Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
It's not about being virtuous by your own effort, it's about an attitude of repentance, obedience, faith and love towards God.
When someone is given that attitude by God, they repent and become obedient to God. That is when they receive the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit does the work of changing us and completing the work. All a person must do is keep that same attitude of obedience and deny the attitudes, thoughts and lusts of the flesh.
I know a man who pulled off both of his thumbs. Not at once. His mother told him he was a bad boy and God would punish him for masturbating. She read the part about cutting off your hand if it offend thee.
He went into his room and pulled off his thumb. Turns out he had two hands and the other started to offend his mother's biblical sense. She was a big bible thumper and told me it was the work of the Holy Spirit. She thought the entire thing was quite virtuous. All it really did was prevent her son from hitchhiking. This was her only child. I worked with him for years to pry him from her biblical influence. I have worked with several men who have pulled off their penis, too. It offended God.
Luke 9:23
And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. 25 For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?
It does not take long before they become mature in the faith and are no longer enslaved to the sinful nature, but are enslaved by the Spirit of God and righteousness.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Do you really take this guy on the website seriously?
I am unfamiliar with the site and chose not to click your link. Your type of question is called logical fallacy. Or, when did you stop beating your wife.
Do you really think you need 15 masters degrees in order to explain one simple verse? That "laymen" need educated "Priests" to do the work of the Holy Spirit for them in deciphering the meaning of God's word? I believe education and exposure to other cultures and beliefs allow me to discern
The priesthood in the OT sense has been done away with. Now Jesus is our High Priest and every follower of Christ is a Priest unto God, a holy people. Not bound by the law, but bound under grace and kept by the Holy Spirit. What you see in the Bible is what it means (with the exception of parables and prophecy and poems, but it clearly states what is and is not a parable and prophecy and poem).
So Luke literally means take up the cross. There is a man in town, actually doing this. He has this great big wooden cross and drags it all over town. He put wheels on the bottom. Is that you?
There are a number of reasons people do not understand the Bible:
1. It says some tough things that are difficult for people to swallow. So they choose to not take it for what it really says but instead go to great lengths to bend it to their desired message.
2. People do not think it is the actual word of God, but just a book of good stories.
3. People have been tricked into thinking that you must be highly intelligent with many years of schooling to understand it.
4. Wicked men have twisted what the Bible says, for their own benefit. For fame, money power etc. Telling people what they want to hear to fill their churches or telling them that if they do not go to church they will be tortured for eternity by an evil God.
Anyone who approaches the Bible with an attitude of repentance and humility towards God will understand the Bible. Anyone who does not approach it with that attitude will never understand it, no matter how educated they are.
I respond in blue
The bible requires no intelligence and seems to be anti-education. Where is education every spoken about in the bible? Lack of education is willful ignorance and those seeking education and intelligent thought are wicked and evil for you.
Last edited by RonkonkomaNative; 02-23-2015 at 11:44 AM..
Reason: color
This is obviously getting nowhere with some of you. What is required is an act of God.
There is no eternal security from a ticket to heaven. The ticket was from the website and man you listed to explain Matthew 7:21 - http://www.divineviewpoint.com/sane/...w/Matt-045.htm -
Eternal security is from following Christ for as long as you are following Christ.
Luke 9:23
And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. 25 For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?
Quote:
So Luke literally means take up the cross. There is a man in town, actually doing this. He has this great big wooden cross and drags it all over town. He put wheels on the bottom. Is that you?
It means to literally crucify your inner man and its desires with Christ. And yes, if it ever came to it, to be nailed to a cross as well.
Education and intelligence are great. But they are neither good nor evil in and of themselves. The man who is intelligent is no closer to finding God than those who are unintelligent.
Quote:
I believe education and exposure to other cultures and beliefs allow me to discern
The only thing that allows us to discern spiritual truth is the Bible and the Holy Spirit.
It's up to you to honestly verify what is being said by praying and reading the Bible.
For the love of all things good, just do not preach your gospel to other men.
Matthew 5:18
For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. 19 Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
This is obviously getting nowhere with some of you. What is required is an act of God.
There is no eternal security from a ticket to heaven. The ticket was from the website and man you listed to explain Matthew 7:21 - http://www.divineviewpoint.com/sane/...w/Matt-045.htm -
Eternal security is from following Christ for as long as you are following Christ.
I believe you are correct. It might in fact take an act of God to show you your hardheadedness.
Now, go back and see who really posted the link..... go.... After that, go to your room and think about what you did.
Mike listed the site. God wants you to go back to your posts and look.
As I said. An act of God telling you you are hard headed.
My mistake. You both are preaching the same thing as the ticket.
There are two tickets on that website, a free ticket to hell and a free ticket to heaven.
I guess you've already chosen which one to use.
I already know I am hard headed lol. I am asking you to pray and ask God that whoever is wrong will be shown their error, I will do the same. For my sake if I am wrong and for your sake if you are wrong.
Then let us pray that truth be made known to the one who is in error. For God will surely answer such a prayer.
I believe your post is in keeping with the words in John 7:[17]If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.
When I disagree with someone else on doctrine, I believe it behooves me to pray for God to show me anywhere I am not in tune with His will, that if I am not doing His will, I will not be able to assume that my doctrine is right. But if I'm doing His will, then Jesus says I SHALL KNOW OF THE DOCTRINE WHETHER IT IS OF GOD.
This is obviously getting nowhere with some of you. What is required is an act of God.
There is no eternal security from a ticket to heaven.
The Bible teaches the eternal security of the believer. But I won't waste my time providing you with the verses as you have shown yourself to be utterly closed to anything other than what you have come to believe.
The Bible teaches the eternal security of the believer. But I won't waste my time providing you with the verses as you have shown yourself to be utterly closed to anything other than what you have come to believe.
Quote:
John233 - There is no eternal security from a ticket to heaven. The ticket was from the website and man you listed to explain Matthew 7:21 - http://www.divineviewpoint.com/sane/...w/Matt-045.htm -
Eternal security is from following Christ for as long as you are following Christ.
You shall know a "believer" by their fruit
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
