JOHN 5:24 (RSV) Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes him who sent me, has eternal life; he does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.
Amen, Old Reggie. Even 1st John 5 tells us we can have that assurance. My pastor called it the “KNOW” chapter.
You wrote:
“I guess you can confidentally say Jesus was not an Orthodox Christian.”
Last time I checked He was a Jew.
“In fact He preached Protestant novelties.”
Nope. What you’re going to do here is twist the gospel. You posted:
JOHN 5:24 (RSV) Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes him who sent me, has eternal life; he does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.
Notice, according to your illogical understanding of the verse, if one merely HEARS the words of Jesus and believes in the Father he is saved. It sys nothing about faith in Christ. Now, do you really believe Christ taught AGAINST faith? No, of course not. That is part of what “hearing” would mean. ANd also part of “hearing” would be obeying.
This is made obvious throughout the Bible:
Genesis 22:18, “In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.”
John 10:27-28, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.”
John 14:15-17, “If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever; the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.”
John 14:21, “He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.”
John 15:10-15, “If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends. You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.”
Romans 10:1, “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”
1 John 2:5-6, “But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.”
Jesus expected us to do far more than merely listen to His words. He expected us to act on them and have faith and follow Him.