Results 1 - 8 of 8
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Results from: Answered Bible Questions, Answers, Unanswered Bible Questions, Notes Ordered by Verse | ||||||
Results | Verse | Author | ID# | |||
1 | Order of occurance | Bible general Archive 2 | Rowdy | 128036 | ||
I've been watching the growth of this thread and have been reading the posts with interest but I noticed there seems to be a couple of items missing. I realize I'm not going to be in agreement with a few of you but I would like to throw in my two cents' worth. I only want to put as much emphasis on this point as the Lord has done in His Word. In my mind, baptism is every bit as important a step in this Process of Salvation as any other. We see many examples of God's Gift of Salvation given to several different people throughout the NT but the best examples are in Acts, one of them being at the establishment of the church in Acts 2. First we see the "convicting the sinner" upon their hearing the Gospel Message, that Christ is the Son of God and that He died for our sins, being the Perfect Sacrifice and Ransom for our souls. Next we see their faith and repentance after they ask Peter what should they do. The next step also seems to be missing since we want to be thorough and "cover all the bases." That is confessing that Jesus is indeed the Son of God like Peter did in Matt 16:16 and Paul describes in Rom 10:9. Next in Acts 2:38, we see how important it is to be baptized for the remission of our sins. I would compare this act to that of Naaman in the story of his healing from leporsy, 2 Kings, Chapter 5. We see that Naaman didn't get what he was looking for until AFTER he dipped himself in the River Jordan a full seven times. Of course it didn't sense and he said as much. He had much cleaner rivers in his own country. And what about the business of being dipped seven times? What possible logic could be in such a silly requirement? Where's the power and majesty of God Almighty in that? Don't you see, that's God's point!! He showed off His power and majesty with the creation of this universe. Now, He wants us to show off our humility and total submission to His Will, His Terms and Conditions of His Son's Last Will and Testament. Now Regeneration is a different matter. That would come AFTER generation which is done by God. According to Titus 3, "washing, renewing and regeneration" is a process that God performs on us as His children. We see this process a little clearer in 1 Jn 1. You see we can't have any part in this process, this is all God's doing. That's NOT to say that we don't have our part...we do as cited in Phil 2:12. We must "work out our salvation with fear and trembling." What work must we perform? We must imitate Paul and all the other fine examplels we see in the NT as cited in 1 Cor 11:1. We shouldn't look at this as if we could earn our way to Heaven for Paul says Rom 8:12 Therefore, brethren, we are debtors--not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. 13For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. I do hope all of this is clear, but as always, I'm interested in your response. God bless. Rowdy |
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2 | Order of occurance | Bible general Archive 2 | New Creature | 128334 | ||
Hello Rowdy; The list I compiled was never intended to be an all- inclusive list of all the Biblical termonology. I could have added quite a few other things to this, such as justification, sanctification, and reconciliation, etc. But I purposely wanted to keep the list short so as not to make my question more complicated than would be necessary. God Bless you New Creature |
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3 | Order of occurance | Bible general Archive 2 | Rowdy | 128350 | ||
I appreciate your response but please understand God's Plan of Salvation is a process with a two-way street. Jesus lovingly invites us to become part of His family but we must comply with His Last Will and Testament as depicted throughout Romans and Hebrews. Yes, I agree with you, all those other words as mentioned in your post above are certainly valid BUT those are characteristics or actions that are performed by God on a continuous basis as described in 1 John 1. WHEREAS the steps to Salvation as I've outlined in my statement, Hear the Gospel, Believe in the Lord Jesus as the Son of God, Repent of your sins (turn one's life around), Confess the Name of Jesus as our Lord and Savior, Be Baptized for the remission of our sins; these are specific actions in the Bible that WE must do to accept God's Gift of Salvation just like it was done in the first century. As I mentioned before, I realize different people interpret God's Word differently so we're not ALL going to agree. But I just felt compelled to contribute to the total picture and make it as complete as the Bible portrays. God bless you in starting a good discussion. Rowdy |
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4 | Order of occurance | Bible general Archive 2 | New Creature | 128373 | ||
Rowdy Thanks for the reply Just as a final note, I also didn't include the Biblical term "reconciled' which like baptism is likewise a specific action commanded to individuals. 2 Cor. 5:20 Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. My sole purpose in my initial question was put forth to the community members to detect where those in this forum would list "regeneration" when listed with other events, or Bibical terms.The survey I conducted and am conducting was not intended to debate all the essentials of salvation. That is where my intent and interest was and is. Maybe you could propose a list of your own for the forum to categorically put in order as we each personally understand God's word. Bod Bless New Creature |
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5 | Order of occurance | Bible general Archive 2 | Rowdy | 128815 | ||
Sorry but that was one of my main points with my previous statement. At least as I understand God's Word, in order for us to be a New Creature in Christ, we must be born again in water and in Spirit as cited in John 3:5. We receive that Gift of being born again upon being immersed in baptism for the remission of our sins as cited in all the verses cited with my previous post. In God's eyes, we're either for Him or against Him. We're either born again into the family of God or we're still in our sins. God's Word is clear on this subject, again in my opinion. This is what real and genuine regeneration is all about. We must remember that God can only regenrate/transform us after He adds us to His Family. Thanks for your response. God bless. Rowdy |
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6 | Order of occurance | Bible general Archive 2 | New Creature | 128851 | ||
Rowdy. Thanks for the reply. I now better understand your position on regeneration. Let me ask you one more question. Since you believe that the event called "born again" occurs when the individual is immersed in baptism. Would it be correct to assume, therefore that you are pro-active in bringing about your new birth. In other words. Since you personally must decide to submit yourself to become baptized, then your act of submission makes you pro-active in the event, rather than passive. Would you agree? God Bless you New Creature |
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7 | Order of occurance | Bible general Archive 2 | Rowdy | 128897 | ||
It's difficult to say. I would have to say it's a little of both because you're coupling our act of being "born again" which is certainly passive and God's act of regeneration which is certainly active on His part. A person could compare this to the process of making a clay pot. God is the Potter. If we'll allow ourselves to be submitted completely to His Will, we realize our weak, feeble attempt at being a good person is comparable to a very poor, sorry looking clay pot, not even worthy of being put on a shelf. But God takes that sorry excuse of a clay pot and completely reduces it to a new lump of fresh new clay. He then proceeds to mold us over the entire balance of our lives into a fine clay pot, covering all of our inherent defects with His Son's blood. Thus we're put on the shelf of the world to show God's light in our lives and attract more clay pots to do similarly and submit themselves to God's Masterhood. So you can see, we have very, very little to do in this process thus we should see ourselves as being passive. However, God takes a very active role in this process as He molds us, guides us and helps us through the troublesome periods in our lives. He does this mostly through His Word but also with the Holy Spirit that lives within us as His children. One more point, we can draw from this illustration or analogy. Sometimes, when the devil lusts for our soul and we give in to his temptations, that could be compared to another blemish or a crack in our clay pot. We must see ourselves in need of repenting to God and ask for His forgiveness AND His aid in repairing that crack so as to ward off the devil's temptations. This is can also be seen as that refining process as described in Rev 3. Sometimes that refining process can be quite painful but it's well worth the end result. I hope this is clear to you. I'd be interested in your response. God bless. Rowdy |
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8 | Order of occurance | Bible general Archive 2 | New Creature | 128901 | ||
Rowdy; Thanks for the reply I will mark you down as passive on our part, but active on God's part New Creature |
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