Boy, are you ever right!!! That is my biggest annoyance, I can be right in the midst of leading someone to Christ on the internet, and some "christian" comes up and says "well you know faith without works is dead, and Jesus will say many will hear Lord Lord" etc, and they try to actually blow the whole thing. I just don't understand "christians" that want works over grace
My experience is that loving God does produce works
Exactly. I'm doing this because I love God, not because I'm trying to get into heaven. I'm already going
Thank you for the post and reply, I appreciate it :)
It isn't a question of what we want, it is a question of what God has ordained. "Every tree therefore that bringeth not forth good fruit, shall be cut down and cast into the fire."
There will be many people who have faith, who, because they do not do good WORKS, will burn in everlasting fire with the devil and the angels. "Thou believest that there is one God. Thou dost well: the devils also believe and tremble." (Jas 2:19)
See also Hebrews 10:26 - "For if we sin wilfully after having the knowledge of the truth, there is now left no sacrifice for sins, But a certain dreadful expectation of judgment, and the rage of a fire which shall consume the adversaries." This is very clear that a Christian who brings forth bad fruit by sinning "wilfully" (as opposed to the sins without full consent of the will, i.e. mortal vs. venial sin) has no hope, but only "dreadful expectation", and will go not to heaven, but to "the rage of a fire" with the "adversaries" (a.k.a. "Satan")
Those "christians" you speak of could just as easily reply, "I don't understand 'christians' who only preach half the gospel." (Technically, only a third, because Faith is only one of the three theological virtues, and likewise only one third of possession of Christ per his own self idenification as "The Way, The Truth, and The Life" w/out which no one goes to the Father).
Exactly. I'm doing this because I love God, not because I'm trying to get into heaven. I'm already going
1 Corinthians 10:12 - "Wherefore he that thinketh himself to stand, let him take heed lest he fall."
1 Corinthians 9:27 - "...perhaps, when I have preached to others, I myself should become a castaway"
None of us know whether or not we are going to heaven. "Know you not that they that run in the race, all run indeed, but one receiveth the prize? So run that you may obtain." (1 Cor 9:24)
St. Paul asks us to "run that [we] may obtain." He says of himself that he does "all things for the gospel's sake: that I may be made partaker thereof." (1 Cor 9:23) The things that he does are what make him a partaker of the gospel. He does not say that he is already a partaker of the gospel, and just does good works as a kind of thank you note sent heavenward. The works that he did, and the works that he asked us to do, were done so that we would "with fear and trembling work out [our] salvation" (Phil 2:12)
So please accept this in the spirit in which it is given. "He that loveth correction, loveth knowledge: but he that hateth reproof is foolish." (Prov 12:1) I am not impuning your sincerity. But poison is poison, no matter how innocently it is thought to be medicine. You are preaching a false gospel if you preach a gospel that makes works a mere afterthought in the Economy of Grace. And anyone who believes that false gospel will lead a life that will lead to damnation.
"I know thy works, that thou art neither cold, nor hot. I would thou wert cold, or hot. But because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold, not hot, I will begin to vomit thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest: I am rich, and made wealthy, and have need of nothing: and knowest not, that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked."
I apologize if I have said anything in what seems to be an uncharitable tone. It is always difficult on the internet to get across the proper sense of what you want to say. Please accept my prayers for you.