Posted on 05/26/2015 1:05:01 PM PDT by piusv
"I feel like saying something that may sound controversial or even heretical. But there is someone who knows that despite our differences we are one. It is he who is persecuting us. It is he that is persecuting Christians today; he who is anointing us with the blood of martyrdom, knows that Christians are disciples of Christ. That we are one, that we are brothers! He doesn't care if they are Evangelicals, Orthodox, Lutherans, Catholics or Apostolic. He doesn't care! They are Christians."
Indeed. I actually know some Catholics who are saved. They are quite miserable because of the false doctrine heaped on them by Rome, but for some reason they won’t go to a church where they are nurtured with Biblical truth.
Not sure if this was meant for me or what because I certainly am not giving him a pass on everything.
Mary is alive in Heaven.
I am sure Mary is alive in Heaven. Rumor has it that there are still people around who believe she actually answers prayers. I don't accept that, but I guess some people believe it. I did, when I was a catholic, but now I am an ex catholic. Praise God for that. Frankly Els, I could care less who knows it and I could care less what anyone thinks about it. How does that grab ya?
It's not free.
John 6:44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.
If man had free will, he could choose to come to God on his own, independent of any outside influence.
But he can't. No man can come to God unless God initiates the encounter. God does the drawing and the enlightening.
1 Corinthians 2:9-16 But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”—
these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.
The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.
Well, I think we are slaves to whatever controls us. If sin controls us, then we are slaves to it. If God controls us, then we are slaves to Him. That, I think is a day by day, minute by minute deal. I have victory over sin, but sometimes I don't, and sometimes I stress out over it. When I was in a certain works based religion, I didn't even have any desire to have victory over sin. Now I do, even though I don't have as much victory over sin as I wish I did. 😇
I don’t have any problem with God controlling me, of surrendering my will to His.
I can’t think that I’d rather have my life in anyone else’s hands but His, including mine. I know how messed up I can make things all by myself and I’d rather have Him, of whose total and absolute goodness I am completely sure of, than mine.
A) Free will doesn't exist
B) Limited /conditional free will exists
C) Unconditional Free will exists
D) Something else entirely (Please explain)
Thank you for your participation.
An honest Christian would have admitted their error.
Thank you.
Hi Mama. Generally I do not watch these so called TV evangelists. I do not know whether all of them are saved, or if any of them are saved. All I can do, is observe like you did. Most of them, I have never watched, but I did see Robert Sculler a few times, and I came away with a very uneasy feeling about him. It appeared to me as though he was preaching the health/wealth gospel. I never heard anything about sin and righteousness and judgement, so I am left to seriously question him. I watched Jim Bakker once or twice, but I remember once where he may not have realized the camera was on him, and I saw that fake smile come off his face real fast, and maybe I saw the face of the "real" Jim Bakker. I just don't know. Only God knows their hearts, but I think that in many cases, money has gotten them side tracked, if they were ever saved at all. Guys like Hinn, Osteen I have never seen and I have never even heard of Angley, or whatever his name is.
I do not think you appreciate the depth of your question.
How free is free? Does God even have complete freedom, so that He could lie? Do what degree were your choices constrained by nature and nurture? And what does God hold man accountable for, and according to what basis? Is man condemned for simply having a sinful nature, as Calvin taught of infants, or as in giving it is “according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not.” (2 Corinthians 8:12)
My incomplete hypothesis (as a totality, most are sure facts):
In conversion, by God’s grace man does what he otherwise could not and would not do, as God draws and convicts souls, (Jn. 6:44; 12:32; 16:8) opens hearts (Acts 16:14) and grants repentant faith. (Acts 11:18; Eph. 2:8)
No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day. (John 6:44)
And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. (John 12:32)
And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: (John 16:8)
When they heard these things, they held their peace, and glorified God, saying, Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life. (Acts 11:18)
For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: (Ephesians 2:8)
In grace, God justifies the unGodly by faith, on Christ’s account and merit, yet it is a faith that effects obedience, which justifies them as being believers and who are fit to be rewarded for their faith in recognition of their character and works, but which is due to God’s working in the believer both to will and to do what is pleasing in His sight. (Phil 2:13)
But man can choose to reject the grace of God, and God can allow souls to do so, nor is God obligated to grant any man grace, or the same degree.
God even warns believers of an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God, making Christ of no effect, of no profit, and falling from grace, and drawing back into perdition, a true faith is one that perseveres. (Heb. 3:6,12,14; 10:38; Gal. 5:1-4) Yet He also works to motivate believers to repentance, lest he be condemned with the rest of the world.
And while sinning and rejecting God calling him to repentance is in keeping with mans natural sinful disposition, yet God gives every man some grace to respond to light given, and to resist sins to some degree (at least initially) and know who the true God is. (Romans 1:19,20;2:14; Genesis 4:6-7,13)
By choice lost man can go from knowing who the true God is to becoming foolish by worshiping idols. And idolatry being the mother of sins. he can then go on to becoming increasingly darkened. (Romans 1:21-22)
Rejecting the light one has (obedience to which leads to more light) is in essence rejecting Christ, the Light which lighteth every man which cometh into the world, even if he never heard of the Lord, not being given that degree of grace. (Mark 4:23-24; John 12:35; John 1:9)
Man is not condemned for what he had no choice but to do, due to the actions of his ancestors, as this would be contrary to the word of God. (Deuteronomy 24:16; cf. 2Ki 14:5,6; 2Ch 25:4; Jer 31:29,30; Eze 18:20)
Eternal damnation is for what man is personally culpable for, having not cooperated with the degree of light and grace given, though this can mean sins which he was unable to resist sin due to prior choices. (Romans 2:6,8; Revelation 20:13; Mark 12:40)
?
Not if you're a Mormon.
You ALSO gotta get past JS!
Just like a True Scotsman would...
I most certainly do, that is why I offered the 4th option.
I have read your post. Please pick one
A) Free will doesn't exist
B) Limited /conditional free will exists
C) Unconditional Free will exists
D) Something else entirely (Please explain)
Thank you for your participation.
You ALSO gotta get past JS!
Els meister, does this mean, that Joe Smith and St Peter are BOTH are at the Pearly Gates? 😂 I wonder what they talk about from day to day? 😊 Maybe they discuss the weather in that place down below. 🔥 Does it mean if I put in a good word with St Peter, and ask him to let a catholic in, that Joe Smith can over ride that, and tell him to take it down below? 🙀😃😆😊😄😀
No.
It means that nobody tends to read for content; in context; these days.
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