Maybe you should read Leviticus..it is a beautiful book..it prefigures Christ.. you see Him in every chapter
So then you are sure you have done enough, kept the commandments well enough? You are sure you are saved?
>>I’m not a legalist. I’m working out my salvation with fear and trembling. Salvation is in the future, and whether I am among the elect is known to God alone.
It is blasphemy to run around proclaiming that you are already saved because the Last Judgment is yet to come, and you are telling God that you are entitled to salvation.
It’s not unlike the Occupy Wall Streeters who run around saying they are entitled to everything.
If you want to understand St. Paul, study Judaism. If you want to understand Christianity, study ancient Judaism.
One should always complete the text... you use the verse out of context and cherry pick the verse
Go back and read the context
It is blasphemy to run around proclaiming that you are already saved because the Last Judgment is yet to come, and you are telling God that you are entitled to salvation.
Our salvation is eternal..it starts on the day Christ saves us..
Jhn 3:15 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
My eternal life began in Aug 1976.. I am not telling God I am entitled to salvation... the only thing I am entailed to is hell ..(funny you use a word that signifies earned salvation)
To be saved by the grace and mercy of God means I am getting something I do not deserve and not getting what I do deserve..
Grace and mercy such beautiful words to the saved..
If you want to understand St. Paul, study Judaism. If you want to understand Christianity, study ancient Judaism.
That my friend is part of the problem with Catholicism..they remain in the OT where one was save by works.. ..so you have "vestments and candles and incense and a priest and a sacrifice..
Jhn 3:18 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.