No?
(Paul invested in tent making.)
I’m not much influenced (I hope!) by these fundamentalist or Dispensational readings since I don’t buy into them either. I was just pointing out that those who have bought into all that are influenced in identical ways to what you expressed. So it’s good that you clarify you don’t identify as such (or not as Dispensational anyway).
Well, I guess it’s always good to take Jesus and the prophets and their word, when he announced that he came to preach the good news to the poor, to heal the brokenhearted, proclaim liberty to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed - to proclaim the year of the Lord. Of course, when his community found out they weren’t going to get their ‘hometown’ advantage and headstart on all this goodness, and that outsiders were ahead of them in line, they about ran him off a cliff! But the point is … people flocked to Jesus; especially the needy and desperate ones. He was good news indeed. That is all the gospel I need. The gifts are good. The Giver is even better. And once we are in his company and following him, he will see to everything else we may need. The fruit itself is not the gospel of course … just evidence of it. Where the fruit is lacking, its absence then is evidence of something else.
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You misunderstand. It is stock888’s position that we can’t do both.
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Ah, I did. It’s pretty myopic.
That has the feel of straining a gnat while swallowing a camel. Most Christians work a 40 hour week that is not evangelism. The relative effort the common Christian would need to put forward for a better environment is much less than that.
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While Jesus will be coming back any day now, and money will be worthless, you all should still go out and buy my book on the rapture. (Asking me what I intend to do with the money I make is a sign of weak faith.) Hallelujah, Love to fool ya!
@Dale “Maybe your perspective doesn’t see the big picture?” What is your “big picture”? My “big picture” is that the Kingdom of God is at hand and we are commanded to proclaim the Good News and while you do that, heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, and drive out demons.
@beaglelady. “It is stock888’s position that we can’t do both.” No, that is incorrect. Sure, people can do both but I rather invest my energy and resource in the one that give the best outcome to what Christian is called to do. Others are just a distraction.
@Mervin_Bitikofer. “The Giver is even better. And once we are in his company and following him, he will see to everything else we may need. The fruit itself is not the gospel of course … just evidence of it. Where the fruit is lacking, its absence then is evidence of something else.” Amen. So, go deep into Jesus and everything else is just a distraction.
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Your big picture alienates the young who care about the future of the planet… unless you have a date for Jesus’ return?
Those young people might actually listen to the gospel while working alongside of someone who understands God’s command to take care of the earth. (You don’t work for an oil or coal company, do you?) They find your “the planet is dispensable” perspective repulsive, and no wonder.
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@Dale “Your big picture alienates the young who care about the future of the planet… unless you have a date for Jesus’ return?” Why do you come to the conclusion that my “big picture alienates the young who care about the future of the plane”? Have you spend time talking with young people of late? I have been spending regular weekly time on campus of late and talking to many university students. The openness among them is astonishing. I was blown away by this “openness” as one who have being doing evangelism for the last 50 years all over the world. My assessment to this current phenomenal of student’s openness to the Gospel is that they have been so brain washed by today cultural ideologies (e.g. removed by mod) of our society that they have forgotten the more important issue in life. i.e. their relationship with God. They are lonely, in search of meaning, etc. So, rather then alienating them, I am bring the hope and Good News to them. Many of them have responded and have given their lives to Jesus in the last few months.
In response to your sinister question of “unless you have a date for Jesus’ return?”, I would like to point you to Matt 24:36, " But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.". So, are you asking me if I am God, the Father? God forbid. What has knowing the date of Jesus’ return to do with your proposition of “caring for the planet”? It has everything to do with the proclamation of the Good News of Jesus. See Matt 24:14, “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.”
If his return was next week or next year, sure, we wouldn’t care if the planet burned up in the coming decades. Otherwise, we have a mandate to care for it. 2 + 2
Sinister question. 
You’re pretty funny.
Looks like you are a good example of one who has been “brain washed” by this ideology or thinking that your a priori Biblical mandate is “caring for the planet”. No, that is never the Biblical mandate! Christians who thinks like you will try to justify your own actions by rationalizing Biblical verses to substantiate your actions just because it is a cultural and fashionable thing to do so in this day and age. If that is your Christianity, so be it, but not me.
Huh, climate change is a cultural ideology. Is that really what you think?
I have three granddaughters on mission trips to the third world this summer, the cultures most affected by climate change, not that we aren’t already. So yeah, I am kind of aware of the young’s sensitivities.
Yes, it is sad that most young people who come out from campus these days are so brain washed by the academia as if "saving the planet’ is their objective in life. They can only see the world through that lens. That is why we need to give them a different hope, the Good News of our Lord Jesus.
@Dale. “climate change is a cultural ideology”. I would even think and classified as another religion/false god as illustrated by your proposition of how young people think and care about today world.
What part of “I have three granddaughters on mission trips to the third world this summer” did you not understand?
Your reading and perspective has been found wanting. Start with Psalm 104, the psalmist praising God for his creation, and note this reading of the mandate in Genesis 1:28: “…replenish the earth”.
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No issues with those verses you have mentioned. So, what is the context in which those verses were given? Who/what is the focal point/s? I will be interested to hear your opinion on this and how your exegesis allows you to come to your conclusion. Does your conclusion justify your exegesis of the text?
You do not believe climate change is reality? Are you perchance a YEC?
Psalm 104 speaks to the psalmist’s love for the beauty of the world that God has created. And it’s okay with you to allow it to be decimated. That does not reflect love for God, does it?
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