Results 121 - 140 of 155
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Results | Verse | Author | ID# | |||
121 | old versus new testament | Rom 3:1 | bowler | 206579 | ||
Doc Excellent point there, really Excellent! Point well taken, thank you once again. I will be checking out those links. This has made me come up with a question, but I am going to take my time and try to phrase it in simple terms for all to discuss (I hope). blessings abound, bowler |
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122 | will most people go to hell? | Matt 7:14 | bowler | 206578 | ||
Immanuelsown I am a bit confused here. God does elect only some out of all whom He has given the offer to. There is the call - the few out of the many (Mathew 7:13, 14) who receive the offer get called. Calling is the result of election - election is God deciding who gets choosen, and calling is God sending the Holy Spirit out to convict the hearts of those whom God has elected. There is the general call to "all", the proclaimation of the gospel of Jesus Christ atoning death for sins. Then there is the "effectual call" which is given only to the "elect" to persuade them to accept the offer by means of the Holy Spirit working. According to Jesus in both the verse about "narrow is the way" and "many are called, but few are chosen" both are true and are therefore not in disparity to one another. It is not that in the 2 Peter 3:9 and 1 Timothy 2:4 verses that because God doesn't want people to perish they won't, it is that God has done something we cannot comprehend - has both said that He "wills" for all to be saved (that is what the Greek word really is in the Peter passage, and not "wish"), and that of the many only few are called. God cannot be in conflict with Himself, but this is one of those instances in which it is impossible for us to understand how both things, which from this side of finiteness, seem to be opposing, are to God not opposite, but facets of His will. God says in several places in the Bible that He has sorrow over the lost and is not happy about their destrction. But that hits on a different aspect of Him - He is Holy and requires justice for sin in the form of payment - death and eternal damnation. His holiness also requires that His love offer a way out to all. His holiness also requires that due to His mercy some will be fully persuaded to take the offer made to all, or else none would be saved. We forget too often that He has no need or reason to save any, but that He chooses to save some, and according to Him, that will not be the many who go to hell, but the few that make it to heaven. Everyone does make a choice, but God has the power to infuence that choice. God having decided who will choose Him does not relieve us of the responsibility or the right to choose, but it does place a limits on our power to choose, and our choosing does not prompt Him to choose us, but His prompting results in us choosing Him. He has the power, we do not. That is why I made such a big issue of the Sovereignty of God in the choice portion of what I wrote. If God chose us from before the foundation of the world to be saved, could we by our choice, having been chosen, abort His will? The answer is an emphatic NO. Some see this as patently unfair. I have an answer for them - Job 38 - 41 - basically who is it that thinks they can question God's decisions to do anything, seeing as how God has created everyting and owns evertything and is the only righteous ONE? (Which is the sin Job repents of.) We would like to try to understand how God's mind works and we attempt to juxtapose one part of His decision making process against another, when both are clearly in scripture as truth, because we fail as finite creatures to understand the infinite mind of God. Happy discerning of God! Go for it! You will never arrive in an eternity! blessings abound, bowler |
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123 | old versus new testament | Rom 3:1 | bowler | 206575 | ||
Doc, I agree completely with you, as I think my post points out the "promises" given to each group were different, not meaning of salvation, but of various parts of covenantal dispesning of God's will "about His promises to Israel of a promised land in which to literaly dwell, of salvation from literal oppression, of a king to rule on the eternal throne". What I did not mean to imply is that they were saved any other way than be faith alone. Sorry for the misunderstanding. By the way, I think I mistakenly answered the same question again, thining that "doclinda2" was the one who posted this one. Hennie asked the same question a second time and I addressed your point here from the same viewpoint that you and I both hold about the salvation part as being by "faith alone" for both groups. blessings abound, bowler |
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124 | who said if I perish I perish and who di | Esth 4:16 | bowler | 206550 | ||
azure My apologies, did I commit a faux pas? I was not aware I was answering a homework question, I am sorry. blessings abound, bowler |
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125 | In James 1:21 I am to fill the blanks. | James 1:21 | bowler | 206444 | ||
gatterson No offense to you but perhaps if you just study the verse a bit, the anwers will become self evident? Is this for school of a Bible class or something? 2 Timothy 2:15 - please consider studying this verse in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who died for both you and me. blessings abound, bowler |
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126 | Christians Apostate Same As Anit-Christ? | 1 Tim 4:1 | bowler | 206441 | ||
Immanuelsown Thank you for your thoughts Immanuelsown, I appreciate your point of view. I will stop after this but would be more than happy to hear more from you or others on the matter as it does edify me. I am looking at 2 Peter 2 and wondering if Peter is really talking about apostates and those who had the spirit of the Anti-Christ at the same time, that is grouping them together, or is he only talking about those with the spirit of the Anti-Christ? He speaks of those who creep in to the congregation to teach false things, heresies, denying the Christ as being the Christ. He speaks about them sinning immoralities and of reviling angelic majesties. This seems to contrast those whom Paul had described as being fallen away from the faith "apostate" as being not immoral, but forbiding from marriage, forbidding the eating of all foods, and as generally purporting that ascetisim is the way to "Christ". These apostates that Paul was speaking of did not preach another "Christ", they taught that the way to Him was through "denying the body" as Paul put it (see previous branch). This is why I keep seeming to try and make a disctinction between "apostate" and "spirit of the Anti-Christ". An "apostate" can be pulled back from destruction and "renewed to the faith", as those who believe false beliefs about how to make it to Christ and be "saved" (not so sure about this part, see Hebrews chapter 6?)- having less to do with continuing in sin than with "false doctrine" (that is according to one instance of Paul). One instance of Paul describing a sinner who had fallen away, "was apostate" was the man who had his father's wife in bed and lived with her. Paul speaks of "giving him over to Satan for the desctruction of his flesh in order to save his soul" - meaning this "apostate" could be pulled back from total desctruction and would still be "saved". That is two types of being "apostate". People who believe in the real Christ but "fall away". Being one with the spirit of the "Anti-Christ" is to preach another Christ and the fruits of such a person is that they will commit gross immoralities and as John says in I, II, III John they will keep the brethren out of the congregation and will not love their brothers by seeing to their needs and "their deeds are evidence that they are not His", and will try to go from house to house to get "things". But the major emphasis is that they preach another Christ, a false Christ. I do hear you about "apostates" being thrown out of churches. States punish apostates? I thought the church was in authority over what happens to "apostates" in Christianity. Maybe you mean "foreign states of other relgions in other nations". A good question remains - at what point do we say that a "former believer" was ever saved? How could one be "former"? One is either a believer who repented and asked for salvation or they aren't, there is no gray area that gets created because they fall into the next sin and have trouble with it. Once saved always saved, by faith alone, by grace alone, the Sola's. Another good question might then be, is one who fell and never turns around to repent and get back up ever said to have been a "former believer"? Many have no patience for that waiting period, saying it was too long, and decide that person was never saved and then call them "apostate", but you had to believe at first in order to "fall away", not be an unbeliever (former believer?). blessings abound, bowler |
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127 | Suffering For The Sake Of Christ? | 1 Pet 4:12 | bowler | 206414 | ||
Cody Mac I hear you about suffering physicaly, being perscuted for the faith like as if we were over seas and being hunted. I see where my confusion was now about what you were really saying about kinds of suffering there are. I also see what you are saying about doing His work that we are not always suffering just because we do it. blessings abound, bowler |
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128 | Why is the Christian Church so divided? | Bible general Archive 4 | bowler | 206412 | ||
Cody Mac No problems, no harm no foul. Ephesians 4:3 being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. blessings abound, bowler |
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129 | How Far Are We To Be Tolerant? | Eph 4:2 | bowler | 206411 | ||
Searcher I prefer to remain quiet actually and to continue to pray as I am not too sure that admonishing anyone is the right thing to do. I am not over anyone to be the one to be correcting them, we are brothers and sisters. I see what you mean about words in love and peace though. I think I have never seen yet in my 25 years as a believer that anyone was able to change just because their faults get pointed out to them. It takes the Holy Spirit to change a person, not just conviction, which is the most popular idea when wishing for someone to change. The Holy Spirit working from the inside of a believers heart to actually produce the good fruit. That takes prayer on the part of others who see the fault in another and might actually be more effective in bringing about a result. I have tried this at home, works every time :), takes a long time, sometimes years, but it works better than words, which can only convict. I was thinking as I chose the scriptures of how long a person should be waiting, how tolerant of other's faults, because of how judging others makes us not a doer of the law, but a judge of others, which God condemns. blessings abound, bowler |
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130 | Biblical Function Of Elders? | Num 11:16 | bowler | 206410 | ||
Searcher Very interesting, thank you for those scriptures it brought light to the whole thing. As to rule of churches - By congregation? How does that work, do you know? Is that done by vote or some such, by the boards? Elder is a pretty broad term, overseer is another way of putting it. A pastor or a teacher could be said to be an elder, or overseer. A deacon could be said to be an elder, but perhaps not an overseer. We have deacons, and trustees, some of whom are on the elder board, and then the pastor who works more closely with the elder board than with the deacons per se. Not all of our deacons and trustees are male, but all of our elders are. We have a lady associate minister udner the headship of the pastor, but she does not interact very closely with the elder board, but does with the deacons. Our church is a little bit different than a lot of others. Our elders are responsible for matters of conduct and church governance and work together with the pastor on these matters, he consults with them and makes descisions in concert with their input a lot of the time, but not always. blessings abound, bowler |
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131 | Verse For Testing Leaders? | 1 John 4:1 | bowler | 206407 | ||
quvmoh Thank you. 1 Thessalonians 5:21 seems to come closest, test everything. I seem to be stuck here looking for something along the lines of test a candidate for leadership. Maybe I am looking at this thing all wrong and I shoud just look at the qualifications for leadership that one must live up to understanding that these would be criteria for a test. I seem to be searching for something that is not there, a verse to use as a basis to test one for becoming a leader. blessings abound, bowler |
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132 | Suffering For The Sake Of Christ? | 1 Pet 4:12 | bowler | 206405 | ||
Cody Mac Suffering for Christ as if it is His fault? A little confused how that would work. Perhaps you meant suffering for Christ's sake because He suffered for us? There shouldn't be anything to suffer if we do the work of Christ? I think Peter says we are called to suffer because we are Christians somewhere. I agree that if the spouse talks down to you about you doing the work you are suffering for Christ. Thank you for your thoughts here. blessings abound, bowler |
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133 | Suffering For The Sake Of Christ? | 1 Pet 4:12 | bowler | 206404 | ||
Searcher Yes I see about suffering for Christ in terms of for the gospel as all your scriptures are about, that is the proclaimation of it. My marriage is actualy pretty good considering, been a long time together! What I meant by "I am struggling with things considered to be suffering for the sake of Christ" is I was struggling with the scriptures themselves. I do know a brother in church who is struggling in his marriage because his wife is an ubeliever, and he was told that "obeying Christ", doing Ephesians 5 and all that entails, and still encountering problems, that his suffering is not "suffering for the sake of Christ" because it is not for the proclaimation of the gospel. Mathew 5:10-12 seems to be about suffering for being a disciple, but I see how would apply that in a sense to being married to an unbeliever who is unbearable to be with. blessings abound, bowler |
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134 | Christians Apostate Same As Anit-Christ? | 1 Tim 4:1 | bowler | 206403 | ||
Cody Mac Thanks for the input. I see exactly what you are saying about the difference between apostasy and being of the spirit of the Anti-Christ. I got to thinking about what Jude says in 1:22, 23 about having mercy on some who doubt, save others snatching them out of the fire, and on some to have mercy with fear. And what I thought was that those who are apostate it may be possible to pull back to the faith because they have gone dangerously astray due to false teaching or doctrine, and that these are all apostate. This would make them believers who went wrong, but if they never come back were they ever saved? But that those who believe that Jesus is not God, these are the ones with the spirit of the Anti-Christ and they cannot be pulled back from something they were never truly a part of, the body of Christ. blessings abound, bowler |
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135 | Why is the Christian Church so divided? | Bible general Archive 4 | bowler | 206390 | ||
Immanuelsown I totaly agree with you that the only place this seems to be true is in the church that where two don't agree they don't walk together, but out there for money people disagree strongly about all kinds of things but come together on making the money. That is one very big reason why so many can't get past the church and what they see going on in the church to go ahead and take the offer of salvation, which is hypocritical actualy because they will do the same thing to get the money. The church is united in Christ and is not truly divided, saw that on another note and really liked that:), but that may be more a spiritual reality than a visible one in a lot of churches. As you mention, and I agree, the use of gifts has caused one type of division bewtween denominations. Another thing that has caused division between denominations is how to view Baptism and the Lord's Supper, whether as sacrament or as ordinance. I was very intrigued by your view of the forum here as a microcosm of the church. It made me think about the literal church being the whole spiritualy undivided body of Christ, as also being the virtual church as the church outside of the building inside this forum because as scripture states - Mathew 18:20 For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst. Then according to that scripture this forum is where two or more than three have gathered. Where ever the members of Christ are, consitutes the church (which is never the building, but the members meeting), there is the church literaly. In that sense whatever divisions appear to be here in the forum, actualy in the life of the body of Christ do not exist, as there is no true divisions in the body of Christ. blessings abound, bowler |
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136 | WHAT MADE LOT A RIGHTIOUS MAN? | Luke 8:13 | bowler | 206386 | ||
GBzones We are so much like Lot! We often go the wrong way into trouble spots and it is God who plucks us out! By faith, by listening to God when He does speak, as Lot did when God sent His angels to tell Lot to come out. Which according to you, not fighting here just pointing out, he did not, but according to the account he did come out. Abraham made a few major mistakes himself concerning God and his wife, but like Lot, despite his mistakes, it is the example of faith of both men that we emulate, not either of their mess ups. God bless you in whatever you endeavor to do for Christ Jesus here, or anywhere. blessings abound, bowler |
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137 | What Happened To The Tribe Of Dan? | Rev 7:5 | bowler | 206384 | ||
Immanuelsown I am trying to still learn about and get used to how this site works and I keep stumbling on what people are saying! So thanks for pointing me to a link, or do you call them branches? I do believe Doc was most helpful in this manner as well, I had to get into the right search box first and then everything poped up. Now I must say, that was a most engaging post you gave me there, very thorough, very thorough indeed. I will keep stuyding to find out who subsituted for whom and whom was a half tribe of whom and why Revelation only lists 11 tribes out of a possible 13. blessings abound, bowler |
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138 | why the one when not the other | Gen 2:9 | bowler | 206382 | ||
GBzones Apparently according to Genesis 3:22 Then the Lord God said, "Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat and live forever", it seems if one ate from that particular tree one would indeed live forever. I see your question here - Why put the tree of life in there, when clearly the other does give eternal life? What is most interesting to me about this is that God did say that Adam and Eve could have eaten of any tree of the garden, just not the tree of the knowledge of good and evil becuase they would surely die. What is implied here which is not so clearly seen is that they did have the right to eat of the tree of life and thereby live forever! But for some ungodyly reason it never occurred to Adam and Eve to go eat of the tree that would have made them live forever, they just mossied on through the garden eating fruit and vegetables and gave no thought to living forever, as if this was of no concern at the time for them. And indeed it was not as death did not enter in until they fell, so perhaps they had no need of the good gift of eternal life from the tree of life because they already had it. So, back to your question - Why a tree of life? No one can say for sure why God did that, only He knows. The only thing I could surmise is that God left them a choice of what to do, do what He said which included eating from the tree of life, which they could have done at any time, or to disobey and eat from the tree of good and evil that caused death. One thing that puzzles me is about Eve thinking that somehow disobeying would not result in what God said and that it would make her "like God", when the closest she was ever going to come to being like God would have been to continue living forever by either obeying, or eating of the other tree and living forever. The other interesting thing is that it did not occur to Adam and Eve to go eat of the tree of life after falling and being condemned to death, even though they now knew of good and evil, they did not seek to remedy death before God took that remedy away from them. About God's will there, I think that it is entirely possible that God wants all His creations to choose to worship and obey Him and always leaves the option open for them to excersize limited free will to do so, or to reject Him. No one can resist irresistable grace, that is not what I would say at all. But God knew before he made man that man would fall and planned accordingly from eternity past to rectify our mistake. Only God knows why, theologians have trying to figure out several unanswerable questions of this type without any sucess. I think you have hit on one of these things. I find your posts thus far most engaging and look forward to more studying with you. blessings abound, bowler |
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139 | Why is the Christian Church so divided? | Bible general Archive 4 | bowler | 206345 | ||
Cody Mac I agree that if two do not agree they cannot walk together. When looking at church history there seems to be a lot of times where differing beliefs dived men into different camps just like you say. Men have been willing to kill for what they believe, even those who called themselves Christian in the halls of history. I would not equate divisions over theology as the same as racial divide though. Races historically clashed over land and human rights issues, while churches clashed over matters of spiritual belief about how to practice being a Christian, or what entails being a Christian. blessings abound, bowler |
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140 | What Happened To The Tribe Of Dan? | Rev 7:5 | bowler | 206344 | ||
Cody Mac Thank you very much. At some point the tribe of Manasseh and the tribe of Gad were half tribes. I tried to trace the history of Dan while waiting for an answer and found that it simply dissapears out of scripture sometime after the building of the Milo at Jerusalem, scripture has the tribe of Dan going up into the hills and then they are not heard of again. Perhaps your explanation shows best what happened there, they rebelled against God somewhere along the line. What has me pulling my mustache in thought is that in Revelation there are not 12 tribes but 11 mentioned, and that in Numbers there not 12 but 13 mentioned. I try not to enter into speculation though it is far safer to find a definite scriptural answer. blessings abound, bowler |
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