We were told faith is "not enough" because even the fallen angels have faith that Christ is Lord.
We responded that all the world is without excuse in recognizing Christ is Lord, but that ONLY those who have been given saving faith in Jesus Christ recognize Christ as their SAVIOUR.
Again we'll ask, what fallen angel, what demon, what Satan has faith that Christ is their Saviour?
None.
Faith is not simply a familiarity with Christ's name. Faith is knowing that Christ died to pay for one's sins in full.
No fallen angel has faith that Jesus Christ paid for their sins.
This is not a difficult concept to understand, MD, and we'll all pray for your guidance and enlightenment.
The rest of your post concerning your experience with alcoholism and personality disorders is interesting but meaningless to this conversation.
Ping to 427. I need a list. 8~)
Some things get my attention: first the APPARENT (IOW maybe not real) inability to distinguish between "process" and "content", the repetition of the diversionary tactic, the effort to "hook" me on a "content level", and, of course, the contempt - the "dynamic" of which should need no explanation at this point.
I would say one of the signs of a pathological process is the relative hamfistedness of the reactions. These are smart people. But you couldn't tell that from their rebuffs, which remind me of prep school 10th graders in 1962-63.
Grown-ups don't do that kind of stuff, but I am told that a priest at the end of a long career of parish ministry was asked what he had learned for hearing so many confessions, and he said, "few people are happy and even fewer ever grow up."
It’s getting a little wierd.
It feels like I’m watching an episode of “Intervention”.
Ah, yes, the classic error of Luther: believing your own salvation into existence. It's the direct ancestor of the "Word of Faith" foolishness which claims you can believe your way to every sort of worldly prosperity. (Clearly, if a gold Cadillac does not appear in your driveway, it merely means that your faith is not strong enough!)
You aren't saved by believing that Christ saved you, Dr. E. Sorry. Jesus saves, he sovereignly chooses whom he will save, period, full stop. Your beliefs about Jesus don't earn you your free ticket into heaven any more than keeping the Mosaic law will.
How can you guys claim to believe in Scripture and yet totally, utterly, completely, profoundly miss the whole point of Matthew 7:21-23?
Hell will have plenty of residents who thought they were infallibly saved by really, really, really firmly believing that Jesus saved them, and who lived like demons nevertheless. "Depart from me, you evildoers, I never knew you!"
Actually it is recognizing that Jesus is the Lord (1Cor.12:3).
There are many gods and lords (1Cor.8:5) who are in fact, themselves fallen Angels and Satan himself (2Cor.4:4).
Modern versions remove the from 1Cor.12:3, thus anyone can now say Jesus is Lord without saying He is the Lord (King of Kings, Lord of Lords).