Your Choice

Salvation, or condemnation, are the choices that we have had made available to us - a "you are in control" personal choice of life, or death. God prefers that all choose life, but He will not force salvation upon anyone.

"^30:16 In that I command thee this day to love the LORD thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply: and the LORD thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it. ^30:17 But if thine heart turn away, so that thou wilt not hear, but shalt be drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them; ^30:18 I denounce unto you this day, that ye shall surely perish, and that ye shall not prolong your days upon the land, whither thou passest over Jordan to go to possess it. ^30:19 I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live" (Deuteronomy 30:16-19 KJV)

God is patient, but not infinitely so. Fire is going to destroy those who reject salvation for themselves.

"^3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. ^3:10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. ^3:11 Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, ^3:12 Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?" (2 Peter 3:9-12 KJV)

"I have set before you life and death"

Living a good Christian life in this world is not easy (nor was it designed to be - see the Fact Finder question below). But no one will face a challenge that is too great for them to overcome.

"^12:14 Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord: ^12:15 Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God [see Grace Into Licentiousness]; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled; ^12:16 Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. ^12:17 For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.

^12:18 For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest, ^12:19 And the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which voice they that heard entreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more: ^12:20 For they could not endure that which was commanded, And if so much as a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned, or thrust through with a dart: ^12:21 And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake [see also Why Did Christ Put Moses To Death?]:

^12:22 But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God [see Zionism], the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, ^12:23 To the general assembly and church of the firstborn [see Church of God], which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, ^12:24 And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant [see What Is Jesus Christ Doing Right Now?], and to the blood of sprinkling [see Christ's Mercy Seat], that speaketh better things than that of Abel.

^12:25 See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth [see A Journey Without A Destination], much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven: ^12:26 Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. ^12:27 And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.

^12:28 Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: ^12:29 For our God is a consuming fire [see Baptism Of Fire]" (Hebrews 12:14-28 KJV)

Fact Finder: What is the purpose of the "trials and tribulations" of this life?
See No Pain, No Gain

This Day In History, October 16

1555: During the reign of (Roman Catholic) Queen Mary I (known to history as "Bloody Mary" because of the religious persecution that she inflicted upon those who rejected papal rule of Britain), English Protestant reformers Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley were burned at the stake at Oxford after being convicted of anti-Rome "heresy."

1594: William Allen died at age 62. The English cardinal supervised the preparation of the Roman Catholic Reims-Douai translation of the Bible. During his lifetime he was much involved in subversive activities against the Protestant government of Queen Elizabeth I. In a blatant act of high treason, he called upon the Catholic King Philip II of Spain to conquer England and assume the English throne. After Philip's invasion force, the Spanish Armada, was defeated by the British navy (and some very "miraculous" weather), Allen fled to Rome where he was made a cardinal.

1710: Port Royal, Acadia (now Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia) was captured from the French by the British. The Treaty of Utrecht, signed 3 years later, gave the mainland part of present-day Nova Scotia to Britain, but left Cape Breton Island and present-day New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island with France (until 1763 at the conclusion of the French and Indian War, when they too came under British rule). In 1755 many Acadians were deported for refusing to take an oath of loyalty to Britain. Many of them went to the French colony known today as Louisiana (named after French king Louis) where "acadian" became pronounced as "cajun."

1793: Queen Marie Antoinette of France was beheaded during the French Revolution.

1813: Thee 3 day Battle of Leipzig began (also called the Battle of The Nations). It was a decisive victory of the allies over Napoleon. During the battle, most of Napoleon's German auxiliary forces went over to the allies. A large monument commemorates the battle which cost about 120,000 casualties.

1859: John Brown led his famous raid on the U.S. arsenal at Harper's Ferry, West Virginia, and seized the armory to provide for his anti-slavery militia. He was later captured and hanged.

1934: The "Long March" of Chinese communists began under Mao Zedong.

1946: After being convicted of crimes against humanity at the Nuremberg trials, the major Nazi war criminals were executed the same day: Joachim von Ribbentrop, Wilhelm Keitel, Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Alfred Rosenberg, Hans Frank, Wilhelm Frick, Julius Streicher, Arthur Seyss-Inquart, Fritz Sauckel, Alfred Jodl. Hermann Goering escaped the gallows by committing suicide in his jail cell the day before.

1964: China exploded its first atomic bomb, at the Lop Nor test site in Sinkiang.

1978: Cardinal Karol Wojtyla of Poland was elected pope, choosing the name John Paul II. He was the first non-Italian pope in 486 years.

1984: A baboon heart was transplanted into a human infant in California. After the transplant, "Baby Fae" lived 30 days.

1987: The Great Storm of 1987 in Britain. 20 people were killed when a devastating gale with gusts up to 115 mph struck southern Britain, the worst since records began. The storm flattened 15,000,000 trees and caused 1,000,000,000 pounds damage.