Posted on 07/11/2010 10:58:32 AM PDT by NYer
Very good.
I need to copy this.
Excellent excellent work. And great delivery.
With the Old Covenant, to the Jews, the law was given to expose what sin was. God requires sinless perfection. but since man is incapable of that sinless perfection he provided the sacrificial system to cover sins.
When Christ came and died, he became the once for ALL sin sacrifice.
It is by faith... that Christ is the promised messiah, the son of God, by very nature God, and the only sacrifice ever needed. It is faith in this that sanctifies one. Jew or Gentile. If one refuses faith the only recourse is perfect works. Which is impossible.
And faith based on works is not faith, it is still works. It is believing that you can do enough to to earn your way to heaven. But not only is it arrogance in thinking we could actually earn our way, its an insult to Christ and the Father, that THEIR sacrifice wasn't enough.
Why THEIR sacrifice. Well obviously Christ suffered and died. He took the sin of everybody upon himself, which was tortourous to a Holy God.
But John 3:16 says "For God so loved the world THAT HE GAVE his only begotten son, THAT WHOSOEVER BELIEVES in him shall not perish, but have eternal life."
In essence, belief in ones own works to get to heaven tells the Father and Christ-NOT GOOD ENOUGH-I'LL GET THERE ON MY OWN.
Now James, when saying faith without works is dead, WAS NOT teaching that faith AND works got us to heaven. Because getting to heaven can't be earned. What IT IS saying, is that if we truely have faith, our good works, the affects of Christ in our lives will naturally flow out.
Example: A man is in love with a woman. Head over heals. They're on a long walk, far away from home. She twists her ankle and cannot walk. He carries her all the way home.
Why did he carry her home? Was he working to earn her affection? Or was he working as an outflowing of his love?
The same applies to us, either we work to EARN Gods favor, or we work because we already have his favor.
BUT...if we are working to earn our way to God, do we really love him, or are we doing works to get what he can give us.
Contrarily, if we already have what he's promised, then our works are not out of our initiations, but out of our response for his love he has shown us.
I am evangelical. I associate with other evangelicals. The pastors I listen to at church, on the radio,tv or in books are evangelicals.
And yet you tell me that the great majority of evangelicals deny this.
Now even if this were true, IT DOESN'T MATTER!!!
I'm standing on truth, and truth dosn't require a quorum.
Who has a "fear" of meat on Friday?
Wait, I know a lady, kind of a bubble head. She is not very good at the whole "being where you are" thing, and so she ate meat on a Lenten Friday, before she realized it was, um, Lent, AND a Friday.
So she was all in a dither. I was there when she asked on of the friars and he tried to level her off a little, but it was clear her whole deal was "works theology" from the git go.
You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink. If people WANT to be a dither, there's not much we can do to stop them. But it's not our fault either.
Good post!
LOL! :)
See link to page here, with pop up verses. http://peacebyjesus.witnesstoday.org/Sola_Scriptura.html Praise God.
bookmarked. Thanks.
I would really like to have PROOF of what you’re saying here. Sola Scriptura believers deny what I said/ where?
God bless you in the search, for the learning you already have and for the learning He will grant.
It is still remarkable to me how easy it is for me to forget to give it all to God, who already has it anyway.
10-4. That's part of why we don't call bishops apostles. They're successors - ones who follow.
For us, there is an apostolic character to the whole Church, and to each member of the Church.
I'm not surprised at the disagreement. It is to be expected.
I AM surprised at the manner of argument of some. And I am particularly surprised that assertions are made about our beliefs and practices which are false, and then those making them are not interested or able to deal with evidence that the charges are false.
But I'm not surprised.
Matthew 4:1-2: Then Jesus was led by the spirit into the desert, to be tempted by the devil. And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterwards he was hungry.
Matthew 17:17-20: And Jesus rebuked him, and the devil went out of him, and the child was cured from that hour. Then came the disciples to Jesus secretly, and said: Why could not we cast him out? Jesus said to them: Because of your unbelief. For, amen I say to you, if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain: Remove from hence hither, and it shall remove: and nothing shall be impossible to you. But this Kind is not Cast out but By Prayer and FASTING.
But maybe that's just me.
And any theological arguments that are built on that false premise are at best dubious.
Do you go to a regular church on sunday. Independent?
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