Results 541 - 560 of 562
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Results from: Notes Author: Rowdy Ordered by Verse |
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Results | Verse | Author | ID# | |||
541 | Answering Baptismal Regenerationalist | 1 Pet 3:21 | Rowdy | 113679 | ||
I'm sorry but I must differ with you on this subject. We are certainly not saved by faith alone. James makes this very clear in Chapter 2. One must read the whole Bible, "rightly dividing God's Word." Tell me...based on your statement, "by faith alone that we are saved," you seem to leave out other important steps of salvation such as repentance and confession. Are you actually trying to say that or did you leave them out by oversight? Anyway, I'd have to disagree with you regardless of your answer. We MUST see ourselves as in need of obeying ALL of God's commands so as to qualify for the Holy Spirit's gift of salvation. I keep on saying these kind of statements but no one can show me in God's Word where a person is actually saved or is actually pronounced a christian after showing his faith only. I've issued this challenge once before and would like to reiterate it to you: Can you cite a single verse in the Bible where it specifically says the words "faith only" or where a person is described saved or is pronounced a christian after showing his "faith only" without baptism or any other act of obedience to God? I've mentioned this comparison before. When does a couple get to enjoy the full legal status of marriage? AFTER the ceremony is performed or the documents are signed and processed by the court appointed official of the respective state in which the marriage takes place. As we all know, there is some small variances from state to state. My point is: the legal recognition of that marriage is very important in a court of law. If one partner of that couple dies before that legal point of marriage is consemated, there is no marriage, no transferance of property, no other benefits derived from the marriage attempted. In our world of sinful short sightedness, we recognize the importance of such relationships and the point of time of that legal recognition. Don't you think it's going to matter to the God of our universe when we "put on Christ?" When we recognize the tremendous cost and give up total control of our lives to our God, all people agree this is a major watershed in one's life. Every christian I know remembers vividly when and where they were baptized. They remember the circumstances or at least most of them. It's the point in your life when you know you've obeyed every one of God's commands and can approach God both in prayer and on Judgment Day with every confidence that you've complied with His Son's whole Last Will and Testament. Before that point, everything is academic and worthy of discussion. When someone hesitates or puts a significant amount of time before being baptized, they are taking a chance they might not live another minute or maybe even face the Lord's second coming. Now, you're going to say "What about the thief on the cross?" or "What about the person that dies of a heart attack just before being baptized?" Those kind of questions are basically left up for God. We can speculate and we can discuss those issues as long as you like but the bottom line is, we don't have an authoritative answer. This I know, we must obey God to be found pleasing in His sight. I'm still interested in your response, especially to the challenge. I pray God blesses you in your study. |
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542 | Rowdy, what did the Spirit do in the OT? | 1 Pet 3:21 | Rowdy | 113844 | ||
I'm not aware of any specific scriptures that depict the Holy Spirit acting separately from the Godhead in the OT but I'd be interested in that to which you are referring. God bless. | ||||||
543 | When were Cornelius and comapny saved? | 1 Pet 3:21 | Rowdy | 118100 | ||
Matt 28:19 "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Any serious Bible student recognizes the NT sub-divides into 2 different basic categories. The conversion of all unbelievers into christians and then their continued growth and maturity in a spiritual relationship with our Lord. A person could compare this to the process of gaining an education during the childhood phase of each human being, on through high school and/or college, and then move on to the next major phase of life, employment and a continued life of learning. The most important thing to our God is to get us in His family headed to His home in Heaven. He wants all to keep studying His Word, keep growing in faith and maturity in His love and the ways we show His love to our fellow man, just as His Son said upon His farewell to His beloved disciples. God bless. --Rowdy |
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544 | What do you do with Acts 8:16? | 1 Pet 3:21 | Rowdy | 118646 | ||
First of all, I must apologize for not responding earlier so as to prevent your withdrawal. As long as a person is quoting and asking a question from the Bible directly to me, I'm ALWAYS willing to at least discuss it, especially if the verse is from the NT. Inserted for reference: Acts 8:14 Now when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent them Peter and John, 15 who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit. 16 For He had not yet fallen upon any of them; they had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 17 Then they began laying their hands on them, and they were receiving the Holy Spirit. You emphasize verse 16 and I'm inferring you are emphasizing the word "simply." From that assumption, I can only conclude you might be thinking this means that being "baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus" does not mean that these folks were saved. Maybe in today's world without the miraculous measure of the Holy Spirit evident all everyone christians went in the first century this use of the word simply might mean such a thing. BUT I think there was so much emphasis and attraction to miracles and the ability to perform them (just as we see in the verses following 17) that some christiains felt "left out" and not fully in receipt of God's portion of christianity He was pouring out on the whole world AT THAT TIME. This is the main reason so much of Paul's writing to the Corinthians was devoted to the miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit. Most christians ended up misusing them or at the very least misunderstanding their main purpose, thus their ending is forecasted in 1 Cor 13. If a person analyzes the logic in this thread with emphasis on the statement as you've made, I'm afraid almost anyone would see the error in your conclusion. I see your point but it's merely just ONE WAY to interpret verse 16 and since the bulk of the NT clearly portrays baptism as prerequisite to salvation, I'll have to stick to the Bible's emphasis on all the 5 steps of salvation as cited earlier. IF I've drawn the wrong conclusion from your post, please correct me and I'll try again. Thanks and God bless. --Rowdy |
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545 | What do you do with Acts 8:16? | 1 Pet 3:21 | Rowdy | 118761 | ||
I thought of another illustration that might make this even more clear. Have you ever been through a special canvasing of a community with flyers with coupons to a local business? And then follow up that campaign with another one in a neighboring community but with a few minor differences, maybe an expiration date on each of the coupon sheets? Or some other differnce? Maybe one is better than the other, with larger discounts? That's the scenario I would paint for you to help you understand the first century world of christians. Now remember, we're dealing with first century christians who were just getting acquainted with God and Godliness as in the case of Corinth. So, in some cities, word of this miraculous measure of power from the Holy Spirit was being spread around the known world, originating in Jerusalem. As you can imagine the cities (congregations of christians) who didn't have these miraculous powers would want those powers and want them very badly, maybe even lust for these abilities. Now maybe you can imagine just how bad things were in the first century and no wonder that our Lord DOESN'T see fit to have this miraculous age to go on with human beings in control. Once again, our Lord wants us to graduate from this kind of simple and shallow spiritual depth in our walk with God. He wants us to grow and mature and get out of this kind of addiction for the physical world and learn to prefer His world of the spiritual, the infinite over the finite. I hope this analogy helps all those who might read this thread. God bless. --Rowdy |
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546 | Is it possible to sin in heaven? | 1 John 3:2 | Rowdy | 119252 | ||
I have to agree with Hank and BradK. When you make a broad statement like this which seems to go counter with the Bible, it's best to cite scripture in support. Maybe then, we can come to an agreement as to exactly what the Bible says on the matter. You may have noticed. Sometimes, some of my posts don't go down so well with the "establishment of the Forum." Sometimes, I'm able to support my statements with scriptures and ocassionally I have to admit they're opinions or conclusions on my part. God bless. --Rowdy |
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547 | What does baptism consist? | 1 John 5:6 | Rowdy | 113681 | ||
Don't you think this is one reason why the Devil tempted (successfully) King James into having the KJV Bible abused this way. King James didn't want to humble himself and submit to God's plan of salvation. Back in the 16th century, the Greek word, baptizo (sp?) had one single meaning: immersion. King James ordered his Bible scholars to "interpret" the word baptizo into something else and allow him some other way of getting into God's family of good, obedient christians. Either his way or they would lose their heads. This is fairly common knowledge in historical documents. So, their conclusion (solution) was to come up with the Anglicized word "baptize." Why? Indeed, why would so many people from the past, present and future discuss this tremendous controversy so much except at the temptation from the Devil? Do you think maybe, just maybe he thought "If I can't kill God's Son, if I can't kill His church, maybe I can deceive mankind into thinking they can change God's Plan of Salvation. They'll think they're in the family of God, listening to my only slightly perverted version of God's Word, just like I changed things just slightly with one word in the Garden of Eden." You may be thinking I'm placing far too much emphasis on this baptism business and I guess I'd have to agree with you EXCEPT this is what I see from God's Word. He placed tremendous emphasis throughout the OT on blood and set us (mankind) up to understand likewise in this dispensation. I'm not saying that we should rely on baptism as being a item of work on our part. I am saying that God wants us to see this as the point in which we contact His Son's blood in faith. We should see in accordance with Rom 6 that we put away the man of sin with Jesus' burial and rise up as a new creature with our sins forgiven then and afterwards by His Son's blood. You and most all the participants know the scriptures and know the phrase "remission of sins" is always associated with baptism and not with any other step of salvation. Tim, please understand, I'm not saying you are deceiving people or are in a team effort with the Devil. I am saying that Satan is an incredibly good liar and takes deception to an art form in excellence. What do you think? Please respond and God bless you. |
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548 | What does baptism consist? | 1 John 5:6 | Rowdy | 113741 | ||
I think you and Hank both might be interested in my recent post to Searcher and CDBJ; the number is 113740. It's sad most on the Forum won't see this thread but I'll settle for this. God bless you, my friend. | ||||||
549 | What does baptism consist? | 1 John 5:6 | Rowdy | 113805 | ||
I just looked up the following website and confirmed at least a few other people with a similar view of baptism as mine. http://www.riveroflifeworship.com/baptism.htm I must admit, I do think we're spending entirely too much time on such an elementary subject that seems so clear from the whole of God's Word. I emphasize we must take all of God's Word on all the many different subjects discussed on this Forum or any other Biblical discussions. But I still pray for God's blessings on you. |
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550 | A witness of the (w)Word? Yes. Both? | 1 John 5:6 | Rowdy | 122849 | ||
I can offer nothing but admiration for your perseverance. I'm sure most people considered John the Baptist and his cousin, Jesus both rather obsessive about their ministry. If all of us humans could only be so consumed. God bless us all, but I would ask the Lord for a special blessing on the wife of such a man as you describe. --Rowdy |
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551 | Rowdy, How were John/ Jesus obsessive? | 1 John 5:6 | Rowdy | 122904 | ||
Thanks for the correction. You're probably correct as usual. And I have to agree with your other recommendation. I guess I don't see obsession as a bad thing when we have God on our side endorsing such devotion. For instance, almost anybody in today's world would see Jesus' display of anger in His Father's temple as obsesssive but Bible students like those on the Forum know different. For me personally, I believe it's best if we as humans strive to strike a balance in our lives, study our Bibles, listen to our inner souls, listen to the wise counsel of others (especially those who we can see have been spiritually successful) and then make up our own minds. I say this is the best strategy for us to live our lives BECAUSE we don't have a miraculous level of participation in our lives by the Holy Spirit, at least not so easily evident as it was in the first century. Thanks again for your response. God bless. --Rowdy |
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552 | Can we agree? A case of agreement? | 1 John 5:8 | Rowdy | 119274 | ||
It seems to me that the most important thing that should be discussed when considering such topics is "What did the originating authors actually intend to say?" Hopefully, that kind of thinking is uppermost in all good, thorough and honest interpreters as they consider God's Word in rendering a new translation or updating one. As I said in my initial post, it still seems to me the Bible discusses two basic types of spirit: 1) His Spirit or 2) our spirit. That's because His priority is that He wants us to come Home to Him in Heaven instead of going home to the devil or hell which has been prepared for ALL those who refuse to believe AND obey His commands. Did you come up with another type of spirit? I don't see it in your response herewith. I await your reply, dear friend. Thanks for some interesting discussion and God bless. --Rowdy |
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553 | Can we agree? A case of agreement? | 1 John 5:8 | Rowdy | 119412 | ||
Ray: But if you would say that God does not have a spirit I would disagree with that. For Jesus gave up His spirit when He breathed His last. God also breathed into Adam's nostrils the breath [sic] of life. John 3:8 talks about the wind or the spirit from God. Rich: I must emphatically insist that God's Word does certainly state that His Spirit not only exists but He longs for our return, ALL mankind. He longs for this but He knows it won't happen for everyone. As a matter of fact, the Bible pictures only a remnant or a minority will make it to Heaven as cited in Matt 7:13. Ray: For Ezekiel 36:26,27 I don't know if the spirit occurances there should agree in case or not. Rich: I must admit, I don't know for certain. I see your puzzlement. A person could argue either Pro or Con. John 3:11, NASB, "Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and testify of what we have seen, and you do not accept our testimony." John 3:11, NKJ, "Most assuredly I say to you, We speak what we know and testify what We have seen, and you do not receive Our witness." Ray: I go with the NKJ for that verse. Can you see the possibility of the spirit and the Spirit as determining a plural of "Our witness"? Rich: I would have side with you on this choice. Here Jesus is speaking and is clearly referring to Himself and the Godhead in general. Ray: 1) Certainly the witness of our spirit is worthwhile but the the witness of God is greater. My witness as a man in agreement with the Scriptures, (I believe), is that the understanding should be-- that the authors intended to say-- "For there are three that bear witness, the spirit and the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement." 1 John 5:9, "If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater; for the witness of God is this, that He has borne witness concerning His Son." Ray: What is His witness? That Jesus is the Son of God. 1 John 5:6, "This is the One [sic] who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ; not with the water only, but with the water and with the blood." And the [One], the Spirit, is the truth. Rich: In this case, one must go with the context and decide in favor of the deity of the Spirit. The part I have difficulty in comprehending is the blood and water's interaction in this scenario. The only water of any value in the NT is that of the baptism. The only blood of any significance in the NT is that of Jesus Christ. So my question to you: Should the blood and water in this verse be capitalized, indicating their deity? I've got to summarize this whole discussion by asking or mentioning one thing. I say question as I'm not sure. (Please correct me, you Greek scholars, if you see fit to do so.) But if I recall correctly, the Greek language in the first century DID NOT provide for upper case or lower case of letters. I guess they didn't see a need to address this concept of deity in their written language upon discussing their many gods. Thus we as modern Bible students are left with the task of interpreting what the authors really intended. Again, almost with the risk of repeating myself to nausium, in my mind, the Bible presents two kinds of spirit: 1) God's Spirit of the Godhead 2) spirit of man which might. Also, you didn't address my other question: Do you see room in God's Word for yet a third kind of spirit? What would be your scripture in support thereof? God bless. --Rowdy |
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554 | Talking about the Church he left! | 3 John 1:9 | Rowdy | 111394 | ||
I can only say Amen to this advice. We all should follow Christ's advice concerning differences between members of God's family, Matt 18:15-17 and then when all else fails, warn him about God does to those who cause division, Rom 16:17-20. God bless those who study God's Word AND OBEY His Words. | ||||||
555 | End times? | Revelation | Rowdy | 109404 | ||
I have to say I agree with iriandani on this issue. The book of Revelation is a very complex book, filled with a tremendous amount of figurative language which is very, very difficult to interpret. Personally, I think the first 3 chapters are relatively straight forward and are good for our reference and most certainly applicable to us today. For example it could be aurgued that all congregations of the Lord's church world-wide could see themselves in one or more of those seven epistles written in the first three chapters and could apply the instructions to improve accordingly. However, about the only absolutely positive conclusion or message I can get from the balance of Revelation is the fact that our Lord and Savior will indeed triumph over evil in the final day or Judgement Day which I believe will be the final day for this whole universe. Yes, I guess I'm saying I don't believe there's any scriptures to support the concept of the rapture or Premillennialism. Christ's meeting us in the sky is just the simple prelude to meeting God at His Judgement. As for "looking over the shoulders," that's just another way of saying looking/studying a book of the Bible "through the eyes of the original addressee" and is a perfectly valid concept as was mentioned before. Yes, indeed the main message of love and salvation for all of mankind is the theme throughout the Bible. But the nitty gritty details such as specific instructions from Paul to Timothy for him to bring Paul's coat and to bring Mark is obviously intended only for the actual recipient. These kind of details make the Bible come alive for you and me for it is also the grand history book for mankind and human beings did write all the information therein while keeping in their mind very important messages from God. Remember, the Bible, God's Word is an absolutely unique, one-of-a-kind. There's just nothing like it...that's one of the characteristics that convinces me that It truly is inspired. Although we see tremendous depth and some complex issues especially from the pen of the Apostle Paul, we are assured that most God's Word is to be clearly understood by the great majority of His creation because our God desparately wants us to come back home to Him. So I take advantage of the philosophy and approach the Bible with the advice that's been taught to me: Each book of the Bible should be interpreted as straight-forward as possible unless the figurative language in a particular book is obviously there without its own interpretation. Then we should use the balance of the Bible as its own best commentary. But in no way does our God want us to build up a whole new slant or an innovative concept such as the two mentioned above without clear and straight-forward directives from Him or one of His official Representatives, such as the Apostles. I really must shut up now as I may have already angered some of you in reading this but it is my prayer that some of you will continue studying and praying about this subject. Like as been said before on this Forum, our God is a God of peace and love and I do want to promote that aspect of His message. But we as human beings need to realize that God doesn't expect us to dig up tremendous controversies from His Word. As is made very plain by His Plan of Salvation. His words of Salvation are so simple, even a small child can read them and figure out how to be a christian. He may not know the cost nor be ready to understand what real repentance is all about but he can understand God loves us and how to get back home. I still wish God's richest blessings on all who read this message. |
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556 | What would prompt these tears? | Rev 7:17 | Rowdy | 121338 | ||
Tim, Hank, Mammapbs and BradK and anyone else who believes in this philosophy of salavation through Grace only, without works or being fruitful in God's vineyard, please explain to me the following. 1) First of all, why bother to participate on the Forum? Why not just kick back and enjoy life? Take a vacation and count your blessings. Sure, go to worship when you can and it's convenient to you but no real sweat there either. You've been guaranteed your Home in Heaven, right? 2) Please expalin to me the reconciliation of the parable of Jesus with the story of the vine and His being the branch AND your NOT being fruitful in contrast to the scriptures. 3) Please explain to me how you plan to prove to Christ, to God or to anyone else including Judgment Day IF you're NOT fruitful as shown in John 15:8. 4) What was Christ talking about in Rev 2:10 by our being faithful? Wonder if one of you is NOT faithful sometime in the future, what then? How is this guarantee fulfilled then? 5) Finally, how do you plan to get around the fact that we'll all be judged by ALL of Words of Christ AND ALL of the Words of His official representatives, as written down in the NT? There are other questions but believe it or not, I'm trying to restrain myself. Please explain these answers to these questions as I've asked before with scriptures in support. I'd really appreciate it and God bless all of you. --Rowdy |
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557 | What would prompt these tears? | Rev 7:17 | Rowdy | 121363 | ||
I do sincerely appreciate your response. I do also regret we won't be seeing your ideas on those other points. It should be a good discussion, fruitful and productive for all good Bible students. IF you do happen to see some future opportunity to respond to any portion of this thread, please feel free. Looking forward to a long association with you on this wonderful Forum. By the way, I went to the very first post 001 and noticed the date and some of the names of the first few participants, some of whom are still with us. Can you tell me the story of the person who first started this wonderful ministry of the Forum? I consider myself blessed to have found it. I'd appreciate it. If you need to refer me to someone else, that will be fine. God bless. --Rowdy |
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558 | What would prompt these tears? | Rev 7:17 | Rowdy | 121365 | ||
I think I can say Amen to your statement. However, instead of the word "theology," I would prefer to just call it "being a christian." The "ology" words, most all the Greek words which end in "y" make it sound as if we're depending on man's wisdom. I know, I know you didn't mean to say that. It's just one of my hangups. But good response and God bless. --Rowdy |
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559 | Rowdy, where is your Scriptural support? | Rev 7:17 | Rowdy | 121367 | ||
Tim, I do hope you're not trying to say that because these don't say exactly say what you want it to say, that this basic guidance doesn't apply to the whole world. Why else was the Bible written? Yes, my friend that's exactly what God is looking for a response from the whole world to His Word. He even addresses those that DON'T actually have an opportunity to read a Bible, for they will be judged without it. They'll be judged like the hundreds of people (possibly thousands) who will be judged without God's written Word but by what God installed in them at birth: their conscience. So, yes indeed the whole Bible does apply most emphatically to the whole world. Now of course, I should remind you that the NT out-ranks the OT in current authority as there are just a few things that are obselete in the OT, i.e. worship on the sabbath, the practice of easy divorce for men, sacrifice of animals for our sins, etc. I do hope you'll pray on this and reconsider your position. God bless. --Rowdy |
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560 | Rowdy, where is your Scriptural support? | Rev 7:17 | Rowdy | 121383 | ||
Hank, dear Hank, as patient and longsuffering as you think you are with me, please believe me I am trying to be even moreso with you. So you'll either just have to forgive me or kick me off the Forum along with the others. I can only suppose you've notice how I've started imitating the style of your post with my name at the end of every one. It makes it so easy to look up one's own posts. I'm sure you knew this but just in case you or someone else might need to know... All you need to do is insert the key words (in this case: conscience, judge, Rowdy) into the Quick Search and up pops all my posts on the subject. You see my dear friend, I too grow weary of repeating over and over again the same scripture and see the points of my posts ignored again and again. BUT in an effort to be a team player, I just looked and wrote down the best post of mine on the subject, numbered 118862. In it I cite the prime scripture in support of my main point. I did notice that quite often you lodge an occasional post, making a statement like I have without scripture. So I guess we're all guilty of being just a little lazy. But I'll forgive you. God bless. --Rowdy PS: From my perspective I too have a job to do in trying to correct misconceptions of the Bible teaching/doctrine and I find that I must obey God rather than the dictates of men. I'm sure you remember that came from. Hint: Acts and Peter. |
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