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James did not say that there is no faith without works. As I've already stated, James' 'dead faith' is simply a reference to the believer having a non-productive spiritual life. A believer with a 'dead faith' is still a believer, he has been eternally saved, but as far as his spiritual life during his time on earth is concerned he is not having a productive spiritual life.
I have also already explained James 2:19 to you as well.
And the only work of God that one has to do with regard to eternal salvation is to believe in Christ Jesus as Jesus himself said in John 6:29.
I don’t know who told you that a person who has faith without works is still saved, but that is false teaching.
Do you know what a rhetorical question is?
James asks two rhetorical questions in 2:14. What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him?”
Now why would James ask if dead faith can save someone?
Do you honestly believe James would say “yes” faith without works saves?
You are mistaken about there being only one work required for eternal salvation. You leave out repentance. Jesus said unless you repent you will perish (Luke 13:3,5). You also leave out confessing with your mouth leads to salvation (Romans 10:10).
God's offer of salvation is open to all. We are free to either cooperate with it or reject it.
God's saving work is not dependent upon our actions. Rather, we are responsible to cooperate with God's saving work.
It is NOT AN OFFER! That would be something from a Godfather, NOT from our Father God. Jesus did not OFFER to save us. He actually saved us. That is WHY we can have faith in Him and be motivated to emulate His Holy Spirit of agape love and forgiveness revealed on the Cross.
Faith is NOT a condition of saving us. It and our "works" are a consequence of it in faith, hope, and love that it is true. Agape love is the most important as we love God and each other every day and repent when we fail.
I don’t know who told you that a person who has faith without works is still saved, but that is false teaching.
Do you know what a rhetorical question is?
James asks two rhetorical questions in 2:14. What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him?”
Now why would James ask if dead faith can save someone?
Do you honestly believe James would say “yes” faith without works saves?
You are mistaken about there being only one work required for eternal salvation. You leave out repentance. Jesus said unless you repent you will perish (Luke 13:3,5). You also leave out confessing with your mouth leads to salvation (Romans 10:10).
The false teaching is yours. Yours is a works based salvation and is contrary to salvation by grace through faith.
As I've previously mentioned, the word 'saved' in the Bible does not always refer to eternal salvation but can refer to other things as well, such as being saved or delivered from illness, or from one's enemies. James did not have eternal salvation in mind but was referring to being saved from a non-productive spiritual life.
Most people, including yourself don't understand the book of James. Do yourself a favor and listen to the study on James by Dr. Robert Dean of West Houston Bible Church. There are 87 one hour lessons in the series.
Or you can just go on thinking that you have it all figured out, which you don't.
It was Jesus himself who said there was but one work of God, and I gave you the verse where he said it. As for repentance, to repent means to change your mind. With regard to eternal salvation you have repented when having heard the gospel message about Jesus you go from unbelief to belief. Repentance is concurrent with believing the gospel.
I'm now done with this thread. You really need to expose yourself to the various theological views which exist instead of thinking that you have figured it all out by yourself and that you are correct and everyone else is wrong.
I'm now done with this thread. You really need to expose yourself to the various theological views which exist instead of thinking that you have figured it all out by yourself and that you are correct and everyone else is wrong.
But isn't that what you also do, believing you have all the answers and everyone else is wrong?
They are lost. Unless one is born again of water and the Spirit, they cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.
But those are the very ones that Jesus came to save
Luk 5:30**But their scribes and Pharisees murmured against his disciples, saying, Why do ye eat and drink with publicans and sinners?
Luk 5:31**And Jesus answering said unto them, They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick.
Luk 5:32**I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
Luk 19:9**And Jesus said unto him, This day is salvation come to this house, forsomuch as he also is a son of Abraham.
Luk 19:10**For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.
I believe you are looking at things from the lower/earthly/religious perspective which you are certainly entitled to do
What I see/perceive is a higher/spiritual perspective as well
I agree with what you said to Rob that it can get pointless trying to convince each other once we have put forward our opinions to each other, it does get to be a bit of an impasse - what I believe in is sharing rather than forcing
It is NOT AN OFFER! That would be something from a Godfather, NOT from our Father God. Jesus did not OFFER to save us. He actually saved us. That is WHY we can have faith in Him and be motivated to emulate His Holy Spirit of agape love and forgiveness revealed on the Cross.
Faith is NOT a condition of saving us. It and our "works" are a consequence of it in faith, hope, and love that it is true. Agape love is the most important as we love God and each other every day and repent when we fail.
Don't look at it as "conditions".
The fact is that Christ, through his infinitely meritorious sacrificial act earned infinite reward from God the Father. Christ has offered to distribute a share in this reward to whoever wants to receive it. Just express interest in sharing in this reward. Christ has told us how we can do that. It's as simple as that. If you ignore it and bury your talents in the field, your loss is on you.
What you're not understanding is that death and hell are the default state. You do nothing, you go to everlasting death. That's the normative human experience. Thanks to God's direct intervention into the affairs of humanity, we can now experience better.
Many prefer to curse God for making us free to choose damnation rather than praising God for making us free to choose everlasting life.
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