Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!dimacs.rutgers.edu!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: davidbu@loowit.wr.tek.com (David E. Buxton) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Was the Gospel ever removed from this Earth? Message-ID: Date: 23 May 91 00:40:17 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Lines: 123 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu The light of the gospel cannot be hidden (or taken away) from the world: ""You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden." -- Mat 5:14 (NKJ) Nothing can prevail against the church and its foundation: "And Simon Peter answered and said, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." {this statement is the foundation of the church} Jesus answered and said to him, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. "And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock {Peter's statement} I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. "-- Mat 16:16-18 (NKJ) To support my thesis that Peter's statement and not Peter is the rock and foundation of the church: "and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiri- tual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ." -- 1 Cor 10:4 (NKJ) "having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone," -- Eph 2:20 (NKJ) "And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preem- inence." -- Col 1:18 (NKJ) "Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Therefore it is also contained in the Scripture, "Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious, and he who believes on Him will by no means be put to shame." Therefore, to you who believe, He is precious; but to those who are disobedient, "The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone," and "A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense." They stumble, being disobedient to the word, to which they also were appointed. But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy." -- 1 Pet 2:4-10 (NKJ) "Lo I am with you always" - never to be taken away: "Then Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, "teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Amen." -- Mat 28:18-20 (NKJ) This world has never been without witnesses: ""who in bygone generations allowed all nations to walk in their own ways. "Nevertheless He did not leave Himself without witness, in that He did good, gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness."" -- Acts 14:16,17 (NKJ) Even if God's people are driven into the wilderness, as we see later, there will always be God's people. No earthly temple or church or building struc- ture is required as Jesus administers a heavenly temple built without hands. The important thing is that even if earthly man made structures are des- troyed, Jesus and a knowledge of His gospel will continue in the earth: ""God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. "Nor is He worshiped with men's hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things. "And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, "so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us;" -- Acts 17:24-27 (NKJ) "For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or princi- palities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence." -- Col 1:16- 18 (NKJ) Jesus has, through the work of the Holy Spirit, presented salvation to "all men", in all generations: "For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ," -- Titus 2:11-13 (NKJ) "Let your conduct be without covetousness, and be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you."" -- Heb 13:5 (NKJ) Even during the time of Noah: "and did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight peo- ple, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly;" -- 2 Pet 2:5 (NKJ) Even when God's people were driven into the wilderness, a place was prepared for them, and they were not destroyed, as the prophecy prophecied: "Then the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, that they should feed her there one thousand two hun- dred and sixty days." -- Rev 12:6 (NKJ) "Now when the dragon saw that he had been cast to the earth, he per- secuted the woman {Christian church} who gave birth to the male Child. But the woman was given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time, from the presence of the serpent. So the ser- pent spewed water out of his mouth like a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away by the flood." -- Rev 12:13-15 (NKJ) Dave (David E. Buxton) From the Silicon RainForest of the NorthWest