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USING ‘FATHER WHO WILL NEVER ABANDON’ IMAGERY TO DEFEND HYPER-GRACE, ONCE-SAVED, ALWAYS-SAVED, HAS NO BIBLICAL WARRANT!

Duke Jeyaraj

Hyper-grace cult teachers use the ‘Father’ imagery to say this in-effect: “You can never stop being God’s child even if you are stubborn in sin till you die!”

Really?

Yes, God is like the loving earthly fathers! Prophet Hosea recorded this in a heart-touching way: “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. The more they were called the more they went away; they kept sacrificing to the Baals and burning offerings to idols” (Hos. 11:2). Fathers hold the hands of their kids teaching them to walk, and God did the same with his Spiritual child, Israel (Hos. 12:3). Fathers chase naughty, active crawling kids and bend down to feed food to them and God did the same with Israel (Hos. 11:4). God as a Father want to give another chance to sinning Israel (Hos. 11:8-9). He wanted to deal in love and not in wrath. But since Israel stubbornly held on to sin, the same loving God became an attacking/punishing/judging Lion/Leopard/Bear! The same author talks about it (Hosea 13:7-8). Let us embrace both the images of God – the one in Hosea 11 (loving father) and in Hosea 13 (attacking wild animal).

But God the Father is NOT like the earthly fathers! His accusation to us is this: “Somehow you got the idea that I was like you!” (Psa. 50:21, The Voice).

God is the Holy Father (John 17:11) who disciplines us and enables us, so that we become holy – something without which we can’t see God (Heb. 12:5-6,14).

– Duke Jeyaraj

By dukewords

Duke Jeyaraj was born to missionary parents in Vellore, South India and was saved at the age of 11 and committed for ministry and received the Holy Spirit Baptism at the age of 13. God opened the door for him to preach first as a school boy at the age of 16. He is a trained Agricultural Engineer [B. Tech from SHIATS, Allahabad, India], who did not pursue a career in the line of his education but nevertheless enjoys growing cacti in the balcony of his rented Chennai flat, during his spare time! He could have been a sports commentator but prefers to wrap Bible Truth around sports magic moments and other interesting-to-Google Genners contemporary events. God’s call upon him made him utterly restless and he obeyed that call to by founding the Grabbing the Google Generation from Gehenna Mission (G4 Mission) in 2006 to finally find serenity after having served as a International Bank Customer Service Executive/Youth Pastor/Bible College Teacher/Missionary/Youth Mag Editor. G4 Mission is not a church but an inter-denominational ministry to present-day people, a ministry which Duke works full time for, as an itinerant presenter/preacher/writer-at-residence since 2008 along with his wife, putting to use the formal theological training he received from Southern Asia Bible College in Bangalore-India [M. Div - a Gold Medal performance in 2001 & Doctor of Ministry - with project on Making Disciples of Modern Young Working Professionals Among India's Google Generation, World-wide]. Several Christian publications have carried Duke's articles over the years and at present Aim Magazine (the voice of  the Evangelical Fellowship of India an umbrella body of over 65,000 Indian churches/organisations), regularly carries Duke's writings. Duke's Bible-teaching book on Sex, Love, Marriage, Porn and more called, Straight Talk, is presently available on Amazon and Google Books.  Duke has preached by invitation beyond his national borders (we are talking about nations such as Bangladesh, Singapore, Germany, Nepal and the United Arab Emirates). Duke is called a 'Reverend' by a leading denomination (even as his ministry remains indepedent and inter-church).  Duke is called ‘dad’ by Dale (now a St. Stephen's Delhi student) and Datasha (now in Class 9) and ‘hubby’ by Evangelin (the daughter of a missionary couple to Odisha who is a hospital admin grad currently studying M. A. in Biblical Studies with SAIACS Bangalore) and calls Chennai, India, his current home after living in Hyderabad till June 2021. In case your curiosity is triggered by hearing all this, you may checkout www.dukewords.com [if you are the reading plain text type], www.soundcloud.com/shoutaloud [if you are part of the audio-listening tribe] and www.youtube.com/visitduke [if you group yourself with the video-steaming generation])

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