The Lords Controversies
Dec 11
Now, if God has a controversy with His own people, what of other nations? God will seek reconciliation with His own backslidden people, but the God-despising nations of the world face utter destruction. “A noise shall come even to the ends of the earth; for the LORD hath a controversy with the nations, He will plead with all flesh; He will give them that are wicked to the sword, saith the LORD. . . . And the slain of the LORD shall be at that day from one end of the earth even unto the other” (Jeremiah 25:31,33).
When not to say, "God speed!"
Dec 02
"If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed." (2 John 10) This apparently harsh instruction seems at first to conflict with the many biblical exhortations to show hospitality, but it needs to be placed in context. The one-chapter epistle of 2 John was addressed to "the elect lady and her children" by John, who also extended greetings from "the children of thy elect sister" (vv. 1, 13). These unusual phrases, together with the general tone of the epistle, make it almost certain that John was not referring simply to two individual Christian women, but to two churches, symbolically personified as two noble ladies with the "children" being the new converts in the churches. The warning, then, is primarily against the danger of allowing a false teacher to come into the church, as a pastor or a teacher or even as a visiting speaker, who would not bring "this doctrine."
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