The strength of a chain is determined by the weakest link.
When a team contains a stupid, this stupid determines the performance of the team.
But Christ overcomes the sin of the world. It is similar to as if the strength of a chain were determined by the strongest not weakest link.
It may be very hard to believe that Christ can overcome all sinners and make the whole system effective. But He has demonstrated that he can resurrect even if sinners kill Him.
This is the glory of Christ.
All Christians are liable for blessing or can a sin stop blessing?
The answer is: The only reason which may prevent blessing is miss of faith. Non-believing is a sin. So the answer to the subject question is “yes”: A sin can prevent blessing.
Can another sin (not missing faith) prevent blessing? It cannot because we are children of Abraham by faith, not by our good deeds. But every sin steems of unbelieving. So even as another sin cannot stip us of blessing, this sin and the curse have one the same common root, unbelieving.
It is very important to understand what are “gods” in Bible, because this word is cognate with the word “God”. So we necessarily need to know what are “gods” to know God.
(Jn. 10:35) “If he called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the Scripture can’t be broken)”
This seems that here Jesus defines the meaning of the word “gods”. Gods are creatures to whom the word of God comes. In other words, “gods” are these who hear the word of God. This may be their primary difference from angels, maybe.
We need also try to understand the following: What is my/his/their god? Is it, for example, “my one who receives the words of God”? Maybe it means “my spirit who receives the word of God to me”? I am unsure here.
Compare my older post.
Salt is the substance with chemical formula NaCl that it consists of Sodium and Chlorine. These two chemical elements are of almost opposite properties (the first is a very active metal and the second is a halogen).
Both are highly reactive and flammable, both are poisons. But when they are combined together they produce an “moderate” substance which we can even to eat in some quantities.
So Jesus speaking about salt meant composition of opposites which lead to a moderate outcome.
(Mark 9:50) “Salt is good, but if the salt has lost its saltiness, with what will you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.””
This means to hold seemingly contradictory radical concepts combined into a composite theological theory which makes them into one moderate philosophy leading to peace with one another.
See my book End of Gospel for some examples of such concepts.
Continuing this post:
(1Cor. 8:4) “Therefore concerning the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we know that no idol is anything in the world, and that there is no other God but one.”
I think this mean that an idol may have effect in spiritual realities, but this has no practical effect on this world. Idols can rumble with supposed “wonders” they produce, but have no practical effect on our lifes (unless we submit ourselves to serve them and receive a harm).
The below is my opinion, it may be wrong.
What is a “god” of something? It is the spiritual entity which controls such thing.
(Psalms 96:5; I Chronicles 16:26) “For all the gods of the peoples are idols,
but Yahweh made the heavens.”
An idol is a specifically crafted thing in order to represent a force of spiritual world. An idol is a mean to control spiritual world: It concentrates spiritual forces on a certain topic. If an idol is broken, the spiritual force dissipates.
So gods of people, they are idols, that is they live only as long as the idol is set up and not broken.
God of Israel is an exception. He is not controlled by an idol. But He is Yahweh himself, one who created the heavens long before the first idol appeared. He cannot die. For example, losing his ark does not cause Him to dissipate, because He is deathless.
(Lev. 10:1-2) “1 Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer, and put fire in it, and laid incense on it, and offered strange fire before Yahweh, which he had not commanded them. 2 Fire came out from before Yahweh, and devoured them, and they died before Yahweh.”
What is the “strange fire”? I think one of the interpretations of this are “motivational speech” in the church. God does not want our ministry to the Lord be motivated by anything that the fire from Holy Spirit. Motivating it by something other leads to spiritual death.
Theological “science” system is broken. It is impossible to publish a Bible-based revelation.
I tried a little a few years ago to publish my ideas on what Christ is (see my free e-book chapter 5).
They said it cannot be published among other reasons because it should link to works of other scholars.
Wait! A revelation is meant to be based on Bible, not on works of other scholars.
Exact fit of the prophecy of Jesus: (Mark 7:7-8) “But in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. For you set aside the commandment of God, and hold tightly to the tradition of men…”
Do not allocate money to support theology PhD programs. Jesus calls this thing “vain”.
Some translations (e.g. New American Standard Bible) of Luk. 2:40 say that Jesus was “increased” in wisdom.
But he is God and already knows everything. How can his wisdom “increase”?
In my opinion (see my book for more details), Christ limited himself to human senses to perceive the environment. He already knew all mathematics, but he needed to study physics of this region on the universe (as other regions of so called multiverse behave as having different laws of physics).
(Philippians 2:8) “7 but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, yes, the death of the cross.”
It means that Jesus researched the world around him and found that now he is in a human body. In the childhood he was busy understanding the laws of physics (which He created) of this part of the world.
First I am not a professional theologian. The following may contain factual errors. However, I am a mathematician and can formulate my thoughts exactly.
As far as I know, there is no free will for salvation of a man or woman accordingly the teaching of the Protestant reformer John Calvin.
I think we should accommodate that “free will” can be interpreted in different ways:
It seems that all mainstream and evangelical Protestants believe that God has predestined who to save.
Another “feature” of Calvinism is that God has predestined also who not to save.
Do I agree with this? It seems that this question is even more difficult than it seems:
I suppose that people are born accordingly natural laws of biology and sociology. What is predestination for salvation of a particular person then? In my opinion it is “fitting” of a particular “natural” (stochastic that is randomly borb) person into the scheme of one of a big but finite number of a “new creations”.
Then the main point of the discussion of Luther and Calvin becomes: Does God predestine only fitting particular persons into the scheme of saved “new creations” or does He also predestine into another scheme of non-saved people? I don’t know the answer but suppose that it is likely that God in this sense predestined only “new creations” and has not predestined not saved people.
Another question: How can predestination fit together with the fact that people are saved when they willingly accept Christ into their hearts?
I think the main part of the answer to this question is: (Is. 65:24) “It shall happen that, before they call, I will answer…” This means that our prayers can be heard by God even before the world begin, when He does our predestination.