by Sandy » Tue Apr 02, 2013 9:12 am
You know as well as I do that the spiritual concept of guilt or innocence is God's ideal, not man's perception of what it is. Paul's authoritative discussion of it is found in Romans 3, and while I won't sling prooftexts with you over this, you know the arguments as well as I do. Since Christ, anything we receive from God that is not judgment is a blessing. The covenant relationship that existed in the OT was with Israel, and it was subject to God's judgment for disobedience to the covenant. Achan committed the sin, but the scripture clearly says that "The Lord's anger burned against Israel," and whether his family was involved, or approved, or not, they all suffered the judgment with him.
God's covenant today is with individuals through the blood of Christ. The judgment for failing that covenant is death and punishment in eternal hell. It is only grace that relieves us of that obligation. I don't believe God gives out specific words of prophetic foreknowledge related to what goes on in the world today, but I do believe that sin, and the fall of man, is responsible for the evil that happens and I do believe that prophetic voices obedient to God's word are raised up to identify things in a culture that are signs of rebellion against God, and that people need to be called to repentance and renewal as a result. However, there are those, particularly among pre-millenialists and dispensationalists, who hold a different interpretation of prophetic events, and do believe that God can, and does, use current events and circumstances to alert people to the need for repentance, or to bring about necessary judgment. I do not hold those views myself, but they are not heretical by any definition of the term, and use of that word exposes intolerance and bigotry. But I've always said that those who consider themselves "moderate" or "liberal", and pat themselves on the back for their open minded "tolerance" of homosexuality, including ordaining unrepentant homosexuals and allowing same sex couples to marry in direct rebellion to God, are intolerant bigots when it comes to more conservative views and interpretations of scripture.