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To: Dr. Eckleburg
I don't dissagree with the issue of predestination. However, there is a pesky component in human nature called "Free Will". God gave us the choice to love and obey Him.

God predestined Adam and Eve to have everything they needed and live in peace. The devil came along and tempted Eve with the opportunity to be like God and have His knowledge. Adam and Eve dissobeyed God, the Garden of Eden was taken away, the balance was broken, and the rest is history. We come from that lineage.

The bible warns us in almost every passage to stay away from self-deceit and sin. We are not God. We are all sinfull beings and to the extent that we are, we are farther from Jesus. If you think that you are immune from sin, you are off to a bad direction in your path to salvation my friend. I say that out out of love and concern, not judgement.

5,716 posted on 06/14/2008 12:08:22 PM PDT by mgist (Thus in Psalm 103, we pray, "Bless the Lord, O you his angels, you mighty ones who do his word, hear)
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To: mgist
What is "the will of the Father?" "Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent." -- John 6:29

If that were the case, we would all be saved except for Jews. God's will was made very clear in the commandments. Love God above all else, and Love each other.

Devout Catholics happen to love everything associated with God. The fact that we think Jesus mother was special and commemorate her and all those who served God, doesn't take away from God, in enhances our Love of God. On a practical level it also serves as a reminder of how to love God. Jesus' mother was obedient and although she endured great sufferring, she never lost her faith. To me that message was a beautifull gift from God.

5,718 posted on 06/14/2008 12:17:54 PM PDT by mgist (Thus in Psalm 103, we pray, "Bless the Lord, O you his angels, you mighty ones who do his word, hear)
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To: mgist
If you think that you are immune from sin, you are off to a bad direction in your path to salvation my friend.

Who says anyone is immune from sin? We sin every day of our lives and if we say we have no sin in us, we are liars, as Paul writes.

However, all those who are covered by the blood of Christ, as determined by God from before the foundation of the world, have been acquitted of their sins by Christ having paid for every one of them, as Hebrews tells us.

We are saved by grace through faith, not by our own good works which are as "filthy rags" to God. Christ alone redeems the fallen sinner, according to the will of God and not men.

"For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure." -- Philippeans 2:13

We all make choices every day. But a man whose fallen nature has not been regenerated by the Holy Spirit can never choose righteousness. It is only by the gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit that anyone can rightly glorify God and know their salvation has been accomplished for them by Christ risen from the cross.

Read the words of Christ and find the confidence there to believe in His name alone.

"I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine.

And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them...

Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word" -- John 17:9-10,20


5,719 posted on 06/14/2008 12:19:45 PM PDT by Dr. Eckleburg ("I don't think they want my respect; I think they want my submission." - Flemming Rose)
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