I was talking to another person on another forum about an apparent contradiction in the Bible about the use of the word, "Lord.".
He said he didn't understand the distinction between these two verses.
Matthew 7:21-23 - "Not everyone who says to me, "Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, "Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles? Then I will tell them plainly, I never knew you. Away from me, you evil doers."
Romans 10:13 - "For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved".
We weren't talking about the President as this was a few months ago that I had this conversation, but I think it sums up what President Obama is lacking in his understanding of what Christianity is.
President Obama is like the people in the Matthew passage. He is founding his religion on his works and life's philosophy. He associates himself with Jesus because he likes the precepts of Jesus. He believes this makes him a Christian.
I think the difference lies not in the "Lord" but in the "say to me" and the "call upon".
The people in the Matthew passage are telling Jesus something. They are defending themselves by their works, which do not save, and are demanding that they be judged righteous on their use of the word, Lord. They boast of their works and ignore their sin.
The people in the Romans passage are crying out to Jesus. Strong's concordance says that it is an invoking of Jesus' Name or an attaching of his Name as a surname to oneself.
It is placing Him as authority over your life. He, alone, can make you clean and righteous, not your works.
Here's a modern day example.
In WWII, when the Nazis were trying to exterminate the Jews, it is documented that in the women's camps that when trying to weed out the older women for extermination first, they would line the women up and ask them their ages and check for frailties.
They would put their arms around these old women and feel for muscle tissue and get close to their faces to look for healthy skin tones and they would reverently call them "Mother". They would sweetly say things like the following.
"Mother, how old are you?"
"Can you tend a garden, Mother?"
"How strong is your back, dear Mother?"
It was sickening. These men no more meant those affectionate endearments than the devil would. They would round these "Mothers" up and kill them and never blink an eye.
Just because they addressed these women as such did not mean that they cared for them. It was a cruel ploy to keep down the panic.
Using the term "Lord" to merely address Jesus no more means that you believe it than these men who called the Jewish women, Mother.
But crying out to Jesus for his authority over you as a child would cry for his mother in the night after a terrible nightmare or cry out for her in a grocery store after being lost is very different. That child, crying, "Mother! Mother!" is like unto what those people in the Romans passage were doing.
Crying out to Jesus for salvation......and to be our Lord. Acknowledging that we cannot save ourselves and that we are in terrible danger of God's wrath.
I am NOT likening President Obama to Nazis.
I am likening President Obama's statement about his Christianity and countless thousands of other people's humanistic belief's JUST LIKE his to the misguided people in the Matthew passage.
He needs our prayers.
He said he didn't understand the distinction between these two verses.
Matthew 7:21-23 - "Not everyone who says to me, "Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, "Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles? Then I will tell them plainly, I never knew you. Away from me, you evil doers."
Romans 10:13 - "For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved".
We weren't talking about the President as this was a few months ago that I had this conversation, but I think it sums up what President Obama is lacking in his understanding of what Christianity is.
President Obama is like the people in the Matthew passage. He is founding his religion on his works and life's philosophy. He associates himself with Jesus because he likes the precepts of Jesus. He believes this makes him a Christian.
I think the difference lies not in the "Lord" but in the "say to me" and the "call upon".
The people in the Matthew passage are telling Jesus something. They are defending themselves by their works, which do not save, and are demanding that they be judged righteous on their use of the word, Lord. They boast of their works and ignore their sin.
The people in the Romans passage are crying out to Jesus. Strong's concordance says that it is an invoking of Jesus' Name or an attaching of his Name as a surname to oneself.
It is placing Him as authority over your life. He, alone, can make you clean and righteous, not your works.
Here's a modern day example.
In WWII, when the Nazis were trying to exterminate the Jews, it is documented that in the women's camps that when trying to weed out the older women for extermination first, they would line the women up and ask them their ages and check for frailties.
They would put their arms around these old women and feel for muscle tissue and get close to their faces to look for healthy skin tones and they would reverently call them "Mother". They would sweetly say things like the following.
"Mother, how old are you?"
"Can you tend a garden, Mother?"
"How strong is your back, dear Mother?"
It was sickening. These men no more meant those affectionate endearments than the devil would. They would round these "Mothers" up and kill them and never blink an eye.
Just because they addressed these women as such did not mean that they cared for them. It was a cruel ploy to keep down the panic.
Using the term "Lord" to merely address Jesus no more means that you believe it than these men who called the Jewish women, Mother.
But crying out to Jesus for his authority over you as a child would cry for his mother in the night after a terrible nightmare or cry out for her in a grocery store after being lost is very different. That child, crying, "Mother! Mother!" is like unto what those people in the Romans passage were doing.
Crying out to Jesus for salvation......and to be our Lord. Acknowledging that we cannot save ourselves and that we are in terrible danger of God's wrath.
I am NOT likening President Obama to Nazis.
I am likening President Obama's statement about his Christianity and countless thousands of other people's humanistic belief's JUST LIKE his to the misguided people in the Matthew passage.
He needs our prayers.
raying: