made is GOOD. No one dies
but what God decreed the fact. God numbers the days.
Everything He does, including coming to that total number of days, IS PERFECT.
Death has NO POWER. To the dead person, death only lasts one
nano-second and then they are in a new reality...the resurrection.
Among the saints, God uses death to CONFIRM members to the first
resurrection. Death is the greatest "place of safety" for those
believing in the providence and protection of God. Clearly
someone's death can be attributed to sin, both physical and
spiritual, but the death of a saint is something God holds dear.
Precious in the sight of the LORD
is the death of his saints. -Psalm 116:15
Does this sound at all negative? Indeed, it is PERFECT and God is
to be praised.
This verse clearly indicates this saint will be in the Kingdom with eternal life so the subject of sin is rather moot and minor at best. There is no need to look for sin when one is killed. Death is not necessarily a punishment for sin. God uses death in many different ways and for different reasons. I will discuss this in some detail in my next Notebook piece.
The shooting was terrible but if those eight were in the Salvation
Process, they are guaranteed the Kingdom. If any of the eight were
not yet converted, they will be in the Second Resurrection...a far
better place than this present world without God.
It is rather short-sighted, in my estimation, to speak about the
alleged sin of the situation. Even the shooter will have his
judgment. He may have been unconverted. Seems to me this was the
story.
Though humans, including saints, are subject to sin and will sin,
SIN HAS NO REAL POWER IN THE SALVATION EQUATION, BY DEFINITION. If
one is in the Salvation Process...SIN HAS NO POWER. One in the
Salvation Process is repentant. Repentance is a chief element
of the process. Repentance beats to death the power of sin.
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Las Vegas, Nevada Church of God - part of The Intercontinental Church of God and The Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association - Tyler, Texas |