(September 17, 2012 at 8:10 pm)Drich Wrote: I was hopping you were going to press on. So lets press on to the whole context of the message and not just cherry pick one verse. lets start with the set up of verse 2 with verse 1:
Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.
Then your verse:
2 Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. 3 And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.
Did you simply not understand what the set up in verse one means?
The "we" in "we should be called children of God!" does not include everyone. This is made appearent in the very next sentence: "Therefore the world does not know us" John is seperating all believers "We" from the world or nonbelievers. "We" aren't you/The rest of the world.
As previously stated, I'm willing to accept that only the believers are the children of God, I believe this is generally accepted among the religious anyway and it would be pointless to argue anyway.
(September 17, 2012 at 8:10 pm)Drich Wrote: "we" are Brothers through out faith. It stands to reason if you do not share in the faith you are not apart of the brotherhood of believers.
Quote: Perhaps misguided, but his children nonetheless?I can think of a few, but in the end it is God's call and not mine.
All you've pointed out is another hypocrisy. The bible teaches that by Faith (by believing) the Christians can be called brothers. The Pharisees are sinners, but so are we all. It's still pretty clear that they are believers, despite this, you say that it's Gods call whether they are his children. So it really doesn't matter what we do does it? It's Gods call anyway.
