Religious Topics and Questions

[ahlosojoe]

We are responsibe to save ourselves by obedience to the gospel which is made available and ratified by the blood of Jesus.
After Peter preached the first gospel sermon and had many responses he extended his sermon in an attempt to persuade others to save themselves.

Ac 2:40 And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, save yourself from this untoward generation.

In Rev. Jesus says that he stands at our heart's door and knocks...you have to open the door. Jesus will not kick your heart's door open and take you against your will.

Re 3:20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him and he with Me.

I think it is interesting that most believe in faith as necessary for salvation yet few believe in works. Do you know that faith is a work? Jesus says so:

Joh 6:28 ¶ Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?
29 Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.

There is a difference in works. Many think they can be saved by the works of men (earn their salvation). We cannot earn our salvation. We must do the "works of God" those things perscribed for us to do in the word of God. We do these works not to earn salvation but because we love God for what he has done for us.

We are not saved by faith only. Jesus said:

Mr 16:16 He that believeth AND is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.

Our salvation is based upon doing the will of God.

Mt 7:21 ¶ Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

Thanks for looking please check it out.

 

[JB Books]

But; A person without faith is self-righteous.

Tons of that in our fair state.

 

[MaddSkillz]

We are responsibe to save ourselves by obedience to the gospel which is made available and ratified by the blood of Jesus.
After Peter preached the first gospel sermon and had many responses he extended his sermon in an attempt to persuade others to save themselves.

Ac 2:40 And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, save yourself from this untoward generation.

In Rev. Jesus says that he stands at our heart's door and knocks...you have to open the door. Jesus will not kick your heart's door open and take you against your will.

Re 3:20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him and he with Me.

I think it is interesting that most believe in faith as necessary for salvation yet few believe in works. Do you know that faith is a work? Jesus says so:

Joh 6:28 ¶ Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?
29 Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.

There is a difference in works. Many think they can be saved by the works of men (earn their salvation). We cannot earn our salvation. We must do the "works of God" those things perscribed for us to do in the word of God. We do these works not to earn salvation but because we love God for what he has done for us.

We are not saved by faith only. Jesus said:

Mr 16:16 He that believeth AND is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.

Our salvation is based upon doing the will of God.

Mt 7:21 ¶ Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

Thanks for looking please check it out.

Sounds complicated. I'm not a very organized person. Maybe salvation is for the better organized.

 

[338Shooter]

[lurk]*reads thread*[/lurk]

 

[ignerntbend]

[lurk]*reads thread*[/lurk]

[Lurk] gnashes teeth [Lurk] wrends garment

 

[rhodesbe]

Tons of that in our fair state.

We agree. I think where we may diverge is on the adequacy of self-righteousness. I'll suggest that if humanity was a good judge by design, there'd be no sin.

Trying to rationalize God is like examining the solar system with a microscope. Simply, God holds authority over all aspects of our constraint. It's a statement of faith, but necessary, lest we eat ourselves alive with our own conclusions and doubt that we are cautioned against. It's not accepting dogma; it is fear of the Lord.

Excellent topic.

 

[bulbboy]

knock off the jokes

 

[beast1989]

This. Regardless of what you come to understand, be your own teacher also. You are taking the right path. I struggled with many of these concepts (agnosticism did NOT help) and finally realized that it was cool if I didn't understand, and that it possibly was not important to understand. That may be a definition of faith. It is for me.

I agree. Im not too fond of further debating age old battles that never end (i enjoy reading others opinions though). I believe in God with all my heart and had went to church 99.99% of the time from a baby until about 19 but stopped bc I have to work on Sundays. I dont try to decipher the bible to find the true meaning or any of that stuff.

Going to church for sooo long kind of put a distaste in my mouth for organized religion. The path to God is more intimate to me than any church service could ever give me. God lives through me and I strive to walk in the path of righteousness with every step I take. Maybe im doing "it" wrong but it works for me.

 

[WTJ]

Well, good. It continues. I think maybe the term 'free will' may be misleading. The offer has been made but one must accept in order for the offer to be valid. The true, original sin of Man was 'knowledge' or self awareness.

 

[j707h]

To answer the original question: God isn’t fair, He’s just. There’s a big difference.

Yes, all are offered the same opportunity; Who ever believes Jesus is the one true Son of God will be saved, but everyone encounters the offer differently. The jungle tribesman who is born and dies without ever hearing the Word of God will get the opportunity to choose Jesus. How? We don’t know exactly. But when we don’t know something specifically, we turn to what we do know, and that is God is just, and it’s His job to work that out. Besides, the earth speaks of His glory so that no one has an excuse.

So you believe Jesus is the way, well done, you’ve got the golden ticket. But how good a seat you’re going to have when you get to the big game depends on your ‘works’. You reap what you sew, God is a capitalist.
Those who devote their lives to serving God will receive bigger rewards than those who don’t do much for the kingdom except believe.. They’ll still get in, but they may smell like smoke.
You’re saved by grace, which is a free gift achieved by Jesus, whether or not you choose to accept that gift is your choice, and what you do after you accept salvation is your choice as well.

God made us perfect and with a free will, because love is only genuine when one can choose to love God, or not.
Then we sinned and that sin separated us from a Holy God.
So that Holy and loving God provided us a way back to Him, 100% accomplished by Jesus, because we cannot earn Holy.
Now once again we are faced with the choice to choose that Way back to God or not.

And if one doesn’t choose Jesus? Yes, you will bear the weight of your own sin and be punished for it.
For God to be just, He cannot tolerate sin.
Say a psychopath murders babies, obviously he must be punished. Even our own diminished sense of justice recognizes that. Be it murder or whatever, we have all sinned.
Good news though, Jesus has paid our bail and endured our sentence. But if you choose not to leave the jail with Him and accept His propitiation, you can still have your punishment.

God’s permissive will can be disobeyed, but His sovereign will cannot.
For instance:
It is God’s permissive will that no one sin or go to hell. It is God’s sovereign will that we have free will. But if we have free will we can choose to sin or choose not to love Him. Thus His sovereign is trump and His permissive will can be violated.

Honestly, one you do the theological investigation, it takes a hellova lot more faith not to believe in Jesus.