Of course he was talking about those who will always believe. True faith and receiving him as the only God and savior WILL mean he indwells us and we will NOT want to, nor, need to stop believing. Why would we, how could we? To speak about a "passing whim" is not the kind of faith I'm talking about nor is it the kind that saves us. True faith endures TO THE END.
He was talking about truly believing until the end, sure. But He also was talking about belief in the True God, not some sort of knockoff belief which attempts to supersede Christianity. Look at how the bishops in the NT treated those who did not believe as they were taught; novelties such as the Reformation were proscribed.
Reread the parable of the talents and you may re-evaluate this paragraph. Jesus will cast aside nobody. It is the ones who reject Him, who do not do as He commands, who believe that they can make it all up as they go along that lose their salvation. Does the parable of the wise and foolish virgins not make any sense?
If God inspired the writers of Holy Scripture to speak about the doctrine of eternal security of the believer, how or why would he then contradict himself by saying the opposite? Again, God knows if our faith is genuine and it is that faith that saves us through the grace of God. Rather than "interpret" parables with a preconceived idea of what they are saying, why not follow the correct method of interpretation and try to understand what exactly he was saying and why. Look at other Scriptures and judge it by them. The parables of the talents, the sower and the seed, the ten virgins all have a context and they would NOT destroy whatever Jesus said before. These parables have been discussed on this forum many times. But they do NOT contradict Jesus' own teachings.
God does not contradict Himself. It is the interpretation of man that is fallible. Remember who gets thrown into the fire made for the devil and all his servants?
An inheritance and a seal and an earnest is a promise by God to us. It is fickle man who chooses otherwise. Paul tells us of running the race and walking the Via of Christ. If you refuse to run the race and sit down beside the Via, you do not get to enter into the narrow gate. You do not get saved unless you do as Jesus commands, and that is not simply the verses that you choose to comply with and ugnire the rest.
I agree, God does make a promise, a guarantee, to us that requires something of us in order to put that promise into effect. That is faith. The "works" of God, Jesus said, are to believe in him. It's not a "fickle" man, but a foolish man who refuses the gift of God. Sadly, there will be more people who are foolish than those who are wise and believe God. The road is narrow and few there be that find it. Whereas the road to hell is wide and many there be that go along it blithely believing in false gods or relying on their own merit or chucking it all in favor of the go it themselves route thinking there is no such thing as God and no hell to worry about. Quite sad.
We have the mathematical operand "and" operating here. Faith is required. Absolutely. But when Jesus says one thing here (in context) and another thing elsewhere, He is not contradicting Himself. He is saying "and". The Beatitudes are an example. They do not contradict. They are part of the same message.
John writes in chapter 1:11-13, "He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God."
Notice the terminology: After they received Him!!! He gave them power!!!! To become the sons of God!!!!
This is not guarantee. This is the granting of the ability. The Via of Christ is a road, a journey.
There are too many verses of Scripture that prove repeatedly that to "get" saved you must believe, receive him and trust that what God has promised he WILL do. Running the race, walking the way of Christ, are all ways of talking about the life we live as new creations in the family of God. Some walk, some run, some rest awhile, but all those who are his own ARE living in Christ.
You must do that too.
Matthew 25: 31f “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit upon his glorious throne, 32g and all the nations* will be assembled before him. And he will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33He will place the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
34Then the king will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 35h For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, 36naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.’ 37Then the righteous* will answer him and say, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? 38When did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? 39When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit you?’ 40i And the king will say to them in reply, ‘Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.’
41* j Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42k For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, 43a stranger and you gave me no welcome, naked and you gave me no clothing, ill and in prison, and you did not care for me.’ 44* Then they will answer and say, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or ill or in prison, and not minister to your needs?’ 45He will answer them, ‘Amen, I say to you, what you did not do for one of these least ones, you did not do for me.’ 46l And these will go off to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”
Notice that the entire chapter 25 of Matthew concentrates on works? There is nothing about faith here, only faithfulness and works. Eternal hell is the reward for bad works.
But the judgment for our sins has been pronounced already and when god looks upon us, he sees the righteousness of Christ - we are clothed in HIS and not our own.
Negative. Our Judgement occurs after our death, not before.
We are acquitted of the penalty of death for our sin because Jesus made the payment with his own blood. I agree, though, that anyone who bypasses that kind of grace, is a fool and I thank God every day that he opened my eyes to the truth of the Gospel.
We thrown ourselves on His mercy, we do not pronounce it. We plead for our salvation, we not claim it. He Judges, we await His Judgement. Otherwise He is not Judge.
Knowing that this is not the first time we have had this discussion, all I can do is present the truth God has revealed in Scripture and pray that the Holy Spirit opens your eyes and heart to the truth. Take a good hard look at the other passage you posted. Those who Jesus said he NEVER knew and whom he saw as goats, they were NOT people who were unreligious. In fact, they pleaded with Jesus to recognize ALL the mighty works they did for him but he told them, "I never knew you.". Not, "I knew you for a little while but you did bad things, so you're not my friends anymore.", Not, "Sure did appreciate all those things you did but it wasn't enough, you should have done more.". No, he said he NEVER knew them. Why might that be?
When you post the other passage about the sheep and goats, you fail to make a few crucial observances. First, they were ALREADY sheep OR goats. This account was not to determine what kind they were but to pass judgment. Secondly, you failed to place this event in a certain time frame. It cannot be speaking of the Judgment Seat of Christ, which is for believers only. See Romans 14:10 and II Corinthians 5:10. Then there is the Great White Throne Judgment, where all those who come out of the great tribuation are judged, both believers and unbelievers and they are judged in the final judgment and everyone whose name is not found in the Book of Life is cast into the lake of fire which is called the Second Death. Those "sheep" were the ones who were believers and who helped the "brethren" through the persecution of the Anti-Christ during the Tribulation. But even if you don't accept that there IS a tribulation, it still doesn't show that this judgment was what MADE them sheep or goats. They ALREADY were one or the other.
But ask yourself why John would write in Revelation words that contradict what he wrote in the Gospel According to John as well as his epistles? That is where context really counts. Knowing that the Holy Spirit was who Divinely inspired the Scriptures. And the Bible IS the infallible Word of God, despite what you have been told by those who want to supercede Holy Scripture.
Eternal hell is NOT the reward for bad works. It is the condemnation due ALL who have not received the redemption that is in Christ. We all deserve hell because we have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Hell is eternal separation from God and I don't care how "good" someone is or how many "good" works they have done, it can never be enough to pay for even one sin - not even a lie. No one goes to heaven based on their good deeds and no one goes to hell because of their bad deeds. We ALL have bad deeds and without the blood of Christ to pay the penalty of sin, we would ALL be doomed. You say:
We throw ourselves on His mercy, we do not pronounce it. We plead for our salvation, we not claim it. He Judges, we await His Judgement. Otherwise He is not Judge.
That is all we can do is surrender to Him and trust in his mercy and grace and he HAS pronounced it already. He has pronounced salvation through Jesus Christ, the righteousness of Christ that he gives to us as a gift if we only receive it, believe him, trust him and rest on his promises. We don't await the judgment between heaven or hell if we are his own, he takes that out of the equation.
There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8:1)
Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. (John 5:24)
Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. (Rom. 5:18)
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. (John 3:16-18)