Bible Discussion Thread

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Remember thy father Dives, in whose steps thou walkest, and the same way leads to the same end. The Lord saith that "the wicked shall be turned into hell, and all that forgets God."10 But the deceit in thee says that thou mayst live in sin while thou art here and have thy thoughts in the world, and yet thou shalt enter into the kingdom of heaven too. Now who must be the liar, whether God or thou, O vain man? Was it not sin that separated God and man at the first, and thinkest thou to be reconciled again so long as sin stands in thee? Man was not created in sin, but pure and holy, in the image of God;11 and while he stood here he had communion with God and had the pure wisdom of God by which he was able to see into the wonders of God and to give names unto all creatures.12 But so soon as he had committed sin he was stripped of all this and became naked, and was thrust out of paradise, and was cursed from the Lord; yea the ground was cursed for his sake;13 and all this because of sin which thou thinkest so light of. For odious is sin in the pure eyes of the holy God, and didst thou but know thy condition as thou liest in sin, in thy first birth a child of wrath, and one to whom all the curses in the Book of God are due, thou wouldst tremble at sin and not plead for it, wherein thou plainly showest thyself to be the servant of the devil. And when thou thus abusest the goodness of God, that having left the failings of others upon record as warnings to all that come after not to do the like,14 and these thou makest use of to encourage thee in thy sin and filthiness; and because God is merciful to pardon sinners at what time soever they repent, therefore thou art encouraged to live in sin the longer, unrepented of. Now all that have eyes in their heads may plainly see whose child thou art: for the apostle saith, "Know ye not that the longsuffering of God, and forbearing, leads to repentance";