Posted on 03/04/2020 7:44:23 AM PST by Gamecock
All cults and manmade religions are based in “works righteousness.” Their adherents believe they have to do something to earn their way to heaven—pray five times a day, lie on beds of nails, do good works, fast, repeat certain prayers, etc. They do this because they are ignorant of God’s standard of righteousness. This is why they need the Law of God to show them that the leap they are trying to make is infinitely wider than the Grand Canyon. However, before you take them through the Law, help them see that they are indeed trusting in “works” for salvation.
Let’s say there are a couple of cult members at my door. I warmly ask for their names, and then say, “I have a knife in my back. I am dying and have only three minutes to live. What do I need to do to enter heaven/paradise/the kingdom of God?” They look concerned. One says, “A lot.” I ask, “What do you mean ‘a lot’? I have only two minutes to live. Help me.” They will normally say they cannot help someone who has just a couple of minutes to live, because their salvation is based on gaining knowledge and doing “good works.” The fact that they must do things to be saved reveals that they are trusting in their “self-righteousness.”
When I then ask if they think they are “good” people, they almost always say they are, and that is the root cause of their deception. While they know they are sinners, they believe their sin is not so bad that they cannot earn their own way out of it and “merit” heaven. So they must be taken through the Law and made to understand that they are criminals in the sight of a holy Judge, and are guilty of countless crimes. They must be taken through the Law and made to understand that they are criminals in the sight of a holy Judge, and are guilty of countless crimes. They must understand that God is perfect and holy, that He considers lust to be adultery and hatred to be murder, and He will see to it that absolute justice is done. That means adulterers, murderers, liars, and thieves will be damned forever. Once they recognize that, they will understand that their “good” works are not good at all, but are in reality a detestable attempt to bribe the Judge of the universe. Hopefully they will trust in His mercy alone to save them.
That is how the thief on the cross was saved—through mercy alone. He didn’t go anywhere or do anything to save himself. He couldn’t, because he was nailed to the cross. He had no other avenue but to humbly turn to Jesus and say, “Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom” (Luke 23:42). In doing so, he acknowledged Jesus as Lord, and believed that He would rise from the dead (Rom. 10:9).
That is all that any who are involved in “works righteousness” religions need to do to be saved. They are condemned by the Law. They cannot go anywhere or do anything. All they can do is turn to Jesus and trust in Him alone for their salvation. We are saved by grace through faith, and that not of ourselves; “it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast” (Eph. 2:8,9). So plant that seed in the hearts of those who think they can be saved by their own works, then pray that God causes it to grow and produce fruit.
There is ONLY one name given whereby men may be saved from an eternity away from God, Jesus Christ the Righteous. Without His righteousness one is lost.
Dear QnQ,
I questioned the intention of stepping on another citizen’s 1stA rights via a determination of a citizen to go tell anoother ‘the story’. The act follows intention.
I do believe that we each are responsible for what we do and say, in this life.
And, for all the others that know how to cut and paste lines from a book, or suggest that I need some esoteric something added to my life, I graciously say ‘thank you, but no’.
Do you find pleasure in using your not so funny, and yet demeaning, miss-spelling.
A good example of Christian behavior by one who says he is amoung the saved.
Didn’t you teach that we (you) should ask if Jesus would do this (demeaning) act?
So, action is required. The grace by itself isn't sufficient in your theology.
Most folks on this thread are one breath or heartbeat away from finding out how “baloney” that final destination really is.
Pity isn’t even the word I’d use when I think about them.
I’m praying for you Terry L Smith.
Here’s a few more copy & pastes from The Book for you to ponder if you even care:
John 3:16-18
John 3:36
John 14:6
Acts 16:31
You can’t say I don’t care.
More like: relish
Allow me to violate your first amendment right not to hear the gospel.
The Roman Road
Rom. 3:10, “As it is written, ‘There is none righteous, not even one...
Rom. 3:23, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
Rom. 5:12, “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned.”
Rom. 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Rom. 5:8, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
Rom. 10:9-10, “if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved; for with the heart man believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.”
Rom. 10:13, “For whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved.”
Bookmark
Nice try, absolutely democratesque! How would you receive God’s Grace? Do you actually think God gives His Grace to even those who do not repent and confess the Lord Jesus? You appear to have named yourself wee!
Have you even tried to identify the source for the bitterness you are exhibiting?
You don't know what the grace of God is...
Have you not read where Jesus referred to the false religion teachers as vipers? Whited sepulchers with death inside? No, you probably are not aware of that reality. I will not try to soothe the ego of someone on their way to hell, practicing religion in a demonically inspired cult of lies. Have nice day, Mormon.
The Lord my God will hold me accountable if I do not warn you of your doom in following Joseph Smith.
I know what it isn't
Have you even tried to identify the source of your logical fallacies?
The Grace is God’s Grace. The responsibility is on you to acknowledge you are dead in trespasses and sin and in need of the righteousness of Christ. When/If you do that, God by His Grace will enliven your dead spirit and abide therein eternally, eventually even giving you a new body and behavior mechanism (soul) fit fir eternal living. You will exist eternally but it is up to you where.
Christianity, like all doomsday religions, is built on the threat of violence. "Accept our deity now, or he's going to torture you later".
BTW, Christ is not a religion. Religions are the inventions of men. Christ ianity is an offer by the Creator of the Universe for you to have the ultimate upgrade. You are a soirit in a soul in a body. As such you are a multidimensional being. BUT as a descendant from Adam, you have a dead spirit. The ultimate upgrade is when God puts His Spirit Life (which is eternal) into your dead spirit, bringing it alive and an abiding place for His Life (1 John 3:9). Your soul and spirit are software, but they have a hardware carrier which is not in the same spacetime coordinate system as your physical body. These carriers are interfaced with your body and are physically real, but in a coordinate system you cannot sense presently. when Jesus comes for all who have been born again, He will transform your hardware so it exists eternally (1John 3:2).
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