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So do Christians who do the "saved thing" (a.k.a. run down the aisle in an emotional moment to pray with a preacher at the end of the service) believe that Christians who go through confirmation (Catholics, Presbyterians, Lutherans, Episcopalians, Methodists) are not saved and going to hell?
We cannot be saved unless we truly repent. This is not done by repeating a sinner's prayer, going through confirmation, by baptism, by inheritance, or by running up or down or up AND down the aisle, but rather by acknowledging our sinfulness and truly repenting and forsaking our sin. Realizing that Jesus' sacrifice is the only way, we accept God's plan that covers our sin and continue in this path that we may remain in His grace.
Agreed, grace is given by God. However, Why is God's grace not a blank check to sin? Why does it matter? Why should we do things for our fellow man? There's no apparent no benefit to it. To make you feel good perhaps? In the end, God will welcome you anyway. Life is good.
No when you become truely saved, you will grow in grace and holiness and you will want to those things because it pleases God and it gives Him the Glory not you.
No when you become truely saved, you will grow in grace and holiness and you will want to those things because it pleases God and it gives Him the Glory not you.
Not necessarily. You believe, but you are loner by nature and you just want to be left alone. Maybe you live in a remote part of the country like Alaska. You help no one. What then?
1 Cor 3:12-14
12 Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw,
13 each one's work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one's work, of what sort it is.
14 If anyone's work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward.
Not necessarily. You believe, but you are loner by nature and you just want to be left alone. Maybe you live in a remote part of the country like Alaska. You help no one. What then?
If I may interject a thought here...I am late to this discussion...it is my understanding that when one becomes a Christian it involves turning from a life of sin and self to a life lived for God. We are forgiven through the cross that we might live for God. It is no longer I who live, Paul said, but Christ who lives in me. We are to offer our bodies as living sacrifices acceptable to God.
In short the Lord calls the shots in a Christians life. If we are not willing to acknowledge Him and follow Him as Lord...we don't believe what the Bible says about who He is and what He did on the cross.
There is a big, big difference between the kind of belief that many have, which is akin to an intellectual assent to certain things like that Jesus died and a saving belief that acts on what one says they believe.
The former is the kind of belief that demons have. They know who Jesus is but do not submit to Him as Lord. The latter saves a person.
Romans 10:9 says...
Quote:
That if you will confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and will believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
You ask "What then?" to which I believe the Bible would say in answer that one must not only believe in their heart that God raised Him from the dead but must also acknowledge Him as Lord.
A person may indeed be a loner, as I am by the way, but what counts is not the type of person that one is in the flesh but rather the type of person who Christ is in that person and whether they are willing to let Him live through their body.
I don't know about anyone else here, but it was certainly through no choice of mine that I was saved. I certainly didn't wake up one day and choose to be "saved". I was saved the day Christ died on the cross. Grace is what saves us.No action or deed of mine was able to save me. In no way will I ever be able to. Accepting Jesus as Savior and Lord is good and all, but the price for our salvation has already been paid. Sure, knowing the price has already been paid is reassuring, but does knowing what happened on the cross really what saved me? The way is see it is that it's a gift for all humanity, and after a great deal of thought on the subject, I figure the only way to fall from grace is to refuse it. God gives us that choice.[/quote]
I'm confused ? I find contradiction in the above paragraph! How can one say "through no choice of mine", and then turn and say, "I figured the only way to fall from grace is to refuse it.God gives us that choice."
I don't understand what the OP is stating or inquiring?
Quote:
Accepting Jesus as Savior and Lord is good and all, but the price for our salvation has already been paid.Sure, knowing the price has already been paid is reassuring, but does knowing what happened on the cross really what saved me?
Quote:
but does knowing what happened on the cross really what saved me?
This is my belief too..There are no legalisms attached to being saved..We are saved by our belief in Jesus and by the grace of God
That is exactly correct. The questions then become for those who believe in decision theology,
Can I (on my own reason or ability) come to correctly believe in the Triune God who became man to be our subsitute?
Acts 8:29-31
29The Spirit told Philip, "Go to that chariot and stay near it." 30Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. "Do you understand what you are reading?" Philip asked. 31"How can I," he said, "unless someone explains it to me?" So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.
When do you obtain your soul? Isaiah 38:17
Behold, for peace I had great bitterness: but thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption: for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back.
When does your soul enter the "pit of corruption"? James 5:20
Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.
When does God hold your soul accountable for sin? Psalm 51:5
Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me
Ezekiel 18:20
The soul who sins is the one who will die.
If wrong, please show from scripture when a person obtains their own soul then we'll know when death starts.
Last edited by twin.spin; 09-04-2008 at 07:22 AM..
We cannot be saved unless we truly repent. This is not done by repeating a sinner's prayer, going through confirmation, by baptism, by inheritance, or by running up or down or up AND down the aisle, but rather by acknowledging our sinfulness and truly repenting and forsaking our sin. Realizing that Jesus' sacrifice is the only way, we accept God's plan that covers our sin and continue in this path that we may remain in His grace.
I agree with what cg81 is saying here! True repentance is a life that has changed from sin (spiritual death) to life in Christ (spiritually alive) that becomes the evidence of their salvation.
One no longer wants, desires the old way of doing things...There comes a deep conviction of the things (sin) once done in the life, to change to the new life in Christ (repentance, salvation).
One who is truly saved will walk in His Spirit and will see the difference. God's Holy Spirit will seal that life in Christ and the process of the new life begins, cleansing old habits, goals, desires, to a new way of thinking and doing according to God's holy word. It becomes the way of that life....
I have tried to follow this thread but I find absolutely nothing about being obedient to the doctrine of Christ. Has the word 'obedience' been erased from all your bibles ????
I have tried to follow this thread but I find absolutely nothing about being obedient to the doctrine of Christ. Has the word 'obedience' been erased from all your bibles ????
Titus 3:5 Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; 6 Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; 7 That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
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? I find contradiction in the above paragraph! How can one say "through no choice of mine ", and then turn and say, "I figured the only way to fall from grace is to refuse it. God gives us that choice." 
