Posted on 01/14/2011 5:57:52 PM PST by topcat54
Evangelical book catalogs promote books such as Planet Earth: The Final Chapter, The Great Escape, and the Left Behind series. Bumper stickers warn us that the vehicle’s occupants may disappear at any moment. It is clear that there is a preoccupation with the idea of a secret rapture. Perhaps this has become more pronounced recently due to the expectation of a new millennium and the fears regarding potential Y2K problems. Perhaps psychologically people are especially receptive to the idea of an imminent, secret rapture at the present time. Additionally, many Christians are not aware that any other position relative to the second coming of Jesus Christ exists. Even in Reformed circles there are numerous people reading these books. Many of these people are unaware that this viewpoint conflicts with Scripture and Reformed Theology.
(Excerpt) Read more at reformed.org ...
Meant to ping you guys to #3320
Er... Indulgences?
You continue to deflect!
Fail. Try again. I’ve already shown you how scripture refutes the false doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church; so have many others.
That point is now (and really, for a while) closed. Yet you cannot answer my question: it’s RCC doctrine—why no scriptural support.
Hoss
Who said I was reading them?
Plenty true.
What bridge?
I do not understand what you mean by this "gap."
Dear Mark, it seems to me the two cannot be separable while a person lives. For when the soul departs (the spiritual principle), the body (the temporal principle) dies.
Prior to placing faith in Christ, God the Father must draw us to Him, then He receives as we place faith in Him.
Without first being drawn to Him, the exercise is merely man made, an academic imagination.
Start by placing faith through Christ first, then consider the Eucharist.
Do not place faith first in the Church, then in what they provide to have access to God, but first in Christ, then in what God provides.
Do this in remembrance of Him. When we are doing this in remembrance of Him, we are exercising our mind, our soul.
When we think upon Him, His work at the Cross, and confess our sins to Him, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. We partake of the Eucharist while in fellowship with Him, not as a method of returning to fellowship, but the same process also occurs whenever we return to fellowship with Him.
Just as when we break bread and eat it, we are focusing on the Body being broken, namely our Lord Christ Jesus in the flesh, who gave Himself to be broken on the Cross and we consume, take part, focusing on accepting what He provided on the Cross, and intake from Him, the Bread of Life, being now part of the same Body.
Next we partake of the cup, the blood of sacrificial atonement for all sin by His death on the Cross, the New Covenant in His blood, his death on the Cross, which has paid the debt for sin, propitiated the wrath of God, and reconciled man to God.
We are not focused upon how His wrath is upon us, but how Christ and ONLY Christ has paid for that debt, such that we no longer are the object of His wrath.
While we are sinners, our perspective of God is facing His Perfect Justice, but in returning to fellowship with Him, our perspective is from the point of view of Perfect Righteousness,....through faith in Christ.
If we slip and approach Him as though we are guilty, fearing His wrath, we are not approaching Him from the perspective of faith in what Christ has already done on the Cross.
Assurance of Salvation
Q. On what should we base our assurance of salvation? I know the Word and the promises of the Gospel are our rock, but how do we distinguish between real faith and mere intellectual assent? I ask this because many evangelicals make me nervous when they say that if one has doubts about one's salvation, one is probably not saved, because the Holy Spirit is supposed to provide inner assurance. (I guess this ties in to the whole Pietist problem.) But in the face of emotional ups and downs, moral failings, intellectual doubts, and confusion over doctrine, how can one know if one truly has faith in Christ?
A. Lutherans believe that faith is created and strengthened not by looking inside of one's self (to one's own faith and/or doubts) but by looking outside of one's self (to God's Word and promises in Christ). Therefore, assurance of salvation is to be sought by looking to God's Word and promises in Christ (which create and strengthen the faith through which one is saved), not by looking inward at the strength or weakness of one's own faith (which creates either pride and false assurance or doubt and lack of assurance). Anxiety regarding doubts, strength of faith and certainty of salvation are signs of faith (however weak it may be), not signs of unbelief, since the unbeliever has no concern or anxiety about doubts, faith or salvation. If you would like to study this issue further, I would recommend Martin Chemnitz's book on "Justification" available from Concordia Publishing House (1-800-325-3040, stock no. 15-2186).
Since man is unable to provide anything for his own salvation, he also is unable to do anything to lose it once God has given it.
That doesn’t mean there aren’t loss of rewards in heaven, should a believer fall out of fellowship and fail to walk according to God’s Plan.
It simply recognizes God is always faithful, even when man isn’t.
And THANK YOU, GOD for that!!!!!
2 Timothy 2:11-13 The saying is trustworthy, for:
If we have died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he also will deny us; if we are faithless, he remains faithful—
for he cannot deny himself.
There are some who believe Christ’s words in John 6 and Paul’s writings in Corinthians (namely Orthodox, Copts, Catholics, Armenians, Ethiopians, Assyrians, Anglicans, Lutherans) and there are those who do not believe in Christ’s words in John 6(Calvinists)
That is pretty similar to what Catholics believe if not the same.
| 12 “Therefore, son of man, say to your people, ‘If someone who is righteous disobeys, that person’s former righteousness will count for nothing. And if someone who is wicked repents, that person’s former wickedness will not bring condemnation. The righteous person who sins will not be allowed to live even though they were formerly righteous.’ 13 If I tell a righteous person that they will surely live, but then they trust in their righteousness and do evil, none of the righteous things that person has done will be remembered; they will die for the evil they have done. 14 And if I say to a wicked person, ‘You will surely die,’ but they then turn away from their sin and do what is just and right— 15 if they give back what they took in pledge for a loan, return what they have stolen, follow the decrees that give life, and do no evil—that person will surely live; they will not die. 16 None of the sins that person has committed will be remembered against them. They have done what is just and right; they will surely live. |
It's good that you are reading the links I sent that prove that Jesus Christ is GodMetmom: Who said I was reading them?
We Christians believe that Jesus Christ IS God -- and, as I showed in the links, there is adequate proof in the scripture that He was who HE said He was -- namely, GOD.
One moralistic example is a guy whom I find hard to stand, radio-show host, ex-evangelical-Methodist-minister-now-Roman-Catholic layman Alan Hunt. Clearly on a basic theological level Mr. Hunt is not all that different (or less egotistical) now, than when he was a Methodist mega-church pastor....(and how annoying can a show be with the motto, "It's not about right and left, but right and wrong!" be?
EXTREMELY!!!
This guy is religious Rush Limbaugh, but more opinionated--without ever, seemingly, backing up his dogma with scripture.
As the (very) wise Dr. Doug Kelly says, "You should never bind the conscience of anyone but by scripture."
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