Bible Discussion Thread

How dose one go about putting the Ax to the root?

Hi Bonnie. Matthew 3:10 & Luke 3:9 give us this message. It was spoken by John the Baptist to those who came to see what he was doing at the Jordan River. And his message was, 'you, who are resting on your Jewish heritage to be guaranteed God's favor, think again - God is able to reject any who don't come to Him in true repentance & with a change of life, & will accept those, even non-Israelites, who do come to Him in His Way' (just a loose translation).

So the 'axe that is laid to the root of the trees': this signifies that this will be God's Judgement of cutting down & discarding even those who have been blessed as are called the children of God, since these very ones are not trusting God for their position & redemption, but trusting in their heritage & not living out lives that are worthy & fruitful. These 'trees' God will cut down with His Axe of Judgement, right at the root so that nothing can grow from it again; and John the Baptist's coming (and as a forerunner to Jesus Christ), was to do exactly that: to separate those in God's flock from those who aren't - as also those abiding in the Vine & those who want to be for their own reason - but these will be soon plucked from the branch for lack of fruit (i.e no evidence of faith & no fruit from being nourished by God through Jesus ( John 15:1-8)).