Posted on 10/02/2004 3:48:27 PM PDT by Quix
No sweat.
BTW, I trust you know my answers to your questions. If not, let me know.
I did find tons on the cessationist stuff. I think the better of a quick but signficantly detailed scan is posted above.
Amazing how scarce the folks have gotten once their demands have been met. Real odd and disappointing. I REALLY HAD thought better of them.
"Do you believe you have to be approved by GOD for salvation or is it a free gift?"
I believe God give the gift of salvation to those who He will. This has been my experience. This is what the early church taught. And this is what the scriptures says.
Since our salvation IS a gift, like a Christmas present, God is not going to rescind it and He has sealed his Holy Spirit inside us which is our guarantee to the praise of His glory. The last part of the "Study to show yourself approve.." states "...so you will NOT be ashamed." I think it would be tragic to get before the throne of our Lord Jesus and be ashamed for not following the scripture that God has given us.
Please keep in mind our shepherd fights our battles. Not us. If we try to do so it becomes a struggle. But we serve an all powerful God who cares for us and will fight for us but He rightfully wants and deserves the recognition and the glory.
2Ch 20:17 'You need not fight in this battle; station yourselves, stand and see the salvation of the LORD on your behalf, O Judah and Jerusalem.' Do not fear or be dismayed; tomorrow go out to face them, for the LORD is with you."
Rather than becoming so concerned as to whether or not an experience is from God or not, it might be more appropriate to recognize we, as believers, when we are in fellowship with Him, are alive in the spirit.
Just as we might identify with physical conflict and intellectual debates, there is also a very real warfare in the spiritual domain.
I suspect too many of us behave like sheep,..stupidly blundering about out of habit, just not catching on to what he has provided for us in a very calm, clearly level-headed fashion, from love and patient perseverence.
Many become obsessed with the spectacular, when the most significant features in warfare might have no spectacular significance.
Salvation might be associated with an experience for some people, while for others the moment of salvation is purely a thought exercise of simple faith in Him.
Much truth in your comment, imho.
Interesting post regarding Kansas. I had dreams a couple of years ago about driving in the flatlands below Colorado Springs, about dawn, hunter-killer teams were being formed by Romanian-Polish teams. They deployed using a unique tactic. One tank from the Romanians and one helicopter with a fire team of troops overhead by the Polish (or visa versa). They had assembled and began to deploy on daily missions in these teams throughout the area.
Prior dreams included an invasion of the West Coast by the Chinese in a fashion similar to how we invaded Iraq,...and significant catastrophic events,...tsunamis in the Oregon/Washington coast, volcanic activity in So.CA, meter strikes in Arizona, tornados in Mid West, a no-man's land extending from about Walla Walla Wash towards Mexico incorporating the entire state of Arizona,...a fifth column within the US calling fires upon US defense forces composed of many Wiccans, environmentalists, socialists, and masonic affiliations.
Go figure. The spooky dreams are the ones where you see a place you've never visited before, and then later in a waking moment encounter the same scene.
One thing I've noticed about some of these dreams, is that they are as if one is in a parallel universe, with a handful of things altered from reality. In geographic situations, it might be as if the terrain and vegetation generally correspond as though a computer database and gazatter provided the basis for the generated dream, however external associations are a bit out of synch or not quite tangeant with adjacent or surrounding contexts.
In some dreams I've perceived some pixelation,...go figure.
I'd place many if not all of the dreams in the context of the spiritual domain. Some obviously involving spiritual warfare. Others more spectacular and vivid, such as the cataclysmic dreams,...
I've found it better to first master lots of Scripture and systematic theology in order to help discern their context,..but I also must admit, those dreams where I have probably have most fruitful with other spirits in the dream have been in areas where I probably was the least knowledgable, but simply remained in simple faith in Him.
Scripture really helps in this area,..not as a legalistic guide, but as a simple truth which is reliable.
Pure bull. Is that an invitation for me to trash your silly theories with more bible (none of which you have even REMOTELY responded to yet ??
I thought I would do the Christian thing and bow out to leave you with your false teachings, and thereby not cause you to further lose face. After all, after I had responded to your arguments, such as they were, you came back with nothing more than blind assertions. That's when I decided to quit arguing with you. It's like arguing with a liberal. So if you further correspond with me on this thread I will only respond in kind with blind assertions, as my arguments have already been given and you have seen fit to ignore them.
I find it extremely strange, that someone who wanted me to leave your thread so badly, feels compelled to draw me back in after I have gracefully done so. Well, I am in it for the long haul now, buddy, and the conversation is only going to degenerate from here. You reap what you sow.
Hey...I didn't want you to leave. :)
Perhaps a great approach will be to polish the admirable features we find in one another in proper context, rather then the hatchet blows to one another so as to remove the flawed ideas...
I want you all to know I have no beef with you. Only with Quix.
Agreed, ...may we all fight the conflict through faith in Him,...and at this time, that still implies love, patience and perseverence,....
THANKS. IMPRESSIVE.
So, you're at least partly confirming Dimitri Duduman's dreams and visions of China invading on the West Coast.
I know of several people who've done so.
Interesting about the pixelation! Brings to mind . . . welllll, will leave that alone on this thread.
--except to say--a former Air Force fellow now student of mine has some interesting stories from his tour of duty about psych ops.
Your post boggles the mind!
What Scripture have I NOT responded to!???
I've posted dozens of pages worth of response to Scriptures purported to support cessationism. Those positions have been shredded at the SCRIPTURAL LEVEL AS WELL AS THE LOGICAL LEVEL!
SHOW ME ANY Scriptures you feel I have not responded to!
Sheesh!
LOL.
Polishing is good.
Sandpaper can be good.
Prefer no meat cleavers.
But, hey, whatever it takes to conform me to the image of His Son!
I believe, Dad, that if you track down all your posts on this thread,
you will find the FIRST character etc. attacks signed by your screen name.
Your after-that-fact 'righteous' stance comes across therefore, more than a little sanctimonious.
BTW, the tweaky comments the last many posts have been about THE CESSATIONISM ARGUMENT and not about individual characters, personalities, per se.
I was good enough to reply to your first two massive posts of other peoples material. Keep in mind the person was answering an argument I hadn't even made !! I did it anyway. You responded with simple assertions, if I recall correctly, but didn't really respond in any meaningful way to my arguments. That is when I decided I needed to leave your thread gracefully.
Why in the world did you pull me back in to your discussion with your snide little comments when you tried so hard to get me out to start with ? (Hijacking the thread I believe was the term you used)
Just the same, what I'm interested in is the fact that I was the first to try to make amends and gracefully leave this place. Then off you go with your smart alecky comments.
By the way, why is it you are compelled to respond 3 separate times to every 1 of my posts ? Why don't you just think about everything you want to say before you say it ?
I called you back to finish the discussion you insisted be engaged in on this thread.
I wouldn't care if you posted meaningful excerpts from McArthur. He's an idiot about the topic, but help yourself. We'll deal with him.
I have made personal comments within and after the other sources. I've talked about Scriptures in some detail. I did SOME of that before posting other sources. You have yet to deal with ANY of my very significant Scriptural based/related comments.
I really dislike hit and run discussion driving. You come in here throwing all kinds of rocks, dust, ashes and lightening bolts AND VERY INSISTENT DEMANDS in the air with great haughty vigor and personal assault. Then when I finally relent and comply with LOTS of Scriptural based response and input--you play the silent game. It's beyond disgusting. Insufferably infuriating and cheeky is more like it.
Now you claim I haven't responded with personal Scriptural responses. I even did that BEFORE I posted other sources to some degree. And you didn't respond to one of such comments of mine. Perhaps you don't really read what I write.
I can understand that. But I'd prefer you were honest about it.
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