Results 221 - 240 of 517
|
||||||
Results from: Notes Author: Beja Ordered by Date |
||||||
Results | Verse | Author | ID# | |||
221 | preaching the Gospel? | Eph 2:8 | Beja | 227014 | ||
julco, Very good. I am glad to hear it. In Christ, Beja |
||||||
222 | preaching the Gospel? | Eph 2:8 | Beja | 226978 | ||
Julia, 1.) The things your husband are teaching are false. In the case of the trinity I would assume he is denying that Jesus is God. If that is the case your husband isn't a saved man. 2.) I get the impression that you don't have a firm doctrinal stance yourself. Do you attend church? Are you a part of some denomination? 3.) Winning him over with your actions is exactly what Peter instructed in 1 peter. In Christ, Beja |
||||||
223 | Have we been asleep? | Bible general Archive 4 | Beja | 226936 | ||
Justme, I wouldn't disagree with what you are saying. But your post discussed none of those things. It did not conrast statements of the Q'uran with scripture, it didn't discuss verses used for witnesing with muslims, it didn't show how to scripturally or apologetically defend the faith. It wasn't the "deep bible study so one can defend their faith" you are saying you reccommend. Any of that would be wonderful. But rather it was just a vague post to watch out for muslims, with no actual question, left to sit on the unanswered question section. I do not mean to scold you, but that is simply outside the scope of what this forum is meant for, which is studying scripture, so I responded to bump it down. In Christ, Beja |
||||||
224 | What does the word"believe"involve | John 3:16 | Beja | 226894 | ||
John, I have folders where I drop things on certain topics for the purpose of future edification of either myself or others. That was so well said I am cutting and paisting it. In Christ, Beja |
||||||
225 | What does the word"believe"involve | John 3:16 | Beja | 226878 | ||
DD4Truth, Again, you string so many verses together pulled out of all theological context that it would take me hours and once again multiple posts to correct each of them. I wash my hands of this and will only conclude by saying three things. First, that you and I do not disagree on a minor point, but you preach an entirely different gospel. Second, you stand outside of historical orthodox Christianity. And finally, I pray ( and I mean this seriously, I am praying to this end) that no reader will fall into your doctrine and thereby be condemned. Php 3:8,9 More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, Sola fide, Beja |
||||||
226 | What does the word"believe"involve | John 3:16 | Beja | 226855 | ||
DD4Truth, Post two, please read post one first. 4. You missunderstand what is being said in Heb 3:18-19. Yes we see a wondrous interplay between faith and obedience in Heb 3. We are reminded that the two are remarkably interconnected. But you miss the connection! Heb 3:18 And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who were disobedient? Heb 3:19 So we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief. He refers here, of course, to the Hebrew people in the desert. Search out for me now in the Old testament where God makes this statment. Heb 3:11 AS I SWORE IN MY WRATH, 'THEY SHALL NOT ENTER MY REST.'" Now rightly the writer of Hebrews is quoting Psalm 95, but where does the quote originate in the wilderness wonderings? You will find no direct quote. David is putting the judgements recorded in Numbers 14 into his own words here. And what is the context of numbers 14? God has told his people to go in and take the land for He would give it into their hand. The spied returned and counseled disobedience to the people. The told them to not go in for the inhabitants were too strong. Why did they counsel this? Because they did not believe the word of God when He told them that He would give it to them. So we see here their disobedience found its root in unbelief. This is exactly the writers of Hebrews' point! Which is why his warning to them was against unbelief! Heb 3:12 Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God. Now it is very true that our unbelief often expresses itself in disobedience, but the writer of Hebrews shows clearly that this disobedience finds its ugly root in unbelief This being the cheif enemy. 5. You state "just because God gives us something as a gift does not mean that He can not require something of us to receive the gift." Of course this is true. Though that is the question, is it faith, or is it faith and obedience? And whicheve it is, does it find its root ultimately in us or in God? 6. You quote 2 Thess 1:8. I presume you mean to focus on the phrase "those who do not obey the gospel." Indeed, the gospel contains a command to repent. There is no salvation without repentence. But the gospel also contains a command to believe. Neither one finds its ultimate source in us, but both are gifts of God. Who opens are eyes to the glory of God in the face of Christ? 2Co 4:6 For God, who said, "Light shall shine out of darkness," is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. Mat 16:17 And Jesus said to him, "Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. Who gives repentence? Act 11:18 When they heard this, they quieted down and glorified God, saying, "Well then, God has granted to the Gentiles also the repentance that leads to life." 7. You quote Jesus in his statements of those who do and do not do his words. I say to them, amen! Again, there is no salvation without sanctification, but blessed is he who is counted righteous apart from works! Rom 4:6 just as David also speaks of the blessing on the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works: And blessed is that soul that as a result of the new covenant in Christ's blood experiences what Ezekiel described. Eze 36:27 "I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances. Blessed is that precious soul who does not receive salvation by works, but rather receives his works by salvation! There is more, but I will let it rest there. In Christ, Beja |
||||||
227 | What does the word"believe"involve | John 3:16 | Beja | 226854 | ||
DD4Truth, I was very much considering not responding at all when I read your post due to the sheer number of things you have gotten wrong. I know of no other way to say it. However, for the many reading this post I intend to take the time to respond to your many mistakes. This might take more than one reply. 1. First it is ironic that you bring up Abraham, since that is Paul's mighty proof for salvation by faith alone in Romans Chapter 4. Rom 4:9 Is this blessing then on the circumcised, or on the uncircumcised also? For we say, "FAITH WAS CREDITED TO ABRAHAM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS." Rom 4:10 How then was it credited? While he was circumcised, or uncircumcised? Not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised; Rom 4:11 and he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while uncircumcised, so that he might be the father of all who believe without being circumcised, that righteousness might be credited to them, First he states from Genesis God's declaration upon Abraham that he was righteous. Paul then asks the pivotal question, "How then was it credited?" In other words was he declared righteous while he was circumcised or prior to the obedience of circumcision? As we look at the biblical account Paul notes that it was prior to Abraham's obedience of circumcision. Paul states that the circumcision was the display of the righteousness which Abraham already had, which was granted by faith alone. Read the first 8 verses of Romans 4 to confirm this. 2. You completely miss scriptures intent when you say that Christ taught the law must be kept to merit eternal life. But also importantly you mishandle scripture. You take a parable which does not make clear intent to teach this particular doctrine and you use that parable to override clear teaching of scripture elsewhere. Rom 3:20 because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin. Now affirmed by all who have any sense is the truth that we take the clear teachings of scripture and use them to help us understand the unclear teachings of scripture. So your first fault is your hermeneutics. You then show missunderstanding of what I profess. I deny that any man will see God without holiness, or sanctification. Heb 12:14 Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord. I believe entirely that obedience is a crucial part of our salvation. The question is does our obedience merit our salvation or does our salvation prompt our obedience? The testimony of scripture is that our obedience flows from God, it is not our obedience that brings us to God or rather it is not our obedience which lays hold of what Christ has purchased us. I consider previous verses cited such as 1 John 3:9 to be sufficient for this. I would add to the list Ephesians 2:8-10 which says that we are saved by grace by faith unto good works, or rather for good works, NOT because of good works by means of good works. 3. You missunderstand what Christ accomplished in freeing us from the law. Christ did not change what was right and wrong. Christ freed us from the condemnation of the law, not the morality of the law. Let me defend that with a passage. 1Ti 1:9 realizing the fact that law is not made for a righteous person, but for those who are lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers 1Ti 1:10 and immoral men and homosexuals and kidnappers and liars and perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound teaching, 1Ti 1:11 according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, with which I have been entrusted. Now, here Paul makes mention of a wrong use of the law, and a rightful use of the law. What is the rightful use of the law? He quite clearly states that the right use of the law is the restraining of all these various things. But how does he identify these things? He states these things plus "whatever is contrary to sound teaching according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God". Do you hear this? The right application of the old testament law is for restraining things that are CONTRARY to the GOSPEL. So when I use the law to restrain wickedness in a professing Christian, that is precisely what is the right way to use it. And in addition, Paul sets the law as the valid standard of things which we know are contrary to the gospel. So you err when you state that we are not under the morality of the law, but rather obedience to whatever commands happen to be given by Christ during his ministry. On the contrary, any violation of God's moral law revealed in the Old Testament is contrary to the gospel of Jesus Christ. I will continue in a second post. |
||||||
228 | What does the word"believe"involve | John 3:16 | Beja | 226850 | ||
Lionstrong, I'll try to say that in different ways. What are you banking on to cause you to be spared in the day of judgement? What are you relying on? Hoping upon? Counting on? I do think there is a place for a weak faith. In other words, I would not cast doubt upon the faith of a man that said to me, "I do not know with certainty my fate, but my only hope for acceptance is in Christ Jesus." I would try to use the promises of scripture to move the man from such a small faith unto a firm assurance of his stake in Christ, but I do not require certain assurance. I require our hope to be exclusively in Christ Jesus and his attoning work, I do not requre that trust to be mighty enough to banish all fearful thoughts. "Nothing in my hands I bring, only to the cross I cling." Let that be our hope for the day of judgement and we will do well. So in other words, I do not mean complete assurance by the word "trust." I simply mean that we understand the doctrines of the work of Christ for the proper purpose. We believe the attoning work of Christ, and we through faith take it as our hope for that fearful day of judgement. That I believe is faith. I hope some part of this helped to clarify. In Christ, Beja |
||||||
229 | What does the word"believe"involve | John 3:16 | Beja | 226849 | ||
DD4Truth, You said, "This would indicate that we are saved at belief but would still perish without repentance." Not at all. Repentance is the work of God. This is a very poor understanding of what it means to be saved. It speaks as if salvation includes only our forgiveness. On the contrary, what was purchased for us at the cross is not merely justification, but Christ also purchased for us our sanctification. Ezekial describes the salvation of God quite different. Eze 36:25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. Eze 36:26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. Eze 36:27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. God does not merely sprinkle us with clear water, he puts a new heart in us and gives us his spirit such that we will be caused to obey his rules. This involves repentence. Further we see what Christ purchased in the new covenant in Hebews 8 involves not just forgiveness, but that God (not us) will right his words on our hearts. I believe this is referring to the same thing Ezekiel was referring to. Again we see in 1 John. 1Jn 3:9 No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God. So we see obedience flowing from salvation, indeed part of that salvation. Again in Romans in Chapters 6-8 Paul goes through a lengthy discussion why justification by faith alone does not lead to the freedom to sin. And his answer is that we can not go on sinning because of our ongoing union with Jesus Christ through the spirit. And such is the testimony of scripture. We are not saved then to see whether or not we will repent, nor do we repent to earn our salvation. Rather, our new found obedience and repentence is part of the salvation that God has worked upon us and we should never speak as if that salvation will be found seperate from repentence. And so we rightly say that our being united to all the blessing of Christ, both the justification and the spirit led obedience comes from faith alone. Php 3:9 and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, Gal 2:16 nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified. Rom 4:5 But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness, We are saved by faith alone, but faith is never alone. Repentence is part of the salvation which was worked upon us. If we have no repentence, that salvation a man might claim is not the salvation that scripture describes. In Christ, Beja |
||||||
230 | What does the word"believe"involve | John 3:16 | Beja | 226846 | ||
Lionstrong, First, let me be clear that I am not suggesting that you are not trusting Christ. So I'm going to proceed as if that is more of a universal question in scope, more along the lines of "how would one not be trusting Christ. This is the question which drives home the point, I hope. On the day in which we shall all stand before God to receive eternal rewards or eternal punishments, what is it that you are trusting is going to cause God to receive you favorably on that day? Now I readily grant that this is a fine line. If somebody truely understands the teachings of Christ rightly then the logical implication is to trust the substitionary work of Christ for our acceptance. But rest assured, every man who has hopes of heaven hopes for heaven based on some grounds. Whatever these grounds are is what the man is trusting in, or placing his faith in. That is the thing the man is "believing in" in terms of how the new testament speaks. But trusting and mentally assenting to these things ought to all go together. In Christ, Beja |
||||||
231 | What does the word"believe"involve | John 3:16 | Beja | 226843 | ||
Lionstrong, "Unless you're saying that the Bible teaches that we are saved by believing and good works" I'm not. Merely that saving faith will be accompanied by good works, which play no part in meriting our salvation but they go towards evidencing the reality of the salvation God has already worked in us. "We can never know if we have 'complete confidence'" I think we can have complete confidence, this is the doctrine of assurance. "the Lord does not require complete confidence." Amen. I'll say amen at least within the context of our discussion. I affirm that assurance of salvation and salvation are two different things. "The gift of believing, even if it is the size of a mustard seed is sufficient for salvation" Amen again. It is not dependent on the greatness of our faith but the object of our faith, Jesus Christ. "We should not be content with a little faith, however. We should continually grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus." Amen and amen! The heart of my post is what you state you are willing to accept: that scriptural faith involves trust upon the work of Christ and not merely acceptance of the doctrines of the work of Christ. The rest of my post was merely to inform you that "easy believism" is actually something else which I doubt you mean to ascribe to and not an insult thrown at the great pillar of "Faith Alone." In Christ, Beja |
||||||
232 | What does the word"believe"involve | John 3:16 | Beja | 226829 | ||
Lionstrong, You make some rather authoritive sounding statements here. I can not help but to wonder what dictionary or source you ground your confidence in? As I look at "A Greek English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature" third edition, also more commonly known as BDAG I see a variety of five definitions to the word pisteuo. The overwhelming majority of New Testament instances are judged by them to be within the first three possibilities and I shall reproduce them here for you. 1. To consider something to be true and therefore worthy of one's trust, believe. 2. To entrust oneself to an entity in complete confidence, blieve (in) trust. 3. Entrust Do you see how in each of these they involve not only mental accent but they also involve trusting in something? Now perhaps EdB put a little extra flourish on how he described it, but what he was drawing out is this element of trust that is involved in the word. B.B. Warfield has an article in his book on theology that traces the scriptural notion through its Hebrew predecessors and on into the greek so that its idea can be traced throughout scripture and, while I admitedly have only found time to skim the discussion, it did draw out this idea of trust that is tied up to the verb. At the end it seems to be not just what you hold to be true, but what is it that you are placing your confidence in for that coming day of judgement. So I just wonder what source leads you to the conclusion that, "To believe means to mentallcy accent to an understood statement. It is to agree, to accept that a proposition, a message, a statement is true. It's as simple as that..." Keep in mind we are speaking of the greek word pisteuo and not our english word "believe." Now, with regard to "easy believism." This is truely an abhorrent doctrine, but I would have you understand what it is about. Easy Believism is not a derrogitory term that people throw at the doctrine of Justification by faith alone. I wholey believe we are saved by faith alone without works based on the merits of the finished word of Christ. However, I deny that faith will ever be alone, but faith comes hand in hand with repentence and other graces from God, though admitedly faith being the one of them which unites us to the death, burial, and ressurection of our Lord. This then is the heart of easy believism, the teaching that faith may dwell in a heart that is devoid of all other graces, most significantly repentence. And we should know that this is not true when we have a passage such as James chapter two, beggining with verse 14. Jas 2:14-17 What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, be warmed and be filled," and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself. Linger on this passage with me and let me make some observations. 1. He asks a pointed question about a faith which is not accompanied by works. "Can that faith save him?" A very direct question! 2. His answer is to compare that faith with somebody who simply verbally blesses a man who is hungry and without clothing, and he asks, what good is that? His point being that it is no good whatsoever. 3. He concludes that in the same way, the faith without works is dead. In other words, James says that such a faith indeed can not save them. Now the point is not that a man is saved by these works, but rather that a saving faith will never be found apart from other graces such as repentence unto a changed life. A chief aspect of that changed life being love. So let us throw in our lot with scripture and reject this notion of "easy believism." I do not say that we ever reject a simple trust in Christ as the source of salvation, but rather let us reject the notion that this simple faith will ever be found alone in a believer. Because when we believe, we receive the spirit, and those who have the spirit will indeed be changed from one glory to another. To quote our beloved John, whom you as well as I seem to be fond of, "No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God." 1 John 3:9 ESV. In Christ, Beja |
||||||
233 | Is common law marriage acceptable | Heb 13:4 | Beja | 226786 | ||
Always searching the word, I can tell you from a pastor's perspective, and perhaps in general, one of the hardest questions to really answer well is one where we must first grant a context in which somebody is disobedient to God. Many times a Christian will ask what is right for them once they have already gone so far outside of God's will that things are hopelessly confused. This is one of those questions. You ask, given that a man is going to live with a woman for so many years that finally even the unbelievers accept them as married, does God now accept it? God forbid a believer ever reach the point that we need to find out! Where was the concern for God's will for the many past years? The problem boils down to this: the scriptures do not give us explinations for what we are to do while we are in the midst of ignoring all the other commands of God. This is why your question will be very difficult indeed. In Christ, Beja |
||||||
234 | The gift of tongues | Eph 1:1 | Beja | 226717 | ||
EdB, I'd just like to point out, that most of these scriptures have nothing at all to do with speaking in tongues, though a couple do. Act 1:4 Gathering them together, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised, "Which," He said, "you heard of from Me; (I assume this one was meant to include verse 5, but it also has nothing to do with speaking in tongues. Act 2:4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance. Act 8:12 But when they believed Philip preaching the good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were being baptized, men and women alike. Act 10:44 While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who were listening to the message. (To be fair, this one would deal with it if it was stretched to include verse 46.) Act 11:14 and he will speak words to you by which you will be saved, you and all your household.' (this is obviously referring to the gospel, not speaking in tongues.) Act 15:7 After there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, "Brethren, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles would hear the word of the gospel and believe. Luk 24:49 "And behold, I am sending forth the promise of My Father upon you; but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high." 1Co 12:1 Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware. As you can see, most of these have nothing to do with anything regarding speaking in tongues, and the ones which refer to speaking of tongues do not in any way teach a doctrine that all believers will do so, nor do they in any way teach a doctrine that speaking in tongues must precede any other gift. I simply want to post out these scriptures clearly, because it is easy to see a stream of simple verse numbers like that and think perhaps the statement holds weight because of ample scriptural testimony. However, I hope it is clear that there is very little to be found in that string of verses. As a side note, this is not meant to be in any way a rebuke to EdB. EdB's post was in the spirit of explination and was taken as such. Nor do I intend this post to be for the purpose of attacking any denomination. Rather I mean it for furthering the purpose of the forum by studying what scripture actually says. In Christ, Beja |
||||||
235 | What is 'the fruit of the vine'? | Matt 26:29 | Beja | 226703 | ||
Tim, I enjoyed your post very much. Especially I enjoyed hearing of your diligence in understanding the word. I think you have grabbed hold of something important here in your emphasis on Christ. However, let me add a little more food for thought. While it is true, that the significance was that it was from Christ, the source, yet the fact that it was his blood mattered as well. We can not take it so far to say that Christ's tears would have been sufficient, or his hair, or anything else and treat it as if it was sufficient to redeem us. The blood was significant for two reasons. First, as you noted so well, it was important because of the source, because it was Christ's blood. Second, it was important because the blood of Christ was the life of Christ. Lev 17:11 'For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood by reason of the life that makes atonement.' So the blood was important because of the fact that for him to give his blood for us was to give his life for us. Him cutting his hand and sharing a bit of the fluid was not the point. The point is him pouring out his life on our behalf. I hope this goes to your further edification and I hope to hear more from you on the forums. In Christ, Beja |
||||||
236 | The gift of tongues | Eph 1:1 | Beja | 226702 | ||
Crys, Brad has given you an excellent answer but I want to add my voice for the sake of emphasis. Not all believers speak in tongues. Orthodox Christianity has never taught any such thing to my knowledge. How could you need more than the scripture Brad quoted to you, 1 Cor 12:30? Paul very clearly teaches that not all Christians have this gift! If you read in detail that section of 1 Corinthians Paul explains that it is not even the most desirable gift by far! And in addition to that Paul lays out clearly that we are not to demand others to have our spiritual giftings. Second, if you take a look a the last chapter of Mark, could we not say that the things listed there are meant to Characterize what people will see in groups of believers as it spreads rather than individual Christians? Third, if you want to see the true marks of a Holy spirit filled Christian, read the first half of Romans chapter 8. The true marks of the Holy Spirit leading and indwelling you is putting to death the sinful desires of the flesh. Fourth, the book of 1 John is written to Christians so that they may be able to tell that they truely are born again believers and speaking in tongues is never even mentioned! Be very careful here, in fact, I would counsel you to flee this church and go to a sounder more scriptural church, however other than simply mentioning that I'll say no more as it goes a bit beyond the purpose of the forum which is merely to study the scriptures. In Christ, Beja |
||||||
237 | "why have you forsaken me?" | Mark 15:34 | Beja | 226489 | ||
EdB, I agree with you entirely on this. I also like to point out that this psalm ends with an expectation of God's triumph and glory. I think not only was Christ calling out in anguish, but at the same time He indeed, as you said, had the entire psalm in mind and that means that it was also a declaration of faith that even in this it would end to the glory of God. In Christ, Beja |
||||||
238 | where is Christ battling Satan in HELL | Bible general Archive 4 | Beja | 226326 | ||
EdB, I agree with you that what you described is a horrible heresy, and I'm glad I've seen no sign of it in my church. However, I do believe that Christ was truely held up to Old Testament believers, though only in types and shadows. Now that Christ has come, the types and shadows pointing to him are done away with. This would be a lengthy bible study indeed, but I point you to Colossians. Col 2:16 Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day-- things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ. It says that these things were a shadow of what was to come, and what was to come was Christ. So I believe we err should we say that the Old Testament was not truely pointing towards Christ. However, we also stray into error if we suggest they continue their work of displaying Christ after he has come. So I do believe that believers pre-newtestament had a faith in the Messiah, and I believe it was on this basis they were justified before God. How could we argue that they were not justified prior to the incarnation when God clearly names Abraham righteous because he believed in Genesis 15? And in Romans 4, Paul clearly portrays this declaration of righteousness as his justification, even the forgiveness of his sins. Now again, I deny wholely that his justification before God was apart from Christ and his work on the cross. For Jesus himself said that Abraham saw his day. Joh 8:56 "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad." I do not mean to suggest that Abraham knew everything we do, things such as Christ's occupation as a carpenter, or even that he would be named Jesus, but clearly Abraham in Faith looked forward to see that God was bringing a redeemer to him, and how much more he knew would be a lengthy discussion. And I say that all forgiveness of sins that God has ever extended in any age was on the basis of the cross of Christ. I point to Romans for this. Rom 3:24-26 being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. All past forgiveness was called due at the cross. So I boldly proclaim, while the OT saints did not have the clear revelation of Christ which we have today, they received forgiveness of sins through faith, and the forgiveness of their sins was purchased by the cross of Jesus Christ, and this not from some vague faith as in blindly trusting the good will of God, but faith in Jesus Christ the messiah as they trusted in promises from God for which Christ was the fulfillment and which was presented to them in past oracles of God through manifold means. And I deny entirely that this is the same as what the Jews do now in looking forward to some vague messiah that they imagine. For the pictures of Christ were only true in as much as they actually and truely pointed to Christ. Since Christ has now arrived there is nothing left in those old instituations, for regardless of whether their belief is sincere, the objects no longer truely point to any messiah to come because there is no messiah yet to come. For we are not judged or accepted on the sincerety of our faith, but the reliability of the object of our faith, Christ Jesus. In Christ, Beja |
||||||
239 | where is Christ battling Satan in HELL | Bible general Archive 4 | Beja | 226301 | ||
EdB, I did what I ought to have done much sooner and I stepped away from the forum for some prayer. All is forgiven. However, I just ask that you will take care. Two posts in a row you stated that "I said" some things that are absolutely heretical. Namely that Abraham was saved apart from the cross of Christ and that there is some other way to salvation other than Christ. Both of these things I reject and if you look through my posts you will see that I never said either of them. Now I may have said some things which you believe start a train of thought that culminates in them, but never did I say any such thing. And I say now, I do not believe them nor do I believe my theology necessitates such views. Anyways, it is forgiven and from this point on with God's grace to help me no thought will be given to it again. Though I felt I should state it here so that you'd know what my feelings were offended over and more importantly so that any readers would know that I do not dare believe or teach such things. For my part I'm sorry as well, and God has certainly shown me that there are things I have done in the posts to help steer this thread to its current lack of edification for readers. In Christ, Beja |
||||||
240 | where is Christ battling Satan in HELL | Bible general Archive 4 | Beja | 226297 | ||
EdB, How about you follow the words "you said" with an actual quote or please just don't do it with reference to me if you can't. In Christ, Beja |
||||||
Result pages: << First < Prev [ 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 ] Next > Last [26] >> |