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Being born again is not our choice, just like being born the first time was not our choice, this is one of the areas where you fail to understand the spiritual things of God.
And i have met many people who are not Christians who are far more human than many Christians i have know who like you believe that all people of other religions are animals. Besides, id rather be an animal than a monster who thinks others who don't believe the way they do are less than human.
Yes. AND there are MANY MANY people who DO, who are NOT born-again. What's the point?
I don't NEED to make anything out of it. Can't you read?
Is it a choice to do the following:
or are you FORCED?
Obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood(Choice, or Forced?)
Though you have not seen Him, you love Him(Choice, or Forced?)
Though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him(Choice, or Forced?)
Therefore, prepare your minds for action, (Choice, or Forced?)
keep sober in spirit, (Choice, or Forced?)
fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.(Choice, or Forced?)
As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance,(Choice, or Forced?)
but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior;(Choice, or Forced?)
YOU SHALL BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY
(Choice, or Forced?)
Since you have in obedience to the truth(Choice, or Forced?)
purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart(Choice, or Forced?),
for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.
So do you believe being born again means a person is saved or not?
How can a person who is born again(non-Christian) be damned for ever? Are you saying that a person can be saved without believing in Jesus?
As far as your understanding of choice, you must take all the verses above and make them harmonize with all the other verses that talk about our election and the work of the spirit of God in our lives that causes us to bear fruit and repent and believe and do all the things that pleases God.
Philippians 2:12-13
And so, my dear friends, just as you have always obeyed, not only when I was with you but even more now that I am absent, continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who is producing in you both the desire and the ability to do what pleases him.
Is it your choice to make God work within you? What do the above verses say? Read them very carefully ...
They say that we obey and continue to work out our salvation, because it is God who is working within us to make us desire to do and giving us the ability to do what pleases him.
If God is not working within you and making you desire to do and and giving you the ability to do what pleases him, then guess what, you will not be doing what pleases him, it would not even be possible.
It is not a matter of choice, it is a matter of Gods intervention in your life, which you seem to deny or ignore and thus you boast of your wise decision making skills instead of giving God the glory for the repentance and faith he has given you.
Last edited by Ironmaw1776; 01-28-2011 at 05:45 PM..
And He can, and will, wipe a wicked soul out, without anyone's 'human' feelings being taken into consideration. Yes, MY GOD is THAT Mighty!
And i guess that is what really matters, is how God can destroy? How he can kill the wicked? Kill them sinners, them prostitutes and them strippers and them drug addicts and them pagan devil worshiping hippies ... ?
God can certain kill and destroy anything and anyone he so desires, but i think God is little bigger than just destroying for destructions sake. What God breaks down, he builds back up again.
What he smites with one hand he heals with the other, and this is what most Christians cannot understand.
The purpose of Gods judgments is to purify and cleanse and to teach righteousness, it is not the sake of returning evil for evil.
God overcomes evil with good. And he loves his enemies ... He will heal them in his own good time. Each in their own order ...
No, death cannot stop God. As a matter of fact, my church's official doctrine is that it can't and won't. It is absolutely absurd for anyone to insist that a person who lived in the 2nd century in Mongolia or the 13th century in the middle of Africa or even the 20th century in certain Islamic countries would have had the same opportunity to accept Jesus Christ as most Americans. What kind of a God would turn billions of people into His eternal firewood for having had the misfortune to have been born in the wrong place or at the wrong time? Certainly not the kind of God worthy of my worship.
Those who have ears to hear and eyes to see may find this worth nothing... In Matthew 16:18 Jesus Christ tells Peter, "...and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." As twenty-first century Christians, we tend to read into the phrase "the gates of hell" something that no first-century Jew would have done. To Jesus' audience, "the gates of hell" would have meant nothing particular sinister, evil or threatening. It would have meant simply, "the gates to the entrance of Hades, or the underworld," or the place where the souls of the dead resided. They would not have understood Jesus to be talking about the power or influence of the devil.
Jesus Christ visited the spirit prison during the time His body lay in the tomb. He preached to the disobedient spirits of those who had lived long before He did and who did not know of His atoning sacrifice. There is nothing in the scriptures to even hint at the idea that this spirit prison no longer exists. It does exist and is peopled by those who didn't hear and accept His gospel during their lifetimes. The fact is, the gates of hell have not prevailed against Jesus Christ. The Gospel has been taught in the spirit world continuously from the time Christ first visited there during the period of time between His death and His resurrection.
Must be the "maw" in Ironmaw that caused some confusion. When I first began posting here I thought your username was Ironman. Then when I realized it was Ironmaw, I wondered for a while what that implied. Most importantly, I want to say I appreciate your response about God having the ability to both destroy and to create and re-create.
No, death cannot stop God. As a matter of fact, my church's official doctrine is that it can't and won't. It is absolutely absurd for anyone to insist that a person who lived in the 2nd century in Mongolia or the 13th century in the middle of Africa or even the 20th century in certain Islamic countries would have had the same opportunity to accept Jesus Christ as most Americans. What kind of a God would turn billions of people into His eternal firewood for having had the misfortune to have been born in the wrong place or at the wrong time? Certainly not the kind of God worthy of my worship.
Those who have ears to hear and eyes to see may find this worth nothing... In Matthew 16:18 Jesus Christ tells Peter, "...and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." As twenty-first century Christians, we tend to read into the phrase "the gates of hell" something that no first-century Jew would have done. To Jesus' audience, "the gates of hell" would have meant nothing particular sinister, evil or threatening. It would have meant simply, "the gates to the entrance of Hades, or the underworld," or the place where the souls of the dead resided. They would not have understood Jesus to be talking about the power or influence of the devil.
Jesus Christ visited the spirit prison during the time His body lay in the tomb. He preached to the disobedient spirits of those who had lived long before He did and who did not know of His atoning sacrifice. There is nothing in the scriptures to even hint at the idea that this spirit prison no longer exists. It does exist and is peopled by those who didn't hear and accept His gospel during their lifetimes. The fact is, the gates of hell have not prevailed against Jesus Christ. The Gospel has been taught in the spirit world continuously from the time Christ first visited there during the period of time between His death and His resurrection.
Katspur -
Thank you for the awesome post. I really do appreciate it and that you took the time to type it out for us. Bless you.
haha,no way,why the maw?sorry about that you should have called yourself ironman,it would defo be less confusing,anyway,you go chap,you go
LOL ... Maw, as in muzzle, as in mouth ... IRONMAW!
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