"[Isaiah] in fact, faced the preacher's dilemma: if hearers are resistant to the truth, the only recourse is to tell them the truth yet again, more clearly than before. But to do this is to expose them to the risk of rejecting he truth yet again and, therefore, of increased hardness of heart. It could even be that the next rejection will prove to be the point at which the heart is hardened beyond recovery. The human eye cannot see this point in advance; it comes and goes unnoticed. But the all-sovereign God both knows it and appoints it as he presides in perfect justice over the psychological processes he created. Ti was at just such a point that Isaiah was called to office. His task was to bring the Lord's word with fresh, even unparalleled clarity, but in their response, people would reach the point of no return. The imperatives of these verses (Isaiah 6:9-10) must, therefore, be seen as expressing an inevitable outcome of Isaiah's ministry (cf. 2:9). And, of course, so it turned out to be, as is made clear in chapters 7-11. These were the days in which the decisive was spoken and refused. [G.A. Smith said] 'Opportunity in human life is as often judgment as it is salvation'.
J. Alec Motyer - The Prophecy of IsaiahNorth, to Alaska
"Alaska has long been a magnet for dreamers and misfits, people who think the unsullied enormity of the Last Frontier will patch all the holes in their lives. The bush is an unforgiving place, however, that cares nothing for hope or longing."
Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
Not a trick.
To be the Messiah who fulfilled prophecy, Jesus would have to hail from the line of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah, and David—but not Jeconiah (Jer. 22:24–30). He would have had to be born of a virgin, in Bethlehem, under Gentile rule, before the fall of Jerusalem and 400–some-odd years after the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem after the Babylonian Captivity.1 All of this, for starters, was required to fulfill the pattern of OT Messianic prediction. And Jesus did tick off every one of those items, simply by being born when and where and to whom He was born. Nice trick, given that these are particulars over which no mortal has the slightest hint of control. Thus, it couldn’t have been a trick.
The World-Tilting Gospel by Dan PhillipsZeal for Knowledge
"It may be that the enormous amount of controversy which marks this age, has insensibly dried up our spiritual life. We have too often been content with zeal for orthodoxy — and have neglected the sober realities of daily practical godliness."
Holiness by J.C. Ryle
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