Posted on 04/12/2021 8:16:16 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
There are good to great churches out there, if you wish to find them. It's a choice. Some find it easier to make faux intellectual arguments against doing the hard work.
Amen. I couldn’t agree more!
Agreed. God has placed His seal on us, and put His Spirit in our hearts as a pledge of what is to come. Because God has set His seal upon us by the indwelling Holy Spirit, we have a new birth into His family.
It's only human to have times of weak faith or doubts, but God is faithful, He will not deny Himself. He perfects and matures our faith. The genuine believer may go through times of doubt but he/she will not remain there. The indwelling Holy Spirit will compel us to return to the Lord who loves us and who is always drawing us to Himself. He will not leave us or forsake us.
So true, I find that I am the the one who wandered off, not that the Lord has abandoned me.
Just as the prodigal son, he may be a far off, but he is still the son of the Father.
You cannot lose your salvation. There is lots of teaching in 1 John about how you may KNOW that you are a believer. That being said, one of the evidence of salvation is perseverance. People who walk away from the faith were never truly saved.
Thank you for your response.
Willful sin is huge topic, in the number of situations in which a Christian could willfully choose to go ahead and sin, and in the evolution of a Christian from a babe in Christ to one who is mature. As one matures, more willful sins become obvious and are discarded into the ditch beside the strait and narrow.
I would expect a much different behavior from a mature Christian than from a recently baptized Christian. And, I imagine the Lord is patient with those who are walking the strait and narrow. The Lord was certainly patient with me. He is merciful, after all.
When I first understood this passage about willful sin, it blew me away. Stomping on the body of the Lord, dishonoring His blood, despising the Holy Spirit. Who can read that and continue to be wishy-washy? This is serious stuff!
I am dismayed by some comments on this site. Broad generalizations, very few quotations from scripture, even some ad hominem, and then, often, scriptures completely taken out of context. I tend to quote scripture, but for brevity, some aspects are still not clear and appear to be out of context.
Your quotation includes, “If we are in the light...” This is a conditional statement that prompts me, as I read it, to ask, “Am I in the light?” Not, “Do I think I am in the Light?” But, “Really, Really, Really, Am I in the Light?”
My hope is that my comments on this site will cause a “Prodigal Son moment,” in readers, where the Prodigal *came to himself* and changed into a different person. I converted from a large denomination to a Christian denomination, one that I decided was the church that the Lord built on the rock. “For a lack of knowledge, my people are lost.” Once I had come to myself and learned a little scripture, I knew that my denomination was *not* consistent with scripture. And, I decided that my denomination was preaching a gospel so different from the one the apostles preached, that if I wished to be saved, I *had* to move from that denomination. I had to find the church that the Lord built on the rock. I would wish that for all who read this blog.
This is already long, but let me try to abbreviate my view of denominations. Def: Denominations are divisions based on names. Example: Luther. Every denomination has a founder, a *human* founder, except one, the Lord’s church built on the rock. In Corinthians, Paul reacts to four denominations that formed in Corinth. They are named: Paul, Apollos, Peter, Christ. Paul says, “Did Paul die for your sins?” Immediately, three of those denominations are obviously unable to save our souls. In today’s world, we have to search for the Lord’s church.
Matthew 25 teaches three parables. They have these things in common: They pertain to only Christians; They teach about judgment; They teach about Christian works. The Christians are always in two sets of two groups: By implication – both groups are Christian because they both do good works, etc., and both groups are different by judgment, sheep and goats, etc. In each group some Christians are condemned; in one parable they are called wicked and lazy. These parables are about US.
Such a huge topic — such an important topic. Your response was an appropriate response and you even cited scripture. A guy like me can learn a lot when good people teach from the scriptures. Perhaps, we can continue a dialog... I’m kind of a newby, not sure how to do that.
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