I may point out that the flip side of "let him who is without sin cast the first stone" is "go then and from this day forth, sin no more". There is no getting around the fact that homos€xuality is sin equal to or greater than adultery in God's eyes. Those who try to excuse themselves by saying "I was born this way" need mind that we are all born this way and Christ calls us to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow him. Blessings in the Lord Jesus Christ!

@@jonathanspeicher5298 These days, homosexuality is understood as a complex attraction of a person to a same gender person, which essentially includes but not limited to a sexual attraction only. In the other words, it is the attraction of male to male and female to female, which is similar to the common attraction of male to female and female to male. It is a very complicated phenomenon, whose nature is not fully understood yet. So far, there is no universally accepted theory of homosexuality. Our knowledge of homosexuality is developing. For example, in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders DSM III, homosexuality had been viewed as a mental disorder, but in the DSM IV of 1994 it was removed from this classification. Homosexuality exists regardless of whether we want this or not, and of whether we label this a sin or not. It is a biological phenomenon. It is broadly accepted that homosexual people do not choose to have the variety of attractions (including sexual one) to the same sex people. It is not their free choice. There is a lot of evidence, including scientific and pastoral ones, supporting this view. It suggests that homosexuality differs from polygamy, paedophilia, and any other cultural and psychological forms of sexual deviations, as we see it now. Free will and the availability of free choice for every human being is God's gift. All the God's revelations for us to this day show that the sin is a derivation from the wrong use of human free will and choice. Nothing outside our free will and choice can be viewed as sinful. Thus, homosexuality as such cannot be viewed as a sin if it is not a result of a person's free choice. - Yet, immoral sexual behaviour (regardless, homo- or hetero) can and should. Faithfully yours, bishop Vincent Berg.

Election is one of the most fundamentally understood concepts within Christendom, made absolutely necessary by the condition of man after the fall. Anyone who asserts otherwise, massively underestimates the severity of the fall. Observe: “But to the wicked God says, “What right have you to tell of My statutes and to take My covenant in your mouth” (Psalm 50:16)? Wicked individuals have no right to covenant with Him; this is an insurmountable obstacle to those who believe that a sinful, godless individual can use his “free will” to come before the presence of God to covenant with Him in repentance- they simply do not have the right to do so. Job 13:16 - a godless man may not come before His presence.

@@lawrencestanley8989 election is one of the most fundamentally *MIS*understood concepts within Christendom. Modern Christians such as yourself believe election is of some and not of others. This is the opposite of what Jesus and Paul taught. They were both correcting that wrong-headed belief, because that’s what the Jews thought. The word “election” is found in the NT but it’s being used to teach that ALL are elected

Ephesians 5:25-27 - “…Christ loved *the church* and gave Himself up for *her* (cf. John 10:11), so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless.” It doesn't say that Christ loved and gave Himself up for absolutely everyone without exception, but ONLY the church. This accords well with His teaching in John 17 where He doesn't even pray for the world, but only for those whom the Father has given to Him out of the world (cf. John 6:44). The express teaching of Scripture is that Christ was “delivered over because of our transgressions, and was raised because (on account of) our justification” (Romans 4:25), see also 1 Peter 2:24, Colossians 2:14. This passage (Romans 4:25) clearly asserts that those for whose offenses Christ died, for their justification He rose. If Christ died for all mankind, all must also be justified, or the Lord fails in His aim and design. If Jesus died and was raised for the justification of a particular individual, and yet that same individual is never saved, then Jesus died in vain, and yet whenever Paul speaks of the justification which has come to us, there is a single refrain - Christ has not died in vain. The precious life of Jesus was not laid down in vain for just anyone, but it was done so efficaciously for the sheep alone (John 10:10-15, 26, Romans 8:28-39, Revelation 5:9, Matthew 1:21, Zechariah 9:16). Universal atonement is unbiblical, and turns God into a philanderer.

@@lawrencestanley8989 I know my words will have no effect on you, you’re dead set in your ways, and I know scripture won’t have any effect on you either. But in the Ephesians 5 passage you quoted it does not say that Christ gave himself up only for the church. You’re adding that part in because you want to believe that. Paul specifically says in Ephesians 2:11-20 and 3:6 that God and Jesus have taken the world that thought was divided between chosen and un chosen and has shown that indeed all are chosen. All are loved and forgiven by God. You can hate this “universal” love that God has all you want but you won’t change scripture. Paul also says on Romans 5:18 very clearly: “Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people.” ‭‭ But I know none of this will have any effect on you. You’ll just mindlessly post some long, uninformed diatribe in reply like you normally do. Go ahead.

Well said Romans9guy. False doctrine (Calvinism) comes from the 👿 ("Hath God indeed said?") 👿 "Surely God DID in fact send His Son into the world to condemn the world" "Surely, Luke 9:56 can't mean what it says" "Surely, God wants MANY to perish & not that all would come to repentance" "Surely, Titus 2:11 doesn't mean what it says, trust the Man-Made confessions, not scripture pffft." "Surely, Hell was prepared for billions of pre-ordained reprobates, not just for me & my Angels...who are you gonna believe, the clear & plain words of Holy Writ saying any, all, everyone, whosoever can call upon Jesus for salvation or my project mere mortal theologians one of whom had his dissenters imprisoned & some put to death?"

@@TheRomans9Guy Actually, it is because I submit to the scriptures that I will never believe in a universal atonement. Beginning in Matthew 25:31, Jesus tells a parable describing two types of individuals, the sheep and the goats. The goats are described as the accursed ones, the condemned and lost who are doomed to an eternal punishment (vs. 46). The sheep are described as God’s people, the redeemed who will go into eternal life. Here’s the point, both life and punishment are said to be eternal (no beginning and no end), and to those who will go into eternal life, it is said to them that their inheritance was prepared for them “from the foundation of the world” (vs. 34), therefore in like manner, because both life and punishment are eternal, so too was the punishment prepared for the goats from the foundation of the world. It is not as though man is born hardened, born blind, or born deaf to the things of God, but rather, as the saying goes, “the same sun that melts the wax, hardens the clay,” so it is the nature of man that determines how he reacts to God. Men are born either as sheep or goats, and, as Jesus declared in John 10:26, belief is predicated on whether or not one is of His sheep. Goats will never believe; “the Light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil” (John 3:19). The light that God shines on men will only ever serve to harden the goats. *Over, and over, and over again in scripture, Jesus is said to die for the sheep, that He leaves the 99 to go and search for the one stray sheep, that He has compassion for the sheep, that He finds the lost sheep, that He was sent to the lost sheep, that He puts the sheep on His right, that He is the sheepgate, that He leads the sheep, that He owns the sheep, and that He is the shepherd of the sheep. Nowhere in scripture do we see that He dies for the goats, leads the goats, pray for the goats, or even have compassion for the goats; the only thing that He does for the goats is to separate them from the sheep and judge them. Goats are goats, and sheep are sheep, and nowhere in scripture do we ever see any provision for goats to become sheep; they have no ability to do so because both life and punishment are prepared for them both from the foundation of the world (Romans 9:21-24, John 6:29, 44, Hebrews 12:2, Philippians 1:6).* Those who exercise faith are the ones who already belong to God as sons as a part of His election in eternity past, who, in time, will exercise faith as a result of His empowerment and their adoption. God does not save people to make them sons, rather, as we see with the parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32, cf. Ephesians 2:1), God saves those who are already His sons to start with “from the foundation of the world;” He came to “save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21); Christ died for His sheep alone (John 10:11, 15, 26-28), and nowhere do the scriptures say that Christ died for the goats so that the goats may become sheep. The fact that Christ made a definite atonement for a specific group of people is everywhere taught in scripture.

Nope. Allowing women as officers was one of the main reasons they left the CRC.