I’m pointing to the facts Hall ignores, which is the root of “ignorance”.
“Did I not ask you already — on what basis does one make that claim?”
And I answered already:
When one ignores the Scripture that makes it clear that both Faith and Works are necessary, and continue to contend that only Faith matters, as Hall does, then he has illustrated his ignorance.
“Believe” means something beyond checking a square.
“I do not speak for him, but it is my guess the man would likely enough agree with that statement. So? And?”
The verses I quoted make clear that if your stated beliefs don’t show up in the way you live your life, then your claim of belief is void.
“How would you know about that?”
Scripture states it clearly:
James 2:14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? 15 If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,” and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? 17 So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.
James 2:24 You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. 25 Likewise, was not Rahab the prostitute also justified by works when she welcomed the messengers and sent them out by another road? 26 For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is also dead.
This isn’t about how Hall lived, it is about what he writes regarding his belief, that how he lives doesn’t matter as long as he has faith.
The Scripture I cited contradicts that belief.
Matt 7:21“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.”
Ephesians 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God— 9 not the result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.
1 Corinthians 9:27 but I punish my body and enslave it, so that after proclaiming to others I myself should not be disqualified.
2 Timothy 2:12 if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he will also deny us;
Philippians 2:12 Therefore, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed me, not only in my presence, but much more now in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; 13 for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
James 2:14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? 15 If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,” and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? 17 So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.
James 2:24 You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. 25 Likewise, was not Rahab the prostitute also justified by works when she welcomed the messengers and sent them out by another road? 26 For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is also dead.
I’m “prosecuting” beliefs, not unknown behavior.
Do you some personal knowledge about this writer that none other here appear to have? Did he confess to you about himself having committed some horrific sin? He must not be Christian, for having written about what in his own view constitutes being a Christian, and what in comparison does not?
The debate is about Hall’s conclusions regarding the teaching of Scripture.
Are you not doing very much that same thing, in regards to that one man, but doing so going by arguably less than he has, in his own criticisms of Catholicism (and of the Coptics)?
You seem hung up on the notion that I’m judging Hall’s behavior in life.
Scripture tells us that the behavior matters.
How does anyone find forgiveness among Roman Catholics? From so-called “priests” only, huh?
John 20:22-23
22 And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”
Being he likely has not availed himself of those hirelings’ tender mercies, then although some of those individuals who are ‘priests’ may forgive the man, it appears to me that you most certainly do not.
Instead, you have become the prosecutor condemning him on basis of your own assumptions about what he allegedly is “ignorant” of, and the way you assume he “lives his life”.
I “assume” nothing about how Hall lives, I only assert that Scripture tells us that it matters.
If that’s the way the Lord truly would have us all be, ….
Why do you say “if”?
Read the Scripture I’ve cited.
What information do you have pertaining to how the man lives his life? None, and that was the point.
I think we should be done here, but no. Then you say;
Oh, really, now?
Then, continuing further, you changed things around, bringing us more to where you were coming from in the first place, from your own assumptions accompanied by dull, lifeless interpretation of scripture ;
As far as I know, he did not say anything approaching "that it doesn't matter how he lives..." (which we could assume you meant -- how he conducts himself?) "...as long as he has faith". That is simply yourself having put words into his mouth (and attendant meanings) which he did not say, nor intend to convey.
To put words (and particular wordings) into anothers mouth which they did not say --- or to analysis what had been said in isolation from all else which some individual has said, then through a biased process of deduction (where the final verdict had been reached prior to actual examination of evidence, the reasoning created in effort to justify the final verdict) is a deceitful practice, though one I've long seen FRomans indulge themselves in.
You began by prosecuting "unknown behavior" as you put it, which you assumed from your own woeful misunderstanding of Protestant beliefs, and how those rationally function. It's obvious to me that you do not understand what others beliefs actually are.
I already have, long before you ever posted it the first time. The truth of the matter remains -- the Grace of our Lord, and even our salvation is not dependent upon our own works. Grace cannot be earned else it is no longer grace. Payment for our own sins, if we were to pay in full would have to result in our own deaths.
To acknowledge that does not equal that one automatically lives their life as if there were no moral laws which God would have us follow, yield to, and obey. To acknowledge that the very foundation of our own salvation is dependent not upon ourselves-- but upon the Lamb who was slain, in no wise is recommendation against ourselves being called upon to put our faith in Him and the gifts He freely offers ---to work for the greater benefit of His kingdom. I already told you that. How many times must this be explained?