Results 961 - 980 of 1003
|
||||||
Results from: Answered Bible Questions, Answers, Unanswered Bible Questions, Notes Author: Rowdy Ordered by Verse |
||||||
Results | Verse | Author | ID# | |||
961 | Answering Baptismal Regenerationalist | 1 Pet 3:21 | Rowdy | 113679 | ||
I'm sorry but I must differ with you on this subject. We are certainly not saved by faith alone. James makes this very clear in Chapter 2. One must read the whole Bible, "rightly dividing God's Word." Tell me...based on your statement, "by faith alone that we are saved," you seem to leave out other important steps of salvation such as repentance and confession. Are you actually trying to say that or did you leave them out by oversight? Anyway, I'd have to disagree with you regardless of your answer. We MUST see ourselves as in need of obeying ALL of God's commands so as to qualify for the Holy Spirit's gift of salvation. I keep on saying these kind of statements but no one can show me in God's Word where a person is actually saved or is actually pronounced a christian after showing his faith only. I've issued this challenge once before and would like to reiterate it to you: Can you cite a single verse in the Bible where it specifically says the words "faith only" or where a person is described saved or is pronounced a christian after showing his "faith only" without baptism or any other act of obedience to God? I've mentioned this comparison before. When does a couple get to enjoy the full legal status of marriage? AFTER the ceremony is performed or the documents are signed and processed by the court appointed official of the respective state in which the marriage takes place. As we all know, there is some small variances from state to state. My point is: the legal recognition of that marriage is very important in a court of law. If one partner of that couple dies before that legal point of marriage is consemated, there is no marriage, no transferance of property, no other benefits derived from the marriage attempted. In our world of sinful short sightedness, we recognize the importance of such relationships and the point of time of that legal recognition. Don't you think it's going to matter to the God of our universe when we "put on Christ?" When we recognize the tremendous cost and give up total control of our lives to our God, all people agree this is a major watershed in one's life. Every christian I know remembers vividly when and where they were baptized. They remember the circumstances or at least most of them. It's the point in your life when you know you've obeyed every one of God's commands and can approach God both in prayer and on Judgment Day with every confidence that you've complied with His Son's whole Last Will and Testament. Before that point, everything is academic and worthy of discussion. When someone hesitates or puts a significant amount of time before being baptized, they are taking a chance they might not live another minute or maybe even face the Lord's second coming. Now, you're going to say "What about the thief on the cross?" or "What about the person that dies of a heart attack just before being baptized?" Those kind of questions are basically left up for God. We can speculate and we can discuss those issues as long as you like but the bottom line is, we don't have an authoritative answer. This I know, we must obey God to be found pleasing in His sight. I'm still interested in your response, especially to the challenge. I pray God blesses you in your study. |
||||||
962 | What commands must we obey 2B saved? | 1 Pet 3:21 | Rowdy | 113740 | ||
This post is for both Searcher and CDBJ. I agree with both of you; this IS NOT an easy subject but I'll try to deal with all the points of your posts. First of all, let's agree to subdivide God's commands in the NT to His children, those who want to be with God at Judgment Day, into 2 groups. The first group would be those 5 steps of salvation I've posted once before but I'll repeat them here: 1) Hear/understand the Gospel of Christ, 2) Believe that Jesus is the Son of God, IAW that Gospel, 3) Repent of one's sins and resolve to turn away from that life of sin as much as possible, 4) Confess that belief in Christ as God's Son publically, and 5) Be baptized for the remission of one's sins in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. One should also consider the cost of this committment, which includes a total living sacrifice and a resolution to immitate Jesus and His official representatives (the Apostles) in the example they set as well as the directives they gave, found throughout the NT. Now onto the second group of commands from God's Word, those coming AFTER becoming a christian and being added to the Lord's church. We could spend the rest of lives discussing this subject and fill up hundreds of books like we're seeing on the bookshelves in our stores. Basically, in summary those commands are all the other directives or imperatives as provided in the NT, i.e. sing, adding the fruits of the Spirit and maintaining our armor of God so as to avoid the temptations of the Devil. Now you're probably saying about now, "It's literally impossible for one human being to do all of that." And to that I say an hearty AMEN and thank God for it. That's where grace comes in. We must be in a constant state of introspection, soul-searching, re-evaluating and maturing in our life of immitating Christ. We should feel free to confide in our soul-mate and open up our hearts to that person, expressing our fears, our short comings and solicit their prayers and support. Of course, we must do the same for them. Don't misunderstand, this is not an option as far as our Lord is concerned. Just as John explains in his 1st letter, we must see ourselves in the fellowship with God, while striving to maintain that fellowship with all of God's family. This constant vigilence keeps the blood of Christ active in our spiritual lives and constantly cleansing our soul of those few sins accorded to us on a daily basis. But we MUST also see ourselves as drawing closer and closer to our God and He'll do His part and draw us closer to Him. Sure there's going to much in the life of a christian left undone and ocassionally the best, most mature christian will commit a sin but that's also where God's grace bridges the gap. Now on the subject of Cornelius, his family and their being saved: this too is a tough subject. I've got to say it seems to me it's fairly obvious that Cornelius was saved in much the same manner as the Apostles. Don't you know that the Apostles were all baptized AFTER receiving the Empowerment of the Holy Ghost on that sacred 1st day of the church? I'd like to think they even had fun baptizing each other. Another interesting question: who was the first Apostle to be baptized? Let's pose your question from the other perspective. Let's suppose that Cornelius or any one member of his family (excluding the small children since they couldn't repent and believe) refused to be baptized. This person after receiving Empowerment from the Holy Ghost and THEN refuses to obey God's requirement to become a family member. What do you think? I've got to conclude he probably wouldn't have kept the Holy Spirit within him much longer. It would have left him just like it left King Saul in the OT, just like the Holy Spirit leaves a christian (in today's world) when he continues to sin willfully and doesn't repent. He gives up that redemptive power and all the benefits that go with it. I guess you can figure my answer to your question BUT the most important thing is IT'S GOD'S DECISION. I hope this long post is read by all on the Forum and God bless you all. |
||||||
963 | Acts 10:47? | 1 Pet 3:21 | Rowdy | 113758 | ||
I can only respond with the facts as they are presented in God's Word. Numerous examples in the scriptures point out the urgent need of baptism as in the Ethiopian eunuch and the Phillipian jailer. It seems in almost all the examples I know about that baptism was an essential step in this process, thus the urgency. Also, it doesn't say in Acts 10:47 the Apostles or Cornelius was saved without baptism. If he were, it seems he would have waited on being baptized until there were more witnesses. This was a major event if you remember, the first time a christian jew converted a gentile to christianity. Remember Peter had to be convinced with a dream to do this and he told the story again to his fellow christian jews in Jerusalem because of this radical departure from the previous regime of Godliness for everyone. With all of that importance to this change and the lack of importance of baptism in the scenario you describe, why wouldn't Peter have wanted many more witnesses? No, my friend, I'm afraid I'll stick to my conclusion that baptism is essential for our salvation. I'd also be interested in your response to all the other points in both of my posts to you. Do continue studying and praying on this subject with an open mind. God bless you. |
||||||
964 | What do you do with Acts 8:16? | 1 Pet 3:21 | Rowdy | 113841 | ||
I'm inserting a quote from Acts 8 as follows: Acts 8:14 Now when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent them Peter and John, Acts 8:15 who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit. Acts 8:16 For He had not yet fallen upon any of them; they had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. I must admit, I don't see how this scripture helps your case against the essentiality of baptism. In this scenario, people were being converted to Christianity so the Apostles thought it would be a good idea to go down and lay hands on a select few. Throughout the NT, the Apostles would impart a miraculous portion of the Holy Spirit by laying their hands on certain individuals so they could strengthen and encourage their congregation's development. This was done extensively throughout this period because they didn't have God's Word like we have today in its present form. Again, as mentioned in previous posts, we have to see two different kinds of relationships here during this period of initial (embryo type) growth of the church. The plan of salvation was always the same although it was never listed in a 1, 2, 3 step by step fashion as we modern pragmatists would like. The Comforter as promised by our Lord was sent to be the principal active being from the Godhead during this dispensation. During this initial period, the Holy Spirit empowered the Apostles with all manner of miraculous powers to confirm their words as coming from God. But once their thoughts, their directives, their whole story was documented for our sake like Theophilus, along with the epistles written with the help of the Holy Spirit, there was no need for miracles performed by human beings. God's Word is now confirmed by "credible testimony," secular historical documents and archelogical artifacts. This period of the demise of miracles by humans was forecasted by Paul in 1 Cor 13:10. I don't think there are any scriptures that support the idea of the Holy Spirit's imparting salvation without obeying God's plan of salvation, including baptism. If you know of such scriptures, I'd love to see them and discuss them with you. At any rate, I'd be interested in your response. God bless. |
||||||
965 | Two groups of Christians at judgment? | 1 Pet 3:21 | Rowdy | 113843 | ||
I'm not really sure why you withdrew your question but I'll try to answer regardless. I didn't really say in my post there would be two different groups of christians. I said there are two different groups of commands from our God. The second group don't really come into consideration until AFTER one becomes a christian. But now that you bring it up for discussion, I guess there will be two groups of christians on Judgment Day: 1) those who are actually faithful til death and are able to enter the Master's mansion prepared for them and 2) those christians who have turned their backs to the Lord or gone to sleep as the Apostle Paul puts it. They enjoyed the gift of salvation briefly and then chose to go back to a life of sin, depicted as a dog returning its vomit or a pig to its mud. The key word is return. The came out of the world of sin, took on Christ as their Savior and chose to go back to that world dominated by the Devil. So as you can guess, this latter group of christians are treated like the goats in your scenario above, quoted from Matthew. I hope this is clear and helps your understanding. God bless. |
||||||
966 | Rowdy, what did the Spirit do in the OT? | 1 Pet 3:21 | Rowdy | 113844 | ||
I'm not aware of any specific scriptures that depict the Holy Spirit acting separately from the Godhead in the OT but I'd be interested in that to which you are referring. God bless. | ||||||
967 | When were Cornelius and comapny saved? | 1 Pet 3:21 | Rowdy | 118100 | ||
Matt 28:19 "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Any serious Bible student recognizes the NT sub-divides into 2 different basic categories. The conversion of all unbelievers into christians and then their continued growth and maturity in a spiritual relationship with our Lord. A person could compare this to the process of gaining an education during the childhood phase of each human being, on through high school and/or college, and then move on to the next major phase of life, employment and a continued life of learning. The most important thing to our God is to get us in His family headed to His home in Heaven. He wants all to keep studying His Word, keep growing in faith and maturity in His love and the ways we show His love to our fellow man, just as His Son said upon His farewell to His beloved disciples. God bless. --Rowdy |
||||||
968 | What do you do with Acts 8:16? | 1 Pet 3:21 | Rowdy | 118646 | ||
First of all, I must apologize for not responding earlier so as to prevent your withdrawal. As long as a person is quoting and asking a question from the Bible directly to me, I'm ALWAYS willing to at least discuss it, especially if the verse is from the NT. Inserted for reference: Acts 8:14 Now when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent them Peter and John, 15 who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit. 16 For He had not yet fallen upon any of them; they had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 17 Then they began laying their hands on them, and they were receiving the Holy Spirit. You emphasize verse 16 and I'm inferring you are emphasizing the word "simply." From that assumption, I can only conclude you might be thinking this means that being "baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus" does not mean that these folks were saved. Maybe in today's world without the miraculous measure of the Holy Spirit evident all everyone christians went in the first century this use of the word simply might mean such a thing. BUT I think there was so much emphasis and attraction to miracles and the ability to perform them (just as we see in the verses following 17) that some christiains felt "left out" and not fully in receipt of God's portion of christianity He was pouring out on the whole world AT THAT TIME. This is the main reason so much of Paul's writing to the Corinthians was devoted to the miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit. Most christians ended up misusing them or at the very least misunderstanding their main purpose, thus their ending is forecasted in 1 Cor 13. If a person analyzes the logic in this thread with emphasis on the statement as you've made, I'm afraid almost anyone would see the error in your conclusion. I see your point but it's merely just ONE WAY to interpret verse 16 and since the bulk of the NT clearly portrays baptism as prerequisite to salvation, I'll have to stick to the Bible's emphasis on all the 5 steps of salvation as cited earlier. IF I've drawn the wrong conclusion from your post, please correct me and I'll try again. Thanks and God bless. --Rowdy |
||||||
969 | Rowdy, what did the Spirit do in the OT? | 1 Pet 3:21 | Rowdy | 118647 | ||
I thought the discussion about the Spirit's involvement with King Saul made my opinion position on this pretty clear but I'll try again. Upon studying God's Word (all of it) and looking at it as a whole, it becomes pretty clear that God the Father took "center stage" throughout the OT. Whereas Jesus do the same in the Gospels as portrayed by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Then, during the rest of the NT AFTER the Gospels, the Holy Spirit dominated and had His time. Now don't misunderstand, PLEASE, each of the three had a brief showing in each of these 3 phases. For example, it's suggested by some that we see Jesus in Dan 3:25 He said, "Look! I see four men loosed and walking about in the midst of the fire without harm, and the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods!" So the conclusion is all 3 of the Godhead have been involved in this world-wide program of God's getting his beloved creation back at Home with Him since the creation. But I agree with you it is rather obvious that their appearance in the different phases as mentioned above is in submission to Whomever has center stage. I hope this makes my position more clear. God bless. --Rowdy |
||||||
970 | What do you do with Acts 8:16? | 1 Pet 3:21 | Rowdy | 118761 | ||
I thought of another illustration that might make this even more clear. Have you ever been through a special canvasing of a community with flyers with coupons to a local business? And then follow up that campaign with another one in a neighboring community but with a few minor differences, maybe an expiration date on each of the coupon sheets? Or some other differnce? Maybe one is better than the other, with larger discounts? That's the scenario I would paint for you to help you understand the first century world of christians. Now remember, we're dealing with first century christians who were just getting acquainted with God and Godliness as in the case of Corinth. So, in some cities, word of this miraculous measure of power from the Holy Spirit was being spread around the known world, originating in Jerusalem. As you can imagine the cities (congregations of christians) who didn't have these miraculous powers would want those powers and want them very badly, maybe even lust for these abilities. Now maybe you can imagine just how bad things were in the first century and no wonder that our Lord DOESN'T see fit to have this miraculous age to go on with human beings in control. Once again, our Lord wants us to graduate from this kind of simple and shallow spiritual depth in our walk with God. He wants us to grow and mature and get out of this kind of addiction for the physical world and learn to prefer His world of the spiritual, the infinite over the finite. I hope this analogy helps all those who might read this thread. God bless. --Rowdy |
||||||
971 | Brotherly affection or christian love? | 2 Pet 1:7 | Rowdy | 114692 | ||
This topic has been discussed quite a bit. The Greek allowed for 3 to 4 different kinds/levels of love. If you'll insert Agape, eros or philio into the search engine to the right of your screen, you should be able to find more than you ever wanted to know about the subject. God bless. | ||||||
972 | Creation vs Evolutionists | 2 Pet 2:1 | Rowdy | 121995 | ||
In addition to all the other posts you've rec'd, there's another excellent website, apologeticspress.org. It's managed and edited by a bunch of christian scientists and they all believe very strongly in creation over evolution. Most of these gentlemen and ladies have degrees and much experience in discussing scientific facts in support of God's account of creation. I'm using some of their lesson plans at present, on my Sunday morning class with adults. It's been most stimulating in lots of good discussion. God bless. --Rowdy |
||||||
973 | grace after death | 2 Pet 3:10 | Rowdy | 118197 | ||
2 Pet 3:9 The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. 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. 11 Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, 12 looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat! 13 But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells. I don't know anything about a second form of grace apart from what we read in our Bibles. Grace will be most important to us on Judgment Day when God considers how we lived our lives here on earth. The gap between our imperfect lives and His perfect standard as in His Son will be made up by this Grace IF we have the right relationship with His Son's blood. Anything concerning this physical world will be all destroyed and thus of no consequence. God bless. --Rowdy |
||||||
974 | Is it possible to sin in heaven? | 1 John 3:2 | Rowdy | 119252 | ||
I have to agree with Hank and BradK. When you make a broad statement like this which seems to go counter with the Bible, it's best to cite scripture in support. Maybe then, we can come to an agreement as to exactly what the Bible says on the matter. You may have noticed. Sometimes, some of my posts don't go down so well with the "establishment of the Forum." Sometimes, I'm able to support my statements with scriptures and ocassionally I have to admit they're opinions or conclusions on my part. God bless. --Rowdy |
||||||
975 | making it to heaven after you get saved | 1 John 3:9 | Rowdy | 118122 | ||
I'd like to throw in another comment to those good ones already provided: Rev 2:8 "To the angel of the church in Smyrna write: These are the words of him who is the First and the Last, who died and came to life again. 9I know your afflictions and your poverty-yet you are rich! I know the slander of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. 10Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life. 11He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes will not be hurt at all by the second death. I rarely quote from this book as to me it's so controversial and difficult to understand but I take comfort in these 7 letters written directly from our Lord to His children in these different cities. I think it does us good to review them, both for us on an individual basis as well as from a congregation perspective. The one above is one of the seven in which our Lord does NOT have any words of criticism or a harsh rebuke, just words of praise and encouragement to keep the faith. That is the most important directive to us as christians in verse 10 to "Be faithful, even to death." God bless. --Rowdy |
||||||
976 | What does baptism consist? | 1 John 5:6 | Rowdy | 113681 | ||
Don't you think this is one reason why the Devil tempted (successfully) King James into having the KJV Bible abused this way. King James didn't want to humble himself and submit to God's plan of salvation. Back in the 16th century, the Greek word, baptizo (sp?) had one single meaning: immersion. King James ordered his Bible scholars to "interpret" the word baptizo into something else and allow him some other way of getting into God's family of good, obedient christians. Either his way or they would lose their heads. This is fairly common knowledge in historical documents. So, their conclusion (solution) was to come up with the Anglicized word "baptize." Why? Indeed, why would so many people from the past, present and future discuss this tremendous controversy so much except at the temptation from the Devil? Do you think maybe, just maybe he thought "If I can't kill God's Son, if I can't kill His church, maybe I can deceive mankind into thinking they can change God's Plan of Salvation. They'll think they're in the family of God, listening to my only slightly perverted version of God's Word, just like I changed things just slightly with one word in the Garden of Eden." You may be thinking I'm placing far too much emphasis on this baptism business and I guess I'd have to agree with you EXCEPT this is what I see from God's Word. He placed tremendous emphasis throughout the OT on blood and set us (mankind) up to understand likewise in this dispensation. I'm not saying that we should rely on baptism as being a item of work on our part. I am saying that God wants us to see this as the point in which we contact His Son's blood in faith. We should see in accordance with Rom 6 that we put away the man of sin with Jesus' burial and rise up as a new creature with our sins forgiven then and afterwards by His Son's blood. You and most all the participants know the scriptures and know the phrase "remission of sins" is always associated with baptism and not with any other step of salvation. Tim, please understand, I'm not saying you are deceiving people or are in a team effort with the Devil. I am saying that Satan is an incredibly good liar and takes deception to an art form in excellence. What do you think? Please respond and God bless you. |
||||||
977 | What does baptism consist? | 1 John 5:6 | Rowdy | 113741 | ||
I think you and Hank both might be interested in my recent post to Searcher and CDBJ; the number is 113740. It's sad most on the Forum won't see this thread but I'll settle for this. God bless you, my friend. | ||||||
978 | What does baptism consist? | 1 John 5:6 | Rowdy | 113805 | ||
I just looked up the following website and confirmed at least a few other people with a similar view of baptism as mine. http://www.riveroflifeworship.com/baptism.htm I must admit, I do think we're spending entirely too much time on such an elementary subject that seems so clear from the whole of God's Word. I emphasize we must take all of God's Word on all the many different subjects discussed on this Forum or any other Biblical discussions. But I still pray for God's blessings on you. |
||||||
979 | A witness of the (w)Word? Yes. Both? | 1 John 5:6 | Rowdy | 122832 | ||
Ray, my dear friend, I must admit you do seem to be just a little obsessed by this ministry of yours, as alluded to by Searcher. Maybe you've been called to this ministry but it seems to be dominating almost all your posts to the Forum, and thereby limiting the effectiveness of your posts if we on the Forum see it as being obsessive. But ultimately it's your call, between you and God. I do hope and pray God blesses you in your continued study of His Word. --Rowdy |
||||||
980 | A witness of the (w)Word? Yes. Both? | 1 John 5:6 | Rowdy | 122849 | ||
I can offer nothing but admiration for your perseverance. I'm sure most people considered John the Baptist and his cousin, Jesus both rather obsessive about their ministry. If all of us humans could only be so consumed. God bless us all, but I would ask the Lord for a special blessing on the wife of such a man as you describe. --Rowdy |
||||||
Result pages: << First < Prev [ 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 ] Next > Last [51] >> |