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Rejecting Christ
GracetoYou.org ^ | 1993 | John MacArthur, Grace Community Church

Posted on 07/13/2020 7:27:43 PM PDT by metmom

"For those who disbelieve, 'the stone which the builders rejected, this became the very corner stone,' and, 'a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense'; for they stumble because they are disobedient to the word, and to this doom they were also appointed" (1 Pet. 2:7-8).

Rejecting Christ leads to spiritual damnation.

Israel was a unique nation, chosen by God to be the guardian of His Word and proclaimer of His kingdom. The Old Testament records His miraculous and providential care for her throughout the centuries, and the prophets told of One who would come as her great Deliverer. Israel eagerly awaited the promised Messiah.

But the story has a surprise ending. In the Person of Jesus Christ, the Messiah finally came and presented Himself to Israel. The religious leaders examined Him carefully, measuring Him in every way they could. But He didn't fit their blueprint. They expected a reigning political Messiah who would instantly deliver them from Roman oppression. They felt no need for a spiritual deliverer, so they rejected Him and tossed Him aside like a worthless rock.

That rejected cornerstone is precious to believers but remains a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense to unbelievers. A "stone of stumbling" was a stone on which someone tripped while walking along the road. A "rock of offense" was a rock large enough to crush a person. The point: rejecting Christ brings spiritual devastation of enormous proportions.

All who reject Christ do so because they are disobedient to the Word. Rebellion against the written Word inevitably leads to rejection of the living Word. Of such people Peter said, "To this doom they were also appointed" (v. 8). They weren't appointed to reject Christ, but to receive the judgment that their rejection demands. That's a frightening reality that should motivate you to take every opportunity to evangelize the lost.

Suggestions for Prayer

If you have family or friends who are rejecting Christ, pray for them often, asking God to grant them saving faith.

For Further Study

Read Romans 9:30-10:17, noting Israel's false standard of righteousness and Paul's prayer for her salvation.


TOPICS: Evangelical Christian; General Discusssion; Theology; Worship
KEYWORDS: gty
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To: MHGinTN

You just proved that you impute your own meaning to the inspired words of God.

“Work out your own salvation” Paul tells those that obeyed the the humble and obedient even death on the cross, Jesus, should make continued efforts at living the Gospel and pursuing your heavenly reward. The statement assumes that while our initial salvation has nothing to do with works, our final salvation depends on a lifetime of keeping the faith following the commandments, preserving in good works, striving for holiness, praying in earnest and fighting against the forces of evil and the selfish demands of the flesh, which drag us down. This obligation is so serious that we pursue it with fear and trembling.

Apparently, this wasn’t addressed to you as you mistakenly feel that the initial salvation of acceptance of God is all that you need. So you seem to change the meaning of the Lord’s Truth to fit your wants.


81 posted on 07/17/2020 5:07:57 AM PDT by ADSUM
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To: Mark17

Same here.

When I started going back to church after getting saved, I went to the local Catholic church that we had gone to for years as kids.

And as I started reading Scripture I saw more and more disparity between what it taught and Catholicism.

Tried a different Evangelical church and the difference was like night and day. Went back and forth a few months finally made the decision to cut ties with Catholicism forever.

Never looked back and never regretted it, not for a moment.


82 posted on 07/17/2020 6:29:12 AM PDT by metmom ( ...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith...)
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To: ADSUM; MHGinTN

Work *OUT* does not mean *work FOR*.

IOW, live it out and learn to be more Christlike in the process. Let it bear fruit in your life.

That is not working FOR your salvation, as if when you don’t do it, you go to hell.

God does not do on again, off again salvation.

Only cults teach that to control their members behavior and financial giving.


83 posted on 07/17/2020 6:31:37 AM PDT by metmom ( ...fixing our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith...)
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To: metmom

Rejecting Christ: The only “unpardonable sin”.


84 posted on 07/17/2020 6:36:06 AM PDT by MayflowerMadam
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To: Mark17

Your loss> My humble opinion is that you have turned your back to Jesus and His Church and now follow man made doctrine that is contrary to God’s Truth.

I do wish you well.


85 posted on 07/17/2020 6:45:44 AM PDT by ADSUM
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To: metmom
Never looked back and never regretted it, not for a moment.

I never looked back either. I was a bit angry, that I had been deceived by the church. Oh well. My family was not happy with me leaving the Catholic Church, but after while, they knew my life was changed, and they had to admit I was a different person. When I was in Vietnam, I got a few letters from my dad, asking me to come back to the Catholic Church, but I didn’t do it. I was gone forever. 😁🤪🤣

86 posted on 07/17/2020 7:09:33 AM PDT by Mark17 (Father of a US Air Force commissioned officer, and trained Air Force combat pilot. USAF RULES)
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To: ADSUM
I do wish you well.

Thanks. I made my peace with God. I hope you do too.

87 posted on 07/17/2020 7:11:37 AM PDT by Mark17 (Father of a US Air Force commissioned officer, and trained Air Force combat pilot. USAF RULES)
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To: metmom

Work. means “activity in which one exerts strength or faculties to do or perform something” “sustained physical or mental effort to overcome obstacles and achieve objective or result”

Your comment: “That is not working FOR your salvation, as if when you don’t do it, you go to hell.”

Yes. If you reject Jesus or His Truth or His Church, or work (love God and neighbor and avoid sin) for your salvation, one may go to hell.

“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I go to the Father>” (John 14:12) “Truly, I say to you ... but whoever blasphemies against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of eternal sin”


88 posted on 07/17/2020 7:51:23 AM PDT by ADSUM
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To: ADSUM
My humble opinion is that you have turned your back to Jesus and His Church and now follow man made doctrine that is contrary to God’s Truth.

I can't spea for anyone else here ADSUM, but I turned toward Christ for salvation, and in following Him, realized His Church isn't the Roman Catholic Church.

In regards to "man-made doctrine" I could list dozens of things made up out of whole pagan cloth that make up the fabric of Roman Catholicism - never found in His Word.

89 posted on 07/17/2020 9:48:31 AM PDT by aMorePerfectUnion (I'd rather be anecdotally alive than scientifically dead...)
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To: ADSUM
You remain clueless, asserting that GOD makes HIS GRACE contingent. You pridefully seek to add your works to what is the most Loving event in all of Univere History, the substitutionary death GOD has Graced humankind with, to spiritually elevate humans to a greater level of LIFE, the LIFE of God abiding in the human spirit.

Just continue to blaspheme that spiritual LIFE by insisting that your hocus pocus pedophile priests can serve the body, blood, and divinity of Jesus to you in a wheat wafer your dead soul priests transform/transmogrify/ transubstantiate so you can eat eternal life into you by way of your gut ... and you will plunge into Hell.

IF you survive the catastrophic results of The Body of Christ removed from this planet, don't take the mark even if your religion's apparitions command it. Just don't accept that mark, call out to Jesus.

90 posted on 07/17/2020 10:05:56 AM PDT by MHGinTN (A dispensation perspective is a powerful tool for discernment)
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To: ADSUM
The following short video explains your religion very well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ki3LZgkaDo0

Those reading your defense of your religion would do well to watch the short video.

91 posted on 07/17/2020 12:35:00 PM PDT by MHGinTN (A dispensation perspective is a powerful tool for discernment)
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To: ADSUM; Salvation; All
And here is a longer teaching which explains the 'evolution' of the Catholic Church religion (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rX7OUMewvbw)
92 posted on 07/17/2020 12:45:54 PM PDT by MHGinTN (A dispensation perspective is a powerful tool for discernment)
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To: Mark17

You will find this video particularly interesting because it explain Semiramis and Nimrod, and the Mother/Son hallmark to these ‘other religions’/


93 posted on 07/17/2020 12:56:36 PM PDT by MHGinTN (A dispensation perspective is a powerful tool for discernment)
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To: MHGinTN

Thanks bro.


94 posted on 07/17/2020 4:29:16 PM PDT by Mark17 (Father of a US Air Force commissioned officer, and trained Air Force combat pilot. USAF RULES)
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To: MHGinTN

I can see why you are confused and do not understand God’s Truth if you follow and believe this false preacher and sinner.

He is selling a poisoned bowl of lies that if you consume it and don’t repent will lead you directly to Satan.

I hope your faith in Christ will help you seek His Truth.

Jesus did not abandon His Catholic Church.


95 posted on 07/17/2020 4:58:45 PM PDT by ADSUM
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To: ADSUM

Muster up, dead soul, list the things you think are lies! You can only lie the more in denying the FACTS he shares about catholiciism. You are in a cult and too blinded by satan to see it. The Lord rebuke you in your pride, ADSUM.


96 posted on 07/17/2020 5:13:06 PM PDT by MHGinTN (A dispensation perspective is a powerful tool for discernment)
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To: ADSUM

The pedophile priesthood is evidence enough that your Catholic Church’ is not of The Lord Christ. Your ORG is anathema to The Gospel of Grace. You have no truth abiding in you so you haven’t a clue what is His Truth. Go confess to one of your pedophile servants of satan.


97 posted on 07/17/2020 5:17:28 PM PDT by MHGinTN (A dispensation perspective is a powerful tool for discernment)
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To: ADSUM
Grace directly assists us in living our moral life through the divine gift of justification, first bestowed on us in Baptism when we become members of the Church.

I'll bet Catholics who have no clue what the bible says think you actually know what you're talking about...No one gets justified by joining the Catholic Church...Or any church...We become the church when justification takes place...

Grace is a free and undeserved assistance God offers to us so that we may respond to his call to share in his divine life and attain eternal life.

That doesn't even make any sense...You're going to share in God's divine life up to you gaining eternal life...And if you as a Catholic don't reach that lofty goal of eternal life, you still shared in God's divine life???

Christ’s passion merited justification for us. We receive justification in Baptism and become friends of God. We can lose that friendship through sin and we can regain that friendship through repentance, faith and the Sacrament of Confession.

We born again Christians do not receive justification at the ceremony of water baptism...We get baptized AFTER we are justified...

It is very telling that you call Catholics 'friends' of God...We born again Christians are NOT friends of God...We are sons of God (God's adopted children) and brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ...And once the paperwork was signed, there's no way God can un-adopt his children...

Joh_1:12  But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:

Rom_8:14  For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.

Friends of God are not the Bride of Christ...Friends will show up at the Wedding but they will not participate with the Bride and Groom...I don't know how you or anyone could get that so wrong...

Joh 3:28  Ye yourselves bear me witness, that I said, I am not the Christ, but that I am sent before him.

Joh_3:29  He that hath the bride is the bridegroom: but the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom's voice: this my joy therefore is fulfilled.

Here, John the Baptist admits that he is not the bride (the church) of the bridegroom BUT he is the friend of the bridegroom...Biblically speaking, there are no 'friends' during the church age...However, they will show up again in the future...

God told us “ be Holy because I am Holy” “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink my blood, you have no life in you”

We are to take that literally...But spiritually, no physically...Just as we are told to eat his book...

Jesus said to the Apostles, “Whoever listens to you listens to me”. We need to listen to the Church in matters of faith and morals as Christ authorized in the Bible.

The apostles were not Catholic priests...They were not Jewish Catholics...

Scripture teaches that one’s final salvation depends on the state of the soul at death. As Jesus himself tells us, “He who endures to the end will be saved” (Matt. 24:13; cf. 25:31–46).

No it doesn't...You can't create a doctrine out of 9 words in the bible...That verse is future prophecy and references the period of the wrath of God upon the earth, the Great Tribulation...If they can endure to the end of the Tribulation they will be saved...

I don’t believe that just because someone says they are born again in an altar call if they reject God’s Truth, His Church and the Sacraments he provided for our salvation will go to Heaven. Christ warned the path is rocky and the gate narrow.

Most born again Christians do not get born again at an altar call...We get born again while driving down the road, while playing golf, while sitting in front of the tv and every where you can imagine...It's clear you don't know what being born again is; or how or why it is accomplished...
Until one becomes born again, the bible will be a complete mystery to that person...They'll see a verse that mentions 'friend' of God and say, 'Oh, that's me, that's me'...Or they'll see a verse that say, 'eat Jesus'...And they'll start hunting for a fork...And they'll have to reject most of the bible because it makes no sense to them such as the Millennial reign of Jesus on earth...Or the rapture...

If regular Catholics will look around and talk to those people who quit the Catholic church and became born again Christians, they'll see those people are no longer in the dark concerning the scriptures...The bible is no longer a mystery...

98 posted on 07/17/2020 11:17:25 PM PDT by Iscool
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To: Iscool
Most born again Christians do not get born again at an altar call...

I was born again several years, before I even knew what an altar call was. 😁🤪🤣 I didn’t even become a church member, till about two years after I got saved. 👍 Now, I can avoid this. 🔥

99 posted on 07/17/2020 11:42:27 PM PDT by Mark17 (Father of a US Air Force commissioned officer, and trained Air Force combat pilot. USAF RULES)
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To: ADSUM; Mark17
Your loss> My humble opinion is that you have turned your back to Jesus and His Church and now follow man made doctrine that is contrary to God’s Truth.

You can clearly see by his continuous testimony that Mark has not turned his back on Jesus...

Call no man father
Must be the husband of one wife
No food is to be avoided, even on Friday
Watch out for those religious looking people who wear long robes

We can all see which religion has created man made doctrines that are contrary to God's Truth, and it is YOUR religion...

100 posted on 07/17/2020 11:43:30 PM PDT by Iscool
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