Posted on 04/17/2014 5:43:38 PM PDT by Faith Presses On
On what you wrote about Romans 2:14-15 and the Gentiles, that passage also suggests that God has shown people what’s good so they have no excuse for their sin. Other passages to consider are those that say God will judge those outside the Church, Paul’s address to the Athenians in which he shared the Gospel with them, and Jesus’ giving of the Great Commission to the Church, in which He told His followers to go and make disciples of all nations.
I’m going to leave off here for now.
Hi again. On the church and human fallibility, the protection that the Lord gives us is, above all, individual. His Word says there will be false teachers who lead astray those who don’t receive a love of the truth. Jesus said His sheep hear His voice and won’t follow another.
On the point about child murderers and forgiveness, we have to recognize ourselves as being like such criminals before God when we’re without Christ.
On James and not being saved by faith alone, we must consider both Paul’s and James’ statements, which don’t contradict but are different parts of the same argument. We are saved by faith alone, from which will come works without fail. But we can not be saved by works alone, which come of pride. Hebrews says without faith it is impossible to please God. I know because the Lord has given me faith, I want to live to please Him, so I do dfifferently than if I didn’t know Him. But I’m not doing works to try to get into Heaven. (Cont’d)
On those not “given the gift of faith” as you say “through no fault of their own,” it’s really not for us to say whether or not that can happen. The Bible says God will judge those outside the Church, and also tells us that we only know things in part. As Paul wrote, God is fully in control of things here, He chooses to Him he extends mercy (”I will have mercy on whom I have mercy,” “Jacob have I loved and Esau I have hated”) yet He still finds fault. If we approach things with faith rather than reason, we will find we’ve been given what we need to understand here even though we don’t have all the answers. Do you believe in Hell and that people go there?
What that part of the conversation made me think of is whether or not the Catholic Church does missionary work today in places where people have never heard of Christ and the work involves learning their unknown language so they may hear the Gospel and then translating the Bible into it. (Cont’d)
the church is led by a bunch of intellectuals wimps...learned salvation...not the real thing. www.fhu.com has the real deal...from a Jew too!
Not sure about that..isn’t FHU associated with Church of Christ?
Then on what you wrote about that we should “depend” on faith and reason, “tolls that God has given us,” what the Bible teaches is that we are to actually depend on Jesus. The other way sounds something akin to deism, while the Bible teaches that the truth about our existence is that God created us for fellowship with Him, as there was in the Garden and as Revelation promises, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with men.” But, sin and sinners simply can’t be in His presence. How can they? How can rebellion and disobedience to God exist around Him? God wants all to come to repentance and be reconciled to Him, but if it doesn’t happen, those people can’t be in His presence. The Bible says Christians are to be “ministers of reconciliation,” who, “knowing the terrors of Hell, persuade men.” Once we are reconciled to God through Jesus, though, it’s as Jesus said: we passed from death to life. (Cont’d)
...”any acceptance on our part of disagreement with Him is rebellion”....
That’s not true.....I’ve disagreed with the Lord many times along the way...so did Moses and others. He remembers we are “dust”....even his disciples were “slow to learn all Jesus taught them”.
Better saying God’s huge patience with us is more than we deserve and be grateful He is so..... And I rather think He enjoys us when we talk with Him about why we disagree. He doesn’t want robots.
One more comment on faith and works here. For a time, I believe I was trying to trust in both, and the Lord showed me through an actual Hell experience how that was wrong. The Gospel is “good news,” in that through faith alone in Christ we’re justified before God and saved. What the Lord showed me was that through faith in Jesus, I was no longer in rebellion to Him, hating Him and His ways, and I wanted to do His will out of love for Him. I am seeking to get closer to Him all the time through prayer and letting His Word dwell in me. So, where I fall short, or seem to, I can still “be anxious for nothing,” because I trust, for a variety of reasons, it’s God’s will for my life here in this imperfect place.
check it out..Roy is all over YouTube..he is his own church...a very real church!
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