What did the Council of Trullo (The Quinisext Council) A.D. 692, teach concerning the eating of blood.
“The divine Scripture commands us to abstain from blood, from things strangled, and from fornication. Those therefore who on account of a dainty stomach prepare by any art for food the blood of any animal, and so eat it, we punish suitably. If anyone henceforth venture to eat in any way the blood of an animal, if he be a clergyman, let him be deposed; if a layman, let him be cut off.”
Source: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3814.htm
6 Now this: the one who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the one who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. 7 Each one should give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or from compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 8 And God is able to cause all grace to abound to you, so that in everything at all times, having enough of everything, you may overflow in every good work.
2 Corinthians 9:6–8
Take note of what the Psalmist calls those who do not understand or accept this teaching. What room is there for those who insist on the so-called doctrine of ‘common grace’, which claims that God’s purpose for sending sun and rain is to bless its recipient? As clarified by the Psalmist here, the reason God prospers the wicked is to destroy them—reprobation.
6 The brutish man does not know,
and the fool cannot understand this.
7 When the wicked flourish like grass
and all the workers of evil blossom,
it is so they can be destroyed forever.
Psalm 92:6–7 (Lexham English Bible)
7 (6) Stupid people can’t know,
fools don’t understand,
8 (7) that when the wicked sprout like grass,
and all who do evil prosper,
it is so that they can be eternally destroyed,
Psalm 92:6–7 (Complete Jewish Bible)
7 ἀνὴρ ἄφρων οὐ γνώσεται, καὶ ἀσύνετος οὐ συνήσει ταῦτα. 8 ἐν τῷ ἀνατεῖλαι τοὺς ἁμαρτωλοὺς ὡς χόρτον καὶ διέκυψαν πάντες οἱ ἐργαζόμενοι τὴν ἀνομίαν, ὅπως ἂν ἐξολεθρευθῶσιν εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα τοῦ αἰῶνος.
Psalm 91:7–8 (LXX) [Corresponds with Psalm 92:6–7 in English Bibles)
Unfortunately, this emphasis of purpose is lost in many other English translations. The Septuagint uses the word ὅπως (hopos: meaning: that/ in order that/so that.) For further reading, refer to this article on Psalms 73 where the Psalmist explain that the purpose of the prosperity of the wicked is to set them on slippery places, and to cause them to fall into ruin.
Some people appeal to the “already but not yet” state of the Kingdom of God as an excuse for not receiving healing or miracles. These people have an under-realized eschatology.
The promises of God concerning healing, miracles, and the revelatory gifts are for us today. It is precisely because we are not yet in the eternal state that healing is for us in its fullness. What do I mean?
In the New Heavens and New Earth, there is no more death, no more suffering, and no more disease. Death, the last enemy, would have already been destroyed (1 Corinthians 15:26). But death, disease and suffering still exist in the present age. Therefore all the promises involving healing are available in its fullness only because we live in this fallen present age.
Likewise, 1 Corinthians 13 addresses the cessation of the revelatory gifts. Tongues and prophecy will cease in the New Heavens and Earth when the eternal state comes. But at the present time, our knowledge is not yet in its fullness, and we do not know Christ as he knows us (1 Corinthians 13:12). Thus tongues, prophecies and the other revelatory gifts are available in its fullness only in this present age.
The fact that we are not yet in the eternal “age to come” should not be used as an excuse for our lack of faith in healing, miracles, and the revelatory gifts. Rather, the fact that we are not yet in the eternal state is what makes these things possible. It should spur us to greater faith knowing that the greatest manifestation of these gifts are for us in this present age… yes… in its entirety… precisely because we are in the “not yet”. These are not promises for the future but promises for us today.
The promises of God given to us for today, are for us today!
Also see Vincent Cheung who first wrote about how many professing Christians use the sovereignty of God as an excuse for unbelief.
https://www.vincentcheung.com/2018/05/12/predestination-and-miracles/
This is an excellent article by Vincent Cheung on the link between predestination and miracles. *Recommended reading. (Click on this link for the article)
Brief summary:
John 15:16–17
16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and your fruit should remain, in order that whatever you ask the Father in my name he will give you. 17 These things I command you: that you love one another.
Cheung explains that predestination is for more than just bare salvation. It also includes a whole package of blessings and responsibilities. God has chosen us, and predestined us to bear fruit that will last. The Father will give us whatever we ask in his name.” By giving us whatever we ask of him, the Son brings glory to the Father. In so doing, we bear fruit and show that we are his disciples. Christians are commanded (not requested) to ask the Father for ‘whatever’ so that the Father can answer it. This is also how we show that we love one another. And by obeying God’s commandments, we also show that we love God. When something is repeated so many times in Scripture we need to pay special attention.
1) Predestination means that we are…
2) Predestined to bear fruit that will last.
3) God commands us to ask him for “whatever”
4) And God promises to give us whatever we ask of him
5) God is glorified by answering our prayers
6) This is how we bear fruit and show that we are his disciples.
7) And this is how we show that we love one another and love God.
This summary does not really do justice to Cheung’s article, so I would highly encourage you to read what he has written in its entirety.
“It is a crime against lost humanity to go in the name of Christ and missions just to do social work yet neglect calling men to repent-to give up their idols and rebellion-and follow Christ with all of their hearts.”
K.P. Yohannon / Founder GFA
“I… resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2)
“What we have done, starting with the minister is (that) we have, turn in our mantle of the prophet, and put on a business jacket! And so many churches today are run by administrators, movers and shakers and planners and strategists, and little boys with laptop computers, but not men who constantly nourish themselves in the Word of God and (who) constantly dwell in the presence of God in prayer.”
– Paul Washer
The following excerpt is taken from Carl Henry’s Commentary:
Biblical Expositor: The living theme of the Great Book. Volume 3: Matthew to Revelation, A. J. Holman Company, 1960.
This volume is written by a number of authors, including Gordon H. Clark who wrote the commentary on Romans.
Romans 11 teach that God gave the Jews a spirit of slumber and caused them to stumble in order to bring salvation to the Gentiles. But God has not forsaken the Jews. Once the complete number of elect Gentiles have come to faith, the partial hardening will be lifted and all ethnic Jews (or at least the vast majority) will come to believe in Christ.
Hath God then cast away His people forever? Not at all. First, His people, in the sense of those individuals whom He foreknew, God has not cast away. This does not mean all the Jews. For as it was in the time of Elijah, so now the elect are a remnant. Election is of grace, not of works, so that while the remnant obtained grace, the rest were blinded. God gave them the spirit of slumber and caused them to stumble in order to bring salvation to the Gentiles.
Of course, no one would suppose that God would cast away the remnant elected by grace. But there is also another sense in which God will not cast off His people. The Jews as a race still figure in God’s plan and they will have a glorious future. [Emphasis mine] For if the impoverishment of the Jews in the first century enriched the Gentiles, the return of the Jews in the future will produce much greater blessing. It will be like life from the dead.
The history of the Church can be illustrated by an olive tree. Some of its original natural branches were broken off so that branches from a wild olive tree could be grafted in. This, of course, is no compliment or ground of boasting for the Gentiles. And if God did not spare the natural branches because of their unbelief, the Gentiles should take heed lest God spare not them also. Furthermore, if God has grafted in wild branches, is it not all the more certain that He will graft back the natural branches at some future date?
The blindness of the Jews is to continue until the “fulness [sic] of the Gentiles” be come in. This fulness may indicate a time when the great majority of Gentiles then living shall have been converted. Virtually the whole world will be Christian. Such an interpretation makes a proper contrast with “all Israel” in the next verse. Or “the fulness of the Gentiles” might possibly refer to a time when all the Gentiles whom God has chosen for salvation, even though not a majority, have been saved and God will save no more of them. At any rate, when this fulness occur, then the great majority of the Jews shall be saved also. This ultimate conversion of the Jews was prophesied in the Old Testament. [Emphasis mine]
“O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out! . . . For of him, and through him, and to him are all things: to whom be glory forever. Amen” (11:22, 36)
A man after God's own heart 
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