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To: annalex
>> well-formed belief resulting in good works (cf Matthew 25:31-46),<<

All those actions are the result of salvation not the cause of it. Besides there are many people who do not believe in Christ at all who feed the poor etc. The Catholic attitude of effort based salvation is totally contrary to scripture.

"Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life." (John 5:24)

Hebrews 10:10 By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. 11 And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: 12 But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; 13 From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. 14 For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified. 1 Corinthians 6:11 And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.

Hebrews 10:14 For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.

The means by which we are saved is an unwavering faith in Jesus.

John 6:38-40 Jesus said, “I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day”

Rom. 3:28-30, "For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law. 29 Or is God the God of Jews only? Is He not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, 30 since indeed God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith is one."

Rom. 4:5, "But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness,"

Rom. 5:1, "therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,"

3,868 posted on 01/01/2013 6:27:34 PM PST by CynicalBear
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To: CynicalBear
All those actions are the result of salvation not the cause of it

They are not a mechanical result, like heat causing sweat or wine causing cheerfulness. If you choose to do these works, your have authentic faith, and if you don't you don't (James 2:17-26). Your quotes, if they refer to faith at all refer to that kind of well-formed faith. John 5, for example, goes on to say

And they that have done good things, shall come forth unto the resurrection of life; but they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of judgment (John 5:29)

Jesus would not have said 5:24 (which you quote) and 5:29 (which you seem unaware of) in the same lesson if He meant truncated Protestant faith in the first quote.

Your other quotes speak of sanctification, -- which is precisely the process of growing in faith through choosing good works.

If you don't understand this you don't understand the scripture. Seeing that you keep posting them as if they prove your point indicates that you probably do not understand them.

3,906 posted on 01/02/2013 5:40:24 AM PST by annalex (fear them not)
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To: CynicalBear

Scottish Presbyterian (1795 – 1863) and Westminster commentator Robert Shaw states,

Good works are essentially prerequisite to an admission into heaven. Though they do not merit everlasting life, yet they are indispensably necessary in all who are “heirs of the grace of life.” Believers, “being made free from sin, have their fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.”-Rom. vi. 22 [from his commentary on the Westminster Confession of Faith, chapter 16, “of good works”]

See also http://www.peacebyjesus.net/reformation_faith_works.html

In addition, present day evangelical Calvinist Oxford theologian Alister McGrath points out,

“It can be shown that a distinction came to be drawn between the concepts of merit and congruity; while man cannot be said to merit justification by any of his actions, his preparation for justification could be said to make his subsequent justification ‘congruous’ or ‘appropriate.’”

Speaking of such preparation, the English Presbyterian clergyman John Flavel (1627–1691) stated, “The foolish child would pluck the apple while it is green; but when it is ripe it drops of its own accord and is more pleasant and wholesome” (The Mystery of Providence p. 139).

The famous Anglican preacher George Whitefield recounted, “I did then preach much upon original sin, repentance, the nature and necessity of conversion, in a close, examinatory and distinguished way; laboring in the meantime to sound the trumpet of God’s judgments, and alarm the secure by the terrors of the Lord, as well as to affect them by other topics of persuasion: which method was sealed by the Holy Spirit in the conviction and conversion of a considerable number of persons, at various times and in different places in that part of the county.” - George Whitefield by Arnold Dallimore, (Carlisle, Pennsylvania, Banner of Truth), Volume L 417.

And rather than the easy believism which Rome fosters (in which souls are usually considered to have been born again as infants thru proxy faith, and who promotes confidence in her power and their merit, which leads to liberal souls , who are treated as members in life and death, having a false hope of salvation), in Puritan faith there was often a tendency to make the way to the cross too narrow.

As described in an account of Purtians during the early American period,

“..the experience of true conversion is much more impressive than their disagreement over related issues.

They had, like most preachers of the Gospel, a certain difficulty in determining what we might call the ‘conversion level’, the level of difficulty above which the preacher may be said to be erecting barriers to the Gospel and below which he may be said to be encouraging men to enter too easily into a mere delusion of salvation. Contemporary critics, however, agree that the New England pastors set the level high.

Nathaniel Ward, who was step-son to Richard Rogers and a distinguished Puritan preacher himself, is recorded as responding to Thomas Hooker’s sermons on preparation for receiving Christ in conversion with, ‘Mr. Hooker, you make as good Christians before men are in Christ as ever they are after’, and wishing, ‘Would I were but as good a Christian now as you make men while they are preparing for Christ.’” http://www.the-highway.com/Early_American_Bauckham.html


3,918 posted on 01/02/2013 7:43:06 AM PST by daniel1212 (Come to the Lord Jesus as a contrite damned+destitute sinner, trust Him to save you, then live 4 Him)
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