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To: SkyPilot
What is your interpretation of Luke 17: 18-29?

I will put my interpretation in bold.

Luke.18

[18] And a certain ruler asked him, saying, Good Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?

[19] And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? none is good, save one, that is, God.

[20] Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honour thy father and thy mother.

[21] And he said, All these have I kept from my youth up.

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I see nothing to justify your characterization of this as ham-fisted

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[22] Now when Jesus heard these things, he said unto him, Yet lackest thou one thing: sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me.

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This is very straightforward. Jesus said the only thing the ruler lacked was giving his wealth to the poor.

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[23] And when he heard this, he was very sorrowful: for he was very rich.

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The man was sorrowful, not haughty or defiant. He wanted to follow Jesus, but he couldn't quite take the last step - giving his wealth to the poor. My guess is that neither of us has done this. At least, I haven't.

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[24] And when Jesus saw that he was very sorrowful, he said, How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God!

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Now he generalizes it to all those with riches. He did not confine his warning to that one ruler.

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[25] For it is easier for a camel to go through a needle's eye, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.

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Once again, he generalizes his admonition.

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[26] And they that heard it said, Who then can be saved?

[27] And he said, The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.

[28] Then Peter said, Lo, we have left all, and followed thee.

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His followers had given up their possessions.

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[29] And he said unto them, Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or parents, or brethren, or wife, or children, for the kingdom of God's sake

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The language is clear. Rich people don't enter the Kingdom. I'll wager that you and I are rich by any world or historic standard. We have luxuries and comforts that Roman emperors couldn't imagine, not to mention IRAs, health insurance and various other secular goodies. If the Bible is indeed inerrant, then I'm afraid we'll both end up as illustrated in your post #22!

43 posted on 05/20/2009 4:19:56 AM PDT by Ken H
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To: Ken H; metmom; Tennessee Nana; greyfoxx39; Elsie; Zakeet; Colofornian; BibChr; Alamo-Girl; ...
The language is clear. Rich people don't enter the Kingdom. I'll wager that you and I are rich by any world or historic standard. We have luxuries and comforts that Roman emperors couldn't imagine, not to mention IRAs, health insurance and various other secular goodies. If the Bible is indeed inerrant, then I'm afraid we'll both end up as illustrated in your post #22!

You could not be more mistaken. That is not the message of Luke 17, as I stated to you earlier.

You do not end up in Hell because you have not sold everything and given it all away. That is not what Christ was saying.

That is false doctrine, contrary to scripture, and untrue.

I was suspicious that you were trying to take scripture and twist the story of Luke 17 out of context; and give it that un-biblical spin from the beginning by the nature of your question.

That is why I included all that I did in my post #41 to you - to include the truth in Ephesians 2:8 that we are saved from Hell by Grace through faith.

Alas, I am not able to get through to you on this. I am pinging some other Freeper Christians who are more eloquent than I - and I hope they can provide you further scriptual proof of why you are mistaken.

It is a very important topic - and there is no other topic that is more important to your eternal destiny than this one.

45 posted on 05/20/2009 10:44:14 AM PDT by SkyPilot
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