Cheryl Schatz

Hey Mark,
Can’t keep up with you, man. We just got back from our Easter time out and my head is pounding besides the internet problems.

Let’s see what I can do before I head off to bed.

How can an ungenerate person seek God with their whole heart when their heart is corrupt? I don’t think they can. Genesis 6:5 is very clear on the condition of the human heart.
Gen 6:5 The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

God has graciously given us both the ability and the mandate to seek Him. While you gave Genesis 6:5 as proof that all men had only evil in their heart continually, that verse is not without exception.

Genesis 6:9 (NASB)
9 These are the records of the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time; Noah walked with God.

Genesis 7:1 (NASB)
1 Then the LORD said to Noah, “Enter the ark, you and all your household, for you alone I have seen to be righteous before Me in this time.

Noah and Job and many others were seen as “righteous” and not ones with an “evil heart”. We cannot take a generality and make it a rule without exception. That isn’t good Biblical exegesis.

Our heart by nature is corrupt, it is stone. This is the importance of the new covenant. It is God who gives us a new heart according to Jeremiah. We need a new heart to seek after God.

Um, where does the Bible say that we need a new heart in order to seek after God?

Our new heart isn’t given to us after we seek God.

Oh yeah? In Deut. 10:16 God commands the people to circumcise their hearts before He does His work of circumcision that produces a new heart.

Deuteronomy 10:16 (NASB)
16 “So circumcise your heart, and stiffen your neck no longer.

Deuteronomy 30:6 (NASB95)
6 “Moreover the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you may live.

This circumcision by God is the removal of the foreskin of sin on our hearts and it is necessary for us to love God with all of our hearts and live in His love. God fulfills the complete act of what man is required to start. Man is required to repent and to circumcise his own heart through a turning away from evil and a turning toward God, while God does the miracle of a brand new heart. There is nothing at all in the Scriptures that I have seen that says God must give us a new heart before we can seek Him.

The human heart is evil and does not seek God.

I have already dealt with this in context. It is the fool who says there is no God who does not seek God. Those who do seek God and who fear God are called righteous. They are never called evil.

The spiritual heart on the otherhand will. That is why we need to be re-born (a new heart) before we can accept the message of salvation.

That is a human tradition and human reasoning but it is not Scriptural. Where does the Bible say that we have to be born again before we can accept the message of salvation? Where does the Bible say that Cornelius was born again before he heard the gospel?

That is why we need to be born again BEFORE we can see the kingdom of God…Jesus again repeats himself that we CANNOT enter the kingdom of God (be saved) unless we are born of the Spirit and water.

Mark, Mark, Mark, how long will you change the Scriptures? “entering” the kingdom of God is not being born again “be saved”. One is born again a long time before one enters the kingdom of God and into eternity. It is a fact that one cannot see nor enter the kingdom of God without being born again, but to equate being born again with “entering the kingdom of God” is mashing the Word of God.

Acts 14:22 (NASB95)
22 strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying, “Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.”

The disciples did not claim to have “entered” the kingdom of God. It was something that was future to them and not the same thing as their being born again.

Your fighting against the Bible by stating that we can seek God when our heart is stone and not re-born.

My friend, it appears that you are the one who is in need of understanding the Scriptures. First of all, not every heart is stone. Those who harden their hearts against God’s call will eventually turn their heart to stone, but not all harden their hearts. Many will respond with gladness to His call.

Secondly God commands the unregenerate to seek Him.

Isaiah 55:6–7 (NASB)
6 Seek the LORD while He may be found;
Call upon Him while He is near.
7 Let the wicked forsake his way
And the unrighteous man his thoughts;
And let him return to the LORD,
And He will have compassion on him,
And to our God,
For He will abundantly pardon.

It would be a cruel act for God to command men everywhere to seek Him if He was the One deliberately stopping them from seeking Him.

Our God is a gracious God, filled with loving kindness and abounding in mercy.

I will get to the other questions/comments next day, God willing.