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NASB | Ephesians 1:4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Ephesians 1:4 just as [in His love] He chose us in Christ [actually selected us for Himself as His own] before the foundation of the world, so that we would be holy [that is, consecrated, set apart for Him, purpose-driven] and blameless in His sight. In love |
Subject: Predestination |
Bible Note: You wrote: "If I have faith and walk by faith in the Spirit I can hear God and know what a verse of scripture really means and how I am to live it." And how does God speak to you? Audibly? And what about when someone claiming to be just as "Spirit-filled," perhaps even in your own congregation, maybe someone you even admire as a great man of God, tells you that you are wrong and that it means something else? The book of 1 John, from which you deduce that no man needs to be taught anything if he has the Spirit, is itself a book full of teaching. If these people need no teaching at all about anything, then why in the world is John teaching them??? You are seeming to say that teaching is for the "second-class" Christian who cannot hear God on his own. Please tell me that is not what you mean! By the way, the apostle Peter himself, the great orator of Pentecost, said that Paul's writings were often hard to understand (2 Peter 3:14-16). Am I to understand that the Spirit was not speaking clearly to Peter? Okay, and you are making some pretty sweeping generalizations about schools of theology. Yes, there are without question some liberal seminaries out there. They teach garbage and do indeed deny the reliability of Scripture. SOME seminaries do that. Big shock. Counterfeit Christianity has been with us since the days of the apostles. That does not mean despair of learning the truth from gifted teachers in seminaries that exalt God and His Word. Your story that you think you heard about Billy Graham having to leave some school somewhere at some time is quite enlightening...down with all seminaries! --Joe! |