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1. Those who will be invited. They will have the choice to accept or reject. Most people in US have this choice.
2. Those who will never be invited. Think about the Indians in the Jungles of Brazil, who never heard of God.
I should add that there are those who hear the invitation, but are predestined to reject it, and their hearts are closed to the message. Judas was such person, and Jesus said of him that considering where he was destined to go, it would have been better if he had never been born.
Sovereign God
Romans 9:14-15 Just as it is written: "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated." 14What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! 15For he says to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion."
Too bad. I woudl have hoped you believed in a God that was powerful enough to even take away the sin of the most wicked!
Believing results in doing what He said to do. And the results--works--are inevitable for the one who has true faith. That's what James meant when he wrote (2:14-18):
"What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, be warmed and be filled," and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself. But someone may well say, "You have faith and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works."
James speaks of faith and works as distinct things, not one and the same. The one leads to the other. If it does not, then it is "by itself." Later, in v. 22, he seems to view faith and works distinctly when he talks about Abraham: "You see that faith was working with his works, and as a result of the works, faith was perfected."
How could his faith work "with his works" if they were one and the same?
It's interesting, too, that Paul makes a sharp distinction between faith and works:
"For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law." (Rom. 3:28)
"...nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified." (Gal. 2:16)
I agree. Believing in the father and accepting christ as your savior will get you to heaven. But as a christian good works is what you do because you believe. I also beleive that these good works must be done without drawing attention to yourself for the rewadr by man.Then as jesus said you will reap rewards.I have reaped many rewards for the works I have done with no doubt in my mind.Much of it is the self worth you feel but also in how it changes you life for the better.That is my experience and belief.
I agree. Believing in the father and accepting christ as your savior will get you to heaven. But as a christian good works is what you do because you believe. I also beleive that these good works must be done without drawing attention to yourself for the rewadr by man.Then as jesus said you will reap rewards.I have reaped many rewards for the works I have done with no doubt in my mind.Much of it is the self worth you feel but also in how it changes you life for the better.That is my experience and belief.
Great post,I mean it is acceptable that we believe and accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour,but who are we when we sit on our laurels as Christians and say I am saved and that is all that matters.I mean what are we believing in in the first place if we are not doing,we need to be Christ-like .
Too bad. I woudl have hoped you believed in a God that was powerful enough to even take away the sin of the most wicked!
Yes, he will if he chooses to. And many times he chooses to save the most wicked and use them to evangelize his word.
PS Twisting my words will not make you look any smarter.
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