11/02/2025
James Baine~ The following is a response to a page that has some universalist Christian leanings. Of course, I am not of that persuasion.
Our separation from God is in our minds, our hearts, and our actions, that is SIN.
Read Romans 1. God’s wrath is against all ungodliness and the righteousness of men who suppress the truth. God gives people over to their corrupt minds who have made God out to be what they want Him to be, something he is not. Unbelievers are the alienated ones. Beginning in their minds and in their imaginations. Unbelievers and nonconformists to God’s image and likeness have “removed” God from their hearts and minds, which is, at the very least, denying God’s authority over their lives so that they can live as they want. Atheists deny that God exists, while agnostics do not know if God exists. To deny God’s existence and Christ’s relationship to the Father means they have rejected God; therefore, God will reject them (Matthew 10:30).
“5 This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. 6 If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. (1 John 1:5-10 ESV).
Re-read Colossians 1:21. First, remember, Paul’s epistles are written to believers who are conforming to the mind of Christ. Paul wrote that the Colossians were once alienated and enemies of God in their minds, which was evidenced by their wicked deeds. Verse 22 is reconciliation in Christ’s bodily death to present us who believe as holy, blameless, and above reproach. Verse 23 (KJV) is the conditional clause “… if you continue in the faith grounded and settled, not shifting from the hope of the gospel you have heard…” The unification in Christ is conditional in faithfulness and single-mindedness (James 1:8). A believer’s mind is united in
Ephesians 4:17 ff instructs the believer to no longer behave in the futility of their Gentile minds. The dark mind is alienated from God and has a hard heart that practices what displeases God. The believer has a new life, a new mind united in Christ. The unbeliever is separated because of unbelief and hardness that rebel against God. If the imagination is self-centered rather than God-centered, the individual remains mentally disconnected from their Creator because they are not conformed to the... In that case, the process of renewing their minds in Christ. To connect with God is to conform to the Son with the help of the Holy Spirit to gain a mind, heart, and actions that please God.e
