Results 421 - 440 of 562
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Results from: Notes Author: Rowdy Ordered by Date |
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Results | Verse | Author | ID# | |||
421 | Hell in the Bible: Literal or Figurative | Heb 11:40 | Rowdy | 114931 | ||
Thanks. Your logic has much merit. I'm just trying to motivate some open minded discussion about one of the toughest subjects in the Bible. I'm thankful to our God that ALL of this discussion is totally academic and if one of us is incorrect in our position or statement, that alone WON'T keep that person out of Heaven. Thanks again for contributing a solid piece of work to this thread of discussion. God bless. |
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422 | How are pre-Christians made perfect? | Heb 11:40 | Rowdy | 114839 | ||
As I mentioned yesterday dear friend, you've given me quite a bit to consider. I'm not convinced 2 Pet 3:10 can be resolved as you've done here but I'll admit there's not much in the Bible on this subject. I did take special note of the fact that most of your post is your opinion as was mine. I really appreciate the discussion. I'm still very much interested in what the rest of the Forum might say about this subject. Any takers out there? Put your thinking caps on and tackle it and God bless you all. |
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423 | Acts23 | Acts 23:6 | Rowdy | 114784 | ||
I too have studied this subject quite a bit in the best and it does seem that Paul was not married. I don't know for certain about the requirement to become a Pharisee. The one tidbit I'd like to add to this discussion (for balance) that this guidance about leaving a spouse should apply to either the husband or the wife. Both are bound by the same guidance. Our God is chauvenistic in the ladies participation in our worship assemblies and in their role of following the man dominated leadership of the church. BUT God is NOT chauvenistic about marriage, divorce or separation. He intends for all marriages to last for a lifetime and expects us to treat the marriage break up (when it does happen) without bias to sex. |
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424 | Jesus and the Jubilee Year in Luke | Luke 4:18 | Rowdy | 114779 | ||
I have to agree and say an Hearty Amen!! There's far too much hate of all kinds in this world and not nearly enough really genuine love, the kind of love we see from our God. His love was freely given to us, to every single one of us on this planet. Preach on, dear friend. I do enjoy reading your posts to this Forum and God bless. | ||||||
425 | How are pre-Christians made perfect? | Heb 11:40 | Rowdy | 114778 | ||
I'm quite sincere about the figurative language but I'm also trying to keep an open mind. Please expound to me about this a little more. IF the whole of God's creation is going to be totally disintagrated back into nothingness or void like it was before He created, what will the Lake of Fire be fueled on? What will the New Heaven and the New Earth look like? What are the dimensions? How will we stay on this New Earth? With or without gravity? Will we be consuming food or some kind of nourishment for our new spiritual bodies? I'm not saying all of Revelation or Isaiah CANNOT be taken literally; I'm just urging caution when we think about these things. Again, we must be open minded to God and His spiritual world. We don't have any common point(s) of reference for truly understanding what His world is really like. Our world here and now is finite and very physical, that's all we know with any absolute authority. Everything about the spiritual world, we get from our Bibles and the Bible only seems to give us figurative type language to describe the actual characteristics of this spiritual world. You didn't address all the points of my previous post. Please take a shot at responding to both those and to the specific points above. For example, do you honestly expect to see "streets of gold," etc. in Heaven? The one verse I do take quite literally is the one from 2 Peter as quoted in my previous post. Please marry this verse into your response. Please feel free to expound as much as you can and God bless you. |
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426 | Holy Spirt w/ evidence of tongues? | 1 Cor 12:10 | Rowdy | 114777 | ||
Very well put. Very concise and to the point. Amen, dear friend. God bless you. | ||||||
427 | How are pre-Christians made perfect? | Heb 11:40 | Rowdy | 114740 | ||
I'm not questioning your use of the scriptures as they are there to give us a glimpse of what Hell is like. All I'm saying is after this world is "burned up" and the whole universe as God created it is destroyed, God's spiritual world is going to be all that's left. There won't be any oxygen or fuel with which to burn the proverbial "fires of Hell." There won't be any "nashing of teeth," at least not any physical teeth that you and I know about. I've studied on this topic for quite some time and have compared this figurative language to that in Revelation and Isaiah. In my opinion it seems that our Lord uses this kind of language when He's trying to describe something for which we don't have a common point of reference. In other words, just as we don't have a clue what Heaven is really going to look like, I don't think God has been able to describe what Hell is going to be like. I don't think you really expect to see "streets of gold," or "palaces of pearl," "seas of glass" in Heaven for the same reasons as stated above, do you?. Those kind of hard, physcial items of earthly elements won't exist either after Judgment Day. Don't get me wrong, I'm quite certain there will be Heaven and Hell and in the mean time, it looks like according to scripture there now exists Hades and Paradise. Now what those actual places look like as to actual details, I don't think the Bible reveals it in the very same kind of details that we're going to recognize when we arrive at one of those places. The things we do know for an absolute fact is that Heaven is going to be wonderful because it's with God and Hell is going to be a very miserable place because it's without God. It seems the figurative language was used to motivate us to respond appropriately: love for Heaven and intense hatred for Hell. I'm sorry, but the only scripture I can recall to support my conclusions on this matter from Peter. 2 Pet 3:10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up. I'd be interested in your response. I realize this is kinda radical and you might take a while. God bless. |
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428 | What can we do to have salvation | NT general Archive 1 | Rowdy | 114680 | ||
Hank, I was just hoping to find out if you noticed my response to your questions above. I assume you've got a response for me. Also, I'm hoping you'll respond to my question/ challenge on this thread. You might be interested in my question about Paul and Peter and their little disagreement. I'd love to see your responses. Thanks and God bless. |
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429 | How are pre-Christians made perfect? | Heb 11:40 | Rowdy | 114675 | ||
Thanks again. Definitely something to think about although the scriptures aren't particularly clear on this subject, it certainly is quite possible. | ||||||
430 | Was the church embarassed? Come see. | Gal 2:11 | Rowdy | 114674 | ||
I appreciate your response. Although I think you're very, very close to my position, I'd like to see other responses from the rest of the group. What'd ya say, gang? Let us hear from you. Thanks and God bless you all. |
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431 | The Posture of The Angel | Judg 6:11 | Rowdy | 114590 | ||
I think it's wonderful, our God knows just what kind of message and who should be the carrier of that message, depending on the intended recipient. To Moses, God first appeared as a burning bush and then as their relationship developed, Moses grew more and more bold, even negotiating for the lives of God's followers, the Isrealite nation. Jacob wrestles with an angel and gets a special message from him. It's already been mentioned on this Forum before the talking donkey. There were the Judges of God sent to be leaders for the Israelite nation but of course we know they grew to prefer their own king, like their neighbors. There was the hand of God writing on the wall for a foreigner, King Belshazzar in Daniel 5. And the cloven tounges of fire to the Apostles in Acts 2. We have all the prophets of God throughout the OT and the NT relaying God's guidance to mankind. And of course, the ultimate mouthpiece for God was His very own Son, a perfect representation of God Himself came to this earth to show us what perfect Godliness is all about AND to die and save the lost of mankind. Yes, God has come to mankind in a wide variety of ways and through a tremendously wide variety of men and women from all walks of life to get His message of love and desire for reconcilation. Thanks be to Him, He is perseverant in pursuing us so that we might listen to what He has to say. God bless you. |
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432 | What can we do to have salvation | NT general Archive 1 | Rowdy | 114578 | ||
Part 2 of 2: Baptism to “Obey God” instead of “For the Remission of Sins” Lately, some have been willing to accept into fellowship those who were not baptized for the remission of sins. They reationalize that one who was baptized knew that he was doing so to “obey God,” so that would be sufficient. While it is good to want to obey God, one cannot “obey God” without understanding God’s Will. Jesus said, “It is written in the prophets, “And they shall all be taught of God. Every one that hath heard from the Father, and hath learned, cometh unto me” (Jn 6:44-5). The Biblical order in conversion is learning and then coming to God, not coming to God and then learning. Every religious action in the New Testament has a spiritual meaning behind it. There are no unnecessary rituals. One cannot misunderstand the meaning and still complete the action acceptably. Take the Lord’s Supper for instance. Once cannot eat the bread just to “obey God” and not understand that it represents His Body and do so in a manner well pleasing to God (Matt 26:28; 1 Cor 11:23-8). Paul found some in Ephesus who had been baptized incorrectly. Though they had been immersed, and had done so to “obey God,” they were lacking in their understanding of the Holy Spirit and the coming of Christ (Ac 19:1-6). When they learned that they did not properly understand baptism under the Great Commission, they were baptized again. Notice that since they were taught wrong, their baptism was wrong. No man can be taught wrong and baptized right. When one is being baptized, he must have faith that God is removing his sins. Examine Paul’s words: “Buried with him baptism, wherein also ye are risen with Him through the faith of the operatrion of God, who hath raised Him from the dead” Col 2:12) God performs an operation in the water. He does not cut away a cancerous organ or a diseased limb, but He does remove sin from the soul. We must have faith in that operation and in the Operator in order for it to be successful. 2) There is no such list possible because there is no one example or story in the NT where a person followed these 5 steps. BUT the challenge therein is that neither can Hank or anyone else come up with an absolute case or example of a person following THEIR plan of salvation. That's been one of my main points all along--we MUST take God at His Word and we MUST assume we should obey all of His commands to become a family member of our Lord's Kingdom--just to be on the safe side. 3) And finally "significance of the finished work of Christ" is for nought IF we aren't in God's family on God's Judgment Day. On that point, we can agree readily enough. It's the point of entry that causes so much controversy and I'll agree to that. There are several verses but I'll just cited one from Gal 3:26 You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, 27for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise. I do hope these two posts in total is clear to everyone and God bless. |
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433 | What can we do to have salvation | NT general Archive 1 | Rowdy | 114574 | ||
I need to respond to this post in two parts as I have a lot to say: 1) I've already cited in previous posts, the 5 distinct steps of Salvation. The only one that is so controversial to so many folks is that of baptism so the bulk of the post is devoted to that topic as provided below. Watered Down Baptism by Allen Webster When we “water something down,” it is diluted, weakened and made less potent. In the old days, taverns “watered down” firewater to make it go further. (You may have been inrestaurants that did the same thing to ketchup for the same reason.) Some medicines are “watered down” so they will not be too strong for children. If paint becomes too thick while setting in a shed, it has to be “watered down” with mineral spirits. In religion, some things have been watered down. In a decadent age of loose morals, many religious teachers have “watered down” the Gospel to make it more appealing to the vice-ridden, self-indulgent (cf. Gal 1:6-10). We are told: “Dress provocatively, if you want, but don’t go naked;” Gamble if you like, if it’s for a good cause, or entertaining, just don’t become addicted;” “Sex before marriage is acceptable, so long as it is between ‘consenting adults’ who intend to marry one day.” Thus homosexuality is blinked at, gambling sanctioned immodesty defended, and adulterers accepted without question. (cf. Rom 1:24-28; 12:17; Prov 23:29; Eph 6:18; 2 Tim 2:9; Gal 5:19-21; Mt 19:9). Baptism, too, has long been diluted in the Protestant and denominational world. No one can deny the importance that the Bible places on baptism since the word occurs nearly one hundred times in various forms in the New Testament. The Bible doctrine of baptism has been “watered down” in at least three ways. Baptism by Sprinkling instead of Immersion Some have watered down baptism by taking most of the water out. When Jesus was baptized, He was immersed. The text says He “went up straightway out of the water” (Matt 3:16). In order to go “up out of the water,” one has to be in the water. Further, the New Testament word for baptism (baptidzo) means “to dip, plunge, or submerge” (consult any standard reference work, such as Thayer or Liddell and Scott). John the Baptist found places to baptize where there was “much water” (John 3:23). The apostles practiced immersion. Paul call baptism a burial (Rom 6:3,4; Col 2:12). One who is buried is completely covered. The first historical case of sprinkling is documented—not in Scripture, but from church history. It was administered in 251 AD to a man named Novation who lay sick in bed. It was not accepted, generally, until a thousand years later at the Counsil of Ravenna in 1311. Sprinkling is watered down baptism. There is not enough left to save. Baptism “To Show One has been Saved” instead of “To Save” The purpose of baptism, according to the Bible, is to remove sins (Acts 22:16). Nowhere in the Bible does one read of a baptism to show the world that one has already been saved. Paul explained that it is a kind of re-enactment of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ (Rom 6:3-17). It shows the world that one has died to sin; then the dead man is buried so a new man can arise and be alive unto God. That does not discount the fact that God removes sins in this act of obedience. Jeesus said that it saves (Mk 16:16). Peter proclaimed it “for the remission of sins” (ac 2:38) and “commanded” those of Cornelius’ house to submit to it (Ac 10:48). Paul said that it puts one “into Christ” (Gal 3:26-7), where all spiritual blessings are (Eph 1:3—including salvation, 2 Tim 2:10). Peter later said that baptism “saves” (1 Pet 3:21). Baptism “to show you have been saved” is watered down. It has lost its potency. |
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434 | Teaching about Santa Claus? | John 10:10 | Rowdy | 114502 | ||
Dear Pixel, I have to agree with charis. We did basically the same thing with our two boys who are now grown and have their own lives to live. Personally, I think we have precious little time to spend with them as parents. Let them have fun, especially as young as your daughter is. Believe me, once you get as old as I am, you'll wish you had spent far more "pretend" time with her like I do with my boys. God bless your ultimate decision. |
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435 | Some questions to consider on John 10:10 | John 10:10 | Rowdy | 114499 | ||
I tranposed the following for context: John 10:8 "All who came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. 9 "I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. 10 "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly. 11 "I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. 12 "He who is a hired hand, and not a shepherd, who is not the owner of the sheep, sees the wolf coming, and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. 13 "He flees because he is a hired hand and is not concerned about the sheep. In this discussion, Jesus is painting a wonderful contrast between himself as the real deal, the actual owner of the sheep as the shepard and the deceiver or imposter, one who claims to be something he's not. We must be on constant guard against such persons who are wolves in sheep's clothing. Their words and actions must be compared to God's Words. When we notice discrepancies between the two, then we must approach the one in disagreement and attempt to correct him, doing so with love and concern for their souls of course. Upon their defiant refusal to turn away from the deceptive ways, they should be marked and avoided. While I was stationed in Greece, I found out some interesting tidbits about sheparding sheep, especially in Bible times. (Thought you might want to know.) In Israel, good shepards were expected to corral their sheep at night, especially when it was cold and they needed to stay warm. During this time, the shepard was expected to literally sleep in the doorway just as is depicted in Jesus parable here in John 10. It makes the story come alive a little more for the reader as the shepard was to give his life in defense of those sheep just as our Perfect Shepard did at the cross. Good questions and God bless. |
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436 | Why not hide the tree before the fall? | Gen 3:3 | Rowdy | 114494 | ||
Sorry, just remembered. The link you're looking for is on the left, entitled "Update User Info." | ||||||
437 | What can we do to have salvation | NT general Archive 1 | Rowdy | 114441 | ||
I'm sorry. I didn't see this post yesterday when I replied to your other post on this thread. I deeply regret your feeling the way you do here. I was kinda looking forward to a different level of respect for each other but it appears you're far too sensitive about this subject. I don't really understand why. As I've mentioned in previous posts, I was trying to cite at least a few scriputres in support of my statements. Yes, of course there are certain questions and statements of others to which I respond with opinions and conclusions. That's particularly true when the Bible doesn't specifically address the subject like why does God do certain things. It's difficult to imagine a person answering such a question without such a philosophical approach in his answer. Also I don't like to repeat someone else's post of scriputre when it's been posted before or some other scripture with the same kind of guidance. As I mentioned just recently, God should only have to say something, especially a directive or a command once and that should be good enough. But, maybe we both should give this topic a rest and maybe revisit it when you're in a better mood, more inclined to be objective and reasonable. But I am curious about something. Can you tell me how many of the Lockman Foundation are actually reviewing the majority of the posts to this Forum? I'm wondering what do they think of your's and my post over these last few days? I promise to pray for you and ask God's blessings on you. Please do the same for me. Thanks. |
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438 | What can we do to have salvation | NT general Archive 1 | Rowdy | 114358 | ||
Sorry, just seemed like you may have needed a reminder. Now and then, my wife reminds me of certain things I did or agreed to when my current words or actions belay that in the past. So I take it, we're both accepting each other's challenge. See ya at the podium and God bless. |
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439 | Why not hide the tree before the fall? | Gen 3:3 | Rowdy | 114356 | ||
Just keep on using the Forum and looking at all the links. You'll see one saying profile. It's one more way you can tell us more about your background, who you are and what's really important to you. Some profiles are quite interesting and others are poetic. Still some are cryptic but I'm sure yours will reflect your personality. God bless. |
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440 | What can we do to have salvation | NT general Archive 1 | Rowdy | 114354 | ||
I thought we were going to give our Forum readers a break from this discussion but alas you don't want the last word as I've offered so I would like to issue a challenge to you, call it a counter offer if you will. Why don't you take my last three posts on this subject and submit a rebuttal to each point with specific scriptural references to each one? I on the other hand will work on my rebuttal to your challenge as cited in your most recent post. I'd like to add one more CRITICALLY IMPORTANT caveat to this challenge. Please also include in your rebuttal a specific item responding to my main point in my post to Kalos, numbered 114308. It too is on this thread and is very much closely related. ALSO, I must admit you do seem to be approaching a dangerous violation of the Forum conditions for responses, numbered 2 and 3, especially with your recent post no 114346. Why you seem to foster such intense debates and personal attacks, I can't imagine but hopefully I'm just being overly sensitive and I'll go on and forgive you anyway. Which conditions? I copied them here for you as a reminder: 2. This post is not intended as a personal attack on the authority of the Bible or on other users of this forum. 3. This post is not submitted as an effort to foster divisiveness, ill-will, dissension or other disruptions to this forum. Maybe after this little debate of ours, we can pray together that God gets the glory and His Word will win. God bless you, dear friend in your study and preparation of your rebuttal. |
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