Posted on 04/02/2015 11:56:13 AM PDT by Jan_Sobieski
What is truth worth? To most, very little...John 18:38
I only saw him for a short few minutes once on TV. He didn’t sound to Biblically solid to me so never paid attention to him again.
What is truth worth? To most, very little - John 18:38
“There is none righteous,no not one” - Romans 3:10
“I tell the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen according to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom pertain the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises; of whom are the fathers and from whom, according to the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, the eternally blessed God. Amen.
But it is not that the word of God has taken no effect. For they are not all Israel who are of Israel, nor are they all children because they are the seed of Abraham; but, In Isaac your seed shall be called. That is, those who are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted as the seed. For this is the word of promise: At this time I will come and Sarah shall have a son.
And not only this, but when Rebecca also had conceived by one man, even by our father Isaac (for the children not yet being born, nor having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works but of Him who calls), it was said to her, The older shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated.
What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not! For He says to Moses, I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion. So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy. For the Scripture says to the Pharaoh, For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth. Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens.
You will say to me then, Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will? But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, Why have you made me like this? Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?
What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory, even us whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?
As He says also in Hosea:
I will call them My people, who were not My people,
And her beloved, who was not beloved.
And it shall come to pass in the place where it was said to them,
You are not My people,
There they shall be called sons of the living God.
Isaiah also cries out concerning Israel:
Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea,
The remnant will be saved.
For He will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness,
Because the Lord will make a short work upon the earth.
And as Isaiah said before:
Unless the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed,
We would have become like Sodom,
And we would have been made like Gomorrah.
What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness of faith; but Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law of righteousness. Why? Because they did not seek it by faith, but as it were, by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling stone. As it is written:
Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense,
And whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.
I will take God’s word over mans opinion. It may not be palletable to you but I suggest you consider how palletable sin is to a thrice Holy God.
That’s what I thought too.
I think she was referring to CS Lewis. It is not accurate though. CS Lewis never converted to the Catholic Faith.
Although I agree that his teachings are heretical, he also played a part in the beginning of my journey to the Catholic Faith.
Not all Christians believe in absolute predestination (for lack of a better term).
I know that those who do adhere to it can hold the position that the alternative is works based salvation, but I am not sure about that.
My point is there is no ONE on this board that knows if he’s in heaven or hell.
And apparently you looked to IT for guidance and teaching.
Well...
Crystal Cathedral
I can see how that misunderstanding could come about...
https://www.google.com/search?q=mormon+temples&rls=com.microsoft:en-US:IE-Address&rlz=1I7ADRA_enUS475&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=K84dVZrgA4f8oAT-s4CAAw&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAQ&biw=1366&bih=593
No misunderstanding.
The WCF is true to it’s Calvinist beliefs, namely
God, in his sovereign will, has decided to predestine some to salvation and to predestine others to hell.
Neither the elect nor the damned can change what God has predestinated for them.
Do you know who the elect are? Neither do I. No one this side of Heaven knows that, that is why we share the Gospel with all.
Do you believe God forces man to act against his nature? I do not. However, God can change a man’s nature (”born again”), replacing the heart of stone with a heart of flesh.
So we preach the word in season and out of season. Those that repent have come to God because God has transformed them.
While I and others like me believe in the doctrine of predestination, we do not believe it is a passive doctrine. We believe that the elect are chosen for good works as part of God’s sovereign plan. And these works include spreading the Gospel and calling men and women to repentance.
Finally, this doctrine gives me comfort as a believer. I know that my destiny has been chosen by God. For the non-believer, I know that they are given what they have chosen by their nature.
I myself think it's not an either-or thing, as if one could ask, "Which is more important, inhaling or exhaling?" or "which blade of the scissors is most essential?"
How is one saved? One is saved by Christ by being "in Christ," by being incorporated into Christ. Even to the extent that we can say, "I live: yet not 'I', but Christ lives in me."
And we are incorporated into Christ more and more, by all these things: faith-hope-love, being pure in spirit, being meek, being pure of heart and a peacemaker, being baptized, practicing the works of mercy (Matt. 25), by prayer, by the sacraments, by grace, by perseverance to the end, by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, by being merciful, by loving our neighbors and our enemies, by hungering and thirsting for justice, by eating Christ's Body and drinking His Blood, by offering ourselves to God, by forgiving, by praying always, by being joined together with all the other members of the Body of Christ, by being with Christ in His passion, death, and resurrection.
Have a good and holy Easter/Pascha weekend, metmom.
I don’t see that one can be more in Christ than in Christ.
I certainly see becoming more conformed to the image and likeness of Christ, having the mind of Christ as Scripture states, but I see it as once you’re saved, you’re saved.
The rest is just maturity (call it sanctification if you will) in Christ.
Have a great Easter weekend yourself.
A well-known, successful preacher dies and the “great” Christians look at it as cause to celebrate and trash him some more, dancing on his grave. This kind of thing gives people a very bad image of Christians.
What you have posted is the particular view of one specific writer. It is nothing more than man’s opinion. Pure and simple.
And yet you would argue that that which is created in the image and likeness of that same God is somehow evil by nature. This is not logical. it does not make sense. It is self-contradictory.
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