Quote:
Originally Posted by Athiest(NotScumTUVM)
John Creecher
"-DISOWN your ATHEIST children - just like this good mother did!!"
According to Timothy 5:8, if you disown your children you are worse than an unbeliever:
"But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel."
Care to rethink?
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Dear Ms. TUMV,
Thank you for your question.
You must mean 1 Timothy 5:8? Anyway, I discuss that verse.
The context is more complex than you present, as the pericope discusses how we should take care of widows, which ones of them are Godly and which ones in peril of damnation. This verse in in between that discourse. A wonderful verse it is!
The main thing is to provide one's family members. What is ultimately the only manner of providing that matters? I'll answer you! It is providing for ETERNITY! The Earthly life with its infinitesimally short period of time is NOTHING compared to the prospect of
INFINITE life in Christ in HEAVEN.
How can we provide that to our near and dear?! By teaching how to live according to God's will, how to obey His orders. And if our offspring desert this path, it is our duty to PROVIDE them a vision of the consequences of atheism, etc.
In these cases, procedures that may seem drastic and cruel for the unbeliever are in fact filled with
LOVE when we keep the ultimate target clear in our minds. HEAVEN!
Jesus tells us that unbelievers will be deposited in a most unpleasant location:
Matthew 13:50
And shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.
How would enabling that fate be 'providing'? No! Real providing is showing the errors of our ways, sometimes with harsh measures, in order to give the children TRUE PROVIDING! True providing that leads to
Jesus, our only saviour!
Yours in Christ,
Elmer