Letter - God has provided a way for sinners to be forgiven

To the editor:

Reading the 1/11/13 letter to the editor, one could conclude that God is omnipresent (everywhere), omnipotent (all-powerful), and omniscient (all-knowing), but that God simply doesn’t get involved in things that matter.

The writer failed to mention that God is holy and just. God can’t ignore sin. He must punish it.

Isaiah 59:1-2 declares: “Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.”

Following the miraculous defeat of Jericho, the Israelites were expecting to take Ai with ease. It didn’t happen! (Joshua 7) The disobedience of just one Israelite resulted in the entire nation of Israel being unable to stand before their enemies (Ai) until the guilty person had been destroyed.

In Isaiah 42:8, God states, “I am the Lord; that is my name! I will not give my glory to another or my praise to idols.”

Joshua told the Israelites, “…He is a holy God; he is a jealous God. He will not forgive your rebellion and your sins. If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, he will turn and bring disaster on you and make an end of you...” (Joshua 24:19b-20a)

God is love. God must punish sin; but He has provided a way for sinners to be forgiven.

John 3:16 announces, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

Psalm 130:3-4 says, “If you, O Lord, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness; therefore you are feared.”

Melva Jean Ruckheim

Parkers Prairie, MN

Tags: opinion, letters