Page 959 … Withholding Grace
“What is this but charging God of withholding sufficient grace?”
Well, as my recent replies on pages previous have clearly shown, I can conveniently agree with Finney here, for the simple reason that – were he to be alive today and participating in our current conversation – he would almost undeniably be siding with the homosexuals you are persecuting and against you & your persecution thereof! And I can make this claim without hesitation for the following two reasons:
First of all, Finney’s article deals with grace relative to the commission of sins, and yet at least in the only image relevant to our discussion, Oliver Clyde Allen & his husband are not sinning! That’s right, as I have explained to you & yours many times during this thread, according to the Bible itself, neither homosexuality itself nor homosexual relationships are per se sinful, and as such Finney – the devout abolitionist that he was – would today almost certainly be championing their right to worship free from your repressive condemnations thereof, and would almost undeniably encourage you to attend at least one of Oliver Clyde Allen’s Sunday sermons to let you atone for the same!
Secondly, if it is indeed true that homosexuals are being condemned to an eternity in Hell merely for being gay (or even for engaging in gay sex), then it is actually fully appropriate for us to charge God for “withholding sufficient Grace” in such cases – if for no other reason than that is exactly what He is doing! Just as any Noble man or woman is morally required to oppose the capricious rule of any unjust tyrant, so too are we all called to devoutly and courageously oppose any “lesser god” who does the same.
Fortunately, of course, the Bible does not require us to do so, for the Bible does not require us to believe in such an inferior god. Indeed, Jesus himself made it quite plain that his heavenly Father’s LOVE was “perfect” (see Matthew 5:48), that his heavenly Father’s mercy was without compare (see Luke 6:36), and that his heavenly Father’s forgiveness transcended any petty human limitations (see Matthew 18:21-22 + John 5:22) – that his heavenly Father’s heavenly Heart was always open, and that his heavenly Father’s heavenly hands are always outstretched (a la Luke 10:29-37 et al) …
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