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To: P-Marlowe
Paul says that Abraham's faith was not a work, but his faith was accounted unto him for righteousness. Isn't that what Paul says in Romans 5:4???? Yes or No ——

Yes.

Good ---- then believing in God's word is not a work.

Did God draw you to him?

He certainly did just as He does to all men as the scripture says: "If I be lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men unto me". But He didn't say that He would make all men believe in him.

Is your belief the product of God directly intervening in your life to bring you to a saving faith in Christ?

Yes --- just as He promises to intervene in everyone's life to draw them to His Son, but believing in the salvation that He provides through His word was still ultimately in my hands not His. I couldn't "work" my way to eternal life, but I could "believe" in the work that God had done as revealed through His Word. My "believing" was not "a work" anymore than opening my hands to receive a gift at Christmas time is a work or an effort on my part.

Is opening your hands to receive a gift an effort for you? Is it work to accept a gift?

Or is this something that you did on your own?

I did nothing more or less than Abraham, who believed God, and his belief was not a work, as you have correctly acknowledged. But his belief was accounted to him for righteousness.

Has your belief in God's Word been accounted to you for righteousness, like Abraham's was, or do you consider it work to open your bible and receive what is written therein?

159 posted on 05/28/2007 9:04:59 AM PDT by Uncle Chip (TRUTH : Ignore it. Deride it. Allegorize it. Interpret it. But you can't ESCAPE it.)
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To: Uncle Chip
but believing in the salvation that He provides through His word was still ultimately in my hands not His.

You really need to think about that statement for a while.

Do you really believe it? You have made your belief your work (not God's), by taking the ultimate determination as to your eternal destiny out of the hands of God and into your own hands. Are you sure you want to do that?

If salvation is ultimately in your hands and not His, then you are in fact your own savior. Christ then becomes some kind of potential generic savior, but you become the ultimate Savior.

Think about that for a while.

163 posted on 05/28/2007 10:20:04 AM PDT by P-Marlowe (LPFOKETT GAHCOEEP-w/o*)
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