James 2:24
"But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved." - Matthew 24:13
"And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved." - Mark 13:13
"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." - Matthew 7:21
"Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed." - John 8:31
Professional Christians want you to be left in the dark for personal gain.
...and for personal self-satisfaction.
A mormonism apologist asserted just today that having the Holy Spirit in you is not enough, that it is not salvation until your works finish the job! (FR search the posts of ‘Stourme’, perhaps you can help him awaken to salvation and not continue to blaspheme the Holy Spirit.
Believe on the Lord Jesus and you will be saved-and your house. Nothing more. Jesus spent much of His time explaining that anything a man could do would never be good enough. His was a complete and final sacrifice for our salvation. We don’t even make that decision on our own without His first calling us. Just as He did with Abraham.
http://www.faithfacts.org/bible-101/christian-cram-course
The church of Christ is the bastion of legalism. See this:
http://www.faithfacts.org/world-religions-and-theology/church-of-christ
“Look here sir! There are hundreds of religions in this country, and the followers of some think theirs is the only right one. How can poor, plain men like us find out what really is the truth?”
We generally reply something like this. “Hundreds of religions you say? That is strange; I’ve heard of only two.”
“Oh, but surely you know there are more than that?”
“Not at all, sir, I find, I admit, many shades of differences in the opinions of those compromising the two great schools; but after all there are but two. The one covers all who expect salvation by DOING; the other, all who have been saved BY SOMETHING DONE. So you see the question is very simple. Can you save yourself, or must you be saved by another? If you can be your own saviour, you do not need to listen. If you cannot, you may well want to learn about Jesus Christ and the message of the cross.
-Modified from H.A. Ironside
Traditional Catholic catechism is simple enough for a six-year-old First Communion candidate to learn.
See Romans 2:1-11 (especially verses 6, 7, 10, and 11).
You were constantly "coached" into these ambiguities by the institutional "Church" to better control their flock and to extract attendance and money.I agree totally. James was the jealous brother of Jesus and was extremely envious of his deity and retaliated with his paper and pen. Just throw it out. They compiled the Bible in 362 and made many errors in the assembly of material.
Are you a Christian? Are you a member of a church?
James was the jealous brother of Jesus and was extremely envious of his deity and retaliated with his paper and pen.
Sect. 164.—........As to myself, I openly confess, that I should not wish “Free-will” to be granted me, even if it could be so, nor anything else to be left in my own hands, whereby I might endeavour something towards my own salvation. And that, not merely because in so many opposing dangers, and so many assaulting devils, I could not stand and hold it fast, (in which state no man could be saved, seeing that one devil is stronger than all men;) but because, even though there were no dangers, no conflicts, no devils, I should be compelled to labour under a continual uncertainty, and to beat the air only. Nor would my conscience, even if I should live and work to all eternity, ever come to a settled certainty, how much it ought to do in order to satisfy God. For whatever work should be done, there would still remain a scrupling, whether or not it pleased God, or whether He required any thing more; as is proved in the experience of all justiciaries, and as I myself learned to my bitter cost, through so many years of my own experience.
But now, since God has put my salvation out of the way of my will, and has taken it under His own, and has promised to save me, not according to my working or manner of life, but according to His own grace and mercy, I rest fully assured and persuaded that He is faithful, and will not lie, and moreover great and powerful, so that no devils, no adversities can destroy Him, or pluck me out of His hand. “No one (saith He) shall pluck them out of My hand, because My Father which gave them Me is greater than all.” (John x. 27-28). Hence it is certain, that in this way, if all are not saved, yet some, yea, many shall be saved; whereas by the power of “Free-will,” no one whatever could be saved, but all must perish together. And moreover, we are certain and persuaded, that in this way, we please God, not from the merit of our own works, but from the favour of His mercy promised unto us; and that, if we work less, or work badly, He does not impute it unto us, but, as a Father, pardons us and makes us better.—This is the glorying which all the saints have in their God!
From BONDAGE OF THE WILL by MARTIN lUTHER
Matthew 5:17-19. You think Paul trumps Jesus? Good luck with that.
Then they asked him, "What must we do to do the works God requires?"
Jesus answered, "The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent."
**John said it best in 3:16.**
That verse is the condensed summation of what the Lord had been teaching to Nicodemas in the previous 13 verses.
“Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” John 3:5
Some argue that the ‘water’ is natural birth, but Jesus didn’t say in the next verse that ‘that which is born of water is flesh’. It’s obvious he’s refering to baptism, as he commanded it in Matt. 28:19, and Mark 16:16.
In Luke 24:47, he commanded the disciples “that REPENTANCE and REMISSION of SINS should be preached in his NAME among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. This command was first instituted in Acts 2:38, for there Peter commanded the convicted souls to “..REPENT, and be BAPTIZED EVERY ONE of you in the NAME of JESUS CHRIST for the REMISSION of SINS, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.”
Back to John “the wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou HEAREST the SOUND thereof, but CANST NOT TELL whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is EVERY ONE the is born of the Spirit.” 3:8
Paul writing “To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be SAINTS...” Rom. 1:7. (these folks were already born again)
Paul reminds them of their baptism in chp 6, vrs 3 and 4. and tells them in vrs 17 “But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have OBEYED from the heart that form of DOCTRINE which was delivered you.”
So when blind leaders of the blind try to build a ‘believe only’ doctrine from Rom. 10, they are ignorant that Paul wrote that to people that were already born again (see chp 1:7 again).
The Lord prayed unto the Father in John 17, saying in vrs 17, “I have given them thy word..” and vrs 20, “Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through THEIR word;...”.
There’s an abundance of ‘believeing in Jesus’, but a great sidestepping of his commands.
If you don’t believe his words, you don’t believe as the scriptures hath said.