Results 1 - 4 of 4
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Results from: Answered Bible Questions, Answers, Unanswered Bible Questions, Notes Ordered by Verse | ||||||
Results | Verse | Author | ID# | |||
1 | I wan to YEILD | 1 John 5:13 | John Reformed | 88873 | ||
Dear Tim, Now all I have to do is persuade you, that the Bible teaches...God has pre-ordained to occur all things which occur, and we will agree FAR more often :-) Take Isa 46:10 for example... Thanks, John |
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2 | I wan to YEILD | 1 John 5:13 | Emmaus | 88891 | ||
Dear John and Tim, Contest is important in the case of saving faith. Saving faith co-operates with grace. So for example, when God split the Red Sea, would he Israelites have been saved if they "believe in Yaweh" but did not cross over? Now, they could not have saved themselves unless God had split the Red Sea, nor could they have crossed over if God had not split the Red Sea. So God gets the glory for salavtion, but their faith is only saving faith if it co-operates with grace by crossing over. Of course I do not need to point out to scholars such as yourself the MT allusions to the relationship between the Red Sea crossing and baptism, and between baptism and the death and resurrection of Christ. The point is that Lightman was asking for practical advice and I think practical advice would be that he should respond to grace by cooperating with it in the ways we see expounded in the NT, not just telling him to "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household" without the rest of the context. That would be like moses telling the Israelites to "beleive in Yaweh" but don't worry about any "works" such as crossing over. In that situation a man who has that kind of faith is a man whose "faith without works is dead" to coin a phrase. Emmaus |
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3 | I wan to YEILD | 1 John 5:13 | John Reformed | 88903 | ||
Dear Em, It was my sense that our friend was burdened with works salvation already. however, I did point out many of the graces which accompany salvation. Do you remember when you pointed out my failure to actually read your post? Well, this is part of what I said to Lightman: "Reading the Bible, prayer, good works, love of Christ, faithful attendance at church, etc. will not save anyone! Yes, these are wonderful attributes and we should strive to accomplish all that the Lord has commanded, but, they are the EVIDENCE of our salvation and not a MEANS by which we may gain or keep it. It is not uncommon for us to confuse good works as being a means of salvation rather than the evidence of salvation. Rom 4:2 For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. Eph 2:10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. John |
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4 | I wan to YEILD | 1 John 5:13 | Emmaus | 88929 | ||
John, I did read the whole post and did not comment on the rest because I had no issue with it. I just felt that the the particular passage of Acts which you cited was not complete in its proper context with the following two verses. I see that particlar verse quoted out of context so many times in the baptismal wars that it always jumps out at me. I just feel that faith, hope and charity (works in Christ), which are the theological virtues are like the Trinity, inseparable and of one substance so to speak, and that it is also unwise to separate the hearing of the Gospel, belief and our response from one another when the full context does not do that. It is then that often faith is without works in christ and is dead. But you may very well be correct in your analysis of Ligtman's situation: that he may be focusing first on his works, rather than on God's work, upon which he should focus in hopeful assurance that God will bring completion the work He has begun in him. By the way, sometimes the means and the evidence are one and the same. The murder weapon can be the means and evidence of a murder. Christ's passion, death and reurreection was the means and the evidence of our salvation. That is why I do not have a problem with sacraments being means and evidence since Christ is at work in them. The same goes for works in Christ, since it is Christ working in us. Perhaps I was splitting hairs. Please accept my apology. Emmaus |
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