WILL YOU CALL THEM ARROGANT

Matthew 5:22  But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, 'You fool!' will be liable to the hell of fire.

Matthew 7:26   And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.

Matthew 23:17 You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that has made the gold sacred?

Matthew 25:2-3 Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. [3] For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them,   Matthew 25:8  And the foolish said to the wise, 'Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.'

Mark 7:22  coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness.

Luke 11:40  You fools! Did not he who made the outside make the inside also?

Luke 12:20  But God said to him, 'Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?'

Luke 24:25   And he said to them, "O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!

Romans 1:14   I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish.

Romans 1:21-22   For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. [22] Claiming to be wise, they became fools,

Romans 1:31   foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.

Romans 2:20   an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of children, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth—

Romans 10:19   But I ask, did Israel not understand? First Moses says, "I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation;  with a foolish nation I will make you angry."

1 Cor. 1:20   Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?

1 Cor. 1:27   But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong;

1 Cor. 15:36   You foolish person! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies.

2 Cor. 11:19  For you gladly bear with fools, being wise yourselves!

2 Cor. 11:21   To my shame, I must say, we were too weak for that!  But whatever anyone else dares to boast of—I am speaking as a fool—I also dare to boast of that.

2 Cor. 12:6   Though if I should wish to boast, I would not be a fool, for I would be speaking the truth. But I refrain from it, so that no one may think more of me than he sees in me or hears from me.

2 Cor. 12:11   I have been a fool! You forced me to it, for I ought to have been commended by you. For I was not at all inferior to these super-apostles, even though I am nothing.

Galatians 3:1 O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified.

Galatians 3:3 Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?

Ephes. 5:4   Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving.

Ephes. 5:17   Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.

2 Tim. 2:23   Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels.

Titus 3:3   For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another.

Titus 3:9   But avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless.

James 2:20   Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless?

1 Peter 2:15   For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people.

SUFFERING IN AMERICA

I have a tendancy to block out sermons on "Understanding Suffering", because I assume most pastors will rush to direct the focus on matters like:  getting cancer, the death of an infant, the death of a spouse, losing the use of your legs, etc.  I can easily see the need of edification if I were put in one of these providences, however I still block out these sermons because the focus becomes so immediatlely couched in physical connotations, instead of spirtual ones.

Second, I pass over these sermons because if the pastor does talk about Suffering for Jesus, then we are brought to consider the persecution of Christians in Muslim Nations, Communist Nations, and Atheist Nations.  These Christians are threatened, beaten, arrested, driven from homes, tortured, killed, and separated from family.  They live in abject poverty and face a tribulation very different from the comforts of the American Protestant scence. While this is important to remember, it still seems to be so far removed from what we are able to relate to and respond to.

However, I am learning now the important priority to speak on Christian Suffering in America.  While this suffering holds no comparison to those Chrisitans in Muslim and Communist Nations, it is still a undeniable reality.

I want to make it clear, that Christian Suffering in America does not refer to Hollywood attacking morality, or the government taking prayer out of schools.  This is not about immoral sectors attackign moral sectors.  This is not precisely about the gay-agenda.  In reality it is in fact a Suffering from groups holding a Bible against those who are truly Born Again.  The current suffering is not yet physical, but the animosity and division is real.  Those who proclaim SOVEREIGN GRACE  are ignored, isolated, mocked, ridiculed, and maligned.  They are to be silenced from the pulpit and from the congregation.  Their conversation is to be squelched and dismissed as divisive and untimely.

LUTHERS THEOLOGY OF THE CROSS

The term, theologia crucis is actually used very rarely by Luther. He first uses the term, and explicitly defines it in contrast to the theology of glory, in the Heidelberg Disputation of 1518. During this debate, he represented the Augustinians and presented his theses that later came to define the Reformation movement.

ThesesThe pertinent theological theses of the debate are[1]:

1. The law of God, the most salutary doctrine of life, cannot advance man on his way to righteousness, but rather hinders him.
2. Much less can human works, which are done over and over again with the aid of natural precepts, so to speak, lead to that end.
3. Although the works of man always appear attractive and good, they are nevertheless likely to be mortal sins.
4. Although the works of God always seem unattractive and appear evil, they are nevertheless really eternal merits.
5. The works of men are thus not mortal sins (we speak of works that apparently are good), as though they were crimes.
6. The works of God (those he does through man) are thus not merits, as though they were sinless.
7. The works of the righteous would be mortal sins if they would not be feared as mortal sins by the righteous themselves out of pious fear of God.
8. By so much more are the works of man mortal sins when they are done without fear and in unadulterated, evil self-security.
9. To say that works without Christ are dead, but not mortal, appears to constitute a perilous surrender of the fear of God.
10. Indeed, it is very difficult to see how a work can be dead and at the same time not a harmful and mortal sin.
11. Arrogance cannot be avoided or true hope be present unless the judgment of condemnation is feared in every work.
12. In the sight of God sins are then truly venial when they are feared by men to be mortal.
13. Free will, after the fall, exists in name only, and as long as it does what it is able to do, it commits a mortal sin.
14. Free will, after the fall, has power to do good only in a passive capacity, but it can do evil in an active capacity.
15. Nor could the free will endure in a state of innocence, much less do good, in an active capacity, but only in a passive capacity.
16. The person who believes that he can obtain grace by doing what is in him adds sin to sin so that he becomes doubly guilty.
17. Nor does speaking in this manner give cause for despair, but for arousing the desire to humble oneself and seek the grace of Christ.
18. It is certain that man must utterly despair of his own ability before he is prepared to receive the grace of Christ.
19. That person does not deserve to be called a theologian who looks upon the invisible things of God as though they were clearly perceptible in those things that have actually happened.
20. He deserves to be called a theologian, however, who comprehends the visible and manifest things of God seen through suffering and the cross.
21. A theologian of glory calls evil good and good evil. A theologian of the cross calls the things what it actually is.
22. That wisdom that sees the invisible things of God in works as perceived by man is completely puffed up, blinded, and hardened.
23. The law brings the wrath of God, kills, reviles, accuses, judges, and condemns everything that is not in Christ.
24. Yet that wisdom is not of itself evil, nor is the law to be evaded; but without the theology of the cross man misuses the best in the worst manner.
25. He is not righteous who does much, but he who, without work, believes much in Christ.
26. The law says "Do this", and it is never done. Grace says, "believe in this" and everything is already done.
27. Actually one should call the work of Christ an acting work and our work an accomplished work, and thus an accomplished work pleasing to God by the grace of the acting work.
28. The love of God does not find, but creates, what is pleasing to it. The love of man comes into being through what is pleasing to it.