Posted on 04/12/2021 8:16:16 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
I would rather have a Paul Maxwell out of the church than a Ravi Zacharias in the church.
[[A loss of belief can be painful beyond measure. It is not necessarily the choosing of any sin, at least not any gratifying one, just loss of all assurance.]]
True, but someone struggling with faith doesn’t usually denounce God or the faith. They just declare that they are struggling with their faith and need help. Apostates however denounce God/Christ in a final act of leaving behind the faith once and for all. They rob God of His God’s hip by denouncing Him.
A person struggling becomes unsure, an apostate becomes ‘sure that God is not someone they want or that even exists
Doh that should be, ‘of His Godship’, not His ‘hips š
They are fools is a perfectly acceptable answer.
It’s quite reasonable to love God but utterly hate what Christianity has become. It’s the preachers who won’t condemn the Creflo Dollars and other phonies, ‘faith healers’ and prosperity pimps that are driving it.
You’re guilty of any behavior you don’t condemn in my opinion, ESPECIALLY as applied to religion, particularly Islam and Christianity.
For short term gain.
Read the parable of the Sower again.
Contemplate how Judas fell.
Study the early persecutions.
When faced with the choice of fame and wealth versus disdain and persecution, why be surprised some choose fame?
The Roman Catholics are going through a much worse schism than the SBC.
I pray for my separated cousins in the RCC who are in a situation where some many priests and bishops are antichrist.
In my situation, I can walk away when a pastor goes full off the rails. Most Catholics in bad dioceses do not have that option.
I suspect a lot of people, having grown up in a Christian culture, mistake Christianity with many worldly or religious rituals, but fail to have listened and understood the Gospel message spiritually.
Many confuse church lifestyles as good works, but independently of faith in what Christ provided on the Cross, the payment for ALL sin, and failure to believe in Him through faith in His work on the Cross, they simply fall back into sins of flesh and worldliness.
There is another sin, not studied much, but manifests itself frequently around those who perform human good works independent of faith in Christ. It is known as Approbation Lust. The pastor in the article might also have become aware of adversity coming to Christians, and like many Masons, sees nothing wrong in lying and denying Christ to escape adversity.
It most certainly is, in places. Of course, the original readers to whom the epistle was written understood the "code" -- it was intended to keep their Roman persecutors ignorant. However, we moderns don't necessarily have the original readers' fluency with that vocabulary, so the code is not always as plain to us.
Cf "disciplina arcani".
Note that the OP basically says he doesn't understand the passage. The original readers of the epistle understood it exactly.
Read the Greek fathers and get back to me.
Off-the-wall question. If I tell you something in a language you and I both understand, but our enemies do not, which of us is "lying"?
BTW, if the Scripture is so plain and easy to understand, why do Protestants spend so much time arguing over what it means?
Just as foretold. Paul said the Day of the Lord is preceded by a great apostacy, and Jesus asked the question, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith?
I have a guess about why these guys are dropping out.
And I suppose “Hebrews” is code for “Catholics.”
Eternal life wouldn’t be eternal if you could lose it.
[[I suspect a lot of people, having grown up in a Christian culture, mistake Christianity with many worldly or religious rituals, but fail to have listened and understood the Gospel message spiritually]]
Very true ‘having a form of religion, but denying the gospels’
“Statements like yours are overly broad.”
Unless you think my statement/experience applies to all churches then it is not. I never said it was all churches. But so far as I can tell it’s a whole boatload of them around Sacramento that fit this description.
Part of why I intend to move to Idaho. Next week my wife and I are going up there to find a new home.
He knows the end from the beginning so He canāt change His mind or take back something Heās given. Everything He says has to agree with everything else He says.
For example, if the Bible says itās God who makes us stand firm in Christ, that He anointed us, set His seal of ownership on us and put His Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee of whatās to come (2 Cor. 1:21-22), then it canāt say that we can walk away from our salvation or have it taken away from us someplace else.
The opinion pieces of the Greek āfathersā is NOT Scripture and is therefor irrelevant to correct doctrine.
Liberalism is liberalism is liberalism. There is nothing above progressive dogma. Look at the Pope. The only room for any major religion in the liberal church is to further liberal goals. How many times do idiot progressives say “my brother’s keeper” or “turn the other cheek” with no context just to bash Christians?
The Bible isnāt such a complex document that it requires years of formal education before you can begin to comprehend it. Iāve always believed the Bible was meant to be understood by any believer who can read and has a serious interest in knowing what it says. I say this because I believe the Bible is best approached by relying on the power of the Holy Spirit rather than oneās own intellect. James 1:5 says that any of us who lacks wisdom need only ask God who gives generously to all without finding fault.
Conversely, without the Spirit, we cannot accept the things that come from the Spirit of God regardless of our mental prowess. (1 Cor. 2:14) This is why we hear of people who tried to read the Bible as non-believers and found they couldnāt figure it out, but as soon as they were born again it began to make sense. They didnāt suddenly become more intelligent, they simply gained the supernatural insight of the Holy Spirit who teaches us all things. (John 14:26)
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