Art as expression – NOT as market campaigns, will still capture our Imaginations
This astounding prophecy was not a mere clever prediction of Jesus, based upon political considerations, and the probabilities indicated by the rebellious nature of Israel and the character of the Roman authority.
The Elect are people who will love God and choose to serve him are “the elect” foreordained before all time to inherit eternal salvation.
Of all the primary steps of obeying the gospel, faith, repentance, confession and baptism, all are said to be “unto” or “toward” salvation, God, Christ and the remission of sins; whereas of baptism alone is it declared that it is “INTO Christ.”
God’s giving people up was not capricious, but founded upon the righteous premise that such conduct deserved the adverse judgment it received.
There are a number of prophecies of the end of the world which do not suggest that it is to be accomplished by fire. No industry, no kitchen, no household were ever possible without the means of disposing of the refuse; and it would be illogical to suppose that God could run the whole universe without some means of taking care of the refuse.
The great prophecies of Isaiah which formed the background of the apostle’s thought here, and which he would immediately quote, foretold, the formation of the Christian church, for the spiritual worship of God, under the image of a temple, which God would build on Messiah as a foundation-stone thereof.
The natural man finds it very difficult to receive spiritual things, due to his inherent preoccupation with the mechanics of them, the “how” of everything. Nicodemus’ question is therefore one of remarkable interest to all. How persistently man probes every mystery!
