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.
Thou shalt not judge? Where is that? What book, chapter, and verse?
See? It's ALWAYS "book, chapter, and verse" with fundamental Christians, isn't it? That isn't real life. That's what I mean by "legalism" Mike. (I'm still addressing Mike555's question).
Jesus is the physical manifestation of God as He has chosen to limit Himself and still maintain all His glory. As for the human Jesus He is merely the perfect sacrifice only God coulds be.
Yeah...many see Jesus that way....I don't. Jesus is Gods Son, just as he said he was. He is a representation to us of God....but not God himself.
Since legalism is the exact opposite of grace, and I constantly teach that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, how is it then that you call it legalism? To call grace legalism is to say that white is black; or that day is night.
How is teaching Acts 16:31 'Believe in the Lord Jesus and you shall be saved,' doing the work of the devil?
Matthew 25 31"But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne.
32"All the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; 33and He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left. 34"Then the King will say to those on His right, 'Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 35'For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; 36naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.' 37"Then the righteous will answer Him, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? 38'And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? 39'When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?' 40"The King will answer and say to them, 'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.' 41"Then He will also say to those on His left, 'Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels; 42for I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink; 43I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me.' 44"Then they themselves also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not take care of You?' 45"Then He will answer them, 'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.' 46"These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."
Mike.....here you have a bunch of believers (those who had faith in Christ and called him Lord) and they were separated based on their works.....did their "faith alone" save them?
Obviously NOT!!! Take care you are not numbered with the goats who thought just their faith alone would save them.
If they turned from the truth and worshiped the lie then they are no better than the rest. They had what we call the Old Testiment and they chose their Talmund over it.
No we didn't turn from the bible, I read my Bible every day and I attend a Bible study group regularly.
Thanks for responding - At first I thought I had gotten onto your ignore list or something.
I understand your point and why what I said seems confusing. The best I can explain is that even though you use the word "grace" it really isn't unmerited favor or a free gift if you have to follow a written formula to receive it. Rebirth is something that happens. In short - something must die and something new must emerge and that is 100% incompatible with simple decisions to follow and believe holy books.
A spiritually blind man confessing and believing something from a written text does not equal spiritual rebirth. Saying an English word "Jesus" has no special powers. All that just becomes a stumbling block to actual transformation and so 'opposes' (is an 'adversary' AKA "devil") to spiritual enlightenment (AKA rebirth).
If you believe that it was something new (when Jesus came on the scene) and was only made available post-cross/resurrection then why was Nicodemus chided for not understanding it already?
Reformationist theologians simply elected a new infallible pope and named him "the bible" and proceeded to worship it as "the Word of God" (an idol). With it they try and save people from God's anger through a written formula with supposed "special powers" to receive something which is already freely given and available to all.
This is superstition and opposes simple eternal principles:
1. He/she who loves knows God.
2. Loving your neighbor as yourself is salvation. (No, it doesn't EARN salvation - it actually IS the state of salvation from a state of darkness/blindness).
3. Perfect love doesn't earn a place in heaven - itIS heaven manifesting itself through you.
4. The ONLY proof of Christ living through you is the fruit which your tree (life) is producing. That which produces selfishness and callousness toward others = state of death/darkness. That which produces selflessness (agape love) and empathy for others = state of spiritual life/light (AKA Peace/reconciliation with the source of life).
This is an incorruptible concept and it can't be divided into 33,000 denominations or fought about in a 100,000 publications and used to kill/maim in it's name. Simply impossible. Any sane person knows exactly what all these terms mean (ie: no great secret mystery involved as creedal religion/beliefs invoke with triplefied mega deities and such).
It's so obvious (to me) what's happening, it's so SO simple but... well, I didn't always get it either so must remain patient.
Just like when the British threw Gandhi's (quote) "black ass" off the train.
"That wasn't very Christlike of you!"
- Gandhi
It's simple.
blessings
I knew I shouldn't have put it in question form. I wasn't confused by what you wrote. I should have just stated it clearly that you don't know what you are talking about. I have never said there is a formula to be followed for salvation. Faith in Christ is the issue in salvation. Grace is all that God is free to do for man on the basis of what Christ did on the Cross. And because the work of salvation was accomplished by Christ, man simply expresses faith alone in Christ alone. The merit is not in the faith, but in the object of faith, which is Jesus Christ. And teaching this is what you are calling the work of the devil.
Salvation is conditional on faith in Christ as the Bible says over and over again. No one knows God apart from faith in Christ. All the love in the world will not save anyone. If you do not believe what Acts 16:31, John 3:16, John 3:18, John 3:36 or any of the salvation passages tell you about believing in Christ for salvation, then you will spend eternity in the lake of fire.
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.
through a written formula with supposed "special powers" to receive something which is already freely given and available to all.
