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To: MHGinTN
Will you receive it when shown to you in the Bible passages? The Gospel is 'Salvation comes through faithing in Christ'.

Of course. But the Bible (among other things, including common sense and logic) makes clear that "faithing" (usually rendered "believing") is LOADED with meaning; it's not simply an intellectual acceptance of a truth. (The demons have that, and they tremble--cf. James 2:19.) I listed several things which are "compressed" into that "pregnant" word, "believe"...

1) baptism saves us (1 Peter 3:21)
2) endurance saves us (Matthew 10:22 and 24:13)
3) calling on the Name of the Lord saves us (Romans 10:13)
4) believing and CONFESSING that Jesus is Lord saves us (Romans 10:9)
5) corporal works of mercy save us (Matthew 25)

...and the list goes on. All of these, and more, are "packed" into the little word "believe"; all of it is necessary, contingent on our ability and gifts.

There's also a lengthy list of things which will CONDEMN us, no matter whether we "believe" an intellectual proposition about Jesus, or not (e.g. we will be judged for what we did for the least of Christ's brethren [Matthew 25], and for the works we have done [at least 11 references in Revelation, alone], and for how we have loved [1 Corinthians 13], etc.).

I do not reject the idea that we are saved by faith. I reject (in unison with St. James) the ridiculous Protestant idea that one can be saved by "faith alone", and I reject the equally ridiculous, free-will-denying idea that a Christian cannot lose his/her salvation once it is attained. Only an utterly biased, reductionist, wish-fulfilling attitude toward the Scriptures could possibly yield such nonsense.
681 posted on 04/30/2015 2:08:28 PM PDT by paladinan (Rule #1: There is a God. Rule #2: It isn't you.)
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To: paladinan
"I reject the equally ridiculous, free-will-denying idea that a Christian cannot lose his/her salvation once it is attained." To respond I would have to know 'when' you believe Salvation is attained. Care to share? ... I will understand hesitating on that one, in the atmosphere now roiling about us. I would only offer that Salvation is not like a Yo-Yo, it is like unto a Rock, as the expression of Peter to the Lord, to which the Lord replied regarding that profession:

He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am?

And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.

And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

The Gates of Hell open which way? ... And how is Peter opening those gates if he is the rock? I would offer humbly that the profession of Whom is Christ, the Son of the Living God is the rock of Salvation against which the gates of Hell cannot resist the escape of even the long dead faithers, such as Abraham.

In the Nicean Creed we read that Jesus descended into Hades, and led capticity captive. If Catholics believe in Pergatory, then the gates of that place cannot prevail against the profession of Whom Christ Is when God reveals it to the human heart, for it is His absolute authority. No institution of man can muster that kind of authority, brother. [And here I reference obliquely the questionable addition of 'binding' authority which so conveniently the Catholic Church claims to wear but which does not appear in the oldest manuscripts, IMS). Perhaps that is why the Catholic Church wishes to claim divine establishment of the institution?

688 posted on 04/30/2015 2:30:31 PM PDT by MHGinTN (Is it really all relative, Mister Einstein?)
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