In Reply to: I don't believe posted by lydia on September 18, 2006 at 03:21:47:
Taken the prophecies of the Bible a falling of wordly government & systems is not just restricted to America...however I like the verse to be applied to my own life as well as that of christian (or once very christian nations) nations...the judgement begins at the house of God...fascism in Germany was IMO a reaping what had been sown philosophically/theologically for some time, so the bad seeds had some ground...
We're wordly by the yardstick of the Word...I don't know of prophets now, who come around & tell me my personal state, so it's a lot of "self"-reflection, lookibng into the mirror of the word, with the light of God...I doubt, that you find a Christian without sin in his walk with the Lord, but I believe he /she is "being worked on"
by the Lord...being in the world, not of the world.
One of the big mysteries for me is, how the good early church could turn so quickly into some partly very questionable movement, reading some accounts of the early church-fathers.
Having things is not so wrong in itself, may be it's a question what it is used for, however I see
that I personally have more than enough & the needy world is full of people having much less than a proper living, which in the light of the word makes me guilty & it doesn't help me much if I know some others, who are not doing better or worse.
But please note, that the ten commandments are old covenant...in the new one the yardsticks, the measurements seem to me much stricter, going by the sermon on the mountain (which is interpreted
quite differently), gospel & letters...at the same time lenient, if one is sorry, is repenting...
Finally being wordly or not is not a matter of gender or the other way round, both sexes have
their own difficulties or specific ones to be in line with the word of God...you have OT-prophets "rants" against too rich attire of woman, something similar in 1.Peter 3...
on the other hand, what someone might label as wordly might not be so wordly after all...after all God looks on the heart.