Posted on 07/18/2008 6:46:18 AM PDT by Alex Murphy
You contradict yourself. You have no way of knowing which are "empty" and which are not.
You've discovered Calvinism.
maybe in his youth he was a “strict roman catholic”. As an adult he privately despised the Catholic Church (not in public, as that would alienate many Germans and indeed most of Christianity, which he considered “weak” and, ironically, “Jewish”.)
as far as considering the priesthood, I think you have him mixed up with Stalin, who considered becoming a priest in his youth and went to a seminary.
Agreed, two totally different situations.
All religious orders aside, he’s spot on.
Who are you to judge who was "very much aware" of anything?
Many are subjected to the Gospel but do not respond to it until God draws them in. I wouldn't automatically discount anyone's conversion, no matter how late.
Who would have thought Saul the persecutor would become St. Paul?
So are Calvinists right or wrong?
Misguided.
We didn’t say it, God did...check a Bible.
Is that for sure or just a hunch? How is it determined?
“If I knew God I’d be Him.”
For sure. On the authority of the Church.
The Ten Commandments define for man what is the nature of God. A human without His Life in their Spirit to direct their soul of aliveness cannot live up to the Ten Commandments. BUT Jesus did live up to the Ten Commandments because He had God's Spirit LIFE in His human spirit and the scriptures teach He did not sin because His 'seed' remained within Him. His Seed did not remain in Adam because Adam rebelled and sin entered the human family, and with sin, death, spirit death, the LIFE went out from the human spirit.
Jesus taught us that we each individually may have that LIFE restored to our individual human spirit and thus our individual soulish life, by trusting in (faithing) in Him to be our individual 'Soter', which means Deliverer from this state of sin and death. God in His love made the process of Spiritual birth very simple. Jesus explained it to a Sanhedrin member named Nicodemus, recorded in John Chapter three, around verse five and following.
You conflated several theological questions in your query. Perhaps the one you truly seek to understand is related to those whom never hear the Gospel of God's Grace toward us in the person and thus redemption offered in Jesus the Christ ... 'what about those who never get to hear what is in the previous paragraphs?' There are several ways to approach that query, but it isn't your problem now, is it! You just read the previous paragraphs, and if God's Spirit is consistent, you had at least a tiny twinge of wondering whether He is Alive in Your human spirit. [Write to me via freepmail and I'll address the other vagaries of that query, regarding those who never hear the message in their lifetime on earth.]
as far as considering the priesthood, I think you have him mixed up with Stalin, who considered becoming a priest in his youth and went to a seminary.
I do remember Stalin considered the priesthood. I may be confusing Hitler's childhood impersonations of Mass. I will have to reread some of my sources (real books, not wiki) and update.
Thanks
How does the church really know?
It's the difference between what's "Christian" and "Spiritual" and what's Scriptural and Biblical.
We had a sermon on July 6th on this very topic. I invite everyone to listen to one of our pastors talk about loving Truth and hating every false way.
That's essentially what the story is about - truth vs. falsehood. God doesn't want us to be uninformed.
"KNOW You Love The Word of God pt3"
It's also available via iTunes - Northwest Bible Church
Shhh. Dat’s sum flamey ole-talk dat is... (But I believe it)
Who are you to judge who was "very much aware" of anything?
I'm pretty much playing percentages here. A vast majority of Roman Catholics by the time of their Communion have a basic idea about God's message.
... Who would have thought Saul the persecutor would become St. Paul?
I couldn't give a tare about Saul. If I recall correctly, Jesus built His Church upon His rock, Peter not that "Johnny-come-lately". I wouldn't be surprised if he were an agent of Satan. His letters and sermons caused more division in the early Church than unity.
You’ve been offered answer to that repeated query, and it has been offered on several occasions by several different Christian people. Yet you continue to ask that same thing as if there is no satisfactory answer ... for you. By remaining obstinate you set your own fate. You pretend that if you suffer an adverse fate it must be God’s fault, but your rejection of the responses shows it is in fact your responsibility that determines your fate.
When Jesus said “no one comes to the Father but through me”, I believe he was saying that HE is the judge. He certainly wasn’t saying that if you confess his name that you are saved! He makes that very plain when he said:
“Not everyone who says to me,’Lord, Lord’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.”
This also implies that someone that doesn’t know the name of Christ might be saved since God speaks to everyone, and if they LISTEN and do his will, Christ will judge them worthy; but THEY STILL MUST GO THROUGH HIM!
(BTW, this doesn’t apply to those who have heard of Christ but reject him!)
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