Inordinate desire

 I see the sin nature as an inclination we all have of inordinate desire. By inordinate desire, I mean desire outside the moral will of God. That inordinate desire could be stronger in certain areas, differing from person to person. Maybe one has more of inclination to steal or lie or lose their temper. The evidence of the inordinate desire is brought out by God’s moral law when we try to keep the law, as Paul talks about in Romans 7, when he discovered the inability of the law to keep him from coveting, because of a “law” that “evil” was present within him. So why couldn’t homosexual attraction be that inordinate desire that is unique in a person like lying or stealing in another? In my youth, I had this inclination to steal. I knew it was wrong, but I chose to give into that drawing to do so. Does an inordinate desire have to hurt someone to be a sin—as some will claim? Covetousness doesn’t really hurt anyone, but it is still sin, and I believe it is equated with idolatry. We all can have a tendency towards covetousness. Anyway, it has been my understanding of the sin nature that it is inordinate desire within us, being a desire outside the moral will of God, and it can be stronger in some areas than others depending on the person.

impossible repentance

 Hebrews chapter 6 speaks of the impossibility

of renewing again to repentance

those who have experienced several things

that speak of salvation and then fall away:

“For it is impossible

for those who were once enlightened,

and have tasted the heavenly gift,

and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit,

and have tasted the good word of God

and the powers of the age to come,

if they fall away,

to renew them again to repentance.”

Hebrews 6:4-6

It would seem that when someone “falls away” from what they once believed, it will be next to impossible for them to have a change of mind back to (repentance) what they once believed.

They not only have changed their mind and fallen away from their former belief, but they look for every argument under the sun to strengthen their opposition to that former belief, digging themselves into a hole so deep, that it would take Divine intervention to lift them out.

If a person falls away from the truth, what will it take to bring them back--maybe a special Divine  manifestation—like Saul of Tarsus experienced on the road to Damascus when he was “breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord.” Acts 9:1

Has anyone ever seen it happen...believers who were once Bible teachers and evangelists who became agnostic-atheists who are now apologists in opposition to God and enemies of the gospel of Christ? Has anyone ever seen such come to repentance before they died? I know of those who have fallen and are now enemies of God.

(Actually, I don't believe Hebrews 6 is specifically talking about becoming an agnostic or atheist but about leaving the gospel of grace in Christ for the Law of Moses for justification before God, but the principle is the same.)

The author of Hebrews speaks of the impossibility of being renewed again to repentance, but is it impossible with God?

There is this Scripture:

“a servant of the Lord must not quarrel

but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient,

in humility correcting those who are in opposition,

if God perhaps will grant them repentance,

so that they may know the truth,

and that they may come to their senses

and escape the snare of the devil,

having been taken captive by him to do his will.”

2 Timothy 2:24-26

So maybe there is still hope before they pass away from this life.

But there is this warning in what follows in Hebrews 6:

“⁷ For the earth which drinks in the rain

that often comes upon it,

and bears herbs useful for those by whom it is cultivated,

receives blessing from God;

⁸ but if it bears thorns and briers,

it is rejected and near to being cursed,

whose end is to be burned.”

Hebrews 6:7-8

And then we read in Hebrews 10:

^“30 For we know Him who said,

"Vengeance is Mine, I will repay," says the Lord.

And again, "The LORD will judge His people."

³¹ It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

³² But recall the former days in which,

after you were illuminated,

you endured a great struggle with sufferings:

³³ partly while you were made a spectacle

both by reproaches and tribulations,

and partly while you became companions

of those who were so treated; ...

³⁵ Therefore do not cast away your confidence,

which has great reward.

³⁶ For you have need of endurance,

so that after you have done the will of God,

you may receive the promise:

³⁷ "For yet a little while,

And He who is coming will come and will not tarry.

³⁸ Now the just shall live by faith;

But if anyone draws back,

My soul has no pleasure in him."

Hebrews 10:30-38

Do not cast away your confidence.

You are called to endurance.

He is coming.

But take heed, lest you fall (1Cor10.12).

But God …

”is able to keep you from falling,

and to present you faultless

before the presence of His glory

with exceeding joy.”

Jude 1:24

Future kingdom

 There is the claim that Christ is reigning in his kingdom now, that there is no future millennial reign of Christ before the final, eternal state.  The millennial reign is now through the church.  I believe it is significant that it is written that Jesus spent 40 days with his disciples after the resurrection, speaking on things pertaining to the kingdom of God:  "... He also presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God." Acts 1:3 After Jesus told them to wait in Jerusalem for the Holy Spirit, they asked him if the kingdom would be then restored to Israel: "Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, "Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" Acts 1.6  How could they ask this after being taught about the kingdom of God, if there wasn't to be any restoration of Israel?  Jesus doesn't correct them by saying that there will be no restoration of Israel, instead, he says the timing is not for them to know:   "And He said to them, "It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth." Acts 1:6-8   

The disciples were not taught that there was no future restoration of Israel.   They still expected it, and they were not corrected about it, except that the timing of it was not for them to know.  hat they did not know was what God was going to do in the near future that would involve creating a new people for his purposes, being the gentile-jew assembly, commonly called the "Church."  This "dispensation," being a new divine administration or stewardship, is only a temporal purpose of God in time.  This is the time of the millennial kingdom of Christ.  The kingdom is in a sense represented in the church, as Christ's ambassadors, but it is not the kingdom in the sense in which Christ will reign over the earth from Jerusalem over the nations in a manifested way, as we see in the Old Testament prophets, like Isaiah or Micah:  

² Now it shall come to pass in the latter days
That the mountain of the LORD's house
Shall be established on the top of the mountains,
And shall be exalted above the hills;
And all nations shall flow to it.
³ Many people shall come and say,
"Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD,
To the house of the God of Jacob;
He will teach us His ways,
And we shall walk in His paths."
For out of Zion shall go forth the law,
And the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
⁴ He shall judge between the nations,
And rebuke many people;
They shall beat their swords into plowshares,
And their spears into pruning hooks;
Nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
Neither shall they learn war anymore. Isaiah 2:2-4

​¹ Now it shall come to pass in the latter days
That the mountain of the LORD's house
Shall be established on the top of the mountains,
And shall be exalted above the hills;
And peoples shall flow to it.
² Many nations shall come and say,
"Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD,
To the house of the God of Jacob;
He will teach us His ways,
And we shall walk in His paths."
For out of Zion the law shall go forth,
And the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
³ He shall judge between many peoples,
And rebuke strong nations afar off;
They shall beat their swords into plowshares,
And their spears into pruning hooks;
Nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
Neither shall they learn war anymore.
⁴ But everyone shall sit under his vine and under his fig tree,
And no one shall make them afraid;
For the mouth of the LORD of hosts has spoken.
⁵ For all people walk each in the name of his god,
But we will walk in the name of the LORD our God
Forever and ever. Micah 4:1-5

Futurists believe the kingdom is yet future, and not all of them would agree in an "already/ not yet" kingdom of Christ, but I believe you could say Christ reigns in a sense through the Church now, being that His kingdom authority is represented in the Church, but his manifested reign over the earth and nations is yet future.   It will involve a restoration of Israel as a people and Nation in which Romans 11:16 is fulfilled when "all Israel will be saved":  this is the restoration of the nation as a people of God in which all of its members will have salvation; it will be a new dispensation, being the millennial reign of Christ in which Israel will be restored as a people in special relationship and role for God.  This will not change the terms of salvation any more than how someone was justified during the Old Testament times--Abraham was justified by faith, but it is a change of people for God's purposes in time. During the future reign of Christ,  people will be identified by their nation, Israel being one of them:   

"In that day Israel will be one of three with Egypt and Assyria—a blessing in the midst of the land,  whom the LORD of hosts shall bless, saying, 'Blessed is Egypt My people, and Assyria the work of My hands, and Israel My inheritance.'" Isaiah 19:24-25