Posted on 01/27/2008 7:56:14 PM PST by Manfred the Wonder Dawg
Actually, the word “demonic” was used by only one person on this thread: you.
Is the Richard Bennett featured on the site the same Richard Bennett who is the wonderful ex-Roman Catholic priest turned Bible-based Calvinist, by the grace of God alone?
What is it to believe?
I absolutely believe that Christ is my Lord and Saviour and that by no other name can I be saved. Am I saved?
If belief is merely assent, than that is cheap grace indeed. Intellectual conviction is a work of man, only grace can create a new man who has the full capacity to believe: that is to have faith that can move mountains and feed the hungry. I'm sure the goats, who "believed" were crushed to find out that saying "I believe" was an empty act.
What is belief?
Preaching the Gospel is done for the love of God and Christ and truth.
We're told to be harmless as doves, but also to be wise as serpents because there are people out in the world who covet the darkness and seek to bring others into it.
Belief comes from the Greek word pisteuo (which we translate as believe - the act) which means “to have faith (in, upon, or with respect to, a person or thing), i.e. credit; by impl. to entrust (espec. one’s spiritual well-being to Christ) :—believe (-r), commit (to trust), put in trust with.”
So it’s an active trust - not merely mental assent. As you sit in a chair, you put your trust in it as you plop down. That’s a fairly good metaphor for the kind of trust “believe” carries with it. If one’s belief does not affect one’s behavior, it merely assent and not a true belief.
Obviously not, as you just told us.
Don't you ever tire of misrepresenting the beliefs, posts and positions of others. At some point I would think that it would cause some introspection. If you have to misrepresent the posts of someone you disagree with, is your position really worth defending?
It is a solid house, with only a few things I disagree with. Here’s a link with a PowerPoint slide on Contemplative Prayer, top link in the right hand column - http://brogdensmuse.menofhonorministry.org/Apologetics.htm
I'll note I gave you considerable evidence from Scripture to back this up, and you have offered...none.
What is it to believe?
I doubt you really don't know the answer to that, although you could surprise me. You probably just think it's not enough of an answer.
When you get around to showing us that anything more is required for salvation than God-given, merciful faith in Jesus Christ alone as Lord and Saviour, I'm all ears.
This is what sets the RCC apart from the truth since the RCC teaches a works-based salvation, and the Bible tells us men do not and cannot earn their way to heaven.
Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." -- Ephesians 2:6-8"For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
Good works, while part of every Christian's walk, are not a requirement for salvation; they are evidence of it. They are the fruit of the indwelling Holy Spirit, which likewise, is a gift from God.
Is that what keeps the RCC from preaching the Gospel? When several RC posters were asked to define the Gospel, they couldn't do it.
Don't give up.
With God all things are possible.
No one can help you if you refuse to be helped.
= = =
My goodness . . . !
A glimmer of understanding of how Prottys tend to feel on such threads about the other side! What a novel idea.
Anyone and everyone who gives into human idolatrous impulses, choices, behaviors . . .
is
to those degrees and in those ways . . . in a kind of league with the devil against their own soul.
That much is clear in Scripture.
It doesn’t GREATLY matter, in most cases, whether the idol is the chocolate cake, Aunt Hildegard, little Johnny, the job, the little red sports car, one’s intellect, one’s primary reference group, one’s philosophy of life, one’s visage in the mirror . . . or the fantasied image of EARTH MOTHER MARY.
HAVE NO other gods before Me.
Do NOT bow down . . .
etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. . . .
Are we not called to be apostles, to pick up our crosses and follow Him? Stop for a second and think: the Apostles believed, how did that affect their behavior? Was their preaching, their travel, their suffering, their teaching, their healing, their anointing, their baptizing etc. works of the law or works of grace? Did what they did in the name of Christ mean that the Crucifix was not enough to save?
Belief is not just trust, it is action, remember, we are to take up our cross and follow Him, that is action. The importance of cooperating with grace by doing the good works of Christ is reflected in the first non-Gospel book listed in the NT; Acts of the Apostles. Works are not a product of faith, faith and works are a product of grace. And if you don't think works of grace are necessary for salvation, you may find your self in the uncomfortable position of asking "when did I see You..."
The dangerous, man made, unscriptural notion of sola fide is one of the devils greatest hits. ( so is the notion that one can get to heaven by "being a 'good' person, with out all that 'silly religious stuff')
Assumptions are the enemy of Truth.
= = =
Plenty of truth to that!
Hmmm?
Changing history to suit yourself doesn’t make it true.
[like the revisionist rubber history book lying about]:
The Catholic Church is established on Pentecost.
This peristent need for certain religious elements to denounce Catholic practice as “demonic” is a particularly noxious violation of that commandment.
= = =
On the contrary . . . to the degree the demonic is involved, it is the most loving thing to exhort accordingly . . . sometimes fairly fiercely.
Having been on both ends of such exhortations, I still firmly assert that it’s true and Biblically true, as well.
Those who think that love is only warm rabbit fur and foam rubber ought not be let near the task of raising kids.
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