“There is so much WRONG with your ASSUMPTIONS in your last response.”
That is a very harsh response. And, quite frankly, I do not believe it is a Spirit-led response. Nor are your counter-arguments Biblical. So you will have to pardon me if my response is also a bit harsh. It is not meant to imply that I do not believe you are a real believer, but it is a warranted and necessary response to your error. However, I will also recognize some very helpful instruction mixed in with what you’ve posted as well.
There is something very peculiar about your approach to a Biblical discussion. You seem to be under the impression that it is your job to try correct anything you perceive to have any trace of error though this conversation began with your utter refusal to listen to the slightest admonition. And you continue to stubbornly refuse to heed it when it has been presented in such a fashion that even a child could understand it.
Your very actions and words in this thread condemn your error. You railed about “straining at gnats” and then proceed to do so now yourself. Only, in this case, I don’t think you’ve found a single gnat in all your efforts to do so.
Jesus taught that when one sinner repented, angels in Heaven rejoice. But you seem disgruntled over the thought of wicked people repenting and entering the kingdom of God. Why is that?
I laid out plainly the Gospel of Christ which I proclaim and which has saved many lost through my own sharing of it. Sharing such a personal, firsthand experience is what the Bible calls “testimony.”
A person can only bear witness to what he or she has seen and heard.
If you are skeptical of a testimony I’ve shared, it doesn’t hurt me.
But I can respond to you the same way the blind man did to the pious but skeptical Pharisees who questioned him before casting him out of the synagogue:
John 9:25b
One thing I know: that though I was blind, now I see.
John 9:30-33
Why, this is a marvelous thing, that you do not know where He is from; yet He has opened my eyes! Now we know that God does not hear sinners; but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does His will, He hears him. Since the world began it has been unheard of that anyone opened the eyes of one who was born blind. If this Man were not from God, He could do nothing.
What testimony do you have of sharing Christ with lost sinners who have been powerfully and radically transformed by the message of salvation?
If you don’t have a greater testimony to share, maybe you should quit trying to correct and instruct and sit down and take notes.
And don’t make any mistake, I am NOT boasting about myself or anything I’ve done. God is the only one who can accomplish anything. If any testimony I have is true, it is a credit to the glory of God, not me.
But if your Gospel is not the power of God to salvation to EVERYONE who believes then YOU need to make a change to YOUR message.
“Can YOU lead a person to our Heavenly Father, according to Jesus ?”
Can a person lead someone else to Christ?
John 1:41-42a
He [Andrew] first found his own brother Simon, and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which is translated, the Christ). And he brought him to Jesus.
So, according to the Bible, the word of God, yes, a person CAN lead someone to Christ by their testimony. I choose to believe the Bible rather than your error.
“WHO must do ‘THE CALLING’ ?”
Of course it is God who calls a person to eternal life, but it is His sovereign choice to do so through the foolishness of preaching the Gospel.
1 Corinthians 1:21, 26
For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe... For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called.
“Does God COMMAND YOU MUST ‘interact and communicate’ with HOMOSEXUALS ? (1 Corinthians 5; Leviticus 20:13; Romans 1:32)”
When I have twice pointed out that Paul said that some of the Corinthian believers had been homosexuals before coming to Christ, you seem to be claiming a Christian must not speak to or interact with them. How were those homosexuals brought to Christ? How was the wicked, incestuous congregant brought to repentance? Are you suggesting that they were saved through some other means than hearing the word through the proclamation of the Gospel?
Because that is sure what it sounds like you are saying. As I have already pointed out, Christ commanded the Gospel to be preached to EVERYONE. The verses you cited do NOT forbid preaching the Gospel to homosexuals.
Christ did speak of not casting pearls before swine. And He Himself demonstrated this by teaching in parables when the religious leaders blasphemed the Holy Spirit. But even He spoke with them. He reproved them. He continued to call to repentance any who would hear. So there is a Biblical basis for avoiding homosexuals, and not welcoming them to Bible studies and prayer meetings, obviously. But outside of the gathering of believers, there is a command to preach the Gospel to ALL.
A preacher of the Gospel should neither seek out homosexuals nor avoid preaching to those with whom he comes into contact.
“Read again ‘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.’”
There is nothing I’ve posted that is inconsistent with this. I’m not sure why you feel the need to rehearse it. I get the impression you do not accept the clear Biblical message that there are people who were formerly homosexual who have been saved by the transforming power of the Gospel.
As per the scriptures I already posted, no one can call Jesus “Lord” except by the Holy Spirit. This does NOT mean that a person is Spirit-led just because they utter the words “Lord Jesus.” What is being described is a true, heartfelt, sincere acknowledgement of Christ being Lord. It is a divine revelation, as Christ described Peter’s understanding of Him being the Christ. Flesh and blood did not reveal this. Indeed, the flesh can do nothing to contribute to salvation, but is at war with God’s redemptive work.
Nevertheless, true believers, the ones who continue in good works and persevere through trials and persecutions, are ones who continue to call on the name of the Lord Jesus, as per the scriptures I cited in my previous post.
“After that has ‘sunk in’, read about their own witness against them.”
As I said already, I appreciate your bold stand against the homosexual agenda. I know firsthand how “tolerance” is destroying churches through worldliness. There is a watered down message in the churches today in regards to the righteousness and holiness of God. Without the severe threatenings of the Law of God, the message of the Gospel makes no sense. And so modern preachers have resorted to all sorts of other reasons for the Gospel such as healing and success or the silly notion that God is lonely without being friends with sinners. The message of salvation is none of those things. So your strong opposition to the homosexual agenda in society and in the churches is welcomed and greatly needed.
“the chances of that happening ARE EXTREMELY RARE”
Regeneration is ALWAYS miraculous and “rare”. Whether the sinner is a liar, thief, covetous, blasphemer, murderer, homosexual, or other type of fornicator, salvation is miraculous. So it is rare in the sense that many reject Christ. But MANY also receive Christ.
Revelation 7:9-10
After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; And cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.
You need to acquaint yourself with the Gospel of grace and the dispensation of the superabounding grace of God.
Romans 5:20
Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.
The Law and the Gospel of Grace are two totally different and independent messages of God.
Galatians 2:21
I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.
The purpose of the Law is to reveal sin and drive the sinner to humility and repentance. The Gospel enables the penitent person to be regenerated through faith in Christ. The righteousness of the Law is only fulfilled in us through receiving the righteousness of Christ by justification and the subsequent transforming work of sanctification, also accomplished by grace through the inner work of the Holy Spirit, and not through fleshly efforts.
“MIGHT be ready to: (ask for forgiveness) REPENT, believe the gospel,
to be baptized ... in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins,
and RECEIVE receive the gift of the Holy Spirit through prayer AND the laying on of hands.”
Laying on of hands is not required to receive the Holy Spirit:
Galatians 3:2
This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?
“A REAL CHANGE can only be motivated to come about through a ‘SIGNIFICANT EMOTIONAL EVENT’, such as one brought about be being driven out and cut off from among their people. There is a VERY SLIM CHANCE that the loneliness one will experience might lead one
to read the Bible and turn towards our Heavenly Father and His Son.”
That’s the best comment you’ve posted in our discussion. It is interesting that God chose, even in the Old Testament, to first cut abominable people off from their societies. It demonstrates the long-suffering of God to not immediately and utterly destroy them. And I think you’ve made an excellent point here for why it is important for Christians to not fall for the phony message of tolerance which is something that will leave the lost in their lost state rather than lead them to repentance.
But while I do agree it is possible for such a person to seek out a Bible, the pattern of scripture is for the message to be preached directly (e.g. the Ethiopian eunuch).
2 Corinthians 3:2-3
You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men; clearly you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart.
Notice the “all men.” It would be an egregious error to think that a lost sinner must first clean himself up before coming to Christ or coming to hear the message of Christ from preachers of the Gospel.
There must be evidence of repentance and faith before a person is baptized and received into fellowship with congregations of believers. But for the sinner to acquire these without hearing the Gospel is an impossibility. Therefore, there are no pre-conditions. The message of the Gospel MUST be proclaimed to ALL.