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Are You Criticizing God?

by "Carl" <saints@[EMAIL PROTECTED] > May 12, 2008 at 01:30 PM

For the sinner, no matter how terrible they may feel their sin is, there is

no legitimate reason to not turn towards Him and accept His free gift of 
salvation. Many excuses are given, but in God's eyes all of those are
merely 
weak and have no merit. R.A. Torrey preached about this and exhorts those 
sinners, especially those considering turning to God, to stop 
procrastinating and actually commit to Him.

May God bless,
Carl
my website -- http://www.nettally.com/saints/
my blog -- http://www.anniemayhem.com/cgi-bin/wordpress/

---

Are You Criticizing God?
by R.A. Torrey

These words ought to awaken anyone who is not utterly beyond hope. Notice 
the first two words and the last word. "O man" and "God." "O man, who art 
thou that repliest against God?" Here God and man are put in sharpest 
contrast, God in His infinite greatness and wisdom and man in his 
infinitesimal smallness and ignorance. And in the Greek there is also a 
strong emphasis on the "thou." "O MAN, who art thou that repliest against 
GOD?" It will be a happy day for some of us if God will brand that text
upon 
our memories so that we shall never be able to forget it nor get away from

it. "O man, who art thou that repliest against God?"

The most insanely daring thing that any man can do, the most exceedingly 
foolish thing any man can do, the most desperately wicked thing that any
man 
can do, is to reply against God, to enter into controversy with God, to 
criticize God, to condemn God. Yet that is what many people are doing

When you hear a little child replying against his father or mother,
getting 
into controversy, criticizing, condemning, you are filled with disgust and

indignation. It is something not to be tolerated for one moment. But what
is 
it for any mere human being, any mere creature of the dust such as all of
us 
are, to reply against, to criticize, to enter into controversy with, to
try 
to prove wrong the Infinite and Eternal God? It is the most exceedingly 
foolish and desperately wicked thing a human being can do.

The Folly and Wickedness of Entering into Controversy with God
There are four facts which show the exceeding folly and desperate
wickedness 
of replying against God, of entering into controversy with God, of 
criticizing or condemning God.

The first is the fact of the infinite majesty of God. Our text itself 
contrasts the infinite majesty of God with the infinitesimal smallness of 
man. It reads, "O man, who art thou that repliest against God?" Yes, who
art 
thou, anyway? And who is God?

You are one out of 2,000,000,000 like yourself now inhabiting this globe. 
And what is this globe on which you and I live? The earth is so small a
part 
of the already known universe that if the sun were hollow, you could pour 
into it 1,200,000 earths like ours and still there would be room enough
left 
for them to rattle around in it.Yes, the sun itself is very, very small in

comparison with Arcturus and some of the other stars whose diameters have 
been recently measured, and there are now known to be more than
225,000,000 
of these great worlds we call stars in this universe of ours. God, with
whom 
you are seeking to enter into controversy, seeking to criticize and
condemn, 
made them all. "He made the stars also" (Gen. 1:16). "O man, who art thou 
that repliest against God?"

We men in this day of increasingly successful investigation of the 
incredible, and, as it seems to us, practically infinite, magnitude of the

stellar heavens are sometimes tempted to be puffed up because a few great 
leaders and investigators among us are beginning to know a little about 
these vast stellar worlds and interstellar spaces. But what about the God 
who planned them all and made them all? Our increasing discoveries of the 
vastness of the physical universe ought to fill us with an increasing
sense 
of our own nothingness in comparison with the infinite greatness and
majesty 
of Him who planned and made them all. But, alas, oftentimes it seems only
to 
puff us up with pride that we are so wise as to understand a small part of

the ways and power of yon infinite God.

The second fact that shows us the exceeding folly and desperate wickedness

of replying against God, of entering into controversy with God, of 
criticizing God, of condemning God, is the fact of the infinite and
absolute 
holiness of God. "God is light, and in him is no darkness at all" (1 John 
1:5). God is the One, as I read in the Scripture lesson tonight, in whose 
presence the seraphim themselves, the "burning ones" (for that is what the

Hebrew word "seraphim" means), burning in their own intense holiness, must

veil their faces and feet in that infinitely holy Presence and keep 
continually crying, "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty" (Isaiah 
6:3). God is the One in whose presence Isaiah, that holy man of old,
covered 
his face and cried, 'Woe is me! for I am undone; for I am a man of unclean

lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, . . . for mine

eyes have seen the King, Jehovah of hosts." God is the One in whose
presence 
Job, the "perfect man," Job, who had stoutly maintained his integrity
before 
all the persistent and united accusations of his friends, when he got one 
glimpse of God face to face, overwhelmed with the sense of his own 
nothingness and vileness in comparison with the infinitely holy One,
cried, 
"I have heard of thee with the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth 
thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes" (Job
42:5-6). 
Such is God. And "who art thou that repliest against God?" And what art 
thou?

What are we all, the very best of us? Vile-the best of us is but a
loathsome 
sinner. We may not yet realize the fact, but it is true. Our lives have
been 
shot through and through by sin. Yet you undertake to stand in the
presence 
of this Holy God, in whose presence the seraphim veil their faces and
their 
feet, and reply against Him, to suggest what God ought to do, to enter
into 
controversy with God, to criticize God for things which He has seen fit to

do, to murmur against God.

There is a third fact that shows us the exceeding folly and desperate 
wickedness of replying against God, of entering into controversy with God,

of criticizing God, of condemning God, and that is the fact of God's 
infinite wisdom. God is not only a Being of infinite majesty and holiness.

He is also a Being of infinite wisdom. We look up at the starry heavens 
above our heads, we look at these wonderful worlds of light that stud the 
heavens by night. We think of the overwhelming things about their
immensity 
and the incredible speed and momentum of their movements as they rush 
through space, and as we look up at them, if we are wise, we say, "Oh,
God, 
what a Being of infinite wisdom as well as majesty Thou art that Thou
canst 
guide these inconceivably enormous worlds as they go whirling through
space 
with such incredible velocity and momentum."

And yet many of you here tonight do not hesitate to look up at that 
Infinitely wise God who made these wonderful spheres of light, who guides 
the whole universe in its wonderful, stupendous and bewildering course,
and 
attempt to tell Him what you think He ought to do! Thou fool, art thou
mad? 
No inmate of Patten ever did an insaner thing. "Who art thou?" The wisest 
man on earth is but a child; the wisest philosopher does not know much;
the 
greatest man of science knows but very little. What he knows is almost 
nothing in comparison with what he does not know. What he does know, even 
about the material universe, is as nothing compared with what he does not 
know.

How much does the wisest scientist know even about this small planet? What

does he really know, for example, about earthquakes? Have you ever stopped

to think of the fact that the most confidently believed science of one 
hundred years ago is regarded by all modern scientists as foolishness? If
we 
are to judge the future by the past, the most confidently believed science

of today will be regarded as foolishness by the scientists of one hundred 
years hence.

When I was giving special attention to scientific study not so very many 
years ago, the nebular hypothesis was almost universally accepted. But
some 
of the most advanced and reliable scientists of today are not only 
questioning it, but declare, at least in private, that it is exploded.
What 
the scientists of a hundred years ago taught as being settled forever is 
known by our little children in the primary schools today as completely 
disproven. What the best scientist of today thinks he knows to be true a 
little child in primary school one hundred years hence will know to be 
false. The best scientific knowledge of today will be regarded as 
foolishness a hundred years from now, and the best scientific knowledge of

one hundred years from now will be foolishness to the Infinitely wise God.

Suppose some child of thirteen or fourteen should take a book on
philosophy 
setting forth the ripest product of the best philosophic thought of today 
and begin to criticize it, page by page. What would you think? Would you 
stand and look at the boy and say with unbounded admiration, "What a
bright 
lad he is?" No, you would say, "What a conceited idiot he is to undertake,

at his age and with his limited knowledge, to criticize the best
philosophic 
thought of the day!" But he would not be so conceited an idiot as you or I

would be were we to attempt to criticize an infinitely wise God for we are

far less than children compared with the infinite God.

The most profound philosopher of today is but a little child compared with

the Infinite God. And yet you, who do not make any pretensions of being a 
philosopher at all, take God's Book, you a little child, an infant, take 
this Book which represents the best wisdom of God, and you sit down and
turn 
it, page by page, and try to criticize it, and people stand and look at
you 
and admire and say, "What a scholar!" But the angels look down and say, 
"What a fool!" And what does God say? "O man, who art thou that repliest 
against God?" "He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh; the Lord [the 
Almighty and the Eternal] shall have [you] in derision" (Ps. 2:4).

There is a fourth fact that emphasizes the extreme folly and desperate 
wickedness of replying against God, of entering into controversy with God,

of criticizing God, or condemning God, and that fact is that He is not
only 
a Being of Infinite majesty, holiness, and wisdom, but also a Being of 
infinite goodness and love. Why, man, you owe everything you have in the 
world to God. You owe your very existence to Him. You owe to Him your
power 
to see, your power to hear, your power to taste. You owe to Him your power

to breathe, to live, to walk, to work, your power to enjoy this wonderful 
world which He has made, in which He permits and enables us to live.
'Every 
good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the 
Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning"

(James 1:17). The poorest of us, the most unfortunate of us, has an
immense 
deal for which to be thankful. You who seem to have very little have 
exceedingly much in comparison with nothing. Are you blind? Well, you can 
hear and taste, can you not? Are you deaf, dumb, and blind? Well, you can 
eat and enjoy your food, can you not? The man who has all five senses
would 
be just as reasonable if he were to complain because he has not six as the

man who has four senses would be to complain because he has not five.
Thank 
God for what you have, rather than complain against God for what you have 
not.

Suppose I should have found on Thanksgiving Day a poor, half-starved tramp

and had taken him to my home, given him a good, well-cooked dinner of
roast 
lamb, white potatoes, other vegetables, and pumpkin pie, and then he had 
gone and complained against me to some other tramp because I did not give 
him turkey and sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, mince pie, and plum
pudding. 
Would he not have been an ungrateful cur? Yet not so, ungrateful as you
are 
when you complain at the God who has given you taste, hearing, touch, 
feeling, and many other blessings, because He has not given you sight
also. 
The poorest of us, the most suffering of us, have an enormous deal for
which 
to be thankful and all of it came from God. Not only that, but you and I
not 
only have these things that we possess to be thankful for but,
furthermore, 
every man of us has trampled God's law under foot; every one of us has
been 
a sinner justly condemned before God. But God, instead of dealing with us
in 
stem wrath and judgment, as we all deserve, has not only given us all
these 
blessings, but, in addition, has given His own Son to die on the Cross of 
Calvary in our place. He has given His best beloved, His dearest, His only

begotten Son. But in spite of all that wondrous love that did not stop
even 
at the sacrifice of His own Son, some of you presume to criticize God, who

gave His Son to die for you. "O man, who art thou that repliest against 
God?"

One of the greatest Italian statesmen of the last century, the greatest of

his day but one, was devoutly loved in his youth by a young woman. When he

entered the army of Garibaldi, this woman who loved him enlisted too, and 
fought in the war by the side of her lover, just to be near him. And one
day 
he was shot and fell on the field of battle, and that woman who loved him 
rushed out beneath a rain of bullets, lifted her fallen lover from the 
ground; and, amidst a terrific storm of bullets, carried her lover to 
safety. Then she watched over him for days and weeks until she had nursed 
him back to health. Suppose he had deserted her then, what would the whole

world have called him? In point of fact he married her, but afterward he 
divorced her; though he was one of the ablest statesmen of the century, 
Italy and all Europe, for all his brilliant gifts, never forgave him his 
treatment of the devoted woman who had risked her life to save his.

But what has God done for you? The eternal God has consented that His
heart 
should be torn and crushed to save you and me. Yet some of us dare to
enter 
into controversy with this God of infinite love, to criticize that eternal

God who consented that His heart be torn and bruised and crushed to save
us. 
Oh, the desperate wickedness, the amazing folly of replying against a God
of 
infinite majesty, infinite holiness, infinite wisdom, and, above all, of 
infinite love. "O man, who art thou that repliest against God?"

Who Repliest Against God?
But who is replying against God? Who is entering into controversy with
God? 
Who is criticizing or condemning God? Five cl***** are replying against
God.

First of all, the men and women who complain of God's providential
dealings 
with them are replying against God, are entering into controversy with
God, 
are criticizing God and condemning God. Many a man or woman has said to
me, 
"I think God is cruel." "Why do you think He is cruel?" One replies, "He
has 
taken away my husband." Another, "He has taken away my wife." Another, "He

has taken away my child. He has taken away the light of our home."
Another, 
"He has brought me down from financial prosperity to financial failure. I 
once stood high in the business world. I now have to almost beg my bread, 
and I say God is cruel." Another says, "If God is good, why did He permit 
this awful disaster or that which laid waste a beautiful city or nation? I

think God is cruel."

You do? You do? You think God is cruel! Who is God? A Being of infinite 
majesty, a Being of infinite holiness, a Being of infinite wisdom, a Being

of infinite love, a Being who gave His own Son to die that you might be 
saved! "O man, who art thou that repliest against God?"

But you say, "I do not understand it." Why should you understand it? Who
are 
you? If you were really wise, you would not ask to understand it. If you
had 
really good sense, you would not feel any need of having it explained. You

would say, "I know God is infinitely good and infinitely wise. I know He
is 
infinitely loving, too. I know He gave His Son to die for me, and though I

cannot understand it, nevertheless it comes from God's hand and I know it
is 
all right. "****d came I [into this world]: ... the Lord gave, and the
Lord 
hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord" (Job 1:21). 1 do not ask

to understand; I am perfbctly content to trust in the dark that God who is

so infinitely worthy of my trust.

I had two friends in England, very dear friends, who were beautiful 
Christians. They had a lovely daughter. She grew to maidenhood and was
said 
to have been an unusually beautiful girl in both face and character. Some 
said she was the most beautiful character they had ever met. When this 
lovely daughter was seventeen or eighteen, she was taken with rheumatic 
fever, and, after awful suffering, died. The father and mother never 
complained. They kissed the hand that smote.

Some time after this sorrow had befallen them, I was talking with them
about 
it. They told me how God had sustained them in that trying hour. Only a 
little while after this conversation, their second daughter, now grown to 
womanhood, was also taken down with precisely the same malady, rheumatic 
fever. Her fever ran up to 107 and stayed there day after day, and she 
seemed beyond all hope. Then the mother's faith gave way, and she said,
"God 
is cruel to take my second daughter when I never complained about the
first, 
and not only to take my second daughter, but to take her in just the same 
way He took the first." But God spared the child. She is well now, a
devoted 
Christian woman in very active Christian work. And that mother has
repented 
of her wickedness.

Oh, friends, it was wicked, very wicked. Our hearts were almost broken in 
sympathy during the days that child hung between life and death. Telegrams

kept coming to me telling of her condition, and my heart bled for my 
friends. But, nonetheless, I say that was wicked on the mother's part to
say 
"God is cruel." That was exceedingly wicked, that was desperately wicked,
to 
call God cruel. That same mother lost all three of her sons and her
husband 
in the late war, but she has never again whispered that God is cruel. I
had 
a letter from her only the other day that was full of trust and hope.

Some of you are passing through trials which, if the rest of us knew,
would 
fill our hearts with sympathy and pain. But you are murmuring against God,

and that is wicked, that is exceedingly foolish, that is desperately
wicked; 
for "O man, who art thou that repliest against God," against a God of 
infinite majesty, against a God of infinite wisdom, against a God of 
infinite holiness, against a God of infinite love, against a God who gave 
His only begotten Son to die for you? But you say, "I do not understand
it." 
Why should you understand it? Why should you ask to understand it? Who are

you that God should explain it to you? Oh, that we might always bear in
mind 
who God is, and who we are; what God is, and what we are.

Then there is a second class who are replying against God, who are
entering 
into controversy with God, who are criticizing and condemning God, namely,

those who are criticizing this Book and trying to pull this Book to
pieces. 
This Book is God's Word. That is thoroughly established. When you
criticize 
this Book, you criticize its Author, who is God. When you criticize this 
Book, you criticize God. But you say, "I do not believe it is God's Word."

That does not alter the fact, not in the least. It is His Word-there is 
abundant proof that it is His Word. I have proved over and over again in 
this place that this Book is the Word of God. This Book is God's Word, and

whoever ventures to criticize it ventures to criticize God. Never forget 
that. I repeat it, whoever ventures to criticize this Book ventures to 
criticize God, and the one who criticizes God is guilty of exceeding folly

and desperate wickedness. You say, "I do not like that." I am sorry that
you 
do not, for it is true, and I always feel profoundly sorry for the man or 
woman who does not like the truth. They are in a bad way.

One night one of my workers in Minneapolis called me down to speak to a
man 
who said that he was an infidel. "Why are you an infidel?" I asked.
'Because 
I do not believe the Bible," he replied. 'Yes, but why do you not believe 
the Bible?" "It is full of contradictions," he answered. "Show me one," I 
quietly said, and handed him my Bible to find it. He said, "It is full of 
them." 'Well," I said, 'if it is full of them, you ought to be able to
show 
me at least one." "I don't pretend to know as much about the Bible as you 
do," he blurted out. I said, "Then what are you talking about it for?" I 
turned him to our Bible text of tonight, "O man, who art thou that
repliest 
against God" Then I turned him to Matthew 12:36, 'Every idle word that men

shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment." Then
I 
said, 'The Bible is Gods Word, and you have said it is full of 
contradictions, and in saying that you have condemned the Author, you have

condemned God, and Jesus said, Every idle word that men shall speak, they 
shall give account thereof in the day ofjudgment." You have criticized
God, 
and you will have to give account of it in the day of judgment, of all
these 
words, these idle words that you have just used." He turned pale, and
said, 
"I did not mean to do that." "But that is what you have done." And it is 
what some of you have done in the last twenty-four hours. You have
ventured 
to laugh at something in the Bible. When you did that, you laughed at God.

You ventured to set up some opinion of yours against what God says in His 
Book. You ventured to enter into controversy with God, you ventured to 
criticize something in the Bible, and when you did that, you criticized
the 
Author of the Bible, you criticized God. "O man, who art thou that
repliest 
against God?"

There is a third class who are replying against God, who are entering into

controversy with God, who are criticizing God, who are condemning God, and

that is those who make light of the Bible doctrine of salvation by atoning

blood, the Bible doctrine that we are saved through the shedding of the 
blood of Jesus on the Cross of Calvary. That doctrine so frequently and so

unmistakably taught in God's Word is ridiculed today in many a so-called 
Christian pulpit. Any pulpit that ridicules the doctrine of salvation by 
atoning blood is not a Christian pulpit. A very noted preacher in New York

City, whose books have a wide sale, was re****ted to me by one who took
down 
his words in his classroom to have said, "The doctrine of blood atonement
is 
nauseating to me." Any preacher who ridicules the doctrine of salvation by

atoning blood is not a minister of Jesus Christ, he is a minister of
Satan, 
no matter how genial and amiable a man he may be.

The Bible doctrine of salvation by atoning blood is ridiculed in this day
on 
every hand. Some preachers have said it is foolish for me to preach this 
"old doctrine." Well, it is an old doctrine, but it is a true doctrine.
And 
I would rather believe and teach the old that is true than the new that is

false. I did not invent this doctrine. I do not know enough to invent it.
I 
found it in that Book, and, thank God, I found it to be true in my own
life; 
it saved me and I preach it, and it has saved thousands through my
preaching 
of it. I preach it, but I did not invent it. God is the Author of this 
doctrine, and when you criticize the preaching of it, you do not criticize

me, you criticize God. It would be a matter of no great consequence for
you 
to criticize me or my preaching. Why should you not criticize me? I am not

infallible. I cannot see why I am not just as properly an object of 
criticism as anybody else. It does not harm me, and it gives some people 
lots of fun. Sometimes it greatly helps me. But, ah, when you criticize
this 
doctrine you are not criticizing me, you are criticizing God, and that is 
serious, tremendously serious. "O man, who art thou that repliest against 
God?"

Then there is a fourth class who are replying against God, namely, those
who 
complain of the Bible doctrine of retribution for sin, the Bible doctrine
of 
endless punishment. This is not my doctrine. I did not get it up. Some say

that it is a medieval doctrine. No, it is not a medieval doctrine. They
did 
not originate it in the Middle Ages. It is the doctrine of Jesus Christ, 
taught by Him, not in the Middle Ages but in the first century. Why will 
people who try to pose as scholars display such ignorance of the meaning
of 
commonly used words?

Jesus Christ says distinctly in Matthew 25:41 that at the judgment of the 
nations living on the earth when He comes again He will say to those on
His 
left hand, 'Depart from me, ye cursed, into the everlasting fire, prepared

for the devil and his angels." And, five verses farther down, He says,
"And 
these shall go away into eternal punishment: but the righteous into life 
eternal." Now, I did not invent that. That was in the Bible before I was 
born. Jesus said it eighteen centuries before I was born. I simply found
it 
in the Bible and preach it because it is there. I received a letter once 
from a Universalist preacher in New Hamp****re, saying, "The doctrine you 
preach makes God a monster." Whoever says that this doctrine makes God a 
monster is himself a blasphemer, for it is God's doctrine. When you say
that 
"Whosoever preaches this doctrine makes God a monster," you say that God
is 
a monster. A lady in Liverpool wrote me, "I cannot conceive how a God of 
love should leave anybody to everlasting punishment." Why should she 
conceive how a God of love should leave anybody to everlasting punishment?

It seemed to have never entered her head that anything she could not 
conceive could be easily conceivable by someone who knew more than she
did. 
If she had had even a modi*** of commonsense, she would have seen at once 
that although she, with her very limited intelligence, could not conceive 
it, an infinitely wise God might have a thousand reasons for doing it,
even 
though she could not see one.

It has never dawned on some people that even God could by any possibility 
know more than they know. It never dawned on me for years, and in those
days 
I was a Universalist. I thought that all men would ultimately be saved. I 
was a Universalist because I had an argument for the ultimate salvation of

everybody for which I could see no possible answer. I thought if I could
not 
see an answer, why, no one could. So I challenged anybody to meet me on
that 
argument and answer it. I went around with my head pretty high and said,
"I 
have found an unanswerable reason for Universalism." I thought that I was
a 
Universalist for all time and that anyone who was not a Universalist was
not 
well posted.

One day it occurred to me that an infinitely wise God might possibly know 
more than I did. That had never dawned on me before. It dawned upon me
also 
that it was quite possible that a God of infinite wisdom might have a 
thousand good reasons for doing a thing, when I, in my finite foolishness,

could not see even one. So my fondly cherished Universalism went up in 
smoke.

If you get that thought, that an Infinitely wise God may possibly know
more 
than even you do, and that God in His infinite wisdom might have a
thousand 
good reasons for doing a thing when you cannot see even one, you will have

learned one of the greatest theological truths of the day-one that will 
solve many of your perplexing problems in the Bible.

Men try to lay hold of infinite wisdom and fancy that they can squeeze it 
down into the capacity of their pint-cup minds. But because they cannot 
squeeze infinite wisdom into their pint-cup minds, they say, "I don't 
believe that Book is the Word of God, because it has something in it that
I 
cannot understand the philosophy of." Why should you understand the 
philosophy of it? Who are you, anyhow? How much of a mind have you,
anyhow? 
How long have you had it? How long are you going to keep it? Who gave it
to 
you?

It is not our business to find out the philosophy of things; it is not our

business to see the reason of things. It is our business to hear what God 
has to say, and when He says it, believe it, whether you can understand
the 
philosophy of it or not.

When my children were small and ignorant, I told them a lot of things that
I 
could not explain to them because of the limitations of their minds. There

are a great many things that even God cannot explain to you or to me
because 
we do not know enough yet to have it explained to us. God is too wise, I
say 
it reverently, to try to explain some things to a person who does not know

more than you do.

There is one more class that is replying against God, that is the men who 
instead of accepting Jesus Christ as their Savior and surrendering to Him
as 
their Lord and Master and openly confessing Him as such before the world, 
are making excuses for not doing it. Jesus says in John 6:37, "Him that 
cometh to me I will in no wise cast out." God says in Revelation 22:17, 
"Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." Anybody can come
to 
Christ, and anybody who does come will be received and saved. Yet many of 
you, instead of coming, are making excuses for not coming. By every excuse

you make you are replying against God, you are entering into controversy 
with God, you are condemning God, who invites you to come. You cannot
frame 
an excuse for not coming and accepting Christ that does not condemn God. 
Every excuse that any mortal makes for not accepting Christ, in its
ultimate 
analysis, condemns God.

For example, some of you say, "I am too great a sinner to come." But God 
says in 1 Timothy 1:15, "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all 
acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." And 
when you say, "I cannot come because I am too great a sinner," you give
the 
lie to God. He says you can. Another says, "I cannot come because I am too

weak to hold out in the Christian life." But God says in Jude 24, "He is 
able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before the 
presence of his glory with exceeding joy." You say, "God cannot keep me." 
God says He can. And when you say He cannot, you make God a liar and
condemn 
God. Another says, "I cannot come because I have not the right kind of 
feeling." But God says, "Whosoever will, let him come and take the water
of 
life freely." God says, 'You can come," and you say, "I cannot," and that 
excuse condemns God. Every conceivable excuse the sinner makes for not 
coming to Christ at once, in its ultimate analysis, condemns God, and
every 
man and woman who, instead of coming right to the Lord Jesus and accepting

Him, surrendering to Him, confessing Him as Master and going forth to
serve 
Him-everyone who is making an excuse of any kind instead of accepting
Christ 
is replying against God. "O man, who art thou that repliest against God?"
 




 3 Posts in Topic:
Are You Criticizing God?
"Carl" <sain  2008-05-12 13:30:24 
Re: Are You Criticizing God?
"Andrew W" <  2008-05-13 07:52:26 
Re: Are You Criticizing God?
bob young <alaspectrum  2008-05-13 00:27:07 

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tan13V112 Thu Jul 24 7:29:05 CDT 2008.